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Vardanian argues that the share of com- mercial banks in the private sector will rise again as the economy recovers, and the state has also put shares in VTB on the privatisation list, although the Krem- lin is not in a hurry to sell stakes in any of its companies in this depressed market.
2015 club
Vardanian has been interested in promoting a transformation to a more prosperous market from the start. In addition to banking he was one of the prime movers behind the Skolkovo busi- ness school project among other things.
Early in Vardanian’s career he set up the “2015 club” and together with other early entrepreneurs they invested money into research in an attempt to draw up the best possible reform strategy for Russia. The club was called 2015 as that was
the year Vardanian’s eldest son would leave university and the goal was to have a Russia where not only could he find a satisfying job but that would be a country where he would want to work and live.
“He just came back from studying abroad and is working here!” says Vardanian. “So in that respect the plan worked.”
Large parts of the plan Vardanian came up with were adopted by German Gref,
who was the minister in charge of imple- menting the first round of reforms in President Vladimir Putin’s first term.
Russia has now come full circle in that the first phase of transition is finished and a functioning economy has been created from the chaos and rubble left after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, Russia’s economy fell into recession back in 2013 when oil was still over $100 and well before the current showdown with the west started, as
it ran into the brick wall of the lack of deep structural reforms.
The need for another round of reforms is pressing and various teams are work- ing on the plan in three main camps led respectively by former finance minister and co-head of the presidential council Alexei Kudrin, Minister of Economy Maxim Oreshkin and ombudsman for business and presidential commissioner for entrepreneurs’ rights Boris Titov.
Vardanian is not as involved in this pro- cess as in the first pass, but is still active as he believes education holds the key to change. And the Skolkovo business school is his main contribution.
“It’s all about wealth management and wealth creation,” he says. “Skolkovo is
going well. We have produced a cadre
of students that are now moving out into the economy. What we teach is entrepre- neurism. People that understand how
to do business and manage the process.”
While many of the alumni came from Russia’s largest companies, about half are setting up their own companies after they leave in contrast to western busi- ness school alumni, many of which go into banking and consultancy, according to Vardanian.
The reach of the school has also extend- ed and is now attracting students from across the Commonwealth of Indepen- dent States (CIS), including Ukraine and Central Asia. And the school has become profitable, which was an important part of its mandate.
“There is a dearth of managers in Russia and the CIS countries. Training and education is a key part of this wealth creation process. What we need now is to find a way to push people out of their comfort zone. That is where you get innovation. That is what the teachers need to teach. In the Soviet system
that was not part of the system,” says Vardanian. “We need global people with a local identity.”
Russian consumers are hooked on credit for both luxury and survival
bne IntelliNews
Private consumption is in focus again in Russia, as the efforts to re-think the hydrocarbon super- power's growth model ahead of the 2018 presidential elections have not yet borne fruit. Despite the macroeconomic
www.bne.eu
recovery, the poor are borrowing more to make ends meet.
Encouraged by the revival of incomes, constantly low unemployment, and all-time-low inflation, analysts at home
and abroad expect consumption to carry the government through to its short- term goal of 2% GDP growth, seen as ambitious only a few quarters ago.
But behind encouraging GDP demand