Benches

You know, I love exhibitions in the open air!

There is the one opened a month ago in Moscow, Lavrushinsky side street (near Tret’yakov gallery). Young artists paint … benches! There are a lot of them put together one by one on the street! Now I have my favorite ones :)


First time when I came there, some artists were still painting and I was just excited by the beauty of the pictures.

(my friend took pictures:)

Second time the pictures weren’t new for me, so I was thinking about the whole idea and how it can positively influence people’s lives, and suddenly a question popped up in my head:

If I have my own bench on this street, what would I draw on it?

This question became soo interesting and worth thinking about, so I spent my trip home carrying it in my head. So, I came up with some ideas =)

If I have my own bench, I would likely to draw … happiness=)

However, happiness may be different for each of us, thus my bench wouldn’t show exactly what it is (who am I to give answers?). While looking at the picture, everyone would find his/her own answer.

Moreover, I would like that people that are coming to see the bench, find a new idea/thought for themselves every time they see it.

Another point, I would like my bench to be extremely beautiful that no one would ever want to draw something else on it. At the same time, I would like it to be so shiny and nice-looking that everyone would want to sit on it for hours.

It's should not be beautiful for everyone. But a few people would love it and come to see it from time to time.

Finally, it would be a little bit magic. Being near it you would want to join hands. To call your parents. To help your grandfather. To show this bench to your best friend.

It's a luck to have your own bench, isn't it? How much could we say, thus make a little change in people's souls.

Will Russia compete on a global market?

Since school years we have been listening to the standard ‘facts’ about Russia. Living conditions are not that high. Political system is too bureaucratic. There is too less care about people.

We have been consuming all this information with a great pleasure, and now every student of economical faculty starts his/her diploma with something like: “Relevance of this topic is proven by the fact that there is a big problem in Russian … sector…” More than half of the news end like in the saying: “They wanted to do it better, but did as usual”. Everywhere on the streets, in cafes, on TV screen people are blaming their country. Is it a flash mob? =)

My parents dream to see me living in Europe, at least working in Moscow for an international company. “We will see how long you are going to stay excited developing Russian economy”, - smile they. Some of my friends would move to another country straight away if they get a lucky chance.

Once I got fed up with such an opinion and applied to the Summer School for young economists.
If you want to make a change, you should have a clear idea about the current state and possible needs of the country. That’s what I was eager to find out leaving for this seminar which has the theme - “Competitiveness of Russian business on a global market”.

I have been to a lot of seminars, but from this one I expected to gain theoretical knowledge and define my own opinion about the situation in my country.

***

Summer School exceeded my expectations!

26 participants is not a big number, but these are the people who want to know reality and challenge perceptions. I have never seen so many questions during the lecture! It must be exciting to be a professor for such auditorium =)

I learned about emerging markets, WTO regulations, modern production systems (e.g. Toyota Production System), global competitive industries and scenarios for Russian economy development till 2020. Besides, we had a project of making a national industry competitive on the market (we took automotive industry), in the end each group presented their solutions for professors.

The most impressive was to find out about 3 scenarios for Russia till 2020 which are being prepared by the Ministry of Economical Development and Trade (Director of the assigned Committee came to us to make a lecture).

Second thing is tourism that is truly the industry of the future: the most competitive will become countries that will create an infrastructure which attracts tourists from the globe (by professor of London School of Economics).

The third one – about successful business by O.S. Vikhansky (very famous Russian professor of management): why do some businesses succeed and some fail?
I had a lot of learning points after his seminar, but was impressed when realized that you are likely to fail if you are using strategies that were successful some time ago! Really, things change so fast nowadays, that you must always create new strategies, new methods, and new ways if you want to succeed.

All these people who facilitated our learning – I am sure – had a strong belief in the future Russian economy, and they transmitted it to us! That’s amazing: good to have knowledge, great to have skills, but that’s an attitude that makes a difference!

***

I remember the moment during one of the nights when we talked about what each of us would change in Russia if he/she has a chance. I do remember the feeling of harmony inside me when I was talking about my passion – life and business coaching to help people find what they really want to do in their lives.

