THE POWER OF BUSINESS: how industry and IT envision Ukraine’s economic breakthrough

Photo of the participants of the THE POWER OF BUSINESS panel at the Kyiv International Economic Forum 2025 / forumkyiv.org

What needs to change in Ukraine for it to finally move from the category of economic outsiders into the circle of leaders? This very question became the central theme of the closing panel of the Kyiv International Economic Forum 2025. In an open and straightforward discussion, President of Biopharma Kostiantyn Yefymenko and Ukrainian serial entrepreneur, founder of the FRACTAL group of companies and author of the book For Managers Artem Borodatiuk shared their vision of what the contribution of business to the country’s transformation should be, what is holding back economic development, and which drivers can lead Ukraine onto a completely different growth trajectory.

We offer the key ideas from this conversation.

KOSTIANTYN YEFYMENKO, President of the pharmaceutical company Biopharma

ONLINE IS KILLING EDUCATION

have immense respect for companies like Metinvest or DTEK for what they do for Ukraine and how they rebuild after missile attacks. So, of course, I want the SCM group to keep growing. But other companies must also emerge and scale. There should be thousands of companies like Biopharma in the country. I stand for free enterprise — I am a capitalist! My first motivation is for my parents, my family, and my friends to stay here, in Ukraine. My second motivation is to implement changes that will allow us to invest 500 million dollars in development over the next seven years. And for that, the education system must undergo a radical transformation.

Let’s honestly acknowledge its problems. The first: for six years now, Ukrainian schools have existed online. First because of COVID, then the war. As a result of online learning — easy to enter and very hard to exit — we have completely lost the school. Today we receive children with absolutely zero knowledge. The second problem: we pay teachers 8,000 hryvnias, take away 23% in taxes, and leave them with 6,200.

Even with bonuses, that is humiliatingly low. For the mere fact that a teacher leaves home and heads toward school, we should already bow to them. And if they actually make it to school — we should erect a monument to them right on the school grounds. The third problem: we need to remove all those meaningless «happiness lessons» from the curriculum, double the amount of mathematics, and bring back full-fledged chemistry and biology classes.

A BIOLOGIST CANNOT BE TRAINED AT A TROLLEYBUS STOP

If we move from secondary to higher education, we will see almost the same problems, starting with online learning. Students must walk to university on their own two feet! I have visited almost all Kyiv universities that teach chemistry and biology — all their laboratories became outdated 34 years ago! Everything in them needs to be packed up and thrown away. The combined laboratory base of all universities is worse than that of a single Biopharma laboratory, into which we invested just 25 million dollars. Just think about it: a small company from Bila Tserkva has a better base than all the universities, including national ones!

The state urgently needs to find 50 million dollars and spend it on university laboratories! People are the most painful issue for business today. Metinvest, for example, needs 120,000 workers to return. Biopharma does not require that many: today, with a turnover of more than 200 million dollars, we employ 240 people. But we lack specialists of a certain level — and you cannot train them at a trolleybus stop. You can still somehow teach a mathematician by giving them a board, paper, and a pen. But for chemists and biologists, that is not enough.

They need chromatographs, cytometers, reagents, and so on. All of this equipment needs to be connected to the power grid and students must be taught how to use it. Otherwise, there will be no science! There will never be Nobel Prizes, no publications in Nature or other scientific journals. And there will be no companies that yesterday’s students could one day create.

MORE IMPORTANT THAN EDUCATION IS ONLY THE FRONT

I am a capitalist, and personally I am not satisfied when the country has only one Metinvest and one Biopharma. I want the world around us to look different. Do you remember the difference between the Soviet system and the capitalist one? The former did everything to ensure that no one became rich; the latter strives to ensure that no one remains poor. So we offered our own response to this demand and created two biological schools, where 60 children now study biology for 4 hours a week, mathematics for 3, and chemistry for 3.

When I perfect this model, I will build such schools for you in every regional center. And we have also created our own department at the Institute of High Technologies at Shevchenko University, where 15 students are currently studying. I personally select the teachers and personally pay them. More than one million dollars a year is spent on all this. We are now spending 450,000 dollars to publish the world-renowned textbook Campbell Biology — richly illustrated and totaling 2,500 pages!

