On IPQUORUM.START the experts discussed the importance of developing human capital in modern economy

On May 29, the first day of the international startup conference for technology entrepreneurs Startup Village 2019, a panel discussion took place at IPQuorum.Start “How a person and his knowledge capital create new industries. Malaysian miracle: instructions for use.” IPQuorum.Start is a special platform of IPChain Association, an official partner of the conference.

The President of the Federation of Intellectual Property Sergey Matveev moderated the session. The discussion was also attended by Datuk Chris Tan, Executive Director at the PEMANDU Institute, the author of the “Malaysian Miracle”; Maxim Proksh, Advisor to the Chairman of the Board of Skolkovo Intellectual Property Fund; Ruslan Yusufov, Managing Partner at Mindsmith; and Leonid Grigoryev, Russian economist, professor, Head of the World Economy Department at HSE Research Institutes, Head of the World Economy Department at HSE Faculty of World Economy and Politics. The speakers discussed the strategy of human capital development in the digital age.

Changes in the modern economy are closely associated with the advent of new technologies, a shift in priorities from tangible to intangible assets, said Sergey Matveev, President of the Federation of Intellectual Property. According to him, “the value of products has changed: production has become cheaper, but the ideas underlying it have become much more expensive. Of course, intellectual property plays an important role in the economy, but IP is just a form of transferring knowledge to market products. It is based on people, and it is human capital that is the main engine and consumer of innovation.”

Malaysian expert Datuk Chris Tan talked about effective business transformation strategies in the new economic environment. “No matter what color your cat is, if it catches mice. This quote by Deng Xiaoping perfectly reflects the principle that startups, large companies, and countries must follow to achieve their goals. A successful business must change according to market requirements. This means that in the conditions of the modern economy it is necessary to develop human capital, look for new ideas and, most importantly, have a clear idea of what you want from these ideas,” Chris Tan said. According to the expert, for the effective development of human capital it is important to find a balance between all market participants: “The state should take on the role of an intermediary between business and ideas. Incubators like Skolkovo create the infrastructure for the development of startups and for the emergence of an ecosystem for exchange of ideas necessary for the country. As the experience of Malaysia has shown, such a format is necessary for the further development of the country’s innovative economy.”

Not only in Malaysia, but also in Russia, much attention is paid to the development of human capital. However, as noted by Leonid Grigoryev, Head of the World Economy Department at HSE, “Now Russia is faced with the problem of the quality of institutions. Our country surprisingly produces a huge amount of brains that it cannot utilize.”

Ruslan Yusufov, Managing Partner at Mindsmith consulting company, also supported his colleague by noting the importance of “creating brains”. “In the future, success will be achieved by those who rely on intelligence. There will be a new type of man, a new elite of those who are not afraid to use advanced technology, artificial intelligence, to radically change our lives. There will be a revolution similar to the industrial revolution of the past, only this time the gap between the new and the old will be insurmountable. If we do not want to stay behind, we need to learn how to be “in time” and “make brains”.

New technological solutions and formats stimulate the inflow of intellectual capital and provide the necessary tools for its “utilization”. As Maxim Proksh, Advisor to the Chairman of the Board of Skolkovo Foundation on Intellectual Property, explained, “a unique environment is emerging in Skolkovo where people with different competencies and interests mix and new ideas are born at the junction of knowledge, technology and infrastructure. We have an Intellectual Property Center that provides a full cycle of support for startups. There are platform solutions, such as IPChain, which allows you to track all the information about an object: what restrictions it has, who is the rightholder, whether there are licenses, and so on. It is an open market, and if you want to go abroad, then your potential partners or investors will be able to check your history. So, you show and prove that you are open; that you have no rights problems, no conflicts, and that your product is in demand and ready to use. Ideas are in the air, but it’s difficult to make money from them, it’s painstaking work.”