The leaders’ week held in Moscow at the end of March brought together the company managers and experts, the first three groups of Volga-Dnepr Strategic Management Reserve (SMR) training program and HR-managers.

It is to be recalled that Strategic Management Reserve (SMR) training is the task set by the company president. The training is conducted by the Corporate University within the strategic project “100 new generation leaders to implement the strategy” and is based on professional schools, knowledge management system and mentorship.

The participants were speaking of strategy and leadership, were analyzing and offering ideas to implement strategic decisions 2019. Therewith, the third group reserve participants of SMR had to feel excited to represent the first reports on their projects.

Videos of all presentations are available in the Unified Informational Knowledge System  km.volga-dnepr.com – click the link in the article! (available for the company employees).

The company president opened the session by his inspiring speech on the Group values, strategy and significance of everybody’s contribution to implement it. He points out the importance of every manager’s ability of timely “turn” from operational activities to strategic. Therewith he compares the strategy with a sort of way, route that each of those present passes through and he also specifies that this is not the only way – there are many of them, as because of the obstacles arising on the way towards the goals, some divarications appear. The president wishes the participants to team up around the strategic goals and values and to be ready for moving towards these routes overcoming the obstacles.

Then,   Strategy Director, CLM, represented the long-term strategy of Volga-Dnepr Group.

The key strategic decisions 2019 on the company’s businesses were presented by the managers and reservists:

• ABC – Deputy General director – Operations director, Deputy General Director on high cost services;

• ATRAN  – General director,  Commerce director;

• VDA – Director on procurement, Regional manager on sales;

• VDT – Executive president.

On the strategy issue continued, the participants offered their ideas on implementation of strategic decisions 2019 and got a valuable feedback from the Group Vice president on strategic management – Executive director, VDM, who pointed out  that the participants were awaited of accurate actions and ideas on execution of budget indexes.

– Advance your ideas! – commerce director, ATRAN, the first group reservist, referred to SMR-3. – All of them may be useful and I am sincerely wishing you not to be afraid to present them. The new items you will offer, will bring benefit to a customer and allow you to grow. I am convinced of the results appear as soon as possible!

– I am very pleased of the projects “come from the heart,” – added Head of corporate accounting department, VDM, reservist of the second group. – They are not imposed, perhaps, highly specialized, but reflect the approach, and the people are clearly aware of what they are working on.

– I was positively impressed after this summary session! – shares Deputy head of digital customer service, ABC, reservist of the first group. – We are all located in various regions, cities and time zones and it is not always possible to collect and share information. This event – is a proper platform for creating a unified information field, which will allow us in future to transmit the right things to regional teams and achieve strategic goals.

An important part of the first day was the Global HR Conference, where participants — more than 10 HR executives from around the world offices — shared their best HR practices in the global offices of Volga-Dnepr. The speakers were Advisor to the Group president, one of the HR division creators, who told how HR should work with the generation of millennials; and HR Transformation Expert from the SAP company, who presented the report “Global Trends in HR”.

– It was a great opportunity to meet all leaders from the HR departments of the group and to share the knowledge from different regions all over the world, – noted Ron J. AMTES.

The Leadership week was finalized by a training for reservists of the third group, where they were learning competencies important for contemporary leader as well as to manage innovation teams. The training was conducted by a coach – Vladislava D.

Participants shared their impressions

Alexey M., AMTES:

– Such events are certainly useful for both the company employees and top-managers. The employees are able to participate in taking decisions on important company’s issues and show up their strong sides and perhaps realize their weak sides. The top-managers are able to use the ideas on achieving the objectives set. I consider the event to be important as for opportunity of new acquaintance with colleagues from other structural units – now this helps to implement the set objectives much easier and quickly. In my opinion unofficial communication is of great value.

Especially, I would like to point out the second day of the seminar – the training on innovation team management. Few days later I was sharing my new knowledge with colleagues, friends, closed ones with great pleasure and even made some of them pass a temperament evaluation test, which we had passed at the training.

In conclusion I would like to note a proper organization of the event and to thank the Corporate university. I am much pleased of the fact that private interests match the company’s ones.

Niklas B., ABC:

– If I have to give a short feedback on the entire future leaders initiative I would simply say: Requires discipline, offers assistance.

The committee responsible for last leadership week achieved to reflect company values without creating any negative reactions. It had a well organized agenda held in an eloquent location and again, the empathy of the speakers provided the right portion of respect and inspiration.

I felt confident in the midst of a group of future leaders, and do not regret to be recruited for it.

This week encouraged collaboration between people and established effective working relationships.

Even if the program may underestimates the need of individuals to receive feedback and  transparency in their personal ratings, the initiative continues to enhance growth potential of people.

Danis S., AMTES:

– I was once again convinced of such a format of meetings usefulness when all the representatives from all over the world and from different business areas come together and discuss current issues and problems. Being potential senior managers, we need to understand the business as a whole throughout the Group, and not in its separate part, where each of us works. I would also like to point out the second training day: I appreciate both the topic and the way the information was supplied. That was quite simple, clear and interesting. Some moments from everyday work, which we often face to and which we do not even think about, were explained from a scientific point of view. Will be pleased to participate in the next alike event!

Andrey P., VDA:

I am much impressed by a friendly atmosphere and positive emotions of the passed summary session. And surely would like to mention the training on empathy and emotional intellect – very interesting and useful training at the same time.