Why not use a domestic textbook? Because people who have never in their lives seen a chromatograph have no right to write books on biology. So, when it comes to high-quality education, Biopharma has everything it needs. But if we are talking about the country to which young people and children should return — and then stay — we must begin working on Ukrainian education immediately. The only challenge more important today is, perhaps, the front.

THE CAPITAL OF UKRAINIAN BIOTECH

Where do I get the strength? I come from Bila Tserkva, where there are radon waters, so it feels like every resident has a small nuclear reactor inside. But in all seriousness, I truly love what I do. Recently I read Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, where he gives a very clear piece of advice that applies perfectly to our current situation. You see, we do not need to dwell on the past. It no longer belongs to us; we will never return there — except in memories.

And we do not need to invent the future now. After all, we do not know what it will be like. When will the war end? In a month? A year? We only have today. And it is today that we must move toward our goal. We must pursue it right here, in Ukraine, because it is unclear whether our talents are even needed somewhere in Europe or elsewhere. My task is to make Bila Tserkva the capital of Ukrainian biotech. And we will still surprise the world with the structures we will build here.

International Short Story Competition «ODESSSIADA»

ARTEM BORODATIUK, Ukrainian serial entrepreneur, founder of the FRACTAL group of IT companies

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR LIFE

What needs to be done in the country to make the economy truly thrive? To make it possible to run a business calmly, predictably, and successfully? Thinking about this, I jotted down 10 points — but then decided to talk about something else… In the Presidential Council for Entrepreneurship, of which I am a member, there is a clear understanding that changes can be made only when you take full responsibility. And one more important thing: we must accept what we cannot influence and act where we can change something.

I believe that every Ukrainian entrepreneur must convey this to every Ukrainian, using all available means. A person must take full responsibility for their own life. For example, you are not satisfied with your salary? In my company, everything is very simple: work better — the salary will be higher. If the light bulb in your building entrance doesn’t work, it’s not because the country elected a bad president. You simply need to buy a new bulb and screw it in yourself. If this worldview becomes dominant in society, it will be much easier for me — as an entrepreneur — to work.

UNIVERSITIES MUST RUN AFTER ENTREPRENEURS

We now have 25 companies employing about 1,600 people. Ninety percent of them are Ukrainians, and 80% are currently in Ukraine. Yet 83% of this year’s revenue comes from outside the country. This means we consciously hire Ukrainians because their worldview matters to me. The first thing I tell every employee is: «You must be a person who needs your own life first and foremost.» The second thing I tell them: «To take full responsibility for your life and achieve your goals, you must learn how to work».

We provide this opportunity and train up to 80 people online every month, and then — if they wish — they can get a job with us with a 95% probability. I don’t understand why, for example, our universities don’t do the same kind of performance. It would make sense for the state to pay universities not for the fact that they teach, but for the fact that a person gets employed after their studies. If someone is hired, it means the university gave them a great education. Universities should be running after entrepreneurs and asking: «What should we do so that you hire our graduates?» Then people wouldn’t need to go to my online digital knowledge university, Choice31, to continue their studies just to become employable.

WHO WILL TELL CHILDREN WHAT REAL WORK IS?

We can actually implement great reforms so that every student in Ukrainian schools has official access to the subjects they personally need. When I was studying, for example, I really wanted our class to have a course on entrepreneurship and financial literacy. I don’t understand why such a subject still doesn’t exist in schools. Unfortunately, only when I accidentally started doing business did I learn that I had an entrepreneurial talent. But it’s clear that such lessons must be taught by entrepreneurs themselves — those who truly understand the subject.

We are doing a few things in this direction. We have already submitted to the Ministry of Education and Science a draft lesson that will be called, conditionally, «A Startup: From Zero to a Million». It will cover how to search for ideas, production, marketing, and other aspects. But it won’t include full financial literacy. Our team is also working on another school course — «How to Work». When a child is in school, no one seriously talks to them about the fact that they will eventually have to work. Children need to understand that work is not always easy. It’s not the same as making reels for TikTok or Instagram. Sometimes there may be failures — and they shouldn’t be afraid of that.

