Due to the epidemiological situation in 2020, all internships were moved to the online format. “According to the results of a survey conducted by the Career Center in April this year, out of 70 partner companies, only half were ready to switch internships to an online format. But a business school cannot be called a business school if current management practices are not passed on to students. The flexibility of members of the GSOM Advisory Board and partners in a pandemic, as well as the rapid transformation of internship formats provided students with the opportunity to do their summer internships and gain experience in companies,” said Elizaveta Troyanova, Director of the GSOM Career Center.

 

In addition to developing a tariff plan design for the youth audience of 14-24 years old, student interns at MegaFon conducted a study of the competitive environment in Russia and abroad, analyzed trends, calculated the dynamics of various tariff group subscribers, revenues and margins for the coming year.

 

“MegaFon strives to listen to consumer demands and, on this basis, provide mobile services in the best quality. It is no secret that St. Petersburg is a youthful city with a large student community of active and enterprising people, in which we see great potential. Therefore, we decided that we could get useful insights for business, in particular for the design of a youth group tariff, if we directly ask students what they want to see in MegaFon as their personal mobile operator,'' said Natalya Yusipova, Director of the St. Petersburg Cluster and the Leningrad Region of MegaFon. " GSOM students have done a quality job, which we noted at their project defense. Each team had interesting concepts for further implementation in our tariff line. Now we are working on the technical component of the ideas presented in terms of their implementation in MegaFon's digital services. It was a useful experience for us, and we would be happy to continue such interaction with the university in the future."

 

This is not the first successful partnership between GSOM SPbU and MegaFon. In July 2020, the first graduation of students from the <5G_Dream_Lab> laboratory, a joint project of the business school and MegaFon, took place. During the year, teams of students from various fields at St. Petersburg State University developed MVP (minimum viable product) based on 5G technologies. The laboratory has become a place where business, science, cutting-edge technology, and talented students in management and engineering came together.