Mikhail Slobodin
General Director of OJSC VimpelCom since 2013. He held positions of executive vice president of OJSC TNK-BP for strategy and business development, president of OJSC Russian utility systems", President of CJSC Integrated Energy Systems (IES), Vice President for Energy and Director of the Department of OJSC TNK-BP Management. Candidate of Technical Sciences.
Mikhail, thank you for the time and attention you paid to Lifehacker. The first traditional question is: what does your workplace look like?
Very simple. I have a large office, but I use 15-20% of the space in it. Everything else is an entourage from the previous scope. The office has glass walls and constantly open doors.
It's on my table MacBook Pro 17, which I take with me when I need it. I don't have any other computer. The general concept is that I do 95% of my work on my phone. The computer plays a different role: it is more convenient to write posts than on a mobile phone, because, unfortunately, LiveJournal has a completely non-working mobile application. I do everything else with iPhone screen 6. Historically, I started using Apple products before the big fashion for this brand began, and the equipment of this company has been with me for more than 15 years.
I also have a vintage rotary-dial phone on my desk that doesn’t work, and a phone for office calls, but I rarely use it. And video communication equipment.
What place do papers play in your work?
There is one piece of paper on the desktop - an A3 sheet with a plan for the week. That's all. People come to me without papers and show everything on the screen. Because the person who comes with Apple equipment can show using Apple TV everything you need, either from your phone, or from your iPad, or from your computer. There is also an interface for Android devices.
What software do you use?
I don't use anything special or unusual. I make presentations using Keynote and use Pages for texts. For business needs I use Word and Excel. I actively use iPhoto and Final Cut if I need to compose a video, because I do a lot of things for the blog myself: I’m interested in trying everything.
In terms of communications, I use WhatsApp with a certain circle of people who like to use WhatsApp. With people who love Telegram (for example, Megafon CEO Ivan Tavrin), I use Telegram.
Within the company, we use Slack to communicate between top management and teams. This is one of the leaders in group work; about 80 employees use it. It’s convenient to discuss team things with him online.
Depending on the situation, I use many other applications. If I go to take photographs, I use an application that helps download photos from the camera via Wi-Fi (and I have a Canon EOS 6D), without performing any manipulations with the memory card. If I take a copter with me, as I recently did in Georgia, then I have the dji-Vision application, which allows me to control the copter from my mobile phone.
How do you find out the news?
I don’t read newspapers at all and don’t experience any problems from it. I use MediaMetrics - it is a well-known news aggregator, quite fast and interesting. For IT and telecom news, I use Siliconrus. Of course, I view the RBC feed through a browser. Plus, the company implements press monitoring in a non-standard way. Not as a newsletter in Word or HTML, we did it based on the Flipboard mobile application. Thus, what the media writes about us is seen in the form of a single stream not only by us, but by anyone in general. And a purely telecom business product - the Medallia application, which allows us to view Net Promoter Score, service level indicators online, and receive relevant analytics online.
You are a very active user of social networks. How do you work with them?
From the point of view of social media, I have all the necessary ones installed mobile applications. Instagram- one of my favorites. I have 8.5 thousand subscribers there. This network is different high level positive, because there are more women on Instagram, and the female audience generates more positive content. On LiveJournal, where among the users there is a significant preponderance of men, and of advanced age, sometimes there is simply trash going on. However, it is an interesting platform that allows you to express your thoughts. Obviously I use apps " In contact with" And Facebook, Twitter works mainly for reception: people there often raise interesting problems and cases on the work of Beeline. I use Snapchat to communicate with my eldest daughter.
How often do you look at new messages?
Some of the information that comes through social media is work. Through networks, I receive feedback from clients: what is not working for us, what is worth paying attention to. Such feedback gives a lot, because we are a service business and we always need to understand what is happening in our relationships with clients. Therefore, I regularly check what and how everything is done about once every two hours. If a problem arises, I forward it to those responsible for this sector and ask for a report. The fact is that such a process goes beyond solving a specific problem for one client. From each such case one can learn a large number of meaningful conclusions about what is failing in the entire system. It is the system that needs to be corrected.
We have a social media group in Slack, in which guys report important signals. Actually, Slack is a working tool that is checked much more often than accounts on social networks. Therefore, if something requires my quick reaction, then I react - it’s not difficult.
Of course, I don't always sit in in social networks and I don’t always look at updates every two hours, because events and meetings don’t allow it. I sort out most of the messages when I go to work, from seven to eight in the morning, and when I return home: I look at press monitoring, create a journal on FlipBoard, forward messages and tasks. I spend my travel time on deep screening of what happened and analyzing feedback.
A blog on LiveJournal is, in a sense, a form of self-expression, but it is clear that it appeared exclusively for business purposes. I would love to spend the freed up time in a more interesting way for myself and my family. But this is part of what we do at Beeline, with Beeline and around Beeline.
How do you plan your schedule?
Of course, I have a receptionist who makes the schedule. And quite a large number of events take place as planned, because a large organization has its own rhythm of life. I use the standard Mail.ru calendar, in it I look through the events that my assistants have planned, and set up some meetings myself.
Do you always want to go to work in the morning?
Of course not. Just last month I arrived from Georgia. It's warm, good, wonderful there. And here - a blizzard, snow, get up early. I’m an ordinary person, I really want to sleep, but work needs to be done. That's why I almost always arrive at work by eight in the morning. A large team and a lot of tasks mean a lot of responsibility, and then you come to work, get involved, and forget about all the morning difficulties. You know, like the joke: the hedgehogs cried, injected themselves, but continued to eat the cactus. And then it turned out that the cactus tastes very good.
What place is allocated to sports in the schedule?
I exercise two to three times a week with a personal trainer. I’m doing fitness or boxing, I want to increase the number of classes to four a week, I’ll see if I can achieve my plan.
You have worked in many high-tech industries. When do you have time to study?
The knowledge from the university was of no use to me. The most basic thing I learned at university was the mechanism for acquiring knowledge. When I came to study, they also taught political economy, but after two years it became meaningless. The only subject that was interesting was economic mathematics, where we studied using Western textbooks. And I certainly wasn’t taught what was happening in business in the 90s. All baggage is learning by doing. But about 5-7 years ago I started reading books. When read correctly, they become a tremendous source of information for looking at yourself and around you.
Learning through books is hard. You can go to an MBA, where teachers will teach you everything. But this is much more expensive, takes more time, and 80% of all the work is useless. If you choose what to teach, then you spend pennies, allocate as much time as you can. But this is a difficult plan to implement.
I read mainly business literature on English language. I can recommend some of the most interesting books:
- John Maxwell, The Five Levels of Leadership;
- Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team;
- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. I highly recommend this book to everyone, because it is really about management, about the system and about what not to do.
You began to occupy leadership positions quite early. Do you have to be born as a leader or can you become one?
It depends what you call “early”. In the nineties, when the old directors and their socialist methods stopped working, those who had just graduated from university and were something of themselves quickly became the bosses. And I believe that leadership is a learned skill. An ordinary person, by rethinking himself and changing himself, can become a leader. Perhaps not ideal. There is an analogy with sports: at first you can’t do anything, but if you train hard, monitor your progress, pay attention to mistakes and correct them, you will definitely improve your performance. We can say that leaders are born and the rest had no chance. But almost anyone can be a leader at a very good level.
What bothers you at work?
Nothing particularly bothers me. There are problems, of course, and everything takes time. The company operates in an interesting, competitive industry. There are external factors, but a lot of problems lie within the company itself; we are in our own way, but we are consistently fighting it. And I really want to move from solving problems to creating something new and breakthrough. Although not as innovative as Jobs, our industry is still more traditional, but I think that in three years we will not be what we are today. I hope to see a different level of work and services, and most importantly, customer service.
If you were given the opportunity to use some kind of magic to master one skill without training, what would you choose?
I dream of singing well, but I have a big problem with hearing. He can also be trained, but I am a person who likes to do things well. Even if I put a lot of effort into training, I will become an extremely mediocre singer. So I would ask to be taught how to sing.
Life hacking from Mikhail Slobodin
First. Always try to do more than you should. Always try to raise the bar for yourself, otherwise you will quickly fall into the normal but mediocre zone.
Second. Always learn. Few people remember the slogan “Study, study and study again,” but in vain: life is too changeable. Those specialties in which you can work in five years do not even exist today. Therefore, you need to look around and draw the right conclusions from everything you see.
Third. You have to believe in yourself. Not in the mode of stupid self-confidence, but be sure to try hard to get things done and weigh all the possibilities. Many barriers are eventually overcome.
Fourth. Compare costs with results. Sometimes it happens that a person decides: I want to become someone. Worked, became. And then it turned out to be completely unclear why he needed this. So set yourself the right goals.
In chapter
One of the most famous Russian top managers, former head of VimpelCom Mikhail Slobodin, will probably not return to Russia in the near future. Here, investigators working on the case of multimillion-dollar bribes to the former leadership of Komi have accumulated questions for him. Slobodin said goodbye to Beeline employees, describing his successes in his last letter. However, the facts show that under the top manager the company lost to its competitors. It’s interesting that everything that happens to Slobodin fits perfectly into the “two carrots” principle he invented.
Goodbye, our affectionate Mikhail!
Events developed rapidly. First, searches took place in Viktor Vekselberg’s Renova. Then the security forces detained two top managers close to Viktor Feliksovich (the court soon arrested them). And at the same time they announced that they were establishing the whereabouts of another person involved in a criminal case regarding bribes to the former leadership of the Komi Republic in the amount of 800 million rubles. This top manager is Mikhail Slobodin, who once headed Vekselberg’s company IES-Holding (now called T Plus). Since 2013, Slobodin has headed VimpelCom ( mobile operator, operating under the Beeline brand).
On the day when it became known about the investigation’s interest in him, the top manager first stated, who is in France on a planned business trip and will soon return to Russia. Then he stopped answering calls from journalists. It soon became known that he voluntarily resigned from VimpelCom. And then him announced on the federal wanted list. The Vedomosti newspaper obtained a farewell letter that Slobodin sent to Beeline employees. The ex-director told former colleagues how well the company developed under him. But for some reason I forgot to mention that during the 3 years that he headed VimpelCom, the operator lost to its competitors.
Leader and grief
At the end of August, the company's shareholders extended the contract with Slobodin. Although there was every reason not to do this. 3 years ago, when the top manager joined the company, its revenue was 43.5 billion rubles behind MTS and 26.7 billion behind Megafon. Last year lagged behind its main competitors increased much more. MTS VimpelCom has already lost 74 billion, and Megafon 43. It’s funny that Slobodin himself somehow promised that everything will be fine with financial indicators in 2016. However, he failed to fulfill his promise. Based on the results of the first half of the year, the operator’s profit decreased by a third. However, shareholders believed that the CEO had created the prerequisites for future growth. It will no longer be possible to test this in practice.
But Mikhail Slobodin became the most transparent, open and eccentric leader in Russian business. What did he not do? For example, once having put on a good make-up, Settled as an intern at one of Beeline's offices. There he ate cheesecakes, fought with customers and generally behaved, to put it mildly, inappropriately. So Slobodin wanted to check how company employees react to unusual situations. The top manager wrote several blogs at once (now closed), personally communicated with clients online. He wrote articles for Russian media and published a corporate newspaper. True, they say that he did not do all this himself; the promotion was supposedly provided by a whole team of PR people.
On this topic
What kind of manager was he?
In his last letter to VimpelCom employees, Slobodin reported, how under his leadership it was possible to change the trend and increase customer loyalty. And one paragraph is so touching that it’s not a sin to quote it:
“I really ask our top management team to unite and move on, despite the extremely difficult situation that will develop around this one way or another. This is a serious test for you guys - a test of Leadership. My energy, enthusiasm and humor - I'd like to think I have it all - will be missed, you must now find these resources within yourself to energize your teams during these challenging times."
This "what a guy he was" message is full of lyrics but lacking in facts. For example, this: in recent years, VimpelCom has lost not only to its main competitors in the Big Three, but even to the operator Tele2. It is known that for a cellular company the most important element of work is the construction of infrastructure, that is, a network, base stations. And according to this indicator, VimpelCom overtook not only MTS and Megafon, but also Tele2. The author of these lines also once owned a Beeline. Complaining to the company that there was no connection in my own apartment did not help. I had to switch to another operator and, lo and behold, the connection appeared.
"Gentleman" failure
However, for Slobodin all these problems are already in the past. Forbes magazine found out details of the investigation into the case against top managers of T Plus. The arrested head of Komi allegedly agreed to a deal with the investigation. Vyacheslav Gaizer, and also spoke about Slobodin’s activities during the times when he headed the energy company. At the same time, the source explained to reporters the following: the top manager fled to France and “would be an idiot if he returned.” Mikhail Slobodin is clearly not an idiot. Perhaps he actually planned to return. The manager even bought ticket on the route “Nice – Moscow” for September 8th. However, the passenger did not show up for the flight and returned the ticket. This happened a day after Mikhail Slobodin was put on the federal wanted list in Russia.
However, this is not the most “tasty” detail. The manager could have been warned that investigators had questions for him. Therefore, he flew to France not on a planned business trip, but simply put, he ran away. In addition, he wrote a farewell SMS to his ex-wife: “Oksan, now you can only count on yourself.” Some clarification is needed here. Mikhail Slobodin divorced his wife 5 years ago, but helped her financially and their two children who live and study in the UK (where he will probably move too, because France easily extradites suspects to Russia). Now he has a new passion and a 5-year-old child. Whether they stayed in Russia and whether they received a similar “gentleman’s” SMS is unknown.
Horizontal carrot from behind
Once Mikhail Slobodin invented a rule of personnel management that has been widely circulated on the Internet. He called this system “Two Carrots.” It looks like a carrot in a vertical position and the same vegetable, only in a horizontal position. The idea is simple - a vertical carrot symbolizes all sorts of goodies: career growth, increased salary and status. But the horizontal one, or as he called it “the carrot in the back,” means a lever of pressure, punishment. Explaining this system with erotic overtones, the manager wrote that even when reading about the “carrot from behind,” someone even fidgets in their chair from an unpleasant sensation. Judging by the current behavior of Mikhail Slobodin, he also sensed the same carrot that this time was in the hands of the security forces.
Hi all. I decided to leave a post in my journal “One day of mine...”. For history and archive. To be honest, I didn’t expect that there would be so many responses from current and former Beeline employees, as well as from competitors :-) Those who have already read it on One of my days can safely not read it. Well, for those who missed it - optional.
My name is Slobodin Mikhail, a widely known person in narrow circles. A not very well-known head of a very famous Russian company. Companies with a glorious and bright past, a difficult present and an obviously bright future. I present to your attention one of my days, May 21, which in fact turned out to be a complete reflection of the fact that now the overwhelming part of my life is devoted to the bright future of this company. My other life, unfortunately, is passing me by, which certainly worries me and my family, but what can I do? I picked up the tug, don’t say it’s not hefty.
I am writing not only for you, but also for my employees - they are very interested in what their CEO does, although I already tell them a lot. So if you feel like there is a lot of information and comments, don’t read and move on. They may not be for you.
1. Oh, this one standard call phone. It pulls you out of sleep at the 6:45 you planned. The beloved eldest daughter on the screen brightens up the awakening. The brain wakes up and turns on very quickly. I’m glad for myself that I haven’t forgotten since yesterday that I’m logging my day today.
Let's go... I take a screenshot, while at the same time lingering on the photo - my mood improves.
2. I quickly go to the bathroom. Every minute in the morning is scheduled, but there is an instruction to record as much as possible, so I’m trying to follow it. I'm trying to take a selfie in the bathroom - that's what a lot of people told me they do. I decide to do this for the first time. It turns out to be horror, two attempts - the horror does not stop. I’m finishing torturing myself and my phone. Selfies are a special art that needs special attention - I’m even starting to respect the girls from Instagram who do it extremely professionally.
For moral compensation and the elimination of the self-inferiority complex that is emerging within, I go out onto the balcony and photograph the view from the balcony in the bathroom. A wonderful day is beginning. Super. The mood lifts after trying to take a selfie. Nature and interior are better for me :)
3. I look around in search of something interesting and here is our miracle. A tree house and a swing tied to a branch are a childhood dream, and now this dream has become a reality for the youngest son.
The birds are singing, it's warm, there's a breeze - well, this day is off to a great start!
4. Brushing your teeth, shaving and everything else - well, you know what I mean :) It takes less time than taking photographs. Time is running out and we need to get dressed.
The workspace here is very organized. Spending more time designing how everything is organized saves time every day. Ties (I even have two branded ties in my wardrobe for working in sales offices), belts, cufflinks, briefs, socks, including striped yellow and black socks - everything is at hand.
You can get dressed even in complete darkness. It takes no more than 4 minutes to get ready here. Well, I don’t forget about the badge - which for us means a special love for Clients and knowledge of the NPS system (Our Service Indicator) - the badge is issued only to those who pass this exam. And those who fail do not work for the Company for a long time.
5. Quick and modest breakfast - salad in pita bread and tea. Simple and delicious. I eat very quickly - the costs of a difficult childhood, so that the tea doesn’t even have time to cool down.
6. Time is running out. Big clock in the kitchen they remind you to hurry up. My working day traditionally begins at 8 am, and in order to be guaranteed to be in the office by this time, I must leave no later than 7:10. It’s already back to back, but one important morning duty has not yet been completed.
7. And here it is - my morning duty has come :) Our night watchman Funtik pulled himself up for the morning portion of his feline happiness. A master at begging, especially when he knows there is a big chance. We satisfy Funtik by taking photographs and even shooting videos in parallel to save time. Oh, how little a cat needs to be happy. If you have already made one creature happy in the morning - the day will not be lived in vain!
8. Funtik and the blooming garden see me off. It is certainly a miracle to go outside to breathe in the aroma of flowers, fresh morning greenery, listen to the birds sing and walk not on the asphalt, but along the green path. These 30 seconds from the door to the car in the morning give so much positive energy that lasts for a long time.
By the way, flowers and the garden at home often become the “heroes” of my Instagram @myslobodin.
9. The Jaguar has already arrived and is ready to take me to work. We are slightly deviating from the schedule - photographing still takes time.
10. Driver Sasha - has been working with me for more than ten years, to be honest, I don’t remember exactly how long he has been with me.
11. The beginning of my journey to the office is also pure beauty. There is a linden alley in the village at the beginning of the journey, and then the road goes through a very fresh forest in the morning, still fresh because of the young greenery. The air is invigorating as well as the bright sun, despite the early morning. To convey this feeling to you, I had to stop several times. But it's worth it :)
12. Having passed through the forest and already on the road, where there is nothing special to see, I get to work. My mobile phone is a huge window to the world and a control center. I check all social media channels - for starters, my favorite Instagram is the center of positivity, I see who and how many liked me, I like the works of other Instagrammers I like - Dasha @daryadaryad, for example. I’m looking at Twitter - our head of the Siberian region reported on passing the NPS knowledge test (I won’t repeat it - you already remembered it before), I understand that Seryozha can already be awarded a badge. The test passed 100% - excellent. Well, at the same time I drop the news I like into my flipboard, one of the best news collection apps from my point of view. My magazine, in which I collect all the news about telecom, about our Company and competitors, is subscribed to by more than 2,500 people; these are employees of our Company who can receive first-hand information almost online at a minimum cost.
I’m working on an evening trouble-ticket - the SMS that comes to my phone immediately indicates the phone number of the person responsible (Simple. Convenient. For you - this is not only for Clients) and with him, without delay, we figure out what the problem was, how well-coordinated and organized the incident was has been worked out and what needs to be done to improve the system and minimize the risk of recurrence. Everyone knows that I will definitely call. This morning we sorted out an evening incident in the Central region; one of our IT systems that ensures the operation of the mobile Internet malfunctioned.
In parallel, I test the speed of the Internet, respond to emails that have accumulated overnight - there is not a lot of work email there, but there is some. You need to start your working day with a completely clean slate :)))
13. 8:00 So time flies by on the road absolutely unnoticed - I drive up to the office - it’s located at the intersection of Krasnoproletarskaya and Sadovaya. In general, the journey took exactly 45 minutes and I arrived right before 8 o’clock, but exactly on time. The sun is already starting to get hot, the sky is turning blue, the day will be hot. This concludes my mission as a photographer before the end of the day, and my colleague takes over the baton of photo recording daryadarya . Well, now, thank God, I can completely concentrate on work.
Our employees call our glass building a “cucumber.” The Moscow region team is concentrated there. Today we are working in it - we have a Deep Dive, and simply a deep dive into the issues of business development in the Moscow region. Although my office is located in a neighboring building on the 8th floor, I won’t get into it today.
14. View from the window of the office of the head of the Moscow region. Our paved street, summer cafe under umbrellas. It's still quiet and deserted - after all, it's 8 am, but literally in half an hour people will start to arrive.
15. We are all in the light, summer has almost arrived, we are in a good mood - now we will start.
16. But before starting, I need to catch up a little with coffee (I know that I should write with coffee, but I catch up with coffee).
17. Our atmosphere is relaxed and cheerful, although we discuss serious problems. The regional team has recently been formed, the atmosphere in the team is very positive, and this is very good. In life you need to approach many things with humor, but of course you shouldn’t lose the essence either.
18. A lot has already been done - and the main focus during the discussion is how to consolidate the positive dynamics that we have seen over the last few months after a difficult 2013, what advantages the new client strategy provides and a change in attitude towards the Client - the guys are optimistic. The enemy will not pass. The clients will be ours. What I like about the telecom industry is the real fight for the client. Everyone has their own “way of working with a team” and we are looking for our own.
19. Sergei Rubtsov is our leader in Moscow, and I look to the future with confidence and optimism. A lot of groundwork has already been made and big plans for this year - both in terms of network quality and in terms of new services and opportunities that our Clients will receive. They haven't seen anything like this for probably five years.
20. After analyzing the general situation, trends, projects and action plan to “capture Moscow” and regain the trust of our Clients, I have a traditional meeting when visiting each region. Meeting with key employees of the region - this is our growing shift. But before the guys have eaten all the sandwiches, I'm reserving a couple for...
21 In order to bring them to our chief strategist - Artem Nits. He complained that I was going to eat sandwiches with key employees, and he was starving. Now Artem will not go hungry - and there is a holiday on his street. The task of the General Director is not only to ask, but also to help his team in difficult times, so that later he can ask even more :)
22. 11:00 Meeting with key employees, many different questions, lively dialogue, there is something for me to think about, but on the other hand I asked - what have you personally done to make the Company better, to make it better for the Client?
A few minutes ago, people cheerfully expressed their wishes to the General Director about what needs to be corrected and where I personally, as a leader, need to strengthen my work, and when the question came back, what tasks each of those present has personally done and plans to do - that’s where the people started swimming. So we need to work on our internal culture, both for me and, of course, for all our employees. Especially the key ones.
23. I propose to compete and come up with a caption for this photo :) This is a legacy of the past, but they decided not to remove the pasted piece of paper :)
24. This spring, bicycle parking appeared in front of the office. Not many employees are coming yet. But in Perm our long-time critic and at the same time regular Customer maxim_perm insists that they appear at every sales office. I'm afraid that Maxim's big one will stand there in splendid isolation, just like this big one. But oh well, we'll see - summer will tell.
25. The first part of the DeepDive presentation and discussion block is over - time to go to the fields. Let's get on the bus.
26. 12:30 Now the plan is to visit retail stores. Our sales centers. Please ignore the strange bag in the back seat, it accidentally hit the camera.
27. To eliminate special preparation for a meeting at any one sales point, and at the same time check the functionality of the mobile application, I choose a sales office to visit directly on the go through the application.
29. There are such amazing places in our Moscow. I was surprised myself when I saw it. You drive normally and don’t look around - as a result, you miss the life of the city.
30. We are already at the gate. We have a common entrance here with Euroset. The place here is lively, exit from the metro. But soon this office will have to be cleaned - the Moscow government is “cleaning up” the clearing in front of the metro. This is probably correct, but for us it is additional fuss.
31. First, let's go to Euroset - this is not our competitor, but a partner. On many issues in the development of our network of sales offices, we rely on him. best practics(although there are questions and problems there, like any business). Since May, MTS announced. that it stops accepting payments in Euroset. I decided to check - I randomly entered a number belonging to MTS clients and transferred 100 rubles to his account. Everything is working. And one of the MTS Clients will also unexpectedly be happy when they receive 100 rubles; usually in telecoms the opposite happens - they unexpectedly write off for something;)
32. A wide variety of phones on the Euroset - your eyes run wild. And of course, I look at how proposals from our Company are presented. Everything is fine.
33. Come to us - the entrance with the Euroset is door to door. I look at our explanation tariff plans for clients. It has become much simpler and more beautiful, but still my inner sense of beauty tells me that I am still far from ideal. We will probably ask our creative bloggers for help and ideas - we will announce a competition.
34. I’m talking with our salesman. We discuss why we are better, why we are still worse than our competitors. It is important that our employees know not only the strengths of our Company, but also the weaknesses of our competitors.
35. Now we go to the back room - this is the place that shows the internal culture in the sales office, and there you can see a lot of nuances. But this is not the main thing - we are discussing how the new motivation system works and improving the quality of work of our sellers. It was launched recently, is much simpler than the old one and overall gives good progress, but every nuance is important here. And what is very important for understanding the quality of this system is how the guys perceive it and how they use it. They went over it in great detail.
36. Photo of the Company’s management - the first time I was in the sales office after my appointment - October 2013 (this was my first experience as a consultant) there was also a printout hanging on the wall - but the guys, in order not to change the entire piece of paper, changed only a small part - pasting it on top of the old one CEO new photo. We changed them so often that it seemed like a reasonable approach :) I keep that photo as a reminder of those times.
37. We fuel ourselves a little while moving between offices.
38. Now the KNOW-HOW salon is next, this is the former ION and this is a new format for telecom - a full-scale store for selling any computer equipment and phones with training and service functions. The weather is excellent and Sergey talks along the way about how this format differs from our traditional sales offices.
39. We talk with the guys about what we need to improve in order to have more Clients and more sales. The guys there are commercial, they feel the Client and his needs better. All the same, the staff at KNOW-HOW is more experienced than in our young monobrand. The conversation turned out to be two-way. You get a lot out of such meetings if you know how to listen and ask questions.
40. 14:30 The city lives its own life. The summer weather is great outside.
41. 15:30 After the sales offices we go to the control center of our entire Moscow network. The technical directorate office is located in Sokolniki. This office has a huge history related to the development of the company.
42. 15:35 But before we begin discussing issues of quality and network development, we need to have lunch. By tradition, we have lunch at a local canteen. We eat for money, so if you forgot your wallet, you need to ask a friend. Sergei Rubtsov wanted to document the fact of loaning me 500 rubles. By the way, we need to return the favor.
43. A full lunch - I decided to take everything and compote to try. All together costs about 350 rubles. Not cheap for lunch in a corporate cafeteria. But overall it's delicious.
44. Feedback This is a great and easy option for cafeteria staff to find out what our employees think and want. In this heat, our people have a persistent request for okroshka, which they express in different ways.
45. Mission Control Center is our Moscow network control center. Data about current mode, problematic situations and analyzes the efficiency of the network and the quality of the service received by our Clients.
46. One monitor is not enough - control is carried out according to many parameters and in different dimensions. The colors on the screens do not always correspond to our idea of the presence or absence of a problem - but the guys live in their own color scheme, where red does not always mean bad :)
47. Our technicians are not used to paying attention to obstacles on their way, but just in case, for the bravest and most direct - there is a special inscription on the door :)
48. We discuss how the operation of our equipment, base stations, controllers and all that is analyzed. Their number is in the thousands - and here it is important to do this in the system, otherwise if you chase two base stations, you will not catch a single one.
49. There are many thoughts and many questions that need to be resolved. Yes, it’s not an easy job to drag a hippopotamus out of the swamp :)
50. Based on the results of the discussion, I draw what I would like to see as a reflection of the quality of service. They promised to do it - then, if necessary, I will show what is happening with our quality over time.
51. Imagine that one such “cabinet” serves almost 400 thousand subscribers.
52. It’s hot, everything is floating, and the bright sun reflecting from the windows of the opposite building gives such incredible pictures.
53. Business consists of details. For example, it turns out that diesel generators are on trailers. And these trailers have not moved for several years. It seems illogical, but on the other hand, firefighters require that diesel generators be located at a distance of at least 12 meters from the building. The territory doesn't allow it, where can you stick them? So they stand there forever.
54. Together with the engineers, we climb onto the roof of one of the technical directorate buildings to our base station. The sun is not blazing like a child's. What is it like for our guys, dressed in full gear in this heat?
55. You are required to wear a helmet at technical structures. Order is order - whether you are the General Director or not does not matter. The sun is bright, it’s hot - that’s why the face is so dissatisfied :))
56. The guys came to change the angle of the antenna. Taking this opportunity and a momentary pause, I return the favor to Dasha - I photograph her at the moment of adjustment. She, unlike me, looks extremely harmonious both in a helmet and with a camera.
57. Changing the tilt by just 4 degrees, and communication is noticeably improved. The guys work out the outfit and finish the job. It's already six o'clock. We talked about different things, everything consists of little things. One of the biggest problems is getting to the site (this is the name of the site where the antenna is installed), there are questions from landlords, and the availability of the necessary keys to open the premises - we store thousands of keys, with the help of which our employees get to where they set up the equipment. Sometimes you have to, by hook or by crook, get to the place where you can do something with the equipment, especially when an emergency occurs. We talked about all this.
58. 19:00 After the “tour” of our technical center, we discussed many more issues on technology and commerce. In general, the program of action is extremely extensive. So the connection will be better, the speeds will be higher, and new offers for Moscow clients will be interesting. We finish the Moscow theme with a sense of accomplishment. My program is not finished. And the guys are already leaving for home with a feeling of relief.
Moscow is beautiful on this day - blue and deep skies, bright sun and still fresh greenery makes everything somehow very festive. I'm moving on to my next meeting. The only annoying thing is, of course, the traffic jams. The peak is in the center.
59. 19:45 I finally get to the next place - I have a meeting with Amdocs CEO Eli Gelman. Amdocs is one of the leading software providers for large companies with a huge number of clients. And one of the undisputed leaders. We are discussing the implementation of a project to transform our Company’s IT with their participation - the system will be simpler, there will be fewer errors and problems for the Client and we will be able to make completely new offers for our Clients. But it will take quite some time. But the one who walks will master the road.
60. 21:30 After helping Eli Gelman (a small favor is always pleasant, and it didn’t cost me anything) to get him on the Aeroexpress at the Belorussky station (he was going to the St. Petersburg Forum), I’m going home. On the way home, I sort out my mail, see what happened in the news on all my information and social media channels. I answer, comment and all that.
By the way, I always buckle up in the back seat of a car. This is a habit I have from working at TNK-BP. There they paid a lot of attention to safety and this habit, which remained as a reminder of this work, is supported by me as a memory of this very interesting period in my life.
61. 22:30 We arrived. It's already getting dark, but it's still light. After all, summer is coming very soon. My iPhone started recording events again.
62. The first person who meets me is Funtik. Waiting for his portion of evening happiness :)))
63. An evening piece of happiness for the cat. This is already my duty.
64. The air outside is amazing and the birds are singing, but not loudly, but in the evening. View from the balcony of the gazebo - I can only get to it on weekends.
65. 22:30 Swimmed with my youngest son in the pool, he’s still a night owl. Absolute energy and positivity, he swam joyfully (at 3 years old, he swims on his own without any means at hand, dives, gets everything he needs from the bottom - in general, the subject of our pride). I myself also threw off the burden of the working day and recharged myself. I don’t publish photographs - my mother has a principled position on this matter.
23:40 But working programm not finished - I need to finish the LiveJournal post I started a few days ago. I finish the final version at night.
66. I set the alarm for the new day and go to bed.
The third largest operator in Russia, VimpelCom (Beeline brand), has a new director since January 2018, Vasil Latsanich. Previously, he held key positions in another telecom company - MTS. Will the new manager copy the management style of competitors, will the issue of selling the operator’s infrastructure be resolved, what will happen to the Euroset stores that the operator has acquired, and what is the role of the state in the telecom industry - these questions were answered by the new CEO of VimpelCom, Vasil Latsanich.
In recent years, only the lazy have not noted that extremely negative trends are occurring with the once second-largest operator in Russia by subscriber base. Intrigues of shareholders, a significant debt load and the need for austerity, and therefore underinvestment and failures in the quality of the network, high staff turnover and their partial layoffs, the lack of own retail and the willingness to outsource everything - all this recent history VimpelCom. The new leader will have a hard time, but this is precisely what our today’s hero sees as his goal. Moreover, he has extensive experience in telecoms.
Vasil Latsanich has headed VimpelCom PJSC since January 10, 2018. He has extensive experience in the field of telecommunications, IT technologies and digital services. He has been working in the telecom industry since 2001, mainly in management positions in the MTS group of companies, where in recent years he held the post of Vice President for Strategy and Marketing, working at the Moscow headquarters of MTS. In this position, Vasil Latsanich was responsible for the company’s commercial and strategic initiatives, as well as the transformation of customer experience and digital development.
Previously, Vasil Latsanich held a number of positions in the field of marketing and sales development in the Ukrainian and Russian divisions of Coca-Cola, being responsible for the development of the company’s global brands and products in regional markets.
Vasil graduated from the N. Lysenko Higher State Institute in Lviv. He holds an MBA from London Business School.
- You worked for about 16 years at MTS. Did you think that you would someday manage Beeline?
Of course, I never thought about it. And I never imagined this. Beeline has always been interesting to me, but it was always far away.
You have been working at VimpelCom for three months. Are there any fundamental differences in the companies' approaches to business? How different is the company culture?
Naturally, there are differences, but they are smaller than I expected. These are still very similar organizations, with the same technology platform, the same opportunities to work in the market and, interestingly, overlapping people, including managers. Of course, corporate culture differs in some nuances. We see different positions of operators and their different behavior, as well as different goals.
I would like to note that Beeline is a young and vibrant organization. This manifests itself in behavior. By the way, the biggest difference between operators is related to banding. To some extent, we have already turned into branded companies. As a marketer, I understand this very well. And the team and corporate culture support and develop this brand. The Beeline brand, in my opinion, gives more opportunities, it is more flexible than the MTS brand. In this sense, both approaches to the market and the market presence of a particular brand are also determined by its history and its specifics.
- What are the key tasks for you at the moment?
This year we are doing something impossible, as I believe, by the definition of external people. We are doubling our retail. And let me remind you that we built the previous part of retail, that is, half of it, in more than 20 years. But now we open the same number of stores in 9 months. This is a super task. It will, I really hope, be the best not only among operator networks, but also among all networks selling portable equipment. After which we will also actively reform it and bring it online. Our ultimate goal is to truly become more Internet dependent in terms of output maximum quantity of your actions with the consumer: buying, selling, servicing - all this online.
- How do you plan to develop online sales?
A bright future is a future practically without shops. Just last year, the online store in Beeline retail, which was much smaller than what it is now both in volume and in turnover, occupied 1-3% of the point. Now it has already reached 10%, and retail itself has grown during this time. That is, we not only manage to grow retail, but also shift another part of this growth towards the online store. And we must admit that Beeline woke up quite late in this direction, but is gaining momentum very well. I believe that the percentage of online trade will continue to grow within this retail, and in the bright future we will reduce the number of stores. But I won’t say now when it will be. This will depend on the market and competition. And then we will move part of the trading operations towards the online store, and in our own stores we will develop a showroom model, where you can come and learn something new. Trading experience will be more important than the trade itself.
- What do you mean by “showroom” model?
This is what you can see, for example, in Apple stores. I often give this example to my colleagues. Apple stores sell very few products, but there are always a lot of people there who simply point their finger at these products, roughly speaking. It's very similar to a car showroom, where you come to get acquainted with the car product. And, as a rule, you don’t leave the store with it right away.
I believe that we will follow the path that our colleagues have paved. We just joined it later. This is a service supermarket. For example, the rapid development of the last two years is accessories. They are more often in demand than telephones. Over the life of a phone, several cases and several pairs of headphones are changed, and all this must be taken somewhere. Both cases and headphones are tactile. You want to see them, try them, try them on, and not just buy them by clicking on the Internet. This is a showroom - come, look, try on. Either buy it there or order it online. From the point of view of services - definitely: financial, insurance. Not just phone insurance, but basically all types of insurance. This is a business that insurance cannot solve on its own, because insurance does not have the kind of retail networks that we have. For others, for example, for a supermarket, they are not interesting, because there is a lot of fuss, and during this time huge flows must pass through the supermarket. And we, in my opinion, are perfectly set up, and as a retailer we can be more convenient for this than banking retail.
- Do I understand correctly that in your salons it is possible to have “coffee to go”, as is the case at gas stations, for example?
The store itself is really not just a store that sells phones. It is very boring. Stores where you can change the tariff? This is even more boring. Today's store format is evolving, and the experiments that we have done recently are precisely our attempts to find other new formats. I have already said that our task is not to build another retail store, but to make it better. Our offices must be the best. What will make them better? Will we sell phones better? No. They are all the same. Will we have better salespeople? I certainly hope so, but you can’t count on it. Will we have better locations? All locations are the same. Then what can you do to improve? Due to the format. Due to modern service and new methods of working with clients. This is what we will do first. And among this there are indeed other and new services, including those that competitors have. It could be coffee, it could be multimedia and much more. We will experiment and don’t yet know the recipe, what retail will be like, what stores will be like. We will search.
When will you begin the offline retail optimization stage and close some stores? Apparently, such a large network is of no use to Beeline, taking into account what you just said.
The development phase will move into the reconstruction phase. It is obvious. A reduction in the number of salons is inevitable. Some of them will move into the format of showrooms with a large and good range of goods, services and further interaction with customers through delivery to small points that will be scattered throughout the country. But these will not be those big stores with large stocks, a large number of personnel attached to these stores. We hope that this way the optimization will be more effective. First we have to do good offline net. By the end of summer, I think we will complete the stage of dividing and landing the salons of part of Euroset. After this, our steps towards experimentation, development, and reformation will begin. This should probably take at least a year. We need to think about everything. And in the end we will come to the point of becoming an operator without retail, or at least without the retail that we are all accustomed to.
Do you think that the retail market, after the latest transactions, is going the way of operator retail? In this case, can we expect the emergence of such products as in the countries of Europe and America, when the subscriber is sold a contract with a smartphone and subsidized devices?
In fact, this has already happened. There are no independent players in this market. Regarding your question about subsidies, everything depends on the solvency of the population. And ours is not too high. In Europe and the USA, subscribers pay much more. But in fact, they actually pay not for communication services, but for installments of the device they bought. They pay for new ones iPhone models, Samsung, etc. The share of communication costs is extremely insignificant.
What do you intend to do with the company's core business? Recently, Beeline has lost second place in the number of subscribers to MegaFon, and Tele2 is also actively gaining a subscriber base.
The issue with the subscriber base is interesting mathematics, but for me it is not interesting. Ask your market colleagues whether they are worried about this or not? I am sure that they are not worried, and they are doing the right thing. The number of subscribers at one time was the most important indicator of operator development at the stage of penetration growth, the first sale of a SIM card, then the second sale of a SIM card to a second device, then to the sale of a second SIM card to a dual-SIM device - this was all very important. This is what we fought for with each other, and now the fight is over. There is no point in chasing SIM cards. If someone’s bases move, then this does not affect their income - that’s how it is with MTS. My colleagues had a great last year, and at the end of the year they showed good financial results, moving down 2% in their base. This 2% of the base is not important, because these could be SIM cards that few people used. Beeline also has such SIM cards, like every operator.
- What is happening in the tower business of VimpelCom? Is the decision to sell the supports and masts still valid?
We do not rule out the sale of the tower business. The whole question here is price. No one has yet offered us the price that we consider rational for ourselves. But we are open to negotiations.
- How do you feel about blocking Telegram? How does this impact the industry, the company and you personally?
I used Telegram, as well as other instant messengers popular on the market. Now, accordingly, I will not use it. I don’t see any personal tragedy in this. Thank God there are other messengers.
- But what about numerous Telegram channels?
I think that channels migrate to other messengers and applications, they will not disappear. The question is that it was conveniently implemented and became a habit. Now habits will have to change.
As for the impact on the company, this is a short-term loss of traffic within a few percent. For us, this is not super painful, because, as you well understand, most of the traffic inside packets is not assigned to specific applications and resources, they are the same. In addition, Telegram traffic took up a very small share of our subscribers. However, we will notice this. I assume that people, like me, will switch to other messengers. After this, traffic will be restored. Of course, this is the policy of the country, the policy of the legislator, we are fulfilling these requirements. This path has been chosen. In terms of impact on the industry, what will happen to messaging apps in general? If Telegram is unable or unwilling to satisfy the regulator’s requirements, how will other instant messengers behave, because similar requirements will most likely be imposed on them sooner or later. If they also do not satisfy, then they may have the same path as Telegram. Then new messengers will appear. Among them there will be those that will satisfy the requirements of the law.
- By the way, what will happen to the messenger that was launched as part of the Veon project?
The messenger is working. No requirement has yet been placed on him that would make his work impossible. This is for us good opportunity. Until recently, we looked at instant messengers with skepticism, because we understood that it is extremely difficult to gain a share in such a highly competitive market, but in the new conditions our Veon may get a second wind. Now the platform continues to develop on two applications - Veon and My Beeline. We see both of these parallel developments as interesting and with high potential.
- Do you see how Telegram traffic was redistributed in the first days after the blocking began?
It's paradoxical, but we saw that traffic on Telegram has increased. It is possible that people were simply saying goodbye en masse. We've also seen a rather strange increase in traffic on Skype lately. Moreover, we cannot understand whether it is video, audio or messenger. We did not see significant deviations in other popular Viber messengers and Whatsapp.
In one of your interviews, you said that you expect clear and understandable rules of the game from the state. What exactly do you mean by this?
We see a great need for active action on the part of the state. But not only in the prohibitive sphere, but also in the regulatory and permissive part. For example, PJSC VimpelCom acquired a large number of different frequencies, bought licenses, and regularly pays for their use throughout the country. However, some of these licenses cannot be used because there are some restrictions that apply to us. When we bought these frequencies, it was said that they would either be cleared and provided to us, or that current consumers would be moved. However, it turns out that for many years there have been some affected frequencies that cannot be used by operators. These are also restrictions on maximum power when base station works, but not more than 2 W; complete blocking when the BS is built but cannot be turned on. There are parts that we cannot build at all. This applies to both us and other operators. This is the most blatant, in my opinion, violation of contractual obligations between business and the state and the failure of the state to fulfill its regulatory and licensing functions.
One more example. We are interested in developing services based on fifth generation networks. In this regard, we have applied for frequencies to test 5G, because we do not yet understand what they will be. We want to experiment, we want to try all possible and even impossible ways of transmitting data. But we are not given frequencies. And they don’t give them away for various reasons, mainly under the guise that they are contaminated or that someone is using them. We are told that you can interfere with someone.
Well, there are also a number of issues, such as Big Data, working with consumer information, which large quantities we have. Some of our online business colleagues already use them, but we do not have such an opportunity. And the reason is very simple. If we do something, just like them, they will come to us and say that you are using licenses incorrectly. No one comes to them, because no one gave them a license, they simply take and use the data as they see fit. They can’t even be closed because no one allowed them to work. These are exactly the things where business cannot do without the state on its own.
Continuing the topic of the role of the state. From July 1, the norms of the “Yarovaya package” regarding the storage of subscriber traffic will come into force. Tell me, will you be able to fulfill the accepted requirements by the deadline - October 1? It's real?
Technically we will do everything possible. But on my own behalf I would like to point out the paradoxical situation when a law was adopted a long time ago, but there is no specification text for this law. This is an absurd situation. To me, it’s as if a law was passed stating that colonization of Mars should be undertaken as of July 1, 2018, but there is no specification text for the launch vehicle as of mid-April. Build technological means to fulfill this law as we can now read it, it actually means building a multiple data storage system inside the operator. And at the same time, we do not fully understand whether this will only be mobile traffic, mobile and fixed-line, and then there’s also television. And it doesn’t matter that all this is licensed and stored. We are a large IPTV operator and television broadcasts via Internet channels. Should I write this down too? If yes, then these are completely different calculations. It’s good that our company has large data centers. Therefore, we will be able to gradually implement legislative requirements in terms of technology, geography and volume. But I dare to suggest that none of the operators alive today will be able to comply with the letter of the law by July 1, in the form in which it exists now. I hope that there will be a normal agreement between business and interested parties that there will be a phased implementation with control, with the normal development of the technology site.
- How much will it cost to implement data storage?
I'm not ready to answer your question. We are assessing our costs, preparing technical task. But I am confident that all large mobile and fixed market operators will be able to find funds and comply with the requirements of the law. But this will happen within a reasonable time frame. I have great doubts that small operators, including mobile and fixed-line ones, will be able to do this. There are hundreds of them in the country, and they must do everything that large operators do. At the same time, most of their traffic comes from torrents, video, IPTV and other services. All this needs to be stored, processed, and given access somewhere. Technically and economically this is difficult to solve. I would like to focus on this and hope that the law will be the same for everyone, and not just for those who are physically able to comply with it.
- Do you have an understanding of what 5G is needed from a practical point of view?
For now, 5G is an interesting dream that will migrate from one product to another over time. I remember when 5G was first presented in Barcelona, everyone showed driverless cars. Nowadays they are talked about much less. Among the latest cases is industrialization in factories, a much more efficient connection than the usual Wi-Fi. This covers hot spots of traffic consumption within agglomerations, cities and buildings, partially reducing the load on 4G networks. We want to try and test all these options for introducing 5G, give us the frequencies.
- At the end of our interview, I would like to ask how you came to telecom? How did it all start?
It all started, to be honest, for me with semi-creative work - from a radio station. Having worked at the radio station for several years, I became imbued with this interesting new business. And after that came the first serious work. This is Coca-Cola. I had the opportunity to work with marketing right away. I wanted to move on. I just wanted not to miss something very interesting. In my opinion, it was mobile communications that was interesting and something I didn’t want to miss. And when the opportunity arose, I fell in love with it. mobile connection- this is something that is constantly changing, constantly becoming different, constantly challenging itself and somehow trying to cope with this challenge. That's why I'm still here.
- What, in your opinion, is the role of a manager in a company like VimpelCom?
A manager or general director is a person who has enormous opportunities in a company and who distributes these opportunities to other people. This is, in my understanding, the general director. The role of a manager is to figure out what exactly motivates each of your people, subordinates, colleagues and help them so that this motivation works in the direction that the business needs. And this, in my opinion, is the subtleties of leadership, and the rough forms of leadership: carrots, sticks, motivation, punishment are old. I want to see Beeline as my favorite. Beeline is loved by employees, loved by store visitors, loved by subscribers and non-subscribers. So that Beeline is for many people something they want to strive for, something they want to be part of, something they want to associate themselves with and something they feel good about.