Change Management: International Experts in Kazakhstan

Interview with Neil MARSHALL, Director of Development at ChangeSchool 

At the recently held International Forum of Strategic Partners in Astana, we were fortunate enough to meet a man whose approach overturns many established ideas about doing business in the field of higher education. Neil MARSHALL, Director of Development at the international company ChangeSchool, together with a team of renowned experts, helps universities and entrepreneurs around the world launch a process of change that leads them to a completely new efficiency ratio. How can university science and business be linked? How can the face of one's university be fundamentally changed? How can an effective solution to set objectives be found? It was incredibly interesting for us to talk about all this and much more with this progressive individual possessing a global mindset, and we are pleased to present our conversation to the readers.

– Neil, thank you very much for this meeting and for the opportunity to speak with you. First of all, we would like to introduce your company to our audience. Also, please tell us about one of your recent successful case studies.

– Thank you. The activities of our company, ChangeSchool, relate to higher education. On our small, foggy island off the coast of Europe, the strongest higher education system in the world has developed. Realizing this, we decided to share our country's experience to support people, universities, and education systems around the world.

Currently, we do this in three ways.

One of them is related to innovation and entrepreneurship – this is scientific acceleration, meaning assistance in creating and promoting scientific discoveries and setting up the research process.

For example, we manage an accelerator for the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK, which ranks among the top three acceleration programs in the country.

The second area consists of executive programs. In this field, we are actively working in several countries around the world, including CIS countries – Armenia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan – and we are starting to work in Kazakhstan. At the moment, we are cooperating with one of the universities in Kazakhstan on MBA programs designed to train international-level executives. This program is suitable for absolutely different types of companies, various industries, and anyone involved in management and leadership. About a month ago in Stockholm, our company was presented with two international awards: the EFMD Excellence in Practice Silver Award (from the European Foundation for Management Development) and the Merit Special Recognition Award for Educational Innovation for executive training. We are the only ones to have received both of these awards in a single year.

The third and final area of ChangeSchool's activity is professional development, where our professors, representing top universities, act as experts in specific areas of business and management, helping to improve qualifications in a particular field.

As one of the examples of our recent case studies, I can share our cooperation with two of Malaysia's largest universities – UiTM and Universiti Malaya, the oldest and most prestigious universities in the country. UiTM currently has about 180,000 students. These universities needed to restructure their research activities; their goal was to generate discoveries that possess practical value and commercial potential, and that are capable of attracting funding from business.

It is worth noting here that traditional university research begins with the researcher's interests, and that is excellent. However, to interact with business, scientists should rely not on pure scientific curiosity when choosing a research object, but on the needs of society and companies, thereby creating real, necessary solutions.

All we are trying to do is help them start with the interests of the market and the companies they want to work with. To achieve this, it is necessary to have different thinking tools and to be able to speak the language of these companies, since the scientific world is very different from the business world.

At Universiti Malaya, we created a system where every scientist embarking on applied research must undergo a specific process. During this process, based on market needs, it is determined whether this research is needed as a whole, what the current demand for it is, what the topical issues are, and what research is lacking. In Malaysia, national structures exist that deal with this. For example, the MySTIE "10x10" framework links universities' fundamental and translational research with national priorities, such as healthcare and education, as well as with specific technologies they need to develop the country's value chain. They connect all of this with the priorities of the national development plan in order to create a national technological ecosystem by 2035 that will bring real benefit to Malaysia. The second university aimed to create specific projects for business, so there we worked with enterprises. As a result, after two weeks, business projects emerged that the scientists intended to work on. Thus, in both universities, we helped create training and development systems that now allow them to work with business better, faster, and more successfully.

– The theme of building an ecosystem where universities are practice-oriented is highly relevant for Kazakhstan. The President of the country sets a specific task for university science to solve economic problems. What is the know-how and what are the advantages of your approach in working with universities in this direction?

– First of all, I want to say that Kazakhstan is not unique in this sense; practically all countries in the world are working on this task. However, it is unique because it is Kazakhstan. Similar questions and problems, if looked at superficially, exist in every country, but the causes of these questions are always slightly different. They are related to history, culture, existing systems, and companies. Therefore, you cannot simply take something from London, Paris, Tashkent, or Yerevan, transfer it to Astana or Almaty, and expect it to work. It is necessary to apply comprehensive systems thinking.

