Perm Phenomenon. Business Communities Grow Up In Russia
The 2020 year has shocked all SMEs throughout the world. Russian SMEs are not an exception. But we were ready to adopt by being deeply involved in online business communities with agile methods and techniques. Moreover, we have the best accelerating practice to grow up sustainable business communities. Perm Krai is one of the regions in the Russian Federation which has started to implement it and succeed.
Based on common interests “active communities of practice” (communities of practice) appear. These are specially organized in the network associations of people, aimed at solving a particular problem. Their interaction is based on the principle of mass cooperation.
Cross-functional integration is often seen in formalized community performance goals for individuals outside of the community team. It usually helps to have a list of top business communities that are useful to refer to. It can be a community that is differentiated and stands out amongst its peers and communities that generate revenue, lower costs or can make both in the best situation. In fact, I won’t sugar coat it. If you are planning to build a community that does not have revenue or cost reduction as its main goal, then you are wasting your time. At least if you are in business for profit, and as I think most of us are.
Community Management is the world trend to the way of sustainable development. And Business Communities is the most efficient way to stimulate business cooperation, to speed up knowledge exchange, to grow fast, and to solve problems. Now it’s time for breakthroughs in measuring community value and its business model. That value can now be represented in financial terms.
Online Business Communities are the core of the growth and development of the SME sector. It’s a new upcoming trend mostly in Russia but not in the world. The reason why our methodology is successful is our commitment to cooperation, maturity for digital cooperation and knowledge based on real-life cases which proved by economic and financial results for each member. And the goal is to speed up government-to-business communication services through the Ecosystem of the business community. In this case, we need to improve communication and make this Ecosystem more transparent and productive.
As one business article in the Qurius says, «To drive innovation, you should understand your ecosystem». This phrase explains the role of the ecosystem very well. And I agree. That’s why we should study the ecosystem «As it IS» model and determine Ecosystems’ “To Be” Model to support SME.
A primary objective here is to support business renewal and stimulate online cooperation through the projecting and creation of an Ecosystem.
It’s time to spread this new Innovation Methods. There is no similar methodology in the world. We’ve done through the implementation of Communication Strategy for SME Supporting Ecosystem and Methods for Communications Businesses Communities of Perm Krai using these chapters and steps:
· Building of SME Supporting Ecosystem («AS IT IS» and «TO BE» models)
· Communication Tools
· PM Tools
· Communicational Messages and legends
· Timeline, roadmaps and recommendations
· Business Community Acceleration
· Business Community Map
· Checklist Self-Identification Points for Business Community Building
· 8 Online Seminars
· Online MeetUp with Business Community Leaders
· Recommendations about How to Start
According to the communication strategy, there are several concepts:
A business community is a sustainable group of entrepreneurs with common interests or goals that require a relatively flexible, conditionally formalized association format. This format is usually based on self-organization principles and implies a single communication platform. Such a platform allows participants to establish horizontal connections, share information, identify common objectives and create a value proposition for the community.
EcoSystem is a set of interconnected and interdependent organizations and structures, state, commercial and non-profit sectors, public institutions and development institutions. Their activity is aimed at the implementation of the policy in the sphere of entrepreneurship development, development and support of entrepreneurship, assistance in the implementation of business projects, development of business climate. They protect the interests of entrepreneurs and help in forming cooperation relations and organizing international cooperation.
The methodology of interaction with business communities is a set of mechanisms for communication between ecosystem members and business communities aimed at achieving direct or indirect economic benefits, expansion or improvement of business efficiency by community members.
The main objectives of the method are:
· Development of communication between business and government.
· Business Communities Acceleration.
· Support for self-organization of business communities.
What are the final metrics of these Methods?
· The number of the business community in the region.
· The number of members of the community.
· The number of leaders of the business community.
· The number of projects created and launched in the business community.
· The number of publications about business communities.
· The number of measures of government support for business communities.
· The number of initiatives, generated and proposed by entrepreneurs.
There are 5 main prerequisites for the fast growth of business communication communities in Russia:
1. Non-Government Organisations and unions.
Now there are more than 20 communities with more than 10 000 SME members in Perm Krai. There are many very important organizations among them such as the strong and traditional non-Government Association of Small and Medium Business Opora Russia, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), All-Russian public organization Business Russia, Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) with its local representatives. Each of them has strong offline cooperation and online communities.
