RVK, Russian Venture Company— State Fund of Funds and Development Institute of the Russian Federation, project office
Mikhail Antonov- Deputy General Director, Directorfor the development of RVC's innovation infrastructure. Candidate of Economic Sciences. He held the posts of deputy governor of the Perm region and deputy chairman of the government of the Perm region. From 2008 to 2011 - Vice President for Strategic Development of OJSC Uralkali. In 2012, he joined the project office of the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, where he served as director until 2017.
“There, where you are ahead, there is an advantage”
- At the forum you talked about the fact that RussianCompanies must seek leadership in global markets. But how to explain to business why you need to stay in Russia or make a second company in the United States to work in the world?
- If to speak to companies, as if they are somethingmust, we will lose immediately. In our competences show the advantages and opportunities of work through the Russian jurisdiction, but, of course, business always makes the choice itself.
There are two extreme options. One is when a Russian company with its staff is located and pays taxes in Russia, and travels abroad as necessary on business trips. Another option is that the company is no longer here, the founders are not only Russian citizens, but only 1.5% of the business remains in the country. Here are two extremes. Between them - a huge number of options. Business always chooses the one that is more convenient for it, and we cannot and will not prevent it. Nothing can be achieved.
- You work a lot with the regulatory framework to make life easier for businesses in technology, but are there today areas in which it is regulatoryly more profitable to do business with us?
- These things are called regulatory sandboxes,they also exist at the global level. For example, China today is extremely tolerant of genetic modification. And all the research, startups, large companies that are doing this, they are there. Once you make a relaxation of regulation, a regulatory sandbox, those who specialize in this area will come to you. Then they will make a copy of you, other states will analyze your experience and say what they will do and what they won’t. But where you are ahead, an advantage arises. There are several sites of this kind in Russia.
- Do you mean Skolkovo, Innopolis?
— I mean several industries in which we have different regulations than in the world.
- Which ones?
— For example, the use of personal data and social networksin Russia they are regulated differently. A huge amount of research is being carried out here based on this data. Talk to experts in the sociology of social networks - they will tell you wonders. There is a team at HSE, for sure, and in Tomsk.
Concentration flows into quality.
- At the forum, many participants said that there should be much more technology companies in Russia - tens of thousands. Are there so many potential startups and companies in the country?
- Yes, sure.About 600 companies are on the radar of our ranking of fast-growing companies “TechUspech” every year. At the same time, I am absolutely sure that we cover, at best, 30% of this market. I’m generally silent about startups. Previously, when one of the KPIs of GenerationS (accelerator of technology startups RVC - Hi-Tech) was the number of startups attracted into the GenS orbit, we had 4 thousand startups per year. The flow of startups and medium-sized companies is quite significant. But we are not good at working with him - yes.
- Does this figure even make sense? Can quantity flow into quality?
— I would formulate this thesis a littledifferently. Not quantity, but concentration flows into quality. On the one hand, if I had one startup and became two, their number has doubled, but I have no concentration. When I had 100 startups and became 150, the number increased less, but the concentration increased sharply.
— Now, obviously, not the most convenienteconomic and political situation for business development. Without economic liberalization, how realistic is it to make such plans - so that 50% of the economy is based on technology?
- Still, the world is now so global thatno sanctions of him can be completely closed. Even North Korea - all sitting in sanctions - and still doing something. Therefore, I think that if you chose the right strategy to achieve a target, you can achieve it. The main thing - to choose the right tools and points of application of these tools. For example, the industry of modern medical equipment. We lost this market. Today go to any clinic, from the district to the Kremlin: Philips, Toshiba, Siemens. And no matter how we jumped into this train today, we will not go anywhere. And, for example, artificial intelligence in health care is an open topic. And we have a sufficient number of teams that work globally. Maybe the next virtual nurse will be from Russia.
In the International Medical Cluster in the ICSkolkovo is already working with Russian patient robots - they can be saved from a stroke, do laparoscopic and endoscopic operations, gastroscopy, urological and gynecological interventions. Of course, not all the anatomical structure of the human body is simulated, but one or another organ or the necessary functions (breathing, pulse, etc.).
- But the same giant companies have monopolized, let's say, the market.
- They have ceased to be high-tech. Take a button phone. Disk, landline phone, which is now a rarity. After all, 50 years ago it was produced by high-tech companies. Then came - you have Apple, I have Samsung - other guys. And the manufacturers of those phones have sunk somewhere, they are not there today. If today we understand that tomorrow will be this phone, where there are developments and market potential, we will find players who can become world leaders.
Blue Ocean Strategy- a book on business strategy published in 2005year. It talks about the explosive growth and high profitability of companies that can generate productive business ideas by creating previously non-existent demand in a new market ("blue ocean") where there are virtually no competitors, rather than competing with many companies in low-profit markets (“scarlet ocean”)
Blue Oceansmeans all industries that do not exist today, these are unknown areas of the market. In “red oceans,” industry boundaries are defined and agreed upon, and the rules of competition are known to everyone.
- Yes, but these are not the markets of the future - you are formulating the Strategy for NTI, and all these markets are already today.
- Of course. If today we overcome some technological barriers, then tomorrow we will overcome the following. For example, this year we launched Up Great Technology Competitions, a breakthrough technological solutions competition and innovative products, conducted in order to overcome technological barriers in priority sectors and STI markets. As a result, we expect to get fundamentally new technologies that will form the basis of commercially successful and competitive products on global markets.