World Monitor Magazine, #5, Industry World Monitor Magazine, Industrial Overview | Page 63

Q&A

CEO talks
Around the world, economies are in slow-growth mode. In nearly every
region, political uncertainty undermines attempts to develop long-term plans.
We asked CEOs of a few leading companies in Kazakhstan what are their
concerns. Join us for this conversation with Top CEOs.

What are the most important challenges
CEOs face these days?
Erlan:

The key challenge is
to adapt to the fast-changing
business environment. Emerging
markets, including Kazakhstan,
face the weakening of national
currencies, capital outflows,
foreign investors’ concerns over
underdeveloped infrastructure,
insufficient legislative and judicial
transparency. This, blended with a
continuous speculation as to how the
digitalization of the world’s economy
will affect markets, requires CEOs
to be agile. The future is uncertain,
and to be competitive you need
to drive change and be in close
connection with clients and multiple
stakeholders to meet their evolving
expectations.

Andrey:

The world changes
too fast. A vivid example of this in
Kazakhstan happened in 2015-2016.
This is important in our world today,
to accept that things won’t be the

same any longer and become part
of these changes. It is not easy. It
takes different time frames and
each top manager needs to learn
how to adapt. However, if you don’t
keep up with the pace of change, you
may become history, as has already
happened to many other companies.

oleg: The main challenge for me
personally is the ongoing changing
situation in the insurance market and
its harsh competition. Our company
is absolutely not stagnant. As the
first insurance company, sometimes
we serve as a legislator of sorts for
the insurance market because the
leader always needs to be a strategist,
anticipating upcoming changes and
keeping up with new technologies, such
as: internet sales, SMM, and social
media. Team work is the key direction
since this is the need of
every employee – to be a vital part
of a working community.

Andrey Myakinchenko,
Country Manager,
Nutricia Kazakhstan

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world monitor

Erlan Dosymbekov,
EY Managing Partner
for Kazakhstan
and Central Asia

маrк: Generally, CEOs face
global uncertainty with many changing
dynamics in the world that influences
business. In reality, Brexit, influences
all the world because of the turmoil on
international markets. The US elections
have an impact on how business goes as
well, because the market does not like
changes and uncertainty.
Facing these situations becomes very
turbulent in terms of raising capital,
developing long-term business,
determining potential investments
decisions, etc. So, these things are
problematic globally.
In terms of Kazakhstan, let’s review the
situation in the region first. For instance,
Uzbekistan is a test case for all Central
Asian republics in looking at how to
transition from a long-term president
to successor. It demonstrates that the
transition period passes smoothly, then
a reliable process is in place, and this is