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On June 28, another university-wide graduation ceremony was held at the Higher School of Economics. This year, the celebration’s theme was the future and continuous progress. And the university’s graduates are the engines of this progress.

Each year, scores of HSE students from varying disciplines set off for PhD programmes at some of the best universities in the world. Nadezhda Kotova, who is currently in her final year of the HSE-NES joint programme in economics, tells us how she got into the Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

This year, 18 students and graduates of HSE's Faculty of Economics were admitted to PhD programmes at leading universities in the U.S. Ten of them are undergraduates.

HSE alumnus Oleg Fomichev, who is currently Deputy Economic Development Minister of Russia, has tried to make the ministry’s work more understandable to the average Russian, and he allows those who work under him to be creative in their work with such a conservative discipline as economics. In an exclusive interview with Success Builder, Fomichev discusses what it is like working as a state official, as well as why a recent college graduate might be interested in such a field.

Coming up with a good idea for your own business is sometimes as easy as just looking at the experience you already have. After working in New York, model and businesswoman Anna Barsukova understood that any urban beauty who is always on the go desperately needs fresh-squeezed juices. This is how the Organic Religion detox bars came about. In the latest edition of Success Builder, Anna discusses why the university is more appealing than the runway and how the detox industry is growing and changing in Russia.

Any budding economist would dream of rising on the career ladder to the IMF and consulting different countries’ governments on economic policy. HSE alumnus Vadim Khramov tells Success Builder how to move towards new goals, make an impact on the European economy, and put his teaching experience to use in the world of investment banking.

You don’t have to invent a new business model, but can simply take one and use it on an existing market with a smaller project that will work for the benefit of the Russian economy. This is what HSE alumnus Pavel Mokrushin, the owner of the café chain Brusnika (Lingonberry), did. He tells Success Builder why he studied at HSE after Moscow State, as well as how what he does is better than the warm chair of a clerk and how the small café is able to survive among the 66 restaurants on Maroseyka Street.

If you can explain why your project will be a success, investments in your business are guaranteed under any conditions. HSE alumnus and chairman of the board of directors at the R-Pharm group, Alexey Repik, told Success Builder what how to phase out of imports properly, how the government can help entrepreneurs, and how to turn extending people’s lives into a business.

Projects rarely become profitable right away, but if one learns from their mistakes and does not give up, success is sure to follow. In its six years of existence, the Timepad project has had its ups and downs, but in the end it became a market leader. Timepad’s creators – Ludmila Pavlova, Daria Ustyuzhanina, and Artem Kiselev, all HSE alumni – told Success Builder about the advantages of the Russian market, how to avoid spending money on advertising, and how to earn over 100 million rubles without selling your idea.

Dmitry Levitsky opened his first bar – Dolls Pistols – almost by accident, as a side hobby. Over time, this ‘side project’ grew and turned into the Hurma Management Group, which helps budding restaurateurs open foodservice establishments and works to develop the bar and restaurant industry in Russia.