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

In 2025, Kazakhstan’s IT services volume reached 2.9 trillion tenge. In January–July 2026, growth in the manufacturing industry amounted to 9%. According to Elena Poleshchuk, Director of HR company LavoroSolutions, requirements for executives are changing against this backdrop.

When all key decisions are concentrated in one person, a business begins to slow down. In response, companies are increasingly looking not for charismatic star leaders, but for architect-managers — leaders who do not centralize all decisions on themselves, but know how to build processes and distribute responsibility.

Why companies need architect-leaders

A telling example is the leadership change at Apple. Tim Cook’s successor was John Ternus, who, unlike his predecessor, has a much lower public profile. He was known primarily as the head of Apple’s hardware division 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 a leader’s public visibility as their ability to build sustainable teams and effective management mechanisms.

"Modern leaders increasingly act less as heroes who make every decision themselves — their role is changing. Instead of being the chief expert on every issue, they create the conditions in which strong specialists make the right decisions independently.
Such leaders do not seek to be the center of attention. They build processes, develop a culture of trust, delegate responsibility, and create organizations capable of growing independently of the personality of the top leader. For fast-growing companies, this approach becomes a competitive advantage."

Elena Poleschuk

Director, LavoroSolutions

What is changing in Kazakhstan

These changes are also visible in Kazakhstan, where the technology sector and industry are growing simultaneously. According to the Bureau of National Statistics, in 2025 the volume of IT services grew almost 1.7 times year-on-year. Moreover, more than 86% of services were provided to Kazakhstani clients. IT services exports reached $1 billion.

Growth was demonstrated not only by the digital economy. At the end of 2025, the industrial production index was 7.4%, and growth in the manufacturing industry was 6.4%. As enterprises expand, so does the need for new managerial competencies. As LavoroSolutions’ practice shows, companies are increasingly looking for leaders capable of working in conditions of fast-growing teams, distributed responsibility, and high-speed decision-making. This demand is particularly noticeable in IT, manufacturing, logistics, and engineering.

"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 in one person.
As the business grows, such a system begins to slow down development. That is why today more and more companies are moving to a model of distributed leadership, where the leader sets the strategy and professional teams gain greater autonomy in implementing projects."

Elena Poleschuk

Director, LavoroSolutions

When a business does not depend on one person

According to LavoroSolutions’ observations, companies in Kazakhstan are actively scaling up, entering foreign markets, working with international partners, and facing a shortage of qualified specialists.

"In such conditions, business resilience increasingly depends on the quality of the management system. As the Kazakhstani economy matures, we can expect demand to grow for a new type of leader — one who knows how to build strong teams, develop a professional environment, and create companies capable of operating successfully even when the leader is not in the spotlight," emphasized Elena Poleshchuk."

Source: digitalbusiness.kz