On November 3, 2018, the YPO-Kazakhstan Youth Business Forum was held in Astana for the first time

On November 3, 2018, Astana hosted the YPO-Kazakhstan Youth Business Forum, where Kazakh business leaders shared practical advice and cases with young entrepreneurs. This event was initiated by the chapters of the Kazakh YPO themselves.

The forum was attended by five Kazakh businessmen — YPO members: Berik Kaniev, Shareholder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lancaster Group, Aydin Rakhimbayev, Shareholder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of BI Group, Islambek Salzhanov, Shareholder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Altyn Kyran Group, CEO of Globalink Logistics Siddiq Khan and Forbes Kazakhstan Publisher Armanzhan Bayan Tasov. YPO: the world's largest association of business leaders. The audience was able to hear stories of the growth and development of large Kazakh companies, speakers' stories from personal experience and tips for doing business. For the first time, five influential entrepreneurs in the country shared their success story with Kazakh youth.

All speakers at this forum are members of YPO, the world's largest association of business leaders. Berik Kaniev, forum organizer: — YPO is an international organization with 25,000 participants in more than 130 countries. All businessmen who have achieved their goals and visible successful business results can join YPO. This organization is like a big family in every country and serves as a large networking platform.

In his speech, Berik Kaniev spoke about his path to becoming a businessman and how the diversified holding company Lancaster Group was built. Nurlan Kapparov, Yerbolat Dossayev, Berik Kaniev and Yuri Park were among the first entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan after the country gained independence in 1991. Friends from high school, they set up a number of synergistic enterprises in the 1990s and early 2000s, and later decided to combine their assets, professional knowledge, business connections and experience to form the Lancaster Group in 2003.

Currently, Berik Kaniev is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lancaster Group. He is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), an international organization of young business leaders, Kazakhstan. She is active in social activities. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Republican School of Physics and Mathematics (RFMS), co-founder of the School Alumni Fund and a member of the Board of Trustees. In addition, he actively supports the development of youth football in the country, acting as the founder and chairman of the Arlan Football Club and President of the Republican Youth Football League “Zhas Kyran”.

The key points in his speech were also the instructions and advice he shared with young people in Kazakhstan. Berik Kaniev believes that money, by and large, is not the most important factor when starting a business: “money is necessary, but not enough”. That is, in addition to having finances, you must be able to use them correctly, assemble a good strong team, create working conditions for them, motivate them and be motivated yourself, set specific tasks for the team, be able to achieve goals despite the failures and mistakes that are sure to happen, but at the same time you will better understand and know what step to take next.

According to Armanzhan Baitasov, YPO member: “Of course, there are a number of requirements for obtaining YPO member status. For example, as a company's turnover must be at least $10 million, the company must have at least 100 employees. Members of the organization should also make annual contributions that are designed to develop joint projects and develop Kazakhstan's business structure. A businessman must also reach a certain level of development in order to join this organization. The main factor is the age requirement. It is not possible to join the organization if the candidate is over 45 years old.”

Hundreds of active marketers, startup owners and students took advantage of the unique opportunity to listen to invaluable advice and instructions from businessmen and ask them questions. The speakers talked about the first money, mistakes, and the obstacles that almost every businessman faces.

Many people, when they first mentioned the forum, had a question: why would such successful people waste time on such an event? The answer is simple: experienced businessmen know that a strong company can be built only in conditions of active competition, which is used as an incentive for improvement. Watching how progressive young people are today and how many opportunities they have in their hands, they understand that competition is getting stronger every day.

From this point of view, the Forum can also be considered as a strategic investment in our own development.

Speakers — businessmen are patriots and socially responsible people; they see the motivation of young people as the key to the successful development of the national economy. As the active dialogue has shown, start-up entrepreneurs are interested in the same thing.

More than 2,000 people registered for the Forum; they explained many aspects of entrepreneurship in person and in absentia through online platforms. Young people, in particular, were interested in promising areas in terms of investment, conditions for successful partnerships, new technologies in the service of business, as well as current trends, issues of motivation and team building.

The forum speakers tried to prepare their speeches informative, tried to convey to the audience their vision of building and running a successful business, and gave advice based on personal experience. “The YPO Forum is a unique event. Joint events with foreign chapters are held all over the world, but many of the club's internal events are closed to external audiences. I am deeply convinced that our knowledge and experience will help active young entrepreneurs build their own businesses. We are not coaches — each of the speakers is a real accomplished businessman, so the Forum focuses on practical advice and on what can benefit them in business,” says Aydin Rakhimbayev.

The forum took place and was successful according to all criteria. Thus, business leaders contribute to the development of entrepreneurship in Kazakhstan, to the creation of a healthy competitive environment and to support aspiring colleagues. Live feedback showed that young people are ready to learn and try their hand at it, however, as Islambek Salzhanov noted: “The world is changing and business needs to change along with it.” The YPO Business Forum will be an annual event. The organizers promise that this will be organized not only in the capital, but also in all cities of the country.

Below is a photo report from the YPO-Kazakhstan forum and the full version of the speech by Berik Kaniev, Shareholder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lancaster Group.