It is already for the second time that the SUP DAY FORUM, which is the largest Business Forum in Ukraine, has been held in Kyiv by the Community of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs. Apart from the most topical and sensitive business issues raised at the event, much attention was dedicated to the issue of further education.
The importance of lifelong learning was expanded on by Yaryna Boychuk, the Academic Director at the UCU Lviv Business School: «It is right at this moment that Ukraine badly needs growing businesses. To boost their business the entrepreneurs are to be aware of available opportunities, make efficient decisions, understand and take responsibility for the ways of implementing them through the processes and people just for the sake of their private businesses growth. All the aforementioned is just the matter of business education combining practical knowledge, skills and visions».
The participants of the event also discussed some global entrepreneurial trends, the main economic and consumer tendencies as well as the peculiarities of doing business in other countries. Viacheslav Klimov, the president of the SUP and the co-owner of the New Post (Nova Poshta) company, pointed out: «Ukrainian entrepreneurs possess an enormous potential allowing them to make real breakthroughs on the domestic market. To become competitive they are to learn how to trace the world tendencies and integrate them with the local realia. This will enhance their chances to demonstrate their own success stories, which will necessarily become widely known not only in Ukraine, but beyond its borders as well».
Conquering new markets was the key issue discussed during the event. Heated discussion focused on such problems as the search for the new markets, the preparation of the export strategy, technical requirements and constraints as well as the establishment of a global brand. The participants analyzed some real-life cases of such successful exporters as Ihor Humennyi (the UBC Group), Nataliya Yeremieyeva (Stekloplast), Taras Verveha (SoftServe) and others.
Furthermore, the participants of the Forum were given handy tips on how to expand their private businesses: what they need to know about that and wherefrom to acquire the resources, which international programs and banking products can facilitate the small and medium businesses. What they also learnt is which financial capabilities can be offered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as direct investment funds.
Special attention was paid to the issue of portfolio investment, since the investors are not to be associated exclusively with money, but far beyond that: with cutting-edge technologies, the best corporate management practices and maintenance. Kostiantyn Mahaletskyi, the partner of the Horizon Capital investment company, claimed: «Experience demonstrates that the presence of the financial investor helps companies much easier overcome the periods of crisis. For example, in the space of 2008-2009 the annual percentage of defaults among the portfolio companies with direct investment funds was three times lower than among public companies».
Within the discussion panel arguing about the issue of reputation, much attention was drawn to the transparency of doing business, fair competition, taxes payment etc. «When analyzing a company which doesn’t pay taxes in compliance with the competitive business environment, any investor estimates it as a risk», – noted Oleksandr Pochkun, the vice-president of the SUP, the managing partner of the Baker Tilly Ukraine. However, the notion of competition is much wider and is not restricted to financial indices only. «More and more Ukrainian businesses are realizing the importance of reputation management. It does not suffice for the present-day businesses to just efficiently develop, pay taxes, invest in the standing-wave ratio etc. Without the well-organized communication with stakeholders, the reputation of even a very good company can suffer a great deal due to some aggressive information attack», claims Kateryna Zasukha, the CEO at the GROUP Communications Agency.
The SUP DAY 2017 gathered nearly 400 participants with the representatives of small and medium businesses, owners and directors of the Ukrainian enterprises, the leaders of the Ukrainian market being among them.
