Litsa. Konkurs goda (supplement to Litsa magazine) (Moscow) - March 9, 2007.

RosBusinessConsulting (RBC) was one of the first agencies providing financial and economic news to appear in Russia 14 years ago. It is nearly as old as the Russian Internet, which, incidentally, has recently celebrated its 15th anniversary. RBC is an absolute leader on the business news market today. The majority of business people and entrepreneurs in Russia use the information provided by the agency, which incorporates over 20 business, topical and entertainment online resources.

Yury Rovensky, who has been General Director of RosBusinessConsulting for the last seven years, shares his thoughts with our readers about the company's successes over the years, as well as the company's future development plans.

Yury Rovensky boasts an excellent education in economy, which certainly helps him run the huge media company that the RBC news agency has become in recent years. He graduated with honors from the Plekhanov Institute of the National Economy and completed a course on marketing and financial analysis at Harvard Business School. He then continued his education at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he took a course in Management in the public sector. Later, he received a Masters degree from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He also received professional training in France, Germany, Japan and South Korea, where he was enrolled in programs on business management. At one point in his life, he was head of the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics' international relations department. He also worked as an expert for the World Bank mission in Moscow, and in the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. The knowledge that Rovensky gained is certainly an asset that he uses with great success to promote the development of RosBusinessConsulting - the company to which he was appointed as General Director back in 2000.

- Mr. Rovensky, why did you decide to make economics your life career and why did you originally choose this field?

- When I was still young, it was obvious to everyone in this country that there was something wrong with the Soviet economy. For some people, phantasmagoric mottos like, "economy should be economical" made this area somewhat of a joke; they did not want to take it seriously. But I was a child who listened to his parents, and my parents had foreseen changes and insisted that a degree in economics would be very desirable. And they were right. So, mostly thanks to them I got this dream of getting a degree in international economy.

- For several years now you have been head of RosBusinessConsulting. What did you do before RBC?

- I would not want to break my life into periods 'before RBC' and 'at RBC' and 'after RBC.' It is certainly great to see a small business growing into one of the leading companies on the Russian media market and to know that you were part of it. But in terms of impressions and achievements - I had had plenty before I started working at RBC. I had a very active life as a student, as I was one of the lucky ones who had a chance to study abroad. I had a promising career in science and by the age of 26 I had received a PhD. I really enjoy the academic environment and can associate with the excitement of a researcher.

- RBC today is the leading information agency. How was the company founded and how did it all start?

- Originally, RBC was a small company that distributed economic information, and this niche proved to be quite promising. The country was developing a new economy, and the number of people opening up their own businesses was steadily rising. All these people needed financial information. We picked the right niche and were able to satisfy the demand. As a result, the company expanded in the span of a just a few years. In 2000, we aimed for being the first in everything we do and in 2002 we made the initial public offering. The company's capitalization stood at $86m, and since then it has climbed to over a billion dollars. We began as a small agency, and then we launched a TV channel and entered the market of print business media by publishing a newspaper and a magazine. We now have several dozen specialized online resources and have purchased the Salon Press publishing house. Gradually, we have become a fully-fledged publishing house and a holding that works successfully not only with the business audience, but with other audiences as well.

- What are the key areas of RBC's business at the moment?

- RBC specializes in distributing financial and business information on the Internet, its TV channel, and in print media - the RBC Daily newspaper and RBC business magazine. About 90 percent of our audience is made up of business people. At the same time, we realize that we need to develop and set new goals. I am referring to the younger audience and the most popular interests of the Russian Internet's