The Business Wisdom Summit gathered over 200 participants and 30 speakers in the safe venue of the InterContinental Kyiv Hotel. Throughout the event, owners of large businesses and executives shared strategies that will help Ukrainian entrepreneurs to recover, relocate, strengthen, and scale their businesses during wartime.
The key thematic blocks of the forum addressed the following topics:
- Saving business in times of war: relocation and rebuilding of production at a new location, search for financing, challenges related to human capital migration and martial law.
- Marketing and communications in the new conditions: how to maintain brand reputation in complex conditions, MadeInUkraine brand as an umbrella for Ukrainian goods around the world, key changes in marketing, digital and communication strategies.
- Proactive HR strategies: team retention and recruitment in the context of labour migration, synergy between business objectives and employee volunteer initiatives, building work with employees who have been mobilized and returned from the war, new realities of the labor market.
- Growth points of post-war Ukraine: which projects/industries will become the most investment-attractive in the near future, experiences of companies and startups that shape the MadeInUkraine brand in the world.
Special attention was paid to the issue of new technologies. Timofiy Milovanov, President of the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), provided a number of practical recommendations on how to implement new technologies in a company. This issue should be given attention now, as technologies and AI accelerate processes, thus leaving time to create something progressive and new.
Evgeny Zaigraiev, Board Member for Small and Medium Business at PrivatBank, noted that their strategy is focused on SME lending. In 2023, the SME financing portfolio is expected to grow by almost 35% (which is about UAH 10 billion) and funding under the 5-7-9% affordable loan programme will continue. He also emphasized the important role of state banks during the war, particularly in ensuring stability in the banking system and financing agrarians. Loans are being issued and, most importantly, they are being repaid despite the difficult situation for business owners. It is important that many businesses that have gone abroad are repaying their loans. Everyone understands that they are working for victory and the situation is fundamentally different compared to the pre-war period.
Oleksandr Komarov, President of Kyivstar, spoke about the incredible and sudden increase in sales and what the entire telecoms industry is doing to continue providing communication to Ukrainians. As the speaker noted, the company is doing quite well despite the three major phases of challenges that the Telecom went through during the war: Occupation, Dealing with the consequences of the occupation after de-occupation and Blackouts.
At the beginning of the war, the activity of the Industrial sector began to decline, causing a 5% drop in market revenues. Many negative factors affected the Telecom sector, including the complete destruction of 18% of telecommunications networks, a significant increase in the power and duration of cyber-attacks, and a 300% increase in phishing attacks. Russian hackers made 17,000 attempts to penetrate the Kyivstar's network, 99% of which were repelled. Nevertheless, Kyivstar focuses on its main priorities - People, Service, Business, and Country.
Overall, the contributions of the Telecom sector proved to be significant for the country's defense capabilities in many aspects. UAH 6 billion was reinvested in reconstruction, UAH 350 million was transferred to the Resilience projects (alternative power supply, generators, bomb shelters equipment, etc.), and UAH 300 million of material support was allocated for the needs of Ukrainian citizens within the UNITED24 Platform.
Eduard Babenko, Head of Strategic Business Area Ukraine-Southeast Asia at Kormotech, explained how the large-scale war affected and demonstrated it on the example of the animal feed market. He also shared how they managed to survive: "Our healthy vision of business regarding our partners helps us: I earn with you - You grow and I grow".
Oleksiy Babich, the CEO of Medical Laboratory Dila, spoke about client management during the war and how to retain clients and develop business despite martial law.
It was particularly interesting to hear about the experience of Nova Poshta, which continued to operate despite all the risks: "During the war, Nova Poshta did not stop working for a single day. However, we went from millions of parcels a day to just 30,000. Like all citizens of Ukraine, we waited in traffic jams and lines. However, after we moved our branches to new locations, we began to work more actively. In April, we resumed our service speed and began opening branches in new regions. Since the beginning of the war, there have been parcels that people did not pick up. We redirected parcels to the places where our customers moved, so people still received their parcels thanks to Nova Poshta".
Violeta Titarenko, Marketing Director of Luxoptica, shared insights on business adaptability. "Since the beginning of the war, customer needs have changed. The demand for low-cost glasses up to UAH 1000 has increased, and we have met the customer's needs. People have moved to different places and called to ask us to open a branch in Lviv. We did that. Our advice is to never give up and to communicate with the customer and do your best to meet their requests and needs. If you do that, then the business will grow".
During the panel discussion on Corporate Social Responsibility of Ukrainian companies, Iryna Shynkarenko, Director of Advertising and Marketing at "Epicenter", said: "There is no doubt that Epicentr is a people's company, we are present in almost every big city in Ukraine. Therefore, we have decided to help people. We pay salaries to all employees who are currently at war (about 3,000 people). We assist with employee’s relocation to other cities in Ukraine and provide them jobs there, because our main capital is people".
Ksenia Tyurikova, Corporate Communications Director at Favbet, said: "In our CSR projects at Favbet, weI focus on the following areas: the Ukraine Recovery and help to the Ukrainian army. Today, it is crucial to invest in education and technology, to help cyber troops that have repeatedly helped to preserve energy facilities. Another CSR trend is to Rebuild Ukraine at the material and technical level".
The CEO of DTEK, Dmytro Sakharuk, the CEO of Smart Holding, Yulia Kiriyanova, the CEO and co-founder of Uklon, Dmytro Dubrovsky, and the CEO of Datagroup-Volia, Mykhailo Shelemba, discussed the values and approaches to building a business strategy, taking into account the challenges of the war, and helping employees, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukraine as a whole.
"First of all, it is necessary to soberly assess your own capabilities and find people who are motivated to do the job. It is clear that a local investor is weak during the war, and partnership with Western investors is also not an easy task. The most balanced development option for a local investor is a partnership with Western companies. Ukrainian investors have industrial and personnel expertise, while foreign business offers access to capital and technology markets. Such cooperation will help us in the path of recovery and modernization," said Yulia Kiriyanova.
These are just a few inspiring stories of Ukrainian businesses that have worked, are working and will continue to gain momentum against all odds, because the economy and well-being of our Ukraine are the most important.