WHY IS IT NOT FASHIONABLE TO BE A TECH ENTREPRENEUR?

In early December, I was lucky to take part in a conference in Yekaterinburg at the Yeltsin Center. The format of the conference is not like the usual scenario: when we enter the audience, listen to experts, ask questions after the speech.

Unlike the usual scenario, this conference is in the format of the Organizational-Activity Game (ODG). Its author and developer is the honored Soviet and Russian philosopher, methodologist, cultural figure Georgy Petrovich Shchedrovitsky. You can find out about his activities in the materials Wikipedia. After his death (in 1994) many companions appeared. They have been drawing and are drawing the public’s attention to this day to the problems that exist in various economic sectors, literally pushing their opinions head-on. Thus, in the process of discussion, options for solving complex and important problems appear.

It is not difficult to guess that for the people who participated in the conference, the proposed solutions can serve as a kind of professional lift. Just imagine a situation where at the same time an ordinary developer can become the head of a structural unit and make a significant contribution to the development of the company, government mechanisms, people’s lives, and so on.

Over time, the practice of holding such games spread and became traditional, at least in my city – Yekaterinburg.

This year, the topic chosen is the thesis that was repeatedly expressed by the President of the Russian Federation, V.V. Putin. “on resolving the issue of gaining technological sovereignty of the Russian Federation”.

The task is very difficult. It is also complicated by the fact that the Russian Federation is experiencing a significant shortage of qualified personnel and technologies, not to mention the sanctions imposed on Russia by Western countries.

As a result, the organizers of the game suggested that the participants be divided into 8 groups:

But not every group reached the final completion (and the game lasted 7 days). In this way:

1. The Users group has NOT been formed;

2. Economists and authorities united in one group under the general name “Economy and Law”.

3. There was only one person in the “Entrepreneurs” group.

4. A little more people in the “Methodology” group,

5. Even more “Economics and Law”.

6. The maximum number of players was scored by groups: Corporations, Developers and Ideologists.

In my opinion, the resulting distribution reflects the real situation in which Russia is currently located: everyone is interested in going to corporations, development, authorities, BUT practically no one wants to be an entrepreneur and no one wants to take responsibility for the user. My choice fell on entrepreneurship

THE FIRST DAY. SELF-DETERMINATION OF PARTICIPANTS AND GROUPS. ARE WE READY TO PARTICIPATE IN THE FATE OF THE COUNTRY?

We are trying to understand the role of an entrepreneur in Russia. To do this, our team has prepared a short presentation. Below is a schematic representation of its content.

The presented scheme describes the entrepreneur as a derivative, obtained as a result of the interaction of the environment, society, state and corporations.

The service or product of the entrepreneur arises from his close cooperation with corporations and the state in society and environment.

But in reality, it is not clear how the latter scheme works, and the meaning of the entrepreneur’s activity is also not clear if the state and corporations can do without it, as, for example, in the days of the Soviet Union.

From this follows the conclusion that on the first day the task of self-determination of the position of a technological entrepreneur in society was not solved.

SECOND DAY. ANALYSIS OF THE SITUATION IN THE PROFESSIONAL SPHERE OF ACTIVITY. REASONS FOR THE TECHNOLOGICAL LACK IN RUSSIA.

Since our self-determination did not happen on the first day, the team had to solve the task of the first day (self-determination of entrepreneurship) and the second (analysis of the situation) on the second day. On the second day, an assumption was made.

Perhaps a technology entrepreneur can act as a person who builds links between other groups.

If the hypothesis is confirmed in the game, then most likely in real life it can be exactly the same. Thus, another scheme appears.

The idea of ​​this scheme is that the entrepreneur acts as an intermediary between the groups. Then, to clarify this role, the features that distinguish the entrepreneur from other groups are identified. Among them:

Trend Tracking

Organization of a profitable business

Tracking the prospects for the development of trends

So it means that an entrepreneur is not just an intermediary, but also an implementer? What did Elon Musk do? Implemented technology. What did Steve Jobs do? He also introduced technology.

Are there similar technology implementers in Russia, except for Pavel Durov, who, for a second, is also forced to leave Russia? Perhaps they are, but they are so small that few people know about them.

