On February 4 and 5, the fifth two-day training module for leaders of membership business associations took place at the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School as part of the second phase of the UNDP Project "Strengthening Membership Business Associations of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Ukraine" in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and with the support of Switzerland. This project aims to accelerate the development of the MSME sector by strengthening the capacity of membership business associations (BAs).

"If you want to understand how competitiveness works, you first need to understand business clusters," — with this statement, Victor Oksenjuk, a kmbs lecturer, began a discussion about business clusters for the participants of the UNDP Project.

Victor Oksenjuk also told the audience about the world's "anomalous" business valleys, which are actually clusters. Together with the expert, the leaders explored the economic phenomenon of such valleys using the example of Napa Valley, which competes with Las Vegas, New York, and Paris.

"If you are not the President or the Ministry of Defense, first identify natural clusters," — the lecturer noted. "And only then can you artificially stimulate them." He also emphasized that a cluster is formed by three mandatory characteristics: specialization, interconnections, and geographical concentration.

"Marketing is oriented towards offering value to the client," — emphasized Olena Maltseva, a kmbs lecturer, during a lecture on BA marketing. "It must be dynamic. And, in fact, this value proposition is needed to realize your vision."

The expert spoke about the core value proposition, which transforms and is realized depending on the four levels of client needs. Olena Maltseva also explained to the audience the concepts of underserved and overserved markets and how they function.

The second day of the training module for business association leaders at kmbs began with the continuation of Olena Maltseva's lecture on BA marketing. "It's easier to create an offer that your clients will gladly accept than to make clients love the offer you created," — the lecturer explained.

In addition, leaders worked in groups on the customer experience map at all its stages: brand awareness, first contact, relationship initiation, relationship management, engagement management, and exit. "It's important that a new member of the organization is happy to have become your member, not just joined," — emphasized Olena Maltseva.

The audience also listened to a lecture by Veronika Verba on the financial aspects of the functioning and development of BAs. "The main task of finance is to harmonize the spiritual and expenditure parts," — the lecturer noted. Veronika Verba focused her attention, in particular, on the key financial documents necessary to ensure the financial sustainability of BAs. The leaders immediately applied the acquired knowledge in practice by developing a budget regulation for the project.

At the end of the first and second two-day training days, BA leaders were treated to two evening events as part of the Ukrainian-Swiss UNDP Project. On February 4, Olga Sagaidak, co-founder of the Dofa Fund Charitable Foundation and the Coalition of Cultural Activists, visited the school as part of the series of evening events "My Business — My Country."

"Cultural policy is part of state policy, integrated with other areas (healthcare, education, economy, security, etc.)," – noted Olga Sagaidak. Together with the expert, the audience discussed the possibility of cultural projects being an independent business capable of creating added value for clients.

On Saturday, February 5, project participants had the opportunity to talk with Bohdan Borukhovskyi, Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine, PMBA-5, as part of the series of evening events "State and Business."

"We have a dream to transform Feofaniya into a university hospital," — announced Bohdan Borukhovskyi at the end of the second training day. During the lecture, he told the leaders about state investment projects, large construction projects, projects funded by the Ministry of Health, etc. In particular, he announced the creation of a university hospital (a hospital with the highest quality medical services and patient safety, high-tech diagnostic and treatment methods based on the principles of evidence-based medicine) and a biocluster in Ukraine.

"Strengthening Membership Business Associations of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Ukraine":