Taras Vervega, Executive VP of Business Development at SoftServe, Inc., participated as a guest speaker in a round table discussion on leadership and management in turbulent times organized by Lviv Business School of the Ukrainian Catholic University (LvBS). Moderated by Stefano Capodagle, senior manager of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, London, the event also featured Gianni Franco Papa, chief manager of UniCredit Group Ukraine.

The central question of the discussion was the impact of crisis on the changing vision of leadership in business. The participants discussed critical issues on crisis and post-crisis models of leadership in the global market and in Ukraine.

Taras Vervega believes that the future belongs to those Ukrainian companies that managed to eliminate Soviet legacy in their corporate mentality and learned the new modern way to do business. This will enable participation in global competition and is especially true for Ukrainian companies operating in the world market. However, the crisis has accelerated the transformation processes in all companies striving for stable growth and wanting to work according to global standards.
Despite the local differences in businesses of each region, there is a common global platform based on common values and rules. It helps build mutual cooperation, trust and top-notch performance and provides long-term stability of the results achieved. The importance of this common platform of values becomes greater the more business moves away from outdated industrial, resource-oriented model to a model-oriented intelligence.

Moreover, the time of crisis exposes new things and develops the very essence of leadership: to generate a vision and to inspire and motivate people toward common goals. When struck by occurring shock, the most important goal is not instrumental and managerial technical competence, but namely interpersonal, visionary and the strategic talent of a leader. This does not deny the need of systemic governance, structure, etc., but underscores that the main capital of any business and company is always the people.

At the end of the discussion, Taras Vervega concluded that in order to succeed, companies operating in the global market today need people capable of understanding multicultural context, the plurality of approaches, and multiplicity of communication languages between people.

The time of local business is over, and companies cannot survive being locked in their micro-context. This rule applies for exporters, as well as players in the outsourcing market. According to Thomas L. Friedman, author of the international bestseller “The World is Flat”, all companies are now players in the global field which is becoming more and more level. This situation requires Ukrainian companies not only to have a fast and adequate response, but also a pro-active approach and interception of initiative, Vervega said.