WFD Committee Strategy and Operational Excellence and Labor WG joint meeting

Dagen Valentine, Irina Dumanyan, and Tigran Jrbashyan from AmCham Board of Directors, 4 WG members (online), and the Executive team were present at the meeting. The SOE WG discussion was chaired by Areg Abramyan.

The Chair of the WG presented the process PwC passes through when setting up a strategy for the company and all the members agreed with the process thus mentioning the necessity to be specific in the SOE WG strategy setting-up process. All the participants shared their experience and knowledge in this regard.

As a conclusion of the discussion, the participants decided that the main mission of the SOE WG is to find out the obstacles AmCham member companies are facing in achieving their strategic goals, to help SMEs find opportunities for growth, to create close partnership relations with the appropriate Governmental authorities to make the voice and concerns of the business community heard, and to help AmCham members and government authorities (through advocacy tools) to achieve operational excellence. The participants also brought forward the problems companies face because of the lack of qualified human capital. They talked about the necessity of smoothening the work permit and residency issues, tax rates for the foreigners, and the growing attrition rate to be dealt with.

Lilit Gevorgyan suggested conducting a small survey among AmCham members about what strategy they apply in their companies, their strategic experience, strategy measuring tools, problems they face in achieving their goals.

Next steps:

 To have the list of the biggest obstacles the companies are facing in achieving their strategic goals to be shared during the next meeting.

 To find out the specific topics that will affect common strategic goals and make some certain practical suggestions, special areas where the strategy is impacted.

The Labor WG discussion was chaired by Lilit Gevorgyan. She briefed the results of the last meeting and mentioned that there are some problems in the Labor Code that need to be dealt with. The participants decided that to help to improve the Labor Code the WG should find out the problems the companies face in relation to the Labor Code first. It was decided to organize a small open survey among AmCham members and hear their concerns in this regard.

Next steps:

 The Chair of the WG will compile a questionnaire for AmCham members regarding the problems they face in relation to the Labor Code and AmCham will run the survey

 To have ready the results of the questionnaire for the next WG meeting

 To apply to the Legal and TCuFP Committees after we have all the gaps detected in relation to the Labor Code and thus to prepare a proposal to advocate with the appropriate government authorities

 To have a government representative further at the coming meetings

 To have the next meeting on 15 December 2021