In the framework of Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO project «Anti-Fragility 2020» are talking about the consumer market. May 20, 2020 at the site of the SKOLKOVO Business School with the support of the Consumer Market Development Center brought together representatives of regulators, business and the scientific community. The online conference was broadcast on the School’s official YouTube channel and became the most watched in the Anti-Fragility 2020 series at the beginning of June 2020.

The first part of the conference was moderated by Andrey Sharonov, President of SKOLKOVO Business School. He discussed with guests issues of regulating the consumer market in a crisis, changing demand and reducing consumption.

Andrey Vladimirovich, President of SKOLKOVO Business School: “Today, as part of our discussion on the Anti-Fragility 2020 platform, we are not talking about the consumer market by chance. Among the topics we are considering, the consumer market has a special position. It is at least a quarter of the national GDP, taking into account all the actors who form and serve it. The topic affects each of us and is an indicator of the well-being, economic and social well-being of our society.”

The discussion was also attended by: Viktor Yevtukhov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Vadim Radaev, First Vice-Rector of the Higher School of Economics, and Tatyana Maleva, Director of the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting, RANEPA.

Viktor Evtukhov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade: “Moscow sets the pace for fighting or easing crisis measures in the situation of the coronavirus. In the capital, construction is already allowed and some production enterprises have been opened. If in the near future a decision is made to resume the operation of facilities selling non-food products, for example, shopping centers and large shops, the regions will also be opened from. Entrepreneurs are ready for this and are waiting for the opportunity to make a profit after 2 months of a serious blow to their business and the economy as a whole.”

Tatyana Maleva, Director of the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting, RANEPA: “This real crisis is different from all previous ones even from a theoretical point of view, because we are simultaneously dealing with a reduction in demand and a reduction in supply. The dynamics of demand will be determined by the depth of the decline in income. There are moderate estimates - a 3% reduction in income, but there are also disastrous ones - 12%. All this depends on the duration of restrictive regimes and the depth of the economic crisis. But then it will take 3-5 years to restore income.”

In the second part of the online conference, the conversation turned around the cases of manufacturers and retailers, their reactions to changes in the consumer market. The discussion was held by Svetlana Mironyuk, Vice-Rector of the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO.

It was joined by Jan Dunning, President and CEO of Magnit PJSC, Asan Kurmanguzhin, CEO of SberMarket, Regina Kuzmina, President of Unilever in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, as well as Neil Starrock, President of PepsiCo in Russia, Ukraine and the CIS, and Andrei Krishnev, CEO of Nike in Russia.

Jan Dunning, President and CEO of Magnit PJSC: “We have about 260,000 employees in stores alone. These people go to work every day and meet with our customers. They put themselves at significant risk in the workplace. Therefore, for us, providing personnel with personal protective equipment is perhaps the most important area of operational work, and it has remained that way for several months now. At the same time, we put a lot of effort into communication with customers in order to ensure the right social distance, convince them to wear masks and use gloves, and thus ensure the most safe conditions in stores for all participants in the process.”

Neil Starrock, President of PepsiCo in Russia, Ukraine and the CIS: “The health and safety of employees is PepsiCo's top priority. Before the introduction of restrictive measures, we were able to very quickly transfer to remote work all those who are not directly involved in production. By the way, it is curious that at the beginning of the year at a meeting of top management we discussed the possibilities of expanding the remote work and wanted to conduct an experiment in May or August, but then decided that we were not ready for this yet. It turned out that we are ready, and we will implement a flexible approach after quarantine ends.”

The participants of the online conference agreed that the Russian consumer market managed not only to cope with the rush demand in certain categories of goods, but also to establish operational interaction both at the inter-industry and intra-industry levels.