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SIBUR introduced Nizhegorodskaya Oblast’s entrepreneurs to best business practices

9 june 2021

On June 2 through 4, Dzerzhinsk and Kstovo hosted the Leadership Code business forum attended by over two hundred local entrepreneurs. The forum, whose mission is to stimulate the development of small and medium enterprises in the region, was supported by SIBUR as part of the company's Formula for Good Deeds social investment program.

The forum’s attendees had a chance to listen to lectures delivered by leading experts in business law, marketing and psychology of entrepreneurship, and to discuss at several plenary sessions new developments in the realm of small and medium business, various social entrepreneurship projects, as well as prospects for developing local tourism in Nizhegorodskaya Oblast. Attending entrepreneurs could ask the speakers personalized questions on organizing and growing their own businesses, as well as exchange and share their experiences and ideas with other participants.

The list of the forum’s experts included the likes of Dmitry Dmitriyev, a business consultant, lecturer of MBA programs at Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow State University, CityBusinessSchool and Moscow International Higher School of Business MIRBIS, Evgeniy Klimov, Deputy Director General of Information Technology at Interfax, and an expert of Skolkovo IT-cluster, Timur Laishev, Director of Science Festival "WOW! HOW?", Olga Trokhacheva, a litigation lawyer, lecturer at Kutafin Moscow State Law Academy’s Practical Jurisprudence Department, Smart and Talented, a school of business assistants, and the Fashion Factory School of Business, as well as other guest speakers.

Events like this forum are extremely valuable both for the city’s authorities, because we are interested in increasing the number of entrepreneurs, and for the local business community that thus gets a great opportunity to expand their range of knowledge, get new experience, meet potential partners and share their own business practices, Yulia Ashurkova, Deputy Head of Dzerzhinsk’s Administration, said. As for SIBUR, we have long established a strong partnership with the company, and not only within the framework of its Formula for Good Deeds program, but also in terms of taking joint action to beautify the city and support homegrown non-profit organizations.

My initial goal was to attend a lecture by Dmitry Dmitriyev on consumer psychology. But the other speakers also turned out to be a great discovery! Olga Vinogradova, a sole proprietor from Dzerzhinsk, shared. They talked about a lot of important things, including, for example, how to do contracting, digital security in business, how to maintain one’s accounts on social media. They also shared their recommendations, that, in my opinion, are applicable to any field of activity.

Vladimir Shukhov, President of the Shukhov Tower Foundation, a member of the Union of Moscow’s Architects, and a great grandson of Vladimir Shukhov, the celebrated Russian engineer, architect, inventor and scientist, was a special guest of the second day of the forum in Dzerzhinsk. His lecture "Vladimir Shukhov, A Success Formula" offered a new perspective on the life and professional career of this outstanding individual, who, incidentally, can also be referred to as the "father" of Russian oil refining and transportation.

In addition to the forum’s main program, Kstovo also offered a series of lectures and career guidance classes for senior school students. 9th and 10th graders learned about the professions that are expected to be in demand in the future and the ones that will likely become obsolescent, what an entrepreneur is and what skills a budding businessman should possess, and, finally, how to overcome fear of public speaking and become a successful public speaker.

The lectures that we attended together with our students are relevant and timely, Natalya Molodkina, a school teacher of 10th graders from Kstovo, emphasized. At this very moment, they are about to enter their 11th grade, and, before they know, they will be attending their graduation party, but, more importantly, they're going to enroll in a university. They are now faced with the choice of their future profession. I hope that thanks to the forum’s great speakers, many of them have already made up their mind, or, if they had made their choice even earlier, they were now reassured that they are going in the right direction.

This business forum’s primary focus is on developing the entrepreneurial spirit, Sergey Nazarov, General Director of SIBUR Kstovo, noted. And here, in our region, it has a huge potential. Entrepreneurship is not about daydreaming, but about doing something very tangible. Including the things one would do for improving one’s own community, improving their urban environment and improving the quality of life in general. I am confident that such gatherings will help all of us, especially members of the business community, to understand the needs of tomorrow and to meet them as precisely as possible. It is important that there are more and more people who want to change the world for the better and are prepared to actually do something about it.