Exclusive subscription · first cohort

Strategic Council

For C-level executives of medium and large businesses. Introductions by application via personal Telegram.

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01 · Context

Operating in overdrive

The Russian economy has entered a mode where not everyone survives. High key interest rates, cooling demand, growing fiscal burden, cautious banks and investors — all pressing simultaneously. Even resilient companies that felt confident not long ago are now forced to operate in overdrive.

Losses of Russian businesses
trillion ₽ · by year
8 4 0
5.3
2020
3.9
2021
5.4
2022
4.0
2023
7.2
2024
7.5
2025
Rosstat · record in the entire observation history
Where operating profit goes
EBIT of Russian businesses
EBIT
37%Debt servicing at key rate of 16–21%
63%Everything else, including investments
CMACP · debt sustainability threshold

This is not a COVID shock, where the drop was sharp and the rebound expected. This is slow systemic pressure with no end date — the Russian economy has never been in this configuration before.

02 · What to do?

There are proven tools,
but an additional layer is needed

Business clubs

Horizontal exchange

Regular check-ins with peers — inspiration, networking, others' success stories and mistakes.

Rarely dive deep into your specific business
Consulting

Project expertise

An external team for a targeted task — strategy, M&A, transformation. Deep work, concrete results.

Expensive and context disappears once the project is delivered
Board of Directors

Quarterly oversight

Independent directors and advisory boards — an external view on major decisions, a strategic overlay.

Rarely engages with the operational rhythm
StratCouncil

Regular strategic process

External perspective, a circle of peers, and a decision-making structure — but not one-off and not once a quarter, rather once every two weeks. Without budget spikes, with accumulated context, between major strategy reviews and between one-off consulting projects.

StratCouncil is not a replacement for other working tools, but an effective complement. It fills the space that used to close on its own: through time, resilience, and intuition.
03 · What it is

StratCouncil — three elements
in one subscription

What used to require three separate budgets and three separate providers is now consolidated into one regular format.

01

Top-tier consultants on a subscription basis

The Senior Advisors team with experience on projects for Sberbank, Kaspersky, MTS, Severstal, ivi and others. Previously, access to this level of expertise required large project budgets. The subscription makes the same thing ongoing.

02

A regular strategic process

Two workshops per month, personal sessions with Denis Sobe-Panek, an ongoing chat with the StratCouncil team. Strategic decisions are reviewed and adjusted every two weeks — not once every 3–5 years.

03

A circle of peers

Up to ten participants per cohort. C-level executives of companies with revenue from ₽500 million. Testing hypotheses not with subordinates, not with investors, not with competitors — but with peers.

04 · Who you trust

The StratCouncil team

Format author
Associate Partner
Senior Advisors

Denis
Sobe-Panek

Strategic and investment advisor to shareholders
  • Ex-partner at Strategy Partners (Sberbank ecosystem)
  • Ex-board member and strategy committee chair at a company with revenue >₽10 billion
  • MGIMO · SKOLKOVO MBA · Harvard, Berkeley, HKUST
Senior Partner
Senior Advisors

Vadim
Batkin

M&A, strategic and market research
  • 15+ years of experience in M&A, strategic consulting and corporate finance
  • 10+ M&A deals totaling ₽5+ billion
  • SPbSUEF · MiBA Hamburg University · Grenoble University
Partner
Senior Advisors

Vladislav
Seroshtan

Strategic and market research, corporate finance
  • 10+ years of experience in strategic research and corporate finance
  • 60+ consulting and research projects
  • SPbSEU · SPbSU, PhD student, Economics Faculty
Junior Partner
Senior Advisors

Vladislav
Afanasiev

Strategy, financial modeling, data analysis
  • 7 years of experience in strategic consulting and corporate finance
  • Market analysis, strategy development, financial modeling
  • HSE — Master's, PhD student, lecturer
05 · Proof of concept

Demo workshop
May 20

For those who want to see StratCouncil in action, we are running a workshop with real breakdowns of your cases.

What will happen?

An introduction to the StratCouncil methodology and three hours of real case analysis.

Who leads it?

Format author Denis Sobe-Panek and the Senior Advisors partner team. The same people who will work with you in StratCouncil on an ongoing basis.

What are the conditions?

Up to 20 participants. C-level executives of companies with revenue from ₽500 million. Free for those who have completed an initial introduction.

What comes next?

A free first month of StratCouncil for the first cohort of 10 people, after which you choose the interaction format that fits your needs.

Wednesday · May 20 · online · 3 hours
To join the workshop, start with an application in Telegram. I will reply personally, usually within a day — we will get on a call, discuss your needs, and I will tell you more about StratCouncil. If the format works for you, we will meet, break down your case at the workshop, and get to work.
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