How the growth of the IT sector and industry in Kazakhstan is changing the approach to business management

Home page / Businesses In 2025, the volume of IT services in Kazakhstan reached 2.9 trillion tenge. In January-July 2026, growth in the manufacturing industry was 9%. According to Elena Poleshchuk, director of the personnel company LavoroSolutions, against this background, the requirements for managers are also changing. When all key decisions are focused on one person, the business begins to slow down. In response to this, companies are increasingly looking not for charismatic star leaders, but for managers-architects - leaders who do not make all decisions on themselves, but know how to build processes and distribute responsibility. A case in point is the change in Apple leadership. Tim Cook's successor was John Ternus, who, unlike his predecessor, is much less represented in the public sphere. He was best known as Apple's head of hardware and worked on the company's key products for more than 20 years. LavoroSolutions notes that this example reflects a broader trend: businesses are beginning to value not so much the publicity of a leader, but rather his ability to create stable teams and effective management mechanisms. Director of LavoroSolutions Elena Poleshchuk “The modern leader speaks less and less

in the role of a hero who makes all decisions on his own - today his task is changing. Instead of being the ultimate expert on everything, he creates an environment where strong people make good decisions on their own. Such leaders do not seek to be the center of attention. They build processes, develop a culture of trust, delegate responsibility and create organizations that are able to develop regardless of the personality of the first leader. For fast-growing companies, this approach becomes a competitive advantage,” says Elena Poleshchuk. Changes are also noticeable in Kazakhstan, where the technology sector and industry are growing simultaneously. According to the Office for National Statistics, the volume of IT services grew by almost 1.7 times year on year in 2025. At the same time, more than 86% of services were provided to Kazakhstani customers. Exports of IT services reached $1 billion. It was not only the digital economy that demonstrated growth. At the end of 2025, the industrial production index was 7.4%, growth in the manufacturing industry was 6.4%. As enterprises expand, the need for new management competencies also increases. As the practice of LavoroSolutions shows, companies are increasingly looking for

leaders capable of working in fast-growing teams, distributed responsibilities, and high speed decision making. This request is especially noticeable in IT, manufacturing, logistics and engineering areas. “Many companies have already implemented modern project management tools, using Scrum, Kanban and digital platforms. However, the main challenge arises when new tools are combined with old management models, where all key decisions are concentrated on one person. As the business grows, such a system begins to slow down development. Therefore, today more and more companies are moving to a distributed leadership model, where the leader determines the strategy, and professional teams gain more independence in implementing projects,” notes Elena Poleshchuk. According to LavoroSolutions observations, companies in Kazakhstan are actively scaling, entering foreign markets, working with international partners and facing a shortage of qualified specialists. “In such conditions, business sustainability increasingly depends on the quality of the management system. As the Kazakh economy matures, demand can be expected to grow leading

moats of a new type who know how to build strong teams, develop a professional environment and create companies that can operate successfully even when the leader is not in the spotlight,” emphasized Elena Poleshchuk.