Skolkovo Moscow School of Management: Honing Russia’s Entrepreneurs

The Soviet state understands the need to prepare its capitalists to brace with the rapidly changing technologies today. Every day, emerging markets are launched and entrepreneurs have to be on the cutting edge of the rapid changes. The Skolkovo Moscow School of Management was established to provide Russian entrepreneurs with a scholarship program that would ready them to become DIY wealth creators.

Inspired by the artworks of Russian abstract artist Kazimir Malevich who is known for doing things that have never been done before, Skolkovo sends a strong statement that Russia is ready for takeoff. The school, with its hypermodern cylindrical structure sheathed in gray, red, and blue-green glass, standing in a rectangular complex, and resembles the Battlestar Galactica, says breakthrough is imminent. Skolkovo is located just across the “Inograd” or innovation city, Russia’s Silicon Valley.

Skolkovo and Inograd provides young and savvy programmers, engineers, physicists, and mathematicians with a high-tech sector that is capable of generating billions of dollars, giving alternative income sources other than gas and oil. According to Steven Geiger, the CEO of Skolkovo foundation which oversees Inograd, Skolkovo is “the most exciting technological initiative in the world – full stop.”

When Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced the plans for Inograd in March 2010, Russia’s legislators have amended more than 200 laws in order to encourage investments in Skolkovo. When done, Inograd will house meeting spaces, computer labs, and a graduate university modeled after Stanford, which can accommodate around 1,200 students.

Skolkovo was established to build synergies and develop ecosystem. Geiger believes that innovation can be top-down. The only setback for Skolkovo is its location – it’s in Russia, which is not known for a place to study business management or to launch a startup.

In 2010, the World Bank ranked Russia in the 123rd place in the Ease of Doing Business report. As a business school, Skolkovo offers seed capital to help startups begin. If the startup shows promise, the funding may be raised to as much as $8 million. This shows how Skolkovo can indeed become Russia’s Silicon Valley. No sooner, the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report would list Russia in a position relatively higher than where it is today.