16.6 Antti Parviainen participated at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum

16.6 Antti Parviainen participated at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum

Last Thursday, on June 16th Innovestor’s chairman Antti Parviainen and advisor Pekka Viljakainen took part in the Panel Discussion at Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. The topic of the discussion was named “Cultivating Talent To Spur Smart Growth”

The panel discussion was dedicated to human capital strategy of Russian Federation. The main aspects and challenges of the discussion are not simple issues. 14 panellists were represented by both Governmental, Educational and Business structures, participants such as Mikhail Abyzov, Minister of the Russian Federation, Robert Dudley, Group Chief Executive, BP, Alexander Galitsky, Co-Founder, Managing Partner, Almaz Capital, Sergey Kravchenko, President, Boeing Russia/CIS,Blair Sheppard, Global Leader for Strategy and Leadership Development, PwC and others.

Firstly, as a general highlight of the topic discussion, most of participants agreed that human capitalabove all means personality and interpersonal development. According to Abyzov, Russian focus of interpersonal human development lacks quality already on the first stages of education. The country is still living with Soviet tradition, thus, can’t be modern.

Secondly, panellists went through future essential professional skills of human capital for success of the economy. Both professional and behavioural skills were seen as crucial ones along with the ability to learn and adopt new technology. None of those components should be missing at any point in life, rather be permanent and last throughout to have a successful life.

Thirdly, it was widely discussed that family, school (education), society form the core of individuality. That is why team approach is needed in the development of these traditional social institutes. Parents must understand that they give the basics of the personal child development.

Finally, two important points were given to the topic of social services. The first one is related to maintaining high quality and attracting top talents to the job positions of social structures. And the second — development of the skills of those who already work on those positions. It is very hard to educate a grown up person, however, the work itself should be structured in a way that anyone can adopt and learn something new.

An interesting yet challenging question was addressed to Viljakainen: what would happen to business if all top talents shift into governmental structures. According to Viljakainen this is an essentially needed and necessary change. He promised to do all possible with the rotation between talents of business and civil servants. Viljakainen also mentioned that it is possible to change the mentality of civil servants in order to improve social attitude towards them.

Antti Parviainen pointed out that competition for human capital between Nordic and Baltic countries is going to be really tough. Russian and Finnish technologies are on the same level with Silicon Valley, however, marketing and service development skills need significant improvement. Venture Investors need to concentrate on helping technological growth companies with this lack of skills.