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Tech at Scale: Staying Ahead of the Game

Tech at Scale: Staying Ahead of the Game

KEY CONCLUSIONS

Russia is in a unique position to develop the tech sector

“We have a unique market which doesn’t ban global players. We have Google, Facebook, and Alibaba, along with a host of Russian players. It is the kind of situation which no longer exists anywhere else in the world,” Arkady Volozh, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Yandex Group of Companies.

Digitalization is resulting in the disappearance of low-skilled jobs and raising the demand for creative specialists

“All routine operations produce a lot of data, and anything that produces a lot of data can be easily automated, right up to driving a car. That is why low-skilled jobs will disappear, along with jobs that create additional inefficiencies,” Arkady Volozh, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Yandex Group of Companies.

The importance of soft skills is coming to the fore. These include the ability to distinguish between primary and secondary objectives, analyse tasks, consider various reasons and consequences, work in a team, and retain an open mind,” Alexey Mordashov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Severstal.

“There will soon be a deficit of workers offering creative thinking skills,” Oleg Tinkov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Tinkoff Bank.


PROBLEMS

Predicting future trends is difficult

“There is a conviction that in a few decades’ time, oil will cease to be an essential fuel for the economy, and will lose all significance. Everything is changing at a rapid pace, and we do not know what will happen next. We are entering a period of intensive technological development,” Alexey Mordashov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Severstal.

 “The question of what needs to be done to move into the future and flourish remains a pertinent one,” Alexander Sukharevsky, Managing Partner, McKinsey Digital, EEMA.

An education system that does not meet today’s requirements

“What is currently being taught in schools and universities is incredibly archaic and has no application in the modern world. We are assessing people’s skills on their ability to memorize a page in a textbook and rewrite or regurgitate it the next day in an exam,” Alexey Mordashov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Severstal.

“People do not understand how important education is, as there has been a huge paradigm shift, and education has become something totally different,” Oleg Tinkov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Tinkoff Bank.

Society regards new technology with scepticism

“Remarkable world-changing things are being invented all the time, but people’s first reaction tends to be a shrug of the shoulders: the mobile phone was too heavy and expensive, the voice of Yandex’s virtual assistant Alice was too clunky, and UAVs can fly, but not everywhere,” Arkady Volozh, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Yandex Group of Companies.

The infrastructure needed to introduce innovations is not sufficiently developed

“A fundamental problem in the Russian business sector is that it is focused on profit, so a global upsurge of startups in Russia is impossible. We do not have venture investors or a stock market, so if you have not started turning a profit in three years, you are out of business,” Oleg Tinkov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Tinkoff Bank.


SOLUTIONS

Creating an ecosystem to promote technologies

“The success of Chinese ecosystems can be explained by the fact that at the heart of each one is a bank, because a person is unable to buy any products or benefit from subscriptions, services, and so on, without paying money,” Oleg Tinkov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Tinkoff Bank.

A customer-focused tech sector

“Customer relations are becoming ever-more valuable. The company with the most users has the highest number of links with customers, and with it, the best chance of success,” Alexey Mordashov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Severstal.

Improving the investment climate

“The state apparatus, legal system, and other areas need to be reformed further. It may sound mundane and tiresome, but that does not change the fact that it is essential. The investment climate in Russia is unfavourable, or is insufficiently favourable,” Alexey Mordashov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Severstal.

For more information, visit the Roscongress Foundation’s Information and Analytical System at roscongress.org/en.

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