The activity of various business clubs in Ukraine is very popular today. Businessmen, people of action, public figures, who share the same vital philosophy and values, unite and create a certain living organism as a successful, self-sufficient environment.
Sergey Gaydaychuk, the President of CEO Club Ukraine, tells “Fashion of Diplomacy” about the creation of new business elite in Ukraine, about the education and formation of new progressive specialists at all levels.
You are heading the CEO Club Ukraine. Can we say that this is a union of people who belong to the elite?
I never wanted our club to belong to the elite, because I have always had a skeptic attitude towards our elite. However, when I looked at what this word means, and it means the best people in society, I, after all, said that we are uniting, let’s say, not the worst people in Ukraine. CEO means Chief Executive Officer, in other words, it refers to people who manage and take responsibility for business development. If to mean these people by the elite, then I am ready to agree with you.
In our country, the business elite often become political elite. Is anything similar happening to your club members?
Our club is completely apolitical and unites only entrepreneurs and top managers. The goals and philosophy of our club do not involve active participation in political processes, but the situation that took place in our country in 2014 changed the attitude of many of our members towards politics. Everyone realized that we could not deal with politics, but politics would deal with us one way or another. By 2014, those businessmen, who did not earn money from the budget, looked at politics as at something unimportant and minor. And this, as time showed, was the wrong vision. Some members of our club went into politics or, it is better to say, they were called to the government by the state. For example, Oleksii Pavlenko. He was the Minister of Agriculture. Serhii Shkliar — he is the Deputy Minister of Justice now. Serhii Blazhevych was the Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Patrol Police. Certainly, we understood and understand that all the troubles of our state are due to the lack of the middle class formation and the fact that it is not represented in authorities. The events of 2014 have pushed the old elite out of control of the state a bit, but it does not lose its positions. And it is because of this, that the active participation of some representatives of our club in politics is a kind of shift in the minds of entrepreneurs who had realized that every active and conscious citizen is responsible for what is happening in our country.
How would you estimate the economic situation in our country?
The economic situation, there again, depends on the fact that the old elite continue to govern the country. These people do not take power as responsibility, but as an opportunity to obtain profit, using the state for this purpose. Having such management there is no need to wait for positive changes in the economy. First of all, it is referred to the fact that the old elite conserve old methods of managing the economy. Why? Because the innovations make it impossible for the state to become a source of super-profits. We created our club not least of all to promote innovative ideas and innovative projects. We want to become the young blood that will renew Ukraine in the economic and entrepreneurial sense.
When was your club established?
Our club was created six and a half years ago. I thought that when to bring the people who think correctly together, sooner or later there would be a synergistic effect. My idea was to set up a certain community, to create a living organism that united people with the same philosophy of life. This idea was not formalized in any way. It was simply an understanding that we should keep together. It is in human nature, we have to interact and cooperate, because we live among people. Who works more effectively with others achieves greater results and lives more interesting and multi-faceted life.
What are the main directions of its work?
When I created the club, the primary goal was to create an environment, a community of successful entrepreneurs and top managers that would meet very high professional and ethical criteria, in order to develop, exchange experience and best practices of cooperation and communication. However, as the club evolved, after we had claimed ourselves as a successful, self-sufficient environment, we formulated a new mission of the club — directed beyond the club. And the new mission was to form the new business elite of Ukraine, through the practice and implementation of key principles and projects. After all, there is a fairly paradoxical situation. We are experiencing very difficult times in the economy and in politics, in spite of what potential and capabilities we possess. And the only opportunity to realize this potential is the upbringing and the formation of new progressive elite at all levels. And one of the key forces of society, its creative class and engine, its backbone and those, who form the wealth of the country, are entrepreneurs. Therefore, our priority as a community is to direct eff orts, resources and opportunities to grow and form a new entrepreneurial class of people in the country. We are doing a lot in this direction. The second strategic direction of the club’s activity is to stimulate our business to develop globally — to go beyond the borders of the country, and to bring the largest number of business delegations from all over the world into Ukraine, in order to show what Ukraine really is and that there are people to work with, many opportunities. We are implementing this task through establishing cooperation and partnerships with similar business clubs around the world.
Is your club exclusively the structure of Kyiv?
Until recently it was just that way. We never planned to expand and open branches in other Ukrainian cities. But the times are changing. We receive offers from other cities. This is not about the opening of branches or subsidiary structures yet — it is about creating discussion clubs in Odessa and Lviv.
What is your forecast for the nearest political and economic future of Ukraine?
Forecasts are always difficult to do, because you can always make mistakes. However, I can say one thing — if the progressive and conscious people, who are in the country, take responsibility for the future fate of the country, if we upgrade the system of governing the state, if we adopt world-wide innovative approaches, then the bright future is waiting for us…
