World Monitor Magazine, #5, Industry World Monitor Magazine, Industrial Overview | Page 78

a highly developed country,
but transforming its system
management. It is difficult to
say that Kazakhstan has its own
management school. But there is
a certain style of management,
with its distinctive qualities and
characteristics.
For the panel discussion we
brought together a collection
of the brightest practitionersmanagers, demonstrating a vast
experience of working in corporate
and public sectors, from the
municipal government to a model
of technological startups. The
discussion centered on how the
contours of modern management
in Kazakhstan have been reduced
to ‘manual control’. Arguments
and rationale for this control were
repeated several times. From what
we can conclude about its laws, our

captains prefer to manage manually.
Obviously, the ‘build communism’ will
be difficult in the ‘manual mode’.
Analyzing the results of the
discussion, it must be noted that
the Kazakh management model
specializes in the urgent, solving
‘important’ problems that arise
under duress. We struggle with
the seed, the crop, snow removal,
heating season, jobs involving all
hands, automation, sales – you
name it. This is very familiar. I
sympathize though because we
often have to act in a similar
fashion. The question is when will
we begin to change?
The Kazakhstani model of
management has vestiges of the
Soviet school of management. The
Soviet school was the world of
administration patterns, planning

and early selection of talent.
Today, it remains only at the
foundational level of command and
administration. In the 1970-80s,
the Western School of management
made a breakthrough in
management of results, processes,
talent and innovation. We have
not changed, but rather lost out in
terms of this kind of progress.
Our Kazakhstani business model is
well developed at an early stage
of development, when difficult and
fateful decisions are required. But
do not get carried away by this,
as the bright stars typically come
to break away from the team. The
YPO calls this phenomenon ‘Lonely
at the Top’ – a single manager who
is unappreciated, unaccepted and
angry. A solution is possible, which
means recognizing needs and
interacting on a new level.

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