A simple example. Two or three weeks ago, I was at one of the Kazakhstani universities. It is an excellent university that does a lot of good things and is very committed to development. They told me that one of their difficulties lies in the fact that they cannot attract capital for investment. I asked: "Why? What do investors tell you?" They replied: "Because they are looking for profit. If a company does not bring profit, they will not invest." This tells me several things. First, there are not enough investors in Kazakhstan; there is not enough competition. Second, the investors that do exist in Kazakhstan are not suitable for new ventures, as these ventures need investment because they do not yet bring profit, not because they do bring profit. Therefore, the first thing I told them was: "Listen, you need to look for capital outside of Kazakhstan. You need to create competition for these people." As soon as I said "outside of Kazakhstan," their world turned upside down.

This same characteristic, where people prefer to look for partners only within their own country, is, by the way, also typical for neighboring Uzbekistan. But there is something cultural about looking outside the country rather than only inward.

It is necessary to bring various things from the outside. And I know that, for example, your Minister of Science and Higher Education, Sayasat Nurbek, is doing an excellent job with this task. He aims to bring in external influence, different universities, and different ways of thinking. This is truly important for Kazakhstan at the present time.

This is just a detail, one example. Every country has its own problems.

Therefore, if you ask me what we do differently – we strive to understand the system we are working with and help it change. It is necessary to understand what is good in it, what is needed, and what it struggles with. For Kazakhstan today, establishing a connection with the outside world is very important; it is something that will help a lot.

What else matters, what leads to changes? We work with universities, and again – we work comprehensively to attract investors, attract companies, and help them work together. This is not just one piece of the puzzle; it is about creating a functional system.

Last week, I was in London with colleagues from Malaysia. They were creating an artificial intelligence institute and an institute for high-tech chip manufacturing. The Malaysians are very interested in manufacturing these chips, which can provide them with the next stage of development. As we all know, there are threats to their supply chain. Look at Taiwan, look at the negotiations between the government of the Netherlands and the government of China. Therefore, the Malaysians are creating this institute. And they were asking: "How do we implement this? How do we finance this institute? What should we do?" They did not think about speaking with the companies that use chips. There are car manufacturers in Malaysia. Speak with them. There is one of the largest drone manufacturers in the world. Turn to them. Find out what is happening. The fact that the creator of the institute is a woman also played a role, and in Malaysia, due to cultural specificities, it is very difficult for a female scientist to accomplish all of this.

Therefore, we say that you need to look at the country, the culture, and the political economy, understand what gaps exist, how to work with them, and give them the skills, thinking tools, and opportunities to implement changes.

– Such analysis and research probably require a lot of time and resources…

– In fact, it does not have to be a major undertaking or require special research. First, coming from the outside makes the task easier, because I arrive with a different set of questions and a different mindset. A few conversations with a few people are enough to understand 80% of the task very quickly and begin moving forward. Second, it is not necessary to start with perfect knowledge. You start taking action as soon as you have an idea, and you learn along the way. So, if you approach something with a desire to learn and do not expect everything to be perfect from the very beginning, you have no problems. You find out more information as you go. And third, create meaningful changes that will actually be accepted and used. It is not about coming up with a perfect plan; it is about working with others to create a plan that is acceptable to everyone and in which everyone's voice is heard. It is about leading growth from the bottom up, rather than imposing a plan from the top down. With this approach, people invest their energy into what you are trying to do. With an approach based solely on instructions from above, people simply resist.

– Neil, you identified two problems related to the commercialization of science, and specifically university science: a lack of investors, alongside an inability or unwillingness to attract foreign investment. What other stumbling blocks have you managed to perceive?

– We have been in Kazakhstan for at least two years now. What other problems have I seen – one of them is very typical for all universities in the world. University structures are created for teaching and for scientific research. They are not created for research that brings commercial benefit. In the CIS countries, this is partly due to the Soviet educational legacy, when there was only one client – the state – and there was no need to orient oneself toward anyone else; you executed everything and handed it in. But the world has changed, and now it is necessary to adapt to existing needs and problems yourself. Theoretical research does not lose its value even now. However, the whole world is moving toward changing the balance, where more attention will be paid to applied research.

And this is not easy, since scientists feel much more comfortable in theoretical and fundamental research. When they begin to engage in translational research – research that we want to commercialize – the work of a businessman and entrepreneur is added to teaching and theoretical research.

This is a completely different set of skills. These are skills they have not developed, but which you are asking them to demonstrate. So now this is their third job, and each of these three jobs is a full-time job.

Therefore, a human approach is necessary. We must understand that on the path to change they need support, and also that change must be managed.

The second thing is control and risk minimization. In a university, everything that is done must be signed off and approved at all levels. No matter what you want to do, it all goes through several people; it is a very rigid bureaucracy. The same situation exists in Armenia, Georgia, and Uzbekistan. However, applied research involves risk, and therefore you have a control system aimed at minimizing this risk. This control system works against what you are trying to achieve. This is the kind of mismatch that exists.

