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Management teams promote investment in Russia’s regions

16 February 2018
The session ‘Investment in Russia’s Regions: Has the Work of Management Teams Changed?’ was held on 16 February as part of the business programme on the third day of the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi.

The moderator was Alexey Komissarov, Vice-Rector of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) and Director of the Graduate School of Public Administration (GSPA). The participants elaborated on how better-quality management affected an increase in investment in regions and shared real examples from practice.

Head of the Udmurt Republic Alexander Brechalov, who was the first to take the floor, pointed out the importance of teamwork in both business and politics. “When I was engaged in business, I fully relied on teamwork. This is my principle. No matter how effective or talented the boss might be, a really big project can only be done by a team,” he believes. Among problems making it difficult to build an effective team in the regions, Mr. Brechalov named the absence of a decent official salary. When the head of a municipal administration earns RUB 20,000 to RUB 25,000 a month, you can hardly expect efficient and talented people to take up this office, the politician argues.

Ilya Krivogov, Chief Executive Officer of the Single-Industry Town Development Foundation, admitted he was surprised to discover that municipal officials did not always have proper training. “For civil servants, especially for mayors, education is very important. Indeed, physicians and teachers have to learn and they also take advance training. For me, it was a revelation that, to become a mayor, you don’t have to complete any special course, you may just be elected and run a city without any appropriate training. I think this is not quite right, and, when selecting candidates for such responsible positions, we should not only find officials with proper education but also ensure that they get the requisite upgrade as long as they remain in office.” Developing this idea, Ward Howell President and Co-Founder Sergey Vorobiev remarked that a man of today “is sentenced to lifelong learning”.

Aleksey Ivanchenko, Vice-Chairman and member of the Management Board of State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs Vnesheconombank, spoke about the role of local staff in managing the regions. “You cannot manage anything if you sit in your office in Moscow; it is very important to understand this with regard to the entire regional history,” he emphasized, adding that local residents were more interested in changes in their region and home, and were much more motivated.

To ensure that people not indifferent to the situation in their native area are able to change anything, they have to be taught. Igor Kustarin, Director of Regions Development Direction at the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, reported that the programme for developing regional teams was already bringing results. He pointed out two important priorities for the future: an extensive approach (permanent based education of large numbers of people) and an intensive approach (more targeted, segmented education for those who show the best results).

Following the theoretical part of debate, some members of management teams who had already received training shared their experience. For instance, Dmitry Yalov, Vice-Chairman for Economics and Investment of the Leningrad Region Government, stated that his Region had managed to improve its position in the investment climate ranking.

Alexander Kobenko, Acting Deputy Governor and Minister for Economic Development, Investments and Trade of the Samara Region, reported the economic effect from the project implemented by the Region’s team: the local budget received RUB 700 million and the figure could reach several billions in the future.

For his part, Grigory Stratiy, Deputy Governor of the Murmansk Region, remarked that, in the process of training, his colleagues had become a real team. In conclusion, Dmitry Artukhov, Deputy Governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area, stressed the importance of informal communication with team members from other regions.
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