I have a dream.
I have a dream.
I think that to live in harmony in a country among diversified people who have similar peaceful goals and aspirations, who can laugh at the same jokes, speak the same language, and whose human-being values are close to yours, is one of the greatest luxuries a person can enjoy. A dream really, and I think this is happening in Kazakhstan.
The social projects I am involved with are my attempt to decorate my home, my country, with a pattern. A pattern not just to simply enjoy life in well off Europe or North America, but to make my own home country of Kazakhstan cozy and comfortable for my fellow citizens, and for me.
We have two big sports focuses in Kazakhstan: the QJ League youth football and chess, two of the most beautiful games in the world and there is no reason why we cannot be world champions in both! Two sports in which strategy, clarity of mind, good physical condition and endurance are everything. In both games it’s important to control the center of the field and sometimes, carry out flank attacks. For me, working in the sports federation was a big personal challenge: to prove to myself that the right "entrepreneurial" approach can work, and it does, when you focus on building and motivating the team!
We have a lot of talented, caring children who want to realize their dreams for success. From a business perspective, to make millions of these dreams come true, we need to act together, and it all starts with setting the foundation for the team of the future. A team of strong, talented, highly paid and sought-after people who have turned dreams into reality. We have the ability to create a lot of this kind of future human capital in Kazakhstan, if we provide for a creative environment and invest in the training and development of our people so that they can appreciate good paying jobs. This has a domino effect as it will not only attract specialists from all regions of the country to be part of our business teams, it will also make international companies eager to work with them. And what’s best is that Freedom Holding Corp. is in a position to mobilize people and resources to support these kinds of teams when faced with challenges. Our company and our people have competencies in digitalization, which is the key to efficiency, everywhere. We live in the world of the Internet of things and with the rapid advancement of AI, things are becoming simpler and cheaper, even in our two great sports where the results of each athlete’s performance and each training session can be digitized and on the desk of their football coach or in the hands of the Chess Federation in real time.
From a sports perspective, we are building targeted support for our teams of athletes. We discover "stars," provide financial resources, help with tournament expenses, pay for coaches, and consult. When members of our teams start traveling and playing against the strongest opponents, they grow wings, and they learn that anything and everything and anything is possible.
On both the chess and football fronts we provide for a lot of game practice and we organize many national tournaments and sponsor trips abroad. We build close relationships with international federations, learn from them, and this gives us the opportunity to understand the world’s best practices, get inspired by ideas, exchange experiences, get additional quotas for our athletes, and a better feel the opportunities and trends that appear in the world.
We build strong partnership with the most important stakeholders in our universe, our governments, including the Ministry of Sports, Digitalization, Higher Education and Education, at a state level, as well as the local regional Akimats and their cities’ sports departments. We organize and sponsor a lot of "corporate tournaments" covering a vast number of people from completely different strata of society, including government employees and bankers, teachers and doctors, and even penitentiary officials and prisoners. All coming together with human and financial resources, to organize sports festivals and competitions as we try to bring the world’s best practices to make everyone’s life better. 🏟️
We are learning to build partnerships with global brands, such as Snickers, Red Bull, and Mastercard, making them part of the team too. We have created cooperation and partnerships between federations and now, the federations for football, tennis, and chess share resources with one another to make one plus one equal greater than two. And, using all our reputational capital, we show value in the involvement of supporting sports to other medium and large-sized businesses, illustrating by example why this can be beneficial for them.
Do we need infrastructure? Of course, yes, it is a key to success, and as a private company, we can help build this infrastructure faster and cheaper, often at our own expense, but it’s worth it. The state can’t do everything, everywhere, all at once, and it’s slow moving. Many important projects are not so much about money, but about high-quality project management and trust between the Akimats and strong leaders of the sporting federations they are interacting with. Leaders who have significant reputations for getting things done. It’s not a criticism, but a reality when dealing with any bureaucracy anywhere in the world.
To play the long game, a team needs a deep pool of talent to draw on and our country has a very deep pool in this regard. They just need the right set up to make Kazakhstan one of the strongest sports nations in the world, where our national teams take first place, becoming high value participants on the international stage. It could be a dream come true, don’t you think?
At the end of the day the most important thing for us is investing in people. People like coaches all over the country, who need quality training and financial support to teach our children as well as investments in control standards for the training of referees and digitalization of their work, investment in sports journalists and marketer education, match day managers, analysts and lawyers…the people list is long, but each one is important.
In many countries around the world, sport is really about big business and show business, with no real positive social impact. Not for us. For Kazakhstan it’s different. Freedom invests tens of millions of dollars a year, and sometimes without visible financial return, because I believe that with 5-7 years of consistent and professional work, keeping up the pace, and giving of ourselves to this cause, we have the potential to change our society for the better. To make this kind of quantum leap, it is necessary to have a long-term vision, and not focus on immediate returns.