Позитивные изменения. Том 2, №4 (2022). Positive changes. Volume 2, Issue 4 (2022)

However, we immediately ran into the problem that many key employees did not have housing, some lived on the other side of town. For starters, we built cottages for three of our employees, and then we thought we would also need a building for the rehabilitation center.

So we went on with the assisted living idea. That is, we would pull a man out of his family, someone who had never lived on his own. For example, a young man who got disabled at 16, lives on a fifth-floor in an apartment building and never goes out.

We would move him to our cottage and teach him to live independently, so that he could cook for himself, wash himself, etc. Eventually, we would start full-on rehabilitation, with physical therapy and electrotherapy.

What helped you achieve these results?

What factors contributed to this?

First of all, we weren't afraid to set the bar high. Because if you set the bar at 30 cm, that's as high as you're going to jump. If you set it at two meters, you start looking for a pole to jump with, etc.

We set the bar high right from the start.

Second, team play. I have a real professional team – competent people I can confidently delegate things to, without whom I wouldn't be able to do anything.

And the third point is cross-sector interaction, when you can approach the authorities and say: “Look, it just so happens that we're more in the loop than you are. Let's go there together and solve this problem together.”

We weren't afraid to set the bar high. Also I have a professional team – competent people I can confidently delegate things to, without whom I wouldn't be able to do anything.

Three or four years ago, the governor of Kaliningrad Region stood with me in the field where the Observer factory is now. I was explaining to him why this was the right spot to build. When foreign guests come to Russia and particularly to Kaliningrad Region, they will get their first impression of the country, starting with a green English lawn and a futuristic factory.

He understood this and felt a sense of belonging.

We opened the factory together with the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation, Anton Kotyakov. I hope he also has the sense of belonging to the project. Like everyone else in power. Someone saw it at the stage of excavation and pouring the foundation. And now they can compare it to what we have today. One of the most important conditions is interaction and the sense of belonging.