Do entrepreneurs need a St. Petersburg forum? Anastasia Tatulova argues

Anastasia Tatulova, the owner of AnderSon and the ex-public ombudsman for SMEs, ponders whether small and medium-sized businesses need the St. Petersburg Economic Forum and explains why she did not go to it.

Am I going to SPIEF? And why am I not going to SPIEF? Here are the two most common questions I've been asked over the past week. I'm not going because everything I said last time is still valid. So this time at SPIEF, everything will be quiet and calm, as it should be at a “fair for exchanging statuses for resources,” as one of the political scientists aptly put it. In the format in which the key forum on the economy has been held all these years, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it was in different universes. It continues to be there now. The reasons I think are:

Lack of business interests

80% of the average SME business is related to B2C or the consumer market. Accordingly, as in my business, millions of SME entrepreneurs do not have government contracts, they do not depend on officials. And they depend, on the example of my company, only on ordinary people who come to Anderson with their children, on those who buy our “ant balls” in stores or come to us to celebrate the holidays.

The only reason to buy a ticket to the forum is if you are B2B and want to work with the state. In small and medium-sized businesses, there are few of them.

Ticket price: 960,000 rubles

I have no questions about the cost - this is a commercial organization. I decide how much to sell the pistachio roll to the buyer, Roscongress - how much to sell tickets for [last year, Roscongress invited Tatulova to speak at the forum and offered to pay for participation, but then changed his mind . - The Bell. Taxpayers pay for officials; for large and state-owned businesses, this is a “lead”, the cost of which is justified, given the cost of contracts. Pay for access to the body and budget.

When the state began to promote the SME agenda, a “zero day” appeared on the forum (before the start of the forum itself) with tickets for 25 thousand rubles. This approach still determines the place of this very small and, in fact, non-existent medium-sized business in Russia. It's there, but somehow gets in the way. I looked at the zero day poster: the topics proposed this year for SMEs are “Balance between economic development and law enforcement” and “New strategy for SMEs: challenges…”. At the same time, at the off-site meeting, for example, on “social entrepreneurship”, not a single entrepreneur was among the speakers: bosses from DOM.rf and from VEB, the director of the state fund and the deputy minister of finance.

So even within this day, the voice of SMEs is strictly regulated: business associations, officials, bankers and development institutions.

SPIEF healthy person

Before the start of the forum, I asked entrepreneurs in my channel what the forum should be like to be useful to them:

“All industries should be on this site so that there is an open dialogue with relevant departments.

- It would be nice to invite the Chinese, who from the State Planning Commission and the state economy came in a short time to a completely different paradigm. It would be nice to listen to them and learn from experience.

— Also, within the framework of this forum, I would definitely make a certain game about immersion in SMEs. We would even chip in everything to show somehow what is accepted, works in practice with the budget of a real small manufacturer. For example, milk. Non-innovative.

What is being talked about at SPIEF

This year, the business program of the forum is not too different from all the previous ones, except that Vladimir Putin will traditionally meet behind closed doors with representatives of international companies, and this time SPIEF will completely ignore high-profile foreign politicians. The program revolves around the development of everything “under new conditions”, but there are also exotic sessions like “New national brands based on cultural and historical traditions” or “Neoliberal dictatorship through the eyes of Russian compatriots abroad”.

What topics do entrepreneurs really need?

• Which niches can be effectively left only to SMEs for development, which ones should be given to the state, which ones to big business
• How industries see effective oversight and control
• How to build effective taxation that prevents legal players from developing with the participation of the State Duma Committee on Taxes, the Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Finance
• How to return small industries in each region
• How to stimulate job creation and reduce the proportion of people below the poverty line
• What the state expects from SMEs (sectors, industries, social factors)
• Government report on the national project to entrepreneurs. What was the money spent on and with what efficiency?
• How entrepreneurs can stay on the global technological agenda in the “new conditions”
• Approve joint industry strategies

The main thing that all entrepreneurs agree on is that an open dialogue is needed.

Without filters, so that everyone speaks, and not who is allowed. And, of course, with the involvement of all government officials, all branches of government: the presidential administration, the executive, and the legislative, all factions of the Duma, the committee on taxes and the budget, which now does not communicate with SMEs, the prime minister, the heads of the Federation Council and the State Duma.

Do SMEs even need an economic forum?

My opinion is yes, if we want to boost our economy with the help of 6 million entrepreneurs. We need to start building relationships with them on an equal footing. We need a platform for an honest open dialogue. Could it be SPIEF? So far, rather no. We must look for the format that will be really useful, and not be afraid of criticism, because, as the president said, "if a person is satisfied with everything, then he is a complete idiot."