Anton Kolosov – the master's program "Strategic management of logistics" 2017 graduate

The second graduation of the master program "Strategic management of logistics" has taken place in June 2017. Anton Kolosov’s master's dissertation was devoted to the analysis of transport and logistics processes associated with the functioning of the international space station. In the autumn of 2017, Mr. Kolosov entered the postgraduate course at the NRU HSE Saint-Petersburg, continuing his scientific career. Currently, he manages to combine work and study. Traditional questions to our wonderful graduate.

  
Where do you work?

At the moment, I am working in the procurement department of the "Ilim Group" as an expert in procurement of oil products and gas. "Ilim Group" JSC is the leader in the pulp and paper industry. My task as a purchaser is not only to buy goods from the supplier, but also to control their transportation, arrival and all related documents. This requires interaction with the logistics department, warehouse, accounting, treasury and other divisions of the company. All this implies a high degree of awareness of the different kinds of activities, from knowledge of accounting and ending with understanding of technological processes of production.

What milestones in life do you set for yourself, what do you strive for?

For me, the main task in life is self-development. In the modern world, the process of the emergence and dissemination of new information is taking on such a large scale that it is impossible to realize oneself without a constant gaining of a new knowledge. Annually there are more and more new directions of activity appear in the world, there is a continuous modernization of technologies, methods that have been successfully used 5-10 years ago, can become hopelessly old today, and in the future more and more professions will be replaced by artificial intelligence, so as not to stay on the edge of the technological process, it is necessary to develop continuously.

Why are you attracted by logistics and supply chain management, what was useful in two years of our communication?

Logistics is a universal science, encompassing a multitude of activities. It is not limited only to the problems associated with the delivery of goods from point A to point B. With a broader consideration of this issue, it turns out that logistics is not only transport, it is also storage, inventory management, production, management of various processes, as well as many other related areas activities.
Now, in order to effectively deliver goods, it is necessary not only to understand the compilation of transport routes, it is also necessary to apply different IT solutions parallelly, taking into account the technical characteristics of the used transport, understanding the legal issues of transportation, etc.
The master's program is aimed exactly on the real situation on the international logistics market understanding.

What is your advice to future masters?

I would advise to pay as much attention as possible to the issues not so much related to their current or future profession  as such, but to the new knowledge gaining. Working in a certain industry, a person immerses in it and accumulates highly specialized knowledge, but one may lack competence in related operational areas of the company. The master's program "Strategic management of logistics" is set up to uptrain such knowledge. Its passage helps to expand the horizon of thinking and understand problems from several points of view, which helps to find the best solution in this or that situation.