On April 24, the UCU Lviv Business School (LvBS) held the «INTRO-2018» annual international conference on «How can companies retain the drive of a startup?». Among the conference attendees there were the representatives of businesses in different fields: IT, food industry, agricultural industry, banking, pharmacy, and other fields; altogether, the conference hosted more than 100 participants. All of them have realized the importance of innovative processes, so they listened to, communicated, worked on, and derived inspiration from the reports of the invited speakers for 9 hours on end. The event was intense and full of bright moments, so here we share the impressions:
In his report, Garry Bruton, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at M. J. Neeley Business School in Texas, enlarged on his interesting experience of businesses, state and non-governmental organizations interaction in the early stages of the Kathmandu (Nepal) market economy. He spoke about the research on the so-called «institutional intermediaries», explained who they are and what role they play for the entrepreneurial activity. He also spoke about the development of ideal organic ecosystems, and emphasized that in fact decisions are generated by businesses, not by the state or the authorities. The professor urged entrepreneurs to think about how to help those in need, so that they were also able to achieve economic success. «The way you treat people will yield results and bring significant success to your work,» said Harry Bruton.
Soumodip Sarkar, Professor of Management at the University of Evora (Portugal), on the basis of the case on the cortical industry, demonstrated how companies can prevent collapse through innovation. He talked about how financial illusions hinder us from making the right managerial decisions. «The collapse is happening regularly, but you need to invest in innovation and use different strategies to ensure that your product is safe,» said Soumodip Sarkar. According to him, even traditional industries can «allow» innovation in their lives by creating high-tech research centers.
In his workshop on service design, Andriy Milinevskiy together with the audience addressed an acute for almost all issue and discussed the topic: «There is nothing to eat at home». The pain points in different social groups are different, but within 3.5 hours, the participants divided into working groups arrived at dozens of decisions that can meet the needs of everyone.
Panel discussion «Innovations in companies: a trend or the means of survival?» gave all the attendees many interesting and useful insights: investing in innovation is not an option to choose, it is a necessity. Whether the involvement of startups from the outside, or the introduction of innovations within the company, all this is a path to business development, without which it is sooner or later doomed to the destiny of «Kodak» or «Nokia». One of the best ways to start innovative processes in the company is to digitalize them, which helps feel the drive of further transformation into an innovative company. Innovators in the company have to constantly feel their value and importance, so that they do not burn out, but move ahead towards their goal. Hence, values, resources, and processes are the key drivers of innovation paving the way to long-term business success. The participants of the discussion were:
- Yulia Poroshenko, the co-founder of «Radar Tech «Agrohab»
- Kyrylo Kryvolap, «Civitta» associate partner
- Andriy Pavliv, CEO at «N-iX», the head of the Supervisory Board of the Lviv IT Cluster
- Oleksandr Stoyanov, SME Director at «Kyivstar»
The discussions were moderated by Igor Blystiv, the Marketing Director at the «Kormotekh» company, the graduate of the Key Executive MBA program at the UCU Lviv Business School and a lecturer at LvBS.
The event took place within the frameworks of the EU4Business initiative under the auspices of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The main media partner – Channel 24.
«INTRO-2018»: feedback from the participants
Dmytro Visyn, Modern-Expo Group «…Companies merely taking care of their profit today are doomed to failure tomorrow. True large companies take care not only about how to boost their profit yields, but also about how to develop a set of unique values for a long-term success.
There is no clear process of developing innovation, but each company has to develop its own unique process. Persistence and entrepreneurship are the main qualities of innovators. It is important to be able not to stop after making mistakes, but to move on. It is necessary to possess an entrepreneurial streak, to understand that any business activity should yield profit …»
Mykhailo Shelemba, «Egoїсти» restaurant chain: «In the modern world, while developing your own business, you have to be fast. If you are slow, you lose. The smaller is the city – the slower is the pace of life, less intense is the competition, and respectively, the development is slow, requirements and goals are vague. Think: why are vine corks still used? They are more expensive, more complicated in manufacture, worse for advertising than many other counterparts, but still a large part of the market is occupied by the vine corks.
And one more point: even traditional industries can innovate! Innovation is always about some crazy ideas. When companies undertake the innovative strategy, in 40% of cases the company’s CEOs are dismissed. Most remain in the office for about 2-3 years. Innovation is usually a long, painful, and vague process. But innovations should ultimately yield profit».
Victoriya Butelenko, PPV Knowledge Networks «# intro2018 this is Love. Within the frameworks of the conference, there was a very intensive workshop on service design held by Andriy Milinevskiy. Three hours of activities stimulated to work as efficiently as possible. After a series of studies and interviews, we came up with 12 non-standard solutions to the problem, and at the end of the workshop the team presented and demonstrated each solution in illustrations. It was useful and interesting. Thanks to LvBS for the opportunity to join this wonderful «Intro 2018» conference.»
