Combining the best practices and experience with systematic business training of the team means taking a step towards increasing the efficiency of the organization. This is the conviction of Vitaliy Chekmez, CEO of Ukrtruboizol, who graduated from the MBA program at MIM in 2021. At the same time, Sergey Krasnopolsky, Chairman of the Board of the company, studied at the SE MBA program. This year, Natalia Kononova, Chief Financial Officer, is graduating.

The company realized that a common knowledge base helps to structure and make interaction more effective. And already this fall, they delegated three more management-level employees to study at MIM for the Pre-MBA Leadership program, which starts on October 29, 2024.

The choice of corporate training tactics largely depends on the specifics of the company. Ukrtruboizol, on the one hand, is a leader in its industry, and on the other hand, it is a fairly compact company, where it is difficult to send the entire management team for training at the same time.

– We all have different educational backgrounds: accounting, technical, etc. If we talk about business processes, we learned them in practice, by doing it ourselves. Our education at MIM Business School is largely about systematizing knowledge in different areas: HR, sales, and various aspects of management. We also learned a lot from our classmates, in particular, when analyzing practical cases. Because everyone thinks from their own experience, sometimes one-sidedly. And then you are asked a question, the solution to which is obvious to you and almost the only one, but you hear the opinions of others, for example, your classmates from Nova Poshta, and they show a different, alternative approach. This greatly expands your own perception,” Vitaliy Chekmez shares his impressions of his MBA studies.
He successfully implements the knowledge he gained at MIM. For example, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of people according to the Adizes classification helps to know the specifics of each employee better, to understand that they cannot be universal in all areas at once and not to demand from people what is difficult for them, instead giving them space to realize those traits that are most pronounced.

– I can’t say that I take a paragraph and start implementing it verbatim. When I was writing my thesis, it was very difficult to apply everything I had developed in a comprehensive manner. At the same time, our meeting minutes are based on the scheme from my thesis. We have four sections, each with strategic issues, a person in charge of a particular area, and indicators and metrics that we use. And this is the structure that I transferred to the practical plane from my studies,” adds Vitaliy Chekmez.

Ukrtruboizol team: Vitaliy Chekmez and the company’s CEO Pavlo Steblovtsev have already graduated from MIM. Dmytro Krasnopolskiy, Oleksandr Serebriakov and Dmytro Kotsiuba will start their studies in October.

Business education has also changed the way the company operates. Vitaliy Chekmez compares the workflow to a football team, where to achieve a winning result, some players need to be replaced, the flank needs to be strengthened, and some need to be sent to the bench.

– “It’s work, and you shouldn’t treat it too emotionally,” says Vitaliy. “Today Ukrtruboizol is in the process of transformation: founded in 2000, the company needs new approaches to its work.
– I do not believe that our company has already reached all possible heights. You always have to stay hungry and develop,” Vitaliy Chekmez shares his vision.

Recently, the organization reformatted its team, adding “new” blood to those who have been working almost since its foundation. And of course, the management team is being trained. And this, according to Mr. Vitaliy, is one of the key recent decisions that is already showing its results. So now the organization is in the process of harmonization, learning to speak a common language in order to find a “new tone” inherent in the times and eventually sound like an orchestra.