What prevents Russia from developing innovative business: expert opinions

    On October 29, an interview with Anatoly Chubais was published , where he talked about the activities of Rusnano and, in general, about the development of innovations in Russia:
    No need to rush, for seven years there has not been a single successful country innovation model, whoever you analyze - Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, Silicon Valley - 15-20 years.

    I see technological and in the real sector now, I see the groundwork in IT, if I understand correctly, almost no one notices this - Russian IT has become the second export sector in the country. The first largest high-tech export sector in the country is military-technical cooperation, and the second is IT.

    Today Megamind offers readers to understand the realities of Russia's innovative business in more detail and get acquainted with the opinions of other experts in this field.

    In the air of RBC-TV director of the Institute of Innovation Management NIU School of Economics Dan Medovnikov, co-founder of Parallels and Acronis Stanislav Protasov and president of the National Business Angels Network Konstantin Fokin.

    “A few years ago there was such a popular topic that this is not Russia - a raw materials appendage of the West, and the West is a technological appendage of Russia. She had the right to exist during a period of high oil prices. But now, it seems to me, it is obvious to everyone that advanced colonizers with glass beads will still take gold from the Indians, ”says Stanislav Protasov.

    He cites PwC and RVC research data : last year, the Russian IT venture market was valued at $ 400 million. A similar figure in Israel amounted to $ 3.5 billion.

    “Therefore, we certainly need to develop innovation. Of course, we are doing quite a bit, ”Mr. Protasov believes.

    Konstantin Fokin has his own view of the situation:
    When we talk about investment activity, we talk about it with some kind of anguish: this is important, necessary, this is a state task. We forget a simple thing - this is a very natural type of activity for a person, for a company for two reasons. The first is extremely interesting. The second - for those who do this successfully and professionally, it is extremely beneficial. [Therefore], as an independent task, the development of innovation practically does not exist. Rather, the success, activity of this kind of activity within the economy is an indicator of its health. And in a healthy economy, the task of the state is not to develop innovative activity, [and vice versa] - to limit it. Healthy is, first of all, competitive [economy].

    “From my point of view, the state restricting the growth of IT startups is evil. It should just stimulate their growth, ”Mr. Protasov objects.

    “But just here the state and its restrictions are more likely to interfere than to help. [For example] exporting finished products from Russia is a whole story. We have a lot of controlling things, ”he complains.

    “These difficulties are outside the most innovative sphere: the standard of living, the image of the country, infrastructure, borders,” agrees Mr. Fokin.

    “State-owned venture companies are governed by legislation that does not have many basic principles. For example, in our legislation there is no concept of “acceptable risk”. Imagine: a venture capital company with state participation is invested in a startup. Startup burns out. From the point of view of regulatory authorities, she wasted money, ”continues Stanislav Protasov.

    From the arguments of Konstantin Fokin, it follows that in the case of a healthy economy, the role of the state is to restrain the "appetites" of the business. Indeed, the development of the innovation market, like any other, should not be carried out to the detriment of other industries and ecosystems. He believes that in Russia the economy is still unhealthy:
    Institutes that began to work 5-7 years ago can start many processes, but they cannot finish. It was assumed that what they will start - technology parks, financing startups - will give an impetus and further it will pick up the market. The market does not pick up: there is no competition in most areas, there is no understanding.

    “They built a sandbox for startups - they played there. Sandboxes crawled out abroad, and there it was empty, ”agrees Dan Medovnikov, director of the Institute for Innovation Management at the Higher School of Economics.

    “We have missed the core of any innovation process - the main player. The main player is an innovative entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship in our country has not gained critical mass. Not even innovative. But a successful entrepreneur is always innovative. A person wants to change the world, so he becomes an entrepreneur, ”he continues.

    “Any technology company that is trying to make some kind of innovation, at least in the IT field, should be globally oriented. The Russian IT market is 1.5% -2% of the world. Limiting oneself to 1.5% -2%, and then suffering from the fact that in these 1.5% -2%, relatively speaking, Gazprom and Sberbank, is simply stupid, ”Mr. Protasov believes.

    According to Medovnikov, existing business development institutions created by analogy with Western models are not effective in Russia. One of the reasons he considers the lack of a full-fledged analogue of Silicon Valley in our country.

    He also cited another reason:
    Those entrepreneurs, or rather their small layer, which appeared back in the early 90s and grew up without any institutes [accelerators], have technology businesses worth billions, and even sometimes tens of billions of rubles. I think we missed them in our innovation policy. They are the salt of Russian land, and it would be necessary to work more precisely with them.

    “Development institutions create the illusion that [the industry] has a lot going on. As soon as they move away, tomorrow it turns out that the king is almost naked. The economy itself does not produce much outside development institutions, ”notes Mr. Fokin. In his opinion, one of the solutions to the problem is to close part of these institutions, as well as Skolkovo.

    “Why do we have few entrepreneurs and startups? Our country is still not very attractive for investment, and there is simply not enough money, ”Stanislav Protasov summarizes.

    Also popular now: