Dear CCI friends,
It’s 5 am, and I’m en route to Moscow after a visit to Kazan, a lovely 1000-year-old city deep in the heart of Western Russia. It took much persuasion to get me here this year, mainly because little was communicated about what would be happening – except that I must come. The occasion? A PEP Fellows 10th Anniversary celebration – and a conference held by the “Golden Heart Association”, an invention of160 PEP Fellows here in Kazan. After urging, I changed plans and came directly to this lovely capital of Tartarstan, an Autonomous Republic inside Russia.
Upon arrival it was learned that a high official of Tartarstan would award CCI medals for PEP’s contribution to the economy of Kazan and Tartarstan. The topic for the May 27 conference was to be “Socially-Responsible Business” (business and charity) and how to develop this concept across the Republic.
As it turns out, the Golden Heart Association idea was formed at CCI’s Washington, DC Symposium on Corruption Reduction in March 2004, where the Kazan contingent heard Rotarian Doug Patterson, speak about Rotary and its social and charitable importance for business people. The group cornered Doug in an elevator and requested that he come to Kazan to present on Rotary and this topic. So far, Doug’s busy life hasn’t permitted.
Meanwhile, the fired-up Kazan PEP group has been meeting regularly with the hope to develop into a bona-fide Rotary Club. With 22 members they have already begun some exciting charity projects, one is a year-old juridical office in the center of town where they and fifth-year law students give free legal advice to citizens unable to pay for counsel. With many ideas in mind for the future, they decided to create a conference and invite business leaders, media, NGOs and Tartar officials to discuss “good works” for local citizens. During their planning, a new push came from the Russian government to get business owners more involved in charity. As a result the Golden Heart effort grew bigger and took on more importance than they could have imagined in the beginning.
I was stunned by the event and will try to give a mental image of what it looked like. Photos to follow if I can get someone to show me now to attach them.
Saturday morning, May 27, we approached the Kazan Business Center, a lovely new, modern structure of light beige stone and polished granite. On the building’s steps I was stopped by TV cameras and interviewed. The topic in which they were interested? “How does socially-responsible business operate in the US?” Organizers soon interrupted the interview and ushered us inside. The entrance looked like a well-appointed, capital city Chamber of Commerce. The conference area was a large room with elevated stage, floor-level presenters’ table for three speakers, 5 VIP seats in rows down each side, about 100 audience seats. Everything in the room was light and elegant from floors, to chairs, to the faint blue/lilac wall paint with a lot of white trim. Pearlized white balloons floated in strands in different parts of the room giving a touch of celebration. The somewhat elevated stage held four chairs with music stands as though a quartette was expected. The hall was packed with men in ties and business suits, with women in professional attire – I deemed this unusual for a Saturday morning.
Madina Bikboulatova, Moscow Oblast CCI Director and I, to our surprise, were taken to the podium table and seated with the First Deputy Prime Minister, Ravil’ Muratov. Thus, I became aware for the first time of the importance of this event in the eyes of local people. Muratov became involved with this conference AFTER our PEP Fellows initiated it. It so happened that since coming to the US in 2004, they had been incubating ideas which have become one of the new themes of President Putin’s – business becoming charitable.
Back to the music stands… the musicians did appear and initiated the conference with a magnificent piece (Vivaldi I think). This set a decidedly Russian tone for the whole affair. After music, DPM Muratov was given the floor – rather he gave remarks from his seat, without a podium which is uncommon for most officials. He spoke about the utter necessity of government and business joining hands to help the many needy situations in the city and the Republic. He talked of his gratitude to Kazan’s PEP Fellows and the information they brought back to Tartarstan from the US. The question now he said, is how to create a more socially-responsible business sector in Kazan, not only for big business but also small and mid-sized business. He welcomed the audience to give ideas following remarks from the side tables. It was fortunate for me that those at the tables spoke first, since they spoke of their ideas for Kazan, and helped me understand where the lacks and needs are, and what of the US experience might be offered. How I wished for Americans more knowledgeable than I to be at the table!
After the side tables of entrepreneurs and Golden Heart organizers had aroused considerable passion on the subject, the quartet again lifted their bows – and out came a lyric soprano (in a ball gown)from the Kazan Opera Company. What a phenomenal voice. This interesting mix of business and classical culture was fascinating to observe.
It was my turn to speak on the US experience and whether some of it would be relevant for Kazan and Russia. Muratov had spoken as though he didn’t know charity was already being implemented by Russia’s entrepreneurs – perhaps because over the past dozen years, “direct giving” was all carried out under the table with undeclared revenues.I had the pleasure of acknowledging the wide and serious amount of charity already having been initiated by entrepreneurs across Russia and how great it is that here in Kazan business people are now leading the charge to legalize their charity work wherein they can accomplish more overt good for the less fortunate through organized charity. Then I tried to sum up the history, as I know it, of America’s socially-responsible business experience: who does it, why, how, and what’s involved such as 1) tax incentives (Russians still don’t have them); responsible transparent NGOs to be trustable conduits for business charity (still not a reality apparently); 3) protections on all sides to assure that charitable rubles are accounted for (still not in existence I understand). And on to say that this requires business, governing bodies, NGOs and recipients to be transparent and responsible, as dictated by a body of laws and regulations governing each. At the end, I inquired if it might be useful for CCI to search for a team of three or four US business specialists in this sphere to come and work with Kazan entrepreneurs, government offices, NGOs for exchange on these issues. Muratov and others throughout the day responded saying it would be extremely helpful – that they don’t have time to reinvent the wheel.
This was an exhilarating day. Having watched Russia’s business owners struggle to develop their businesses since 1989, and finally seeing them successful and asking the right questions for society, was a high point for me.
Heartfelt thanks to you on the e-lists for transmitting information, idealism and inspiration to these Russian PEP entrepreneurs while they were in the US. As has been said time and again… PEP is creating unending ripples and actions in Russia about which we will never know, except in short vignettes that are occasionally captured- like this one here in Kazan.
My best to you on this magnificent spring morning – from a train passing immense stretches of birches and pines… and an occasional Russian village.
All the best!
Sharon Tennison
President
PS: Next to find three or four American specialists involved with socially-responsible businesses who will see the value in coming to Kazan – and also to find a sponsor for the future Golden Hearts Rotary Club of Kazan.
FYI: No editors here, please excuse rough text. Also the time noted above is a little screwy, since I am in Dubna editing and sending.