The introduction of technologies into industrial production does not occur. Otherwise we would have seen it. Consequently, in Russia the number of technology entrepreneurs tends to zero.

Thus, it is clear why it was difficult for us to define the role of a technology entrepreneur in society. There are so few of them in our country that it is difficult to describe his portrait. As a result of the second day, we analyzed the situation, but as such, the group’s self-determination did not occur.

DAY THREE. PROBLEMATIZATION. WHAT HINDS YOUR SOVEREIGNTY?

When the third day of the game began, the host let the group know that this was the most difficult day. Because according to the plan of the organizers, we had to: (1) define the role of the entrepreneur, (2) analyze the situation in the professional field of activity and (3) identify the problems that the entrepreneur faces in the course of his activity.

We have more or less completed the second task. But the problem of self-determination has not been solved. In addition, we determined that technological entrepreneurship is developing poorly in Russia. It seems that the state allocates colossal funds, but there is no visible result.

With this baggage, we started the third day, as a result of which a new scheme appeared. In the center of the picture, we placed the ideological problem of society – the presence of a consumer attitude. We thought that this was the root of the problem of a small number of entrepreneurs in Russia.

The consumer attitude gives rise to a lack of motivation for the future generation to have their own business in the field of production; this leads to a lack of manifestation of technological entrepreneurship and the introduction of developments into industrial production. And it is noteworthy that the proposed factors are interchangeable. For example, in a situation where a student is looking for a job. (I don’t have experience because I don’t have a job. I don’t have a job because I don’t have experience)

This scheme allowed us to formulate the consequences of the factors described above. They are obtained as a result of brainstorming:

No one is interested in the development of the Russian Federation

No one takes responsibility for the development of the Russian Federation

Technology production in Russia is low quality

Being an entrepreneur is out of fashion

In Russia, the initiative is punishable

Lack of awareness that the Russian Federation is in danger.

And now the results: our group has chosen a key problem that the entrepreneur is not able to solve. He cannot change the ideology of the society in which he lives. He can only adjust to the ideology and offer a solution. On this day, we were most likely very close to solving the problem of the role of a technology entrepreneur in the life of Russia, but the task of the first day is still not solved.

DAY FOUR. HOW TO GET TECHNOLOGICAL SOVEREIGNTY?

On the fourth day of the game, we decided to turn inward and ask the question: “What can we do to gain sovereignty?”. And we decided to focus not on what is happening around the entrepreneur, but what is happening inside his activities.

Thus, the characteristics of an entrepreneur in Russia were revised by brainstorming. The following list came up:

Initiative

Focus on results

Focus on product development and implementation

Money is not paramount.

Perhaps, on the last point, the reader may criticize the conclusions of our group. But in the course of the game, we still found a startup that can be classified as a technological entrepreneurship. This startup is called “Kanatakhod”, developed by the “Laboratory of the Future” company. In a conversation with the head of the company, our group realized that they have a ready-made product called Rope Walker, but they can’t put it into production – they don’t buy it. At best, they propose to introduce it by illegal means. This robot checks the network cable for damage and repairs it. It seemed that there was development, there was even a robot, but there was no money and no sales.

Based on the information received, the team formulated the following conclusions:

Innovative products are not wanted to be bought and implemented in the Russian Federation.

The reason may be a bad product or a bad business model.

In this situation, a possible solution may be to change the business model or improve the quality of the product.

The conclusion on the fourth day was the identification of the role of an entrepreneur in Russia, his problems and pains in the process of doing business. And also a solution that was not obvious to us, the participants in the game.

DAY FIVE. SUMMING UP, SELF-DETERMINATION OF PARTICIPANTS.

The last day of the game was devoted to the reflection of the participants. We analyzed our role in the game. It is noteworthy that the “Entrepreneurs” group noticed that the problem of achieving technological sovereignty may also be the low level of education quality in the Russian Federation. It should be noted that the “Science and Education” group was not represented at the game at all. I mentioned this in my final report. I recommend it for viewing. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the recording.

GAME RESULTS

As a conference participant, I really liked the option of solving a complex problem through the organization of such events. They help to find a common denominator with which you can come to a solution to the problem. By the way, the presentations of other groups can be viewed on the official website games.