2. Strong Business leaders.
Evgeny is Co-Chairman of Business Russia Regional Branch, founder of GGroup-Asset Management, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Technopark Perm and T-Park Management Company, LLC, initiator of a number of significant business projects in real estate and urban development. He is the founder of Technopark Perm (one of the first private high-tech parks in Russia). Evgeny is a serial entrepreneur. He creates and invests in interesting innovation projects that contribute to the development of Perm Krai. Mr. Provotorov has extensive experience in various fields and he is a leader, who can put extraordinary people and unique projects together. Technopark Perm is one of the active business communities directly connected with Eugene’s activity, it unites technological entrepreneurs.
Tatiana Terentyeva is a business leader who has united business communities around the Business Mentor project.
Business-mentor Business Club is an integration model of the accelerator and business community because not many people have a working vertical, business image, power.
This project of collaboration and communication was recognized internationally. Thanks to it, Tatiana personally met Guy Kawasaki and Steve Wozniak while studying in the U.S. She was presented with a gift for the best innovative project in business communications. This is the liveliest and largest community in terms of size!
Over 600 events have been held in 5 years.
The number of community members is 270 small, medium and big business entrepreneurs. They implement many projects with other public associations and government representatives, among others. For example, students of the Polytechnic University practice in real cases of partners of the Business-mentor Club. This is possible under the project #buy Perm with the support of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The project also has its own wise media platform. A TV reality show about mentorship was launched in 2015 and canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. It already has 100 episodes in 5 years. The series was filmed and broadcasted on TV channels in Perm Krai and Russia. The show is filmed without support from the state budget.
Larisa Alina is the founder of the Ya delovaya Online Club. Ya delovaya Online club is an ONLINE platform of the offline club for businesswomen (membership includes training, business meetings and creative projects, workshops).
Nikolay Kosvintsev is the head of the STI Ecosystem in the Perm Region of the Investment Development Agency.
Elena Gilyazova, Vice-President of the Perm Chamber of Commerce and Industry and former member of the regional parliament, is one of the important business leaders. She unites entrepreneurs on the site of the Perm Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Perm region today.
3. IT- clusters and techno parks.
The development of the IT-industry is a priority direction of regional economic development. The number of IT-clusters, technoparks, and IT-companies proves it. This industry is characterized by industry communities, which are actively developed in the region.
4. Boiling points in Perm.
The Boiling points collective space format has been developed by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) and has been used since 2014. It also was founded with the support of the National Technology Initiative (NTI). The Boilingpointsproject is being developed with the support of Svetlana Chupsheva, General Director of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, and Dmitry Peskov, Special Presidential Envoy for Digital and Technological Development.
“The task is to launch the process of creation and operation of regional sites “Boilingpoints” across the country and to create a distributed infrastructure, places of power, the attraction of our own active, living, not indifferent people,” describes the format Lyubov Kirienko, Head of Network Development Programs, Department of Network Development Boilingpoints, ANO STI Platform.As of today, there are 100 Boilingpointsall over the country, on-line and off-line sites of which thousands of events are held annually.
Boiling points appeared in 2019 on the site of cultural space Shpagina Factory in Perm. Natalia Zineman, the undisputed community leader and a prominent representative of the creative industry in Perm Krai, became its program director. She creates this open space for communities and talented persons with the support of ASI. It looks like an agile network based on the leader ID platform. It’s a core and the greatest point to build independent sustainable communities. This open space includes communities on 12 thematic tracks with their own leaders and social media accounts which have an audience of over 5000 subscribers.
5. Request and support of the Perm Region Government team for business community development.
In April 2020, the Government of Perm Krai, a team led by the former Minister of Economic Development of the Perm Region, Maxim Kolesnikov, supported the idea of systems for the development of business communities and invited to test it and implement support for business communities by these methods with the following emphases:
· Make a Strong Upgrade of the existing business communities
· Help to rise up new business communities
· Support Business Community Leaders
· Implement the special supporting Business Community Programs
· Promote Government Acceptance
· Provide promo&PR Support for Business Communities
There is a huge need to be accepted by the government in Russia. Most SMEs are too modest to declare their initiatives. But in Perm Krai we are starting to change this skeptic behavior pattern. This approach in setting up new communication channels for business and government is fully in line with the declared policy of the new Governor Dmitry Makhonin.
