Ukrainian business has learned how to survive, build companies, and support the country in times of crisis. The next challenge is to learn how to shape its future.
Over the past few decades, Ukrainian businesses have covered ground that took many other countries generations to achieve. They have learned to build companies amid constant uncertainty, weather crises, adapt to sudden changes in the rules of the game, and continue growing where many others would have abandoned any long-term plans.
The full-scale war became another defining test. It demonstrated not only the resilience of Ukrainian entrepreneurs but also their willingness to take on responsibilities far greater than those traditionally expected of business. Many companies became a pillar of support for their teams, local communities, the armed forces, and the country as a whole.
Yet when the war is over, Ukraine may once again face a familiar historical risk: surviving, but failing to build a long-term path for development. Enduring yet another major trial, preserving what it has built, and mobilizing when it matters most — only to return to a reality where the country's future is shaped not by those who build, but by those who are most skilled at exploiting weak institutions.
Against this backdrop, Ukrainian business faces a new challenge — one that is both demanding and exciting: to move beyond the role of an observer and become a force that helps shape the rules of the game. It requires a profound shift in mindset: a willingness to take responsibility for the whole, to help build institutions, think in terms of long-term strategy, and create an environment where business can thrive not in spite of the system, but together with the country.
Between Personal Success and Collective Strength
There is a recurring pattern in Ukrainian history that has persisted for centuries. Ukrainians have always been entrepreneurial, talented, and capable of creating something new. History is full of examples of people of Ukrainian origin who have achieved remarkable success across countries, industries, and professions. From business and science to engineering, culture, and technology, it is difficult to find a field in which Ukrainians have not left a lasting mark.
Sometimes I think that if someone were to systematically examine the Ukrainian diaspora's contribution to the development of the modern world, the scale of its impact would surprise even Ukrainians themselves. Around the world, Ukrainians have founded companies, led major organizations, contributed to scientific breakthroughs, and helped shape entirely new markets.
Yet there is another recurring pattern. For centuries, Ukrainians have more often succeeded as individuals than as an organized force. Much of this stems from our history. For generations, Ukrainians lived between different empires that systematically undermined their belief in their own potential. A mindset took root: it was possible to be a talented individual, a successful entrepreneur, or an outstanding professional — but not to aspire to something greater. It is therefore no surprise that many Ukrainians, once abroad, became part of other nations' success stories.
To me, this is precisely where the line is drawn between a group of successful individuals and true agency. Agency begins the moment we become willing to think not only in terms of our own projects, companies, or careers, but also in terms of our shared future.
And this is where Ukrainian business faces an even deeper challenge. Despite having the resources, experience, and ambition to think on that scale, many entrepreneurs still carry an inner sense that the country and the state exist separately from them — and that responsibility for their future rests with someone else.
A Legacy of Thinking We Have Yet to Overcome
Our reality is this: business creates jobs, pays taxes, supports the armed forces, invests in the country's development, and takes on many functions that, in more stable societies, often remain the responsibility of state institutions. In return, people expect only one thing from the state: that it simply does not get in the way.
This attitude has understandable historical roots. For centuries, state institutions were associated less with a means of achieving shared goals and more with external control, coercion, or the pursuit of someone else's interests. Under such circumstances, it was only natural for people to keep their distance from the state, focusing instead on their families, their own businesses, and the immediate circles for which they felt responsible.
However, the problem is that this way of thinking continues to reproduce itself even when we are talking about our own country. One can still hear the assumption that the state and society exist in separate spheres. Yet this is precisely where the line between being an object and being a subject is drawn. So, what does agency mean in this context?
Not Entering Politics, but Shaping the Rules
At the same time, helping shape the country's future does not necessarily mean entering public politics. In my view, it is important to distinguish between politics and policy.
Politics is about the struggle for power, party competition, and holding public office. Policy is about shaping the rules, institutions, and long-term decisions that determine a country's development for decades to come.
I believe this is where the natural role of business lies. Entrepreneurs do not need to become politicians. Their role is to build companies, launch ventures, create new systems, and develop the economy. But this does not relieve them of responsibility for the quality of the environment in which all of this takes place. In practical terms, I see business agency manifesting itself in three key ways.
First, through the formation of a new elite. Not an elite defined by wealth, status, or influence, but a community of people who see the country as their responsibility. History shows that no country develops without people willing to think and act with the whole in mind.
Second, through the development of a long-term vision for the future. We have learned how to survive, adapt quickly, and respond to crises. But a country needs more than solutions for the coming year. It needs a development strategy that looks decades ahead — a clear understanding of what kind of Ukraine we want to see in fifty or even one hundred years.
Third, through the creation of institutions capable of sustaining this long-term agenda regardless of political cycles and generational change. This is the point I would like to explore in greater depth. Ideas alone do not work. They require mechanisms, resources, infrastructure, and organizations that can consistently move the country forward. That is why I am speaking not only about organizations themselves, but about the emergence of a country's intellectual infrastructure: an ecosystem capable of generating long-term ideas, shaping a vision of the future, preparing leaders, and creating solutions before there is political demand for them. Globally, this role is often played by think tanks — independent analytical and strategic centers that work not for a single electoral cycle or the interests of a particular political force, but for the country's long-term agenda.
Their role is especially important during periods when state institutions are still weak, undergoing transformation, or unable to develop a long-term strategy independently. In such circumstances, business leaders, expert communities, and civic leaders can act not as petitioners waiting for ready-made solutions, but as their creators.
Many successful countries have followed this path. In the United States, independent institutions such as the Brookings Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations have, for decades, helped sustain long-term thinking about national development regardless of changes in administration. In South Korea, the organized business community became a full partner in shaping the country's industrial strategy during the early stages of economic growth. In Estonia, much of the vision behind the country's digital transformation emerged not only within government, but also from entrepreneurs and technology leaders.
A Historic Opportunity We Cannot Afford to Miss
The full-scale war has brought immense loss and hardship, but it has also compelled the world to see Ukraine in a different light. Today, the world knows far more about our country than it did just a few years ago. Ukraine has gained not only global attention, but also a degree of moral authority that cannot be bought through diplomacy or created through marketing campaigns. History, however, shows that opportunities like this do not translate into lasting progress on their own.
Each generation receives its own opportunity. The question is whether it can turn that opportunity into a long-term path of development — or whether it will once again limit itself to addressing the challenges of the present.