What project are you working on right now?
We have an unfinished 5-hectare garden park behind the factory. We would like our patients to be able to go out for a walk and sit under the pine trees, not just attend the rehab.
A separate training area, where we simulate all the obstacles a person can face in the city: 1,000-year-old German cobblestone, regular paving stones, rails, a drain gutter across paving slabs, ordinary ramps, steep ramps, all kinds of steps. We will be training people to overcome obstacles. Greenhouses, too, where we could grow some vegetables.
You have both a business and The Ark public organization. How are their activities related?
We do not really separate the two organizations, because most people from the Ark also work at the Observer. As a rule, Observer employees are involved in all of the Ark's projects. For example, if I have to go and measure curbs, commission a building that has been renovated by the city, or monitor the commissioning of some new housing, I also send my guys out.
Do you feel more like a social entrepreneur or a public figure?
Probably more of a social entrepreneur after all. We also make money at the Ark, you know. That is, we are an organization with two fully wheelchair-accessible buses. We are the guys the Ministry of Social Policy calls up to say: "We're having a Disability Day, can you help us out? We don't call them, they call us.
What do you think a social entrepreneur is?
It's quite simple. And I understood this even before the concept was introduced in Russia by "Our Future" Foundation. First, that is a person who addresses a social problem. Second, that is a person who must make some minimum profit, so as not to go broke.
The thing that "Our Future" Foundation is working to develop seems very important to me, because they teach the people to make money. You take the money, you have to pay it back. Yes, it is interest-free, but you still have to pay it back. And this is a very good story, because you're really under normal business conditions, perhaps a little more relaxed than for other people, but still, it's not a gift, it's borrowed money.
Positive content, successful cases, long money at 1 % per annum or completely interest-free, everything you need to develop social entrepreneurs' projects in Russia.
In your opinion, what could make a significant positive change in the social entrepreneurs' projects in Russia maybe passing a law, building some infrastructure, establishing a development institution, or significantly increasing investment in such projects?
Honestly, I am against any development institutions. All of Moscow is nothing but development institutions, and we, Russia, cannot feed them.
The Observer Factory is worth $3 million or so. 300 billion dollars of Russia's foreign exchange reserves are frozen because of the sanctions. You could say we donated this money to god knows who. We could have built some 100,000 Observers with those 300 billion dollars. When Maxim Reshetnikov, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, came to us, Kaliningrad Region was allocated 5 billion rubles for small and medium business. This money is lent to businesses at 1 % per annum for seven years. Roughly speaking, if we took those 300 billion of Russia's foreign currency reserves and gave them to the projects of social entrepreneurs at 1 % per annum, they would start working, producing something in-demand, making money, paying taxes, changing the country for better, and do more positive things.
It wouldn't be so much about monetary effect, but rather about social effect. It is hard to calculate, but it is possible.
Even if, say, half of the factories (50,000) went bankrupt, the borrowed money would still return to the treasury in a few years. And Russia, not just Moscow, would receive 50,000 very real small production companies. But in order to do that, the federal government has to trust its people, and vice versa. I'm the crazy guy who trusts his government. Getting something done at the regional and federal levels.
Do you think tax preferences for social entrepreneurs are necessary?
I guess so. But I'm afraid this will immediately become fertile ground for fraud. Just offer long money at 1 % per annum or completely interest-free, and that's it, no need to do anything else.
Generally, I am in favor of people with disabilities paying for admission to the theater, museums, etc. Maybe not full price, but 50 %. Then the museum will know why it has to invest in an accessible environment: because it earns money, and people with disabilities are also its visitors. Let a person with disability earn money. If they don't want to go to work, they can always stay home and watch TV. They wouldn't need any museums.
How can we make sure Russia gets more companies like yours that effectively deal with social problems and contribute significantly to the lives of their communities, regions, countries and the world? And that the world gets these, too?
It seems to me that, first of all, it is important to share successful cases. There are quite a few of them. There's a guy in Kaliningrad, he runs a YouTube channel called "In Process, and he films industrial enterprises, talks to businessmen and interesting people who are creating something new. He came to us in the summer, shot a video, and got half a million views, 3,000 reactions and comments in three months, of which 2,995 were positive. We've never seen anything like that before. I understand that this kind of content landed with the audience. That is, positive content is highly demanded, amidst the tsunami of negative information about all the current events, from coronavirus to the special military operation. People write to me: "Let's open a rehabilitation center together, "Let's open a workshop, "I'm sick of everything, I made some money and I want to do something real, "Let's do this and that, "I can weld ramps, and so on. That is, the video really made a hit. I think this is one of the important points. And the second thing we've already talked about is long money at low interest rates. I guess that's it.
Is it possible to learn to be a social entrepreneur? In my personal opinion, this is impossible. Either you are an entrepreneur or you're not, and it shows right away. It often happens that a person, or their relative or friend, gets into a situation that causes them to go into social entrepreneurship, to address the problem of that friend or relative or whatever. In this case, all we need is to support this man without creating huge federal bureaucratic structures that spend a lot of money on one exemplary exhibition, which will then be shown on television.
What is your personal KPI?
I have one KPI for all lately. The first and foremost is that you look at something and ask yourself: "Is this real or not? Just like in the case of that exemplary exhibition. Is this real or is it done for three officials only? Are there any final users who will be able to buy the items? If there aren't any, then it's not real and there's no need for more exhibitions.
By the way, did the special military operation have any effect on your relations with your foreign partners?
Very much so. Half of the partners have suspended deliveries. Like the Scandinavians, for example. In fact, only China and Taiwan are still working as before; as for my European partners, only those that I had close personal relationships with do. The EU Consul helped us get an export license for German motors. We sat idle for four or five months with the motors seized, and now with this license we're bringing them in like before. That is, we made it through where we had good personal contacts.