Fast Results
The peculiarity of the Methodology is that the beginning of its implementation was combined in development, which made it possible to make it addressable in accordance with the region’s requests. What has already been launched and implemented?
1. Appearance of a community manager.
According to the implemented stages of the Methodology, the community manager started his work in a test mode in all communities in August 2020. The manager showed good communication skills in the business community with a friendly approach, he promptly helped the members of the communities by providing the necessary documents on certain regulations (this is especially important during the Covid period when regional authorities change the rules of operation of institutions and SME rules of operation quite often). Also, the community manager placed current reports in business communities in order to involve participants in the regional forum work.
The recommended functionality and schedule of such a community manager is reflected in the functionality and standard schedule of the community manager.
The core role of the business community manager who is responsible for communications between members of the ecosystem, are:
· Inform.
· Share.
· Activate communications.
· Provide the required.
2. Events organization for the regional team and business community leaders:
from June to August there were 8 adaptation seminars with business leaders and mixed combined format (online + offline) MeetUps based on the Boiling points for business leaders.
3. The emergence of new Business Communities and the emergence of their leaders.
One of the key activities of the method is the creation of business communities as an example of the practical applicability of the method and as a result of the proposed mechanisms. Business communities were launched and developed at the moment of the methodology development. There are some of them.
Fashion Tech Perm
This community was launched in August 2020 based on the results of the mixed combined format MeetUp, it was implemented as part of the methodology.
The founders of Business Community FashionTechPerm are Suntseva Yuliya, Oscar Yagapharov, Natalya Karpova.
FashionTechPerm is a community for Producers, Designers, Retailers, Local Brands, Software Application Developers. They interact and unite to initiate new products, projects at the intersection of industries and together look for ways to solve regional and global problems.
“The community is now in the process of formulating its own mission. We are defining the formats of cooperation and are already launching joint projects. It gives us new ideas and opens the world’s digital horizons for the fashion industry,” says Yuliya Suntseva, entrepreneur, owner and creative director of the Rasena brand.
“FashionTechPerm is an opportunity that appears in the space of a drive, technology, the competence of fashion specialists, light industry, the latest technology and accumulated experience of the region. I see great opportunities for the region. When the ability to think creatively meets with people who can create artificial intelligence, there is an opportunity to renew the region, to develop a new Perm. This is a story about Perm 300+ and the updated reality,» says Natalia Karpova, Head of ImLab Image and Personality Laboratory, Business Consultant.
“It is important for us as a technology park to create new networks of partnerships and interactions. The combination of the fashion industry and digital technology is a growing trend. We see the prospects of this trend and most of the Perm designers, textile and clothing manufacturers are ready for innovation and collaboration,” says Oscar Yagafarov, Director of Morion Digital.
More than 10 events have been held in the community and the number of participants has already exceeded 150 people in 2 months.
Business club of Prikamye.
Drinevskaya Inga is a founder, managing director of the Business Club of Prikamye. It made for founders and CEOs. The club is a platform for dialogue, communication and effective interaction between representatives and specialized government agencies, for business education and exchange of experience.
Drinevskaya Inga is also a founder and vice president of the Russian Foundation for the promotion of export-import activities. She is a Head of the accredited multidisciplinary trading platform of the Uzbek Republican Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange in the Russian Federation. She is an owner of Neftemasloresurs, LLC.
The closed online community in the telegram messenger was launched in early summer and now it has more than 80 participants. During 5 months more than 10 events were held.
Franchising world, Perm region.
Business community Franchising World Perm Krai was launched in summer 2020. The leaders of the community are Yuliya Bogushevskaya, General Director of Franchising Intellect, LLC, expert in franchising and Maria Kizima, Head of Legal Department of Franchising-Intellect, LLC. These two outstanding women (mother and daughter) have been successfully developing their family business for many years. The Franchising World Perm Krai community has united entrepreneurs of the franchising market. More than 5 online events aimed at developing initiatives to support the franchising market in the Perm Krai have already been held within the community. The number of participants is over 50.
The Method was designed to develop and support all kinds of communities regardless of the stage and cycle to which the community belongs. It might be formalized and non-formalized, new and already existing communities. The Method will help any community to transform itself successfully.
