During the plenary session, experts shared their vision of the current situation, commented on the risks and opportunities that have arisen, and presented the results of the study.
Opening the session, the head and professor of the Department of Strategic and Innovative Development of the Faculty of the Higher School of Management of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Arkady Trachuk emphasized that every year the conference arouses great interest among the audience – representatives of higher education institutions, government agencies, research organizations, and companies in the real sector of the economy. This year, more than 350 people, including 180 students, took part in the event.
The topic of the plenary session was designated as follows: “Re:start – How business is rebuilding innovation and investment strategies of companies in the era of global change.”
“Russia has faced an absolutely amazing set of macro- and microeconomic challenges, but today we are talking about their management aspects. They are unique because, on the one hand, we see the disappearance of individual markets, individual opportunities that companies have become accustomed to over the past decades, as well as the investment sources that they used, - says Arkady Trachuk. - On the other hand, new opportunities and markets are emerging. These markets can be both less and more marginal. Serious efforts are required to enter and consolidate the latter."
Professor Trachuk noted that the labor market within Russia is also changing, and these changes look different in the regions: somewhere there is a shortage of IT specialists, and somewhere there is a shortage of highly skilled workers and "blue collars".
"There are distortions in the wage system and the motivation system. All these factors need to be understood and methodological approaches developed, thanks to which the leadership of the country, industries and companies will have new views and points of reference that will help manage the processes occurring in the Russian economy," Arkady Trachuk emphasized.
Vladimir Korovkin, Senior Lecturer in Business Practice at the SKOLKOVO School of Management, spoke about how management science is transforming in Russia.
“We are truly in an unprecedented economic situation from all points of view, but this also opens up unprecedented opportunities for management science in the country,” the expert is convinced. “People at the level of functional and general directors who are directly responsible for the company’s work in the real sector of the economy are coming to Skolkovo. We see a completely different request from them - they want to learn how to work in new conditions. And they don’t expect us to give them some ready-made recipes, but expect that we will think together, research, and look for options that will be adequate for the current situation. Everything used to be simple: we had a set of classic management textbooks, we took the necessary book off the shelf, opened a set of cases, and carried out business education.”
Now this approach does not work, since the new reality requires at least the development or rethinking of everything that management theory has developed to date.
"Considering the requests of our clients, we understand that we have very little room for error. We cannot afford to offer them solutions that will not work or be effective based on some high-level conceptual considerations. They expect research and facts from us, not some ideologically loaded constructs. This is also a huge opportunity, because until now, research in the field of management sciences conducted in Russia has not formed a single, holistic picture," says Vladimir Korovkin.
The report by Alexander Nevsky, Chief Advisor of the Department for Analytical Support of Legislation and Parliamentary Programs of the Expert and Analytical Department of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, discussed investment management to ensure economic growth.
"As we understand, economic growth is the basis for prosperity for everyone: the state, business, and citizens. Its driver is effective investment. In today's conditions, this topic is becoming extremely relevant," the expert notes.
During his speech, relying on Rosstat data from 2017 to 2022 and the Forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia for the budget for 2024-2025, he considered the current and projected growth rates of investments in the domestic economy and their volume. Thus, economic growth in 2023 is expected to be at the level of 2.8% of GDP. According to the forecast, the volume of investments for 2024 is planned at 34.0 trillion rubles (+ 2.4 trillion rubles compared to the previous year), in 2025 - 36.7 trillion rubles (+ 2.7 trillion rubles) in 2026 - 39.6 trillion rubles (+ 2.9 trillion rubles)
"Technological sovereignty is most effectively ensured in industries that are sufficiently remote from the technological border: the pipe industry, the furniture industry, woodworking," says Natalia Linder. "In industries close to the technological border (aircraft manufacturing, pharmaceuticals), the possibilities for borrowing technologies have proven to be limited, and subcontracting networks are not sufficiently developed for localization. Sustainable technological sovereignty in industrial industries requires our own research, development, and key components."