The PEXIM Foundation partnered with NIS a.d. Novi Sad to organise a lecture on “Management and Leadership in the 4th Industrial Revolution – Challenges and Opportunities” at Cambridge Judge Business School on 27th October 2018.

The lecture was given by the NIS CEO, Mr Kirill Tyurdenev, to an audience of professors and students of one of the most renowned business schools in the world.

Those in attendance had the opportunity to hear about the types of innovation and the new technologies brought to us by the 4th Industrial Revolution, which affects both our everyday lives and decision-making in large corporations because it has introduced new, renewable, energy sources and ways of storing them, as well as digital transformation and its pertaining processes and mechanisms.

Contrasting the challenges and the opportunities of the 4th Industrial Revolution, Kirill Tyurdenev first stressed the objections, which encompass unclear economic profitability, over-investment, insufficient staff qualifications, lack of standards and regulations, a low degree of maturity of the required technologies, unresolved issues related to data security, and others. However, as he explained, these are successfully mitigated by the new opportunities, including better planning and control, greater flexibility in production, as well as its individualisation, increased quality and greater customer satisfaction. By the same token, the new technologies decrease logistics costs, and the opening of new markets triggers economic growth.

After a brief presentation of the company and its operations in the oil and gas sector, Kirill Tyurdenev emphasised that NIS constantly adapts its business to fit the current global conditions and that the three aspects of digital transformation in NIS are new technologies, digital access and digital culture. Digital transformation in NIS implies changing the roles and responsibilities, as well as optimising the business process and renovating the technologies, materials and equipment. Digital culture is what is most important and it involves attracting the best and the most competent people, and at the same time it refers to the change of the mindset of both employees and management into the “digital way of thinking”.

Kirill Tyurdenev concluded by encouraging the students at Judge Business School to devote themselves to personal development, to travel as much as they can, constantly learning, to try to study as much as possible, urging them not to forget to wind down every now and then.

The presentation drew the interest of a large number of students, whose questions turned into a constructive discussion in which the CEO of NIS gave inspirational answers.

“We are very grateful to NIS CEO, Mr Tyurdenev, for being the reason we gathered on this occasion. He shared with us his rich business experience and insights. Back in Serbia, NIS is heavily investing in education, science and the empowerment of young people and in this regard, we share the same mission,” said the PEXIM Foundation director, Tijana Gajić.