The creation of new communities should go hand in hand with the support of existing communities. According to the methodology, activities and support should cover and be aimed at both existing and new business communities, formalized (with the status of a nonprofit organization) and informal (without legal entity).
What’s next in the methodology?
The next step isto create a Business Ambassadors Club according to our communication strategy.
Business ambassadors are positive and proactive entrepreneurs (residents, experts, government officials) who live and operate in the Perm region and another region of our country (even abroad). Usually they are patriotically attached to the krai and have a connection with the krai, they publicly identify themselves with the krai and voluntarily promote the opportunities and benefits of living in the krai.
Among those who supported this idea is entrepreneur Evgeniy Fridman,co-founder Uneolab, director of the Phoenix group of companies. He is an active public figure. He stood at the origins of the federal business association. He is from Perm, but now Evgeniy lives in Moscow and implements business projects throughout the country.
We are looking forward to Alexey Yuzhakov joining this community. Alexey is the founder of Promobot, a company that has become known worldwide for its intelligent robots that are exported to the United States, Japan, Brazil and other countries.
Also Alexey Poroshin, a member of the general counsel of the public organization Delovaya Rossia, the head of the Center for financial and credit support of the all-Russian public organization Delovaya Rossia, the general director of Pervaya Group, LLC, a member of federal expert groups and public councils can become one of the most important participants. Alexey was born in Perm. He implements business projects all over the country and in his native city. As a co-founder of the Autonomous Nonprofit Organization Center for Economic Growth, he provides support and assistance to regional governments in financing investment initiatives and PPP projects, project and investment activities, and expertise in infrastructure projects.
We are sure that such communities will be supported by Maria Dolgih. She is currently working in Moscow on personnel in the digital economy at the 2035 University. She was also born in Perm and she was the head of the Boilingpointsnetwork development and was at the origin of this concept. She is not indifferent to the development of business communities.
Of course, they are only a few people, and in general, the club will be open for everyone. It is only necessary to join it. Combined format MeetUp dedicated to the club launch will be held in the nearest future.
According to the methodology, there are prepared to be hold the following events:
· Facilitating the emergence of new communities.
· Creating “My Business” business community following the example of other regions in order to promptly inform entrepreneurs about measures to support Perm Krai.
· Realization of regular meetings for business communities with government representatives.
· Launching the Business Initiative Lab.
· Working on Business Climate Situation Center.
· Providing Communication standard.
And of course, it is necessary to train and support business community leaders with the involvement of strong professionals to create and develop a business community from scratch. For example, the Compot Community Bureau is a professional community of community-managers headed by Anna Gaan.
All this suggests that this is the first step to the systematic development of the business community institution and the ecosystem of business communities in each region of the Russian Federation.
We are proud to be the first in Russia to catch this trend and to empower SMEs with new innovative technologies.
What region is next to launch this mechanism and what country? Just let me know — Alferova Yuliya: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vkontakte, Telegram.
Ecosystems of business communities with the right support and acceleration are the best tool for economic growth and sustainable development.
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According to The 11th annual State of Community Management report, «Community structures create abundant, organic, and regenerative growth. Thriving communities generate more value for individuals than is contributed to them, driving loyalty, generosity, advocacy, and reinvestment. Organizations using community models to empower and collaborate with employees, customers, and other stakeholders are seeing outsized gains. This success is prompting organizations to expand community investments and extend the impact of community programs. The power of communities creates some of the most influential institutions in history — business and social communities, new models of government, the craft guilds and clubs.
Successful Business community approaches create equitable, generative, sustainable, and innovative organizations. These organizations empower, engage, and reward the potential of everyone in their ecosystem, unlocking the capacity of their network to do more.
Digital channels excel at making the work of communities efficient. This work is developing and acting on shared meaning, purpose, and value. This work is the fundamental driver of innovation. The Internet has dramatically sped up innovation and adoption cycles by increasing the speed of communications.
By looking at community ROI over time, we see this dynamic at work. Early on, communities attract only the most passionate because there is less explicit value to gain in return. As those early members start to develop and articulate shared value, it becomes more accessible and useful to others, prompting the community to accelerate and grow rapidly. As the knowledge generated in the community is more broadly adopted and standardized, growth slows, creating the classic S curve of innovation».