It is also necessary to think about employee management systems. How do we encourage our scientists to engage in applied research and cooperate with companies? How does this help their careers? How do we treat them as people?

It is also important to understand that the university system must function not in isolation, but as an integral part of a vast ecosystem. It is necessary to consider the interaction of all elements and strive for mutual integration. On the part of the state, it is necessary to identify points of contact so that everyone is interested in this process.

Therefore, when I speak of a comprehensive approach, it means thinking about the systems surrounding people, about what motivates them to act and what prevents them from acting. You bring your ideas into all of this, because in order to achieve these changes – and this is what I was talking about, change management – it is not enough to simply give an order to do things differently; that will not work. No one will do it. People will find ways to avoid it.

You need to achieve a small success with a small group of people who want to do something differently.

Only when you achieve success will others start looking at you and saying: "Oh, what is happening over there? That looks good. We want to do that too."

This is a process that takes place gradually. And this applies not only to the university, to researchers, to finding researchers who want to be first; it also applies to business, to finding companies that want to do something differently first, and they need to be shown the way. Not told, but shown.

There are many human processes for providing emotional support to people. When you want to commercialize research results, you work under conditions of uncertainty. You do not know if anything will work, and uncertainty prevents action. People need the opportunity to think everything through, discuss it, feel both validation and challenge, and receive support such that constructive tension is present in the conversations they need. Telling them they are wonderful does not help. Telling them nothing will work does not help either. What helps is support in the form of ideas, challenges, and examples given in an emotionally safe environment.

Thus, scientists who are trying to bring technology to market and commercialize it need people with whom they can have coaching-style conversations about the process, as well as mentors who understand the market and can connect them with different stakeholders in the ecosystem to support their growth. There are many steps you go through with a university to remove barriers and create incentives. So, it is a systemic effort.

Ultimately, you work with a few companies and a few scientists. You start small and achieve success. Then, the system you have built begins to gain momentum. As soon as you do this in one or two universities, others, seeing this, think: "They can do it. Why can't we? We want to as well." Then, change gradually begins to encompass the entire system.

– Is it possible to single out any of the CIS countries that has advanced further than others in forming such systems?

– Oh, that is a good question. In different parts of the world, in different countries, there are "hotspots." For example, Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan is making significant efforts in this direction. The same can be said about the Central Asian University in Uzbekistan. In Georgia, there are several places trying to do this – perhaps Caucasus University. However, I would say that, in fact, Central Asia, with Nazarbayev University and Central Asian University, is probably quite strong in certain aspects. Partly also because there are people and resources here that facilitate this. Armenia is just starting, but it is moving forward because there are many digital enterprises in that country: Digitain, Synopsis Armenia, SoftConstruct, PicsArt, TitepoolLabs, which need support from universities.

But all countries face the same difficulties. I would not say there is one single country. I would say there are individual groups and universities that are starting to do something. In Uzbekistan, they are opening a new pharmaceutical cluster and want to create a pipeline of pharmaceutical innovation there. We are working with them, and very interesting work is underway. Therefore, I would say that Central Asia is currently stronger than the Caucasus, but within individual, small groups.

We maintain contact with various universities, including those in Kazakhstan, and I can say that foreign universities that have opened their campuses across the country – for example, Heriot-Watt in Aktobe, the University of Arizona in Petropavlovsk – are considered very prestigious by world standards in terms of research. Therefore, it can be said that, overall, there are a lot of positive changes in Kazakhstan.

– A lot probably depends on university leadership and rectors as well. In your opinion, what is the right way to start a process of change that could lead to substantial results in a university?

– In many ways, your rectors are already doing this, and in many ways, it is good management. They know how to set up processes, they know how to set up ways of working, they are good managers, and they know what to do. It is exclusively a matter of thoughtfulness – not just the traditional approach where we know that training needs to be conducted, and so we set up that process – but thoughtfulness in the direction of commercialization. What incentives do I need to create in my university to support commercialization, which I know is different from teaching and research? That is, it is the application of already known management tools to a different situation. That is the first thing.

The second thing is thinking in terms of change rather than business as usual, because this is new and different from what is familiar. Here is one very simple example. We talked about education, and people think that if we just show how to do something new, they will do it. No, they will not. That is human nature. Unfortunately, we are not that simple. There is a change management framework called ADKAR. It is an acronym for Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement. This is a simple checklist of what is required for individual personal change. You will notice that knowledge and ability come third and fourth, not first and second. Reinforcement, meaning ordering someone to do something, comes last. First, it is necessary to manage awareness and desire. Why should I do this? And what is it anyway? Make me want to do it. That is, if you want change to actually happen, the approach must be different.

There are many other aspects of change, but it is necessary to think about working with people, not just about how to do something and how to tell people about it. You need to help them understand and realize why it is good, and help them want to do it. Not everyone, but a few to start with. Therefore, you need to approach this from the perspective of change management. There are many ways. If a leader has never gone through something like an MBA and has not studied change management, the information is available now; it is very easy to find. Study change management, find ways to implement it, and apply the techniques, because otherwise you will tell people to do something, they will nod, smile, and say "yes," and a year later you will find that nothing has happened.

– How is your training implemented in practice? What key aspects does your team work with? And who is part of your team?

– As for the process we use when working with a university, we look at various aspects, and we work according to the method of change management.

So, to begin with, you must prove yourself in this university. You must do something useful. You start with a small team, create a new atmosphere, and launch new projects. Once this works, you cooperate with the leadership to design structures within the university to support these people. You set up the process together with them. You train trainers so that they work with these scientists, and those scientists, in turn, can train students and staff. When this works, more people will understand, more people will work, the university will create structures, and you will mentor and coach them. Thus, you pave the way as you move forward; you create things along the way. Because, as I said, you will not have perfect knowledge to start with, and you constantly receive feedback as you advance and build, since you need to understand the context.

And it really works. You train people, for example, in commercialization, and they immediately apply this knowledge to their own projects. This is similar to stakeholder management. You send them to speak with business and return. Learning takes place in the course of the actual work they perform.

We involve highly qualified specialists who run accelerators with us; I have organized this process all over the world. These are specialists such as Jeff Skinner from London Business School, who organized technology transfer at University College London, or Jaideep Prabhu, a leading world specialist and author of the book "Jugaad Innovation and Frugal Innovation," as well as practicing specialists, for example, John McIntyre, who supports the process of discovering agile business models, and the company "Joelson Law," which plays an important role in supporting our entrepreneurs on issues of intellectual property, negotiations with venture investors, and structuring their companies.

We have a whole lineup of such professors who have already launched accelerators in different parts of the world in their time. They have colossal experience; these are representatives of the best universities in the UK – Cambridge, UCL, the University of London, and so on. That is, the best specialists who can bring maximum benefit.

– Neil, the last question for today. Why is the development of education throughout the world personally important to you? After all, this contradicts the concept of competition, which is so widespread now. Why did you decide to go beyond the borders of the UK?

– You know, I used to be a teacher. I taught in London, and also in Nairobi for about eight years. Education has always been a part of my identity. And I am not one of those people who worry about national borders. It does not matter to me whether you are Kazakh, British, Kenyan, or Peruvian.

The problems we face in the modern world are not local. These are global problems that we must solve, especially in the areas of resources, global warming, and the climate crisis. Therefore, if we work alone and remain in our own separate worlds, we will fail.

We must work together. And education is a very important way to achieve this, because it creates connections between cultures, connections between people, and helps us cooperate.

Interview conducted

by Veronika KORESHKOVA, Aleksandr PETRUKHIN

English Edition / Translation

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Annotation

In an interview with our magazine, Neil Marshall, Director of Development at the international company ChangeSchool, talks about the company's activities in change management at universities in various countries around the world. The interview covers the commercialization of scientific research results, the interaction between science and business, conditions for successful leadership, and many other topics related to the effective development of a university as part of an internal ecosystem and the global community.

В интервью нашему журналу Нил Маршалл, директор по развитию международной компании ChangeSchool, рассказывает о деятельности компании в области управления изменениями в университетах разных стран мира. Интервью охватывает вопросы коммерциализации результатов научных исследований, взаимодействия науки и бизнеса, условий успешного лидерства и многие другие темы, связанные с эффективным развитием университета как части внутренней экосистемы и мирового сообщества.

ChangeSchool халықаралық компаниясының даму жөніндегі директоры Нил Маршалл біздің журналға берген сұхбатында компанияның әлемнің әртүрлі елдеріндегі университеттердегі өзгерістерді басқару жөніндегі қызметі туралы әңгімелейді. Сұхбатта ғылыми зерттеулердің нәтижелерін коммерцияландыру, ғылым мен бизнестің өзара іс-қимылы, табысты көшбасшылық шарттары және ел ішіндегі экожүйе мен жаһандық қоғамдастықтың бір бөлігі ретінде университеттің тиімді дамуына қатысты көптеген басқа тақырыптар қамтылған.