I am not afraid to listen to the news and talk about Russia with my parents any more. I know what is a fact and what is an opinion. I believe in the third scenario =) and my abilities to make an impact.

***

On the third day we had excursion around Moscow. It seems I was mentally repeating again and again: “Such a beautiful city we live in!” And this is me - almost Moscow citizen for 10 years!! =)

***

Read more in Russian (with pictures:) http://www.icss.ac.ru/summerschool2007/

1000 years back

I have just come back from a trip to Velikij Novgorod, which is the city on the north of Russia that has a history of more than 1000 years. We went there with Sveta, a friend of mine.

It’s even difficult to imagine – 1000 years! Yet, many historical monuments are still on this land, although were badly destroyed by wars.

You may read about the city in web: www.novgorod.ru/english while I will put some pictures that we did there and my personal impressions about the trip.

Impression 1 – Kremlin, cultural center of the city and a good place for rest in piece and silence.

Impression 2 – Cotton hare. Surprisingly, we came to Novgorod in its birthday, so took part in the celebration that impressed us a lot! The event was organized in such an interesting way that everybody could get involved in different activities: painting, weaving, sewing, dancing!

As for us, we learned to make cotton hares :-)

Impression 3 – Monastery life. There are a lot of churches and monasteries in Novgorod. Wherever you go, you will find them on your way. It’s strange and frustrating how some of them are surrounded by cafes, clubs, beaches etc. without any respect to monks. Yet these are just exceptions. And there is the one which impressed us the most, because of its blinding beauty and spiritual silence…

We heard the story about novices (“послушники”) who have to obey all requests of a parson (“батюшка”). No words back, no complaints, if you are told to do something you are to go it. Are we able to live this kind of life?

And this is an old church destroyed during Warld War II, now a home for some Novgorod citizens...

Impression 4 – House of Dostoevsky in Staraya Russa (town in Novgorod region). Fedor Dostoevsky is the famous Russian writer, we saw his small house where he lived with his family.

Impression 5 – Weird things. Some of them are funny, some are frustrating, the others are completely senseless. One of them is just STRANGE… like this drama theatre… :)

***

Thank you, my dear, for such a pleasant trip!

Corporate Responsibility

2 weeks ago I attended a round table devoted to Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR (organized by AIESEC in Moscow).

CSR is one the areas I am passionate about, so I was extremely glad to participate in the mentioned event.

In order to keep the key learning points that I go out of discussions, I am posting them to this blog.

Some of them might be seen as obvious; however, it was important for me to clearly understand basic things, although I read books about CSR before.

First presentation got us into the topic and underlined 3 main challenges of CSR in Russia:

* not developed reporting system for CSR activities
* CSR is not a part of the general strategy of the company
* CSR is still perceived as a charity activities, although it includes 2 additional aspects

Eugeny Tutkevich, top manager of MDM-bank, pointed out another interesting question, and instead of talking about importance of CSR for companies, gave 5 reasons why companies should not do CSR:

* CSR is not the first priority for the company as it aims on making profit
* Companies pay lots of taxes, so it’s the job of government to do social work
* Charity attracts attention of government
* The more you give, the more people will ask you for
* “If I am asked to sponsor road building, why should I give the money if a road will be built anyway?”

Conclusion: company that doesn’t do CSR activities has far more benefits than the one who does!

So WHY CSR in this case? Because of 2 main reasons:

* Sustainable development: operating at present times company creates sustainable future for itself
* Stakeholders

Then, there are 3 aspects/levels of CSR in a company:

I – stakeholders (company acts in sustainable manner with its stakeholders, e.g. ethic way of doing business)
II – personnel (programmes for employees: corporate culture, motivation, rewards & recognition, promotion within company)
III – regional community where company operates (e.g. environmental programmes)

Another interesting point that caught my attention is that company should have such CSR policy that reflects its core work.

After introduction several companies shared their examples of CSR policies:
- bank declines credit interest rate for some groups of people e.g. young married couple with children;
- educational projects about healthy food of food company
- building a computer club for school children (example of IT company) or scientific institute (FMCG company)
- “green products”: TV set that consumes less energy, much higher lifetime reliability etc.
- providing opportunity for disabled young people to do internship in a company
- free professional education for employees
- developing pension system for a city for free

The concept of sustainable development for a company is based on the idea that it helps society which will consume company’s products in the future. As in the example of education of healthy lifestyle: company increases amount of healthy people, thus ‘create’ healthy society. Many companies focus on a help for children, because this is children who are future society!

And, the last point that was mentioned: it is government that should show to business what areas to focus on.

***

I really feel like reading more and more about the topic, besides will be certainly looking for CSR internship at one point of time!

One

"Streets and highways connect every place with every other, but each driver chooses where he wants to go. He can drive to a beautiful countryside or to skid row, to a university or a bar, he can follow the road over the horizon or he can drive back and forth in a rut or he can park and not go anywhere.

He can choose his climate by where he drives, Fairbanks or Mexico City or Rio, he can drive a race car or a sedan or a track, he can keep it in perfect shape or let it go to pieces. He can drive without a map and make every turn a surprise or he can plan exactly where he's going to get there.

Every road he will take is already there, before he drives on it and after he's gone past. Every possible trip already exists, and the driver is one with them all. He just chooses, every morning, which trip he'll take that day"

This is an extract from the book I've read recently - "One" by Richard Bach. Interestingly, how it works with me & books.. when I have some problem, or a difficult question in mind, I usually find the book that gives me an idea on a possible answer.

It went just the same with this book. Sergey suggested me reading "The Bridge Across Forever" also by R.Bach, however when I went to the shop I found just a novel called "One", and, as I realized afterwards, that was exactly what I needed that time.

3 main ideas I got from the novel are:

1 - everything depends on our choices (perfect illustration of what it means is in the extract above)

For a long time I couldn't decide for myself what is my phylosophy about this topic: if the things are predetermined or not, if we really choose or just follow what is already planned.

It may seem difficult to live when you believe in idea of personal choice coz it's easy to hope for a planned-for-you-by-someone-else path. I decided to believe in choices.

Now, imagine any situation where you do not have influence. For example, your car gets brocken because some guy drove into it. Couldn't you choose? Almost no. Yet you have at least one thing you can choose, and this is your attitude to the problem.

2 - life is about learning (life is like a book, "when you turn to a page about nuclear war do you despair, or do you learn what it has to tell? Will you die reading the page, or will you move on to other pages, wiser for what you've read?")

3 - ideas are good only when are turned to work ("Ideas aren't thoughts, ther are engineered structure. Notice this and pay attention to the way your ideas are built and you will find dramatic increase in the quality of what you think")

And.. the most powerful message that I found for myself in one of the last chapters.

Main characters of the story (a couple: he and she) come to the place where they live and find themselves in the future.

An old guy reads a book by Richard Bach and then tells to his wife: "I could have done it! Could have done everything in this book! I tell you I damn well could have written that seagull thing he wrote! I used to go out on the jetty when I was a kid, watch the birds to fly. Wished it was me with wings..." His wife replies: "Maybe you could have, Dave".

This extract shocked me so much. After reading it I decided that I will always choose the path that - as I think - is for me, and believe in dreams. I would like to tell my grandchildren about what kind of person I have become and what impact I've made in the world, and what good things I have done for people, but not about the ones that I have dreamed about, yet didn't do.

"I gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth it?"

True success

There was a competition announced by Procter & Gamble in December last year.
The task was to write a success story of yours.

Fortunately, I got selected to take part in the final event with the other 16 finalists.
This is the link where I read about the results:

http://www.procterandgamble.ru/news/simple_news/&id=119&s=0

Snowy Almaty

* on the way to free wi-fe cafe :)

* love name of streets in Almaty!

* happy me, skating :)

* hospitable people in LC Almaty