AIRR Joins the Search for Management Solutions to Improve Labor Productivity in the Nizhny Novgorod Region

A regional management conference on labor productivity was held in Nizhny Novgorod with the participation of AIRR on September 24. The strategic session was moderated by Yevgeny Khotulev, Head of AIRR’s Analytics Division and an expert at the Productivity Improvement Center of the Russian Foreign Trade Academy under the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia. Together with the heads of regional enterprises, the team examined specific management challenges and tools for improving operational efficiency.

“We see strong demand for events that bring managers together with experts in person. At such meetings, executives immediately gain access to relevant tools for improving operational efficiency, have an opportunity to exchange views, compare challenges across industries, and learn how their colleagues address current difficulties. This is particularly important for managers who are working in extremely stressful conditions,” emphasized Yekaterina Grishina, Director of the Productivity Improvement Center of the Russian Foreign Trade Academy under the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia.

The session focused on four management areas affecting productivity: strategy, commercial operations, production and personnel. In each area, the teams used the proposed methodology to identify a focus area that could become a development project and, subsequently, a basis for practical steps to improve operational efficiency.

“Improving everything that can be improved in a company’s operations is not always the best choice. An improvement that does not remove an existing constraint may fail to produce the expected result or may even be harmful,” Yevgeny Khotulev noted during the expert discussion.

The overwhelming majority of participants identified staff shortages as a key challenge. As a result, particular attention was paid to personnel management. Following the event, each management team formulated a set of systemic solutions to address specific management challenges: selected a strategic focus, identified priorities in its marketing policy, determined the production constraint that needed to be eased, and formulated measures to ensure that the results of the changes would become embedded in day-to-day operations.

“The conference helped participants discover new ways to overcome difficulties and formulate them as project ideas that can be developed into full-scale change projects, implemented and translated into tangible results. Most importantly, the tools provided enable participants to apply this approach independently in their own companies,” said Natalya Soboleva, the event organizer representing the Productivity Improvement Center of the Russian Foreign Trade Academy under the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, summarizing the conference.

The event was organized by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Entrepreneurship of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Regional Competence Center for Labor Productivity, and the Productivity Improvement Center of the Russian Foreign Trade Academy under the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia as part of the federal project “Labor Productivity.”

Earlier, the Association proposed expanding the formats of interregional cooperation, including by holding practice-oriented events in the regions aimed at addressing specific economic development challenges. The participating regions submitted a number of proposals, and their details are currently being developed.