Viktor Berezenko: the Institute of Cognitive Modeling has expanded due to the corona crisis

Business development is possible in times of crisis without investment if you use the challenges as an advantage. Social projects related to the coronavirus topic have helped the Institute of Cognitive Modeling not only survive but also expand. This was stated by the founder of ICM Viktor Berezenko during his speech at the Ukrainian Digital Forum 2020. 

«Since the beginning of the pandemic, our company has implemented three national social projects. They responded to the challenges created by the coronavirus. These were the largest in Ukraine and one of the world’s largest online public with reliable information about covid «Coronavirus info», the platform of free psychological assistance «Tell me» and «School_info», the largest educational community in Ukraine,» said Viktor Berezenko.

He stressed that it was possible to create the largest communities in the country without global financial investment, but through a systematic approach.

«We have built a systematic communication between government agencies, Ministries, international commercial companies such as Google and Facebook, public organizations, businesses, and volunteers of the Red Cross, and UNICEF. We packed it in a simple and understandable format for people,» said the social technologist.

Berezenko emphasizes that if not focusing on gaining money even when it is absolutely necessary, a window of opportunity will definitely open. «We didn’t earn any money on social projects, but we opened up a lot of opportunities. We did not expect such high results ourselves and were able to use the opportunities and eventually capitalized the business,» the entrepreneur concluded.

The Institute of Cognitive Modeling provides communication support to the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. In partnership with Facebook, the information campaign on the coronavirus pandemic covered 15 million Ukrainians, and in cooperation with Google 6.7 million. ICM has created the largest Viber and Telegram community «Coronavirus_info», which has almost 4 million followers, the largest educational community in Ukraine «School_info» and the free psychological assistance service «Tell me». The company also provides informational support to TV channels Kyiv.live and Odesa.live.