More than 250 Amur region’s entrepreneurs took part in the Leadership Code Forum

31 may 2022

On May 26 to May 28, the cities of Blagoveshchensk and Svobodny hosted Leadership Code 2.0, a forum for entrepreneurs attended by more than 250 members of local business communities. The forum’s speakers that included leading experts in the fields of marketing communications, HR management, law and entrepreneurship psychology introduced their audiences to the most successful and usable business development tools. The forum’s program additionally included discussions and meetings with founders of successful businesses. Svobodny hosted a session on female entrepreneurship featuring lectures on personal brand development, negotiation and time management skills, as well as on style. The forum ended with a discussion on using a systemic approach to running a small business.

In addition, the forum became the venue for an in-person defense of projects and an award ceremony celebrating Svobodny’s entrepreneurs who took part in the PROcity contest. Along with the Leadership Code, the contest is supported by SIBUR as part of its Formula for Good Deeds social investment program.

The forum’s key objective is to foster further development of regional entrepreneurial initiatives. If the forum’s three-day program is any indication, Amur Region’s entrepreneurs seem to be well prepared to start putting their knowledge to the test in their day-to-day practice. They will be doing this by developing their existing business projects and launching new ones using their theoretical knowledge and professional experience. In addition, the businessmen showed interest in some business ideas that they would like to see implemented in their own region. Among other things, the entrepreneurs found the following projects to show particular promise: services of Rent-a-Grandma, a domestic help agency, facilities for conducting developmental classes benefiting children, catering services, etc. On top of that, the forum has helped to energize Svobodny’s community of female entrepreneurs.

Forum participants expressed their appreciation to the invited experts who had introduced them to the most relevant trends and state-of-the-art tools used in the fields of business promotion, SMM, personnel management, personal brand development, legal aspects of dealing with one’s partners and employees. The list of star speakers included Dmitry Dmitriyev, an MBA professor with RANEPA, Moscow State University, and the Moscow International High School of Business MIRBIS; Marsel Ziganshin, the founder of the Bison Pizza chain, an ex-manager of the McDonalds restaurant chain and author of the Doing Business the McDonald’s Way book; Alexander Khariton, a professor with the Moscow Business School (MBS) and author of Effective Sales; and Tehhi Polonskaya, an expert in personal and commercial branding, owner of the Brusnika marketing agency, and a columnist for the Delovoy Peterburg. On top of that, owners of several successful projects including the likes of Rent-a-Grandma, a domestic help agency, a facility for hosting developmental classes benefiting children, a personalized training studio, a chess club, and a creative studio, presented their cases to the audience.

Oksana Razumeyeva, an entrepreneur from Blagoveshchensk: Our region is far from the country’s heartland and because of the great time difference it is not easy to get access to the much-needed training, even if it is offered online. Leadership Code has offered us a unique opportunity to improve our business skills not only when it is convenient for us timewise, but also by attending in-person sessions. We are not just learning from the best business coaches; we can talk to them directly and ask them questions about our specific cases. This experience was extremely valuable to us.

On the final day of the forum, an awards ceremony was held to celebrate the success of the seven winners of the PROcity contest who were chosen by a jury of experts as the masterminds of the most promising and relevant business projects in Svobodny. All of these projects were found to be extremely relevant for their communities and as such they would receive SIBUR’s grants to help with their implementation. In particular, members of the jury of experts noted contest entries submitted by Alexandra Trukhina (a project to set up Detki Konfetki, a family recreation area), Eduard Zeinalov (a project to install water dispensers around Svobodny), Andrey Mitrofanov (equipping residential buildings with leak-stop systems), Maxim Gulevich (installation of coffee vending machines and setting up production of city farms for growing microgreens), Ivan Dorovskikh (setting up a collection point for gathering and recycling recyclable materials), Svetlana Khasanova (opening a delicatessen outlet), and Svetlana Iost (manufacturing of branded clothing).

Dmitry Polovnev, a reporter with the Zeya’s Lights newspaper, Svobodny: It was here at the Leadership Code event that I saw such a uniquely active and interested audience for the first time. As a resident of Svobodny, I am looking forward to seeing the practical results of the ideas discussed here during these two days as I am sure that they will help make our town more comfortable and convenient for every one of us.

Gleb Fedotov, Head of Amur Gas and Chemical Combine’s department of government relations and socio-economic projects:
As new major points of technological growth emerge and as large-scale investment projects get implemented here in the Amur Region, they in turn help drive the growth of related industries creating great opportunities for the service sector. SIBUR, having vested interest in helping develop this region of its presence, has been expending consistent and systemic efforts to support local small and medium enterprises. Our contest that seeks to support entrepreneurial initiatives in Svobodny has received an unprecedented number of entries that is a testament to the high degree of involvement of local business communities and a sign that our work that we have been doing for several years now, has started bearing its fruit.