And if studying for an MBA in itself is not an easy task, then looking for an MBA in war conditions is quite a test. However, all these 28 participants successfully finished the program and coped with its last important task.

It is worth noting that the Great War complicated the conditions these participants had to study and became a factor they had to consider in their diploma projects.

The critical requirements for kmbs theses are relevance and practicality. Therefore, the topics are always related to issues relevant to the participants and should have practical value. These requirements can be fulfilled only when the pragmatics of life dictates the problems and the works themselves — the state of industries, the stage of development of companies and organizations, and the general conditions of our life. A whole section of the work is devoted to analyzing the contextual conditions in which the strategies the participants are working on are formed and will be implemented.

"The current groups studied in tough conditions," notes Eduard Maltsev, head of Presidents' MBA. — Having gone through quarantine restrictions and the great war with the school. It affected all of us; it affected the participants as well. More and more topics concern the development of the state and the interaction between business and the state. All works address the current situation and how it affects customers, partners, employees, the company, and the organization as a whole. The case also involves the depth of working out the topics. Most participants focus more on finding strategic solutions — here and now."

"There are two groups of works," comments Olena Zhyltsova, head of the Executive MBA program. — The first are those whose topics were utterly and entirely provoked by the Great War. For example, the business model of one of the participants relied entirely on sea logistics, which is currently impossible. That is why he had to completely transform his business model, work out land and river logistics separately, which entails rethinking the volume of shipments, customers, services, that is, it is a comprehensive end-to-end transformation."

There are several topics related to scaling businesses by entering international markets. And the Great War provoked such scaling. Perhaps companies would come to this but at a slower pace. However, they are doing it quite intensively to diversify and stabilize themselves. We also have one graduate who has wholly switched to working in defense. Due to apparent circumstances, we cannot tell you more about this project.

On the other hand, several works would probably have been produced regardless of the Great War factor. These are, in particular, topics related to the transformation of technological companies, platforms for a healthy lifestyle and sports, and the opening of a bilingual kindergarten. The very idea of these projects was not born under the influence of the war. When we move on to developing scenarios for its implementation, the battle is again firmly present and affects the decisions. "In the example of the kindergarten, one of the value proposition elements becomes safety. We have to talk about the bomb shelter, the possibility of evacuating children, and the duration of stay in this shelter. These new parameters were not discussed a year and a half ago. And although the topics sound like they are not related to war, these new parameters have to be taken into account.

So, we can say that the imprint of the situation related to the war, to one degree or another, was reflected in every project," Olena Zhyltsova summarized.

The factor of war in the diploma projects of MBA participants