Public Enterprises Look Like Big Fools, Businessman Says

They can produce whatever they like, but they always fail with ads and sales.

According to the vice-president of Lauma Company Dzmitry Dichkouski, the situation with structural reforms in the country will not start unless the consciousness of managers of state agencies is changed. It will be recalled that independent forecast foresee the GDP drop of 3%, onliner.by writes.

- The public sector is not competitive - we've been talking about it for long, but so far no steps towards changes have been done. Only smooth measures, the vice-president of Latvian Lauma Company, ex-Director General of Milavitsa Dzmitry Dichkouski notes while consideration of the October Economic Forum.

For comparison, the businessman gives examples in private and public companies.

- Let's consider the sphere of building materials. Thus, the public construction sector is in an extremely complex situation that is close to collapse. And there is no understanding what to do. There is only consciousness of the failure in the market and troubles in Russia. And there is no clear way out, Dzichkouski explains. - What does happen in a private sector? The attitude is completely different. I have recently met with the founder of a private company. He says, well, I leave for Dubai, Doha tomorrow, then Belfast, the United States and so on. He says that it looks like his luck is endless.

- Yes, we have a bubble burst and it may take much time and hope unless it is inflated again. But if we take a look at the regions mentioned by my interlocutor, they are being reconstructed, developed. London takes such monumental architectural redesign that our construction sector cannot perform even 1% of it. That is the difference in public and private approach.

According to Dzmitry, Belarusian public sector misses response to opportunities and proposals.

- To connect a private company you just need to write a letter in English, Belarusian, or Russian and during the day you have a reply. Whether it is interested or not, he notes. - What does happen to a public company? They need at least three weeks to give a reply: first information goes to a secretary, then it is translated and directed to a head for signature. . He goes on a business trip for a week, then arrives and writes to a responsible party - procurement office, marketing service and a personnel department. The responsible party has its own folder. At best it takes three weeks. An opportunity is lost, because it takes too much time for consideration.

The third point Dichkouski indicates is the lack of understanding of improvement of professional skills of employees.

- To buy metalwork at 10 thousand rubles is a big deal. Many things can be done. And it will operate somehow, Dzichkouski explains. - But they do not see the sense to invest this money in education of employees to cut the chain of actions mentioned above to 1-2 days. They do not see sense in improvement of professional skills. They just take care of technologist, designer, engineer and so on to make this side of the company work. It turns out that we have a completely unbalanced development in a company.

- Once the president said that we did not need big fools. I mean those who do not know how to use their potential. Some enterprises, not only the public ones, look like these fools. They can produce whatever they like, but they always fail with ads and sales.

Lack of desire to improve skills of their employees results into primitive management that cannot generate ideas and strategies, control the process and the development as a whole. And here comes a mess: we have a construction site, a project and then a logistics cluster, which is not needed.

The way out, the businessman says, is to change the way of thinking of top-managers, their responsibility level.

- Now top-managers are tied with fear to make a mistake, Dzichkouski concludes. - Therefore, the management under the responsibility it bears with is simply unable to do it. As soon as an initiative is available and people can freely put forward and implement their ideas, the public sector will have both opportunities and prospects to increase its competitiveness.