THE COUNTRY MUST GET A CHANCE TO BECOME GREAT

At FRACTAL, we dedicate a lot of effort to what can be called business psychology. We explain: when you don’t know something — learn it! Don’t wait for someone to teach you — teach yourself! And finally, we created a course on artificial intelligence… All this is great, but I have to admit that, as an entrepreneur, I personally don’t need most of it. But I want to live in a country that has a chance to become a great nation. It doesn’t mean it will definitely use that chance — but it must have it. And Ukraine’s rapid digitalisation is creating all the right conditions.

We need to radically change the education system and make it business-oriented. In general, hand education over to business and regulate it minimally afterwards. Life has proven: when there is no regulation — everything works great; when there is too much regulation, business and the economy begin to suffer. Look at Europe, which is overregulated — unfortunately, it has turned into a museum. It’s wonderful to travel there, to relax, but creating something new there is extremely difficult. We must not become such a museum, so we need to turn deregulation to full power! To summarise: to change Ukrainians’ mindset, every entrepreneur must say: take responsibility and work — then you will succeed! I have never seen a person who, working with discipline and learning from mistakes, did not achieve their goal.

WHY PUBLIC SERVICE IS ANTI-BUSINESS

Our task is to build a factory of businesses. The mission of our group is to positively influence the economy. This is why we also continue helping the state with recruitment. We have NetPick Talent — a recruiting agency working with internal and external clients. For example, we currently need to fill six deputy minister vacancies. But there are difficulties. When someone from business enters government, they don’t get a new business — they get something like an anti-business in every sense of the word. If you are an honest person (and we’re looking for exactly those), you won’t make much money there. For a businessperson, it’s almost a form of suicide.

So I urge everyone to respect those who decide to go into public service. One of the people we found is Oleksandr Tsybort, Deputy Minister of Economy, now responsible for digitalisation. Earlier he ran his own e-commerce business, and now in his new role wants to build state infrastructure for business. He is currently assembling his team — and it’s not easy, given the modest salaries. In addition, a deputy minister is a PEP — a politically exposed person — which means that they, their children, and their grandchildren will have that status for life. Therefore, during the pre-final interview, I try to dissuade candidates from going into public service. And those who are not scared off — I ask them to guarantee they’ll work for at least two years. Because in less than two years, in my view, you simply cannot accomplish anything.

WORKING FOR THE STATE IS NOT MOTIVATED BY MONEY

Being a reformer is always difficult — it is very thankless work. Maks Nefyodov, with whom we collaborate, has a criminal case pending against him. We all know the story of Pyvovarov. So finding public servants is extremely hard. On average, we sift through around 2,000 candidates to hire just one person. That’s why over the past year we filled only 4 positions. Meanwhile, in our business, we onboard around 80 new employees every month. Those who go into public service are people driven by ideals — people who have already earned their money. Oleksandr Tsybort is one of them. Another one is the IT entrepreneur we recently invited to oversee the reform of the Ministry of Education.

We truly rely on digitalisation because it can fundamentally reshape the entire governmental system. But along the way, strange things happen. Take the «Pulse» project, which has three elements: a dashboard, an information window, and a personal account. It allows entrepreneurs to complain about a government agency — even a specific civil servant — who is hindering their work. But there is also the «StopPressure» portal, where businesses can challenge the actions of law enforcement. Meaning, the state has no single approach — everyone builds their own thing. Why, for example, build a new complaint system for the Prosecutor General’s Office when «Pulse» already exists and is integrated everywhere? I even wrote an article for Ukrainska Pravda where I counted nine different bodies where a businessperson can file a complaint.

I LIKE PLAYING THIS GAME!

Still, it’s worth noting that the country’s leadership is genuinely trying to listen to us, although they are currently limited in resources. But — again — there is the Presidential Council for Entrepreneurship. At first, it had 7 members. Now 70. Next year, perhaps 700. That’s where one can and should work: if you want to change something, just take your own time and your own resources and do it. I am driven by a big idea. I remember how, around the seventh year of FRACTAL’s existence, suddenly I no longer felt excited about working. There’s a saying: «Nothing ruins a goal like hitting it». How did I get out of that? Very simply: I enjoy playing the kind of game where I influence Ukraine’s economy in a positive way — and it becomes bigger than the economy of any European country.

Prepared in partnership with KIEF. Huxley is the information partner of the Kyiv International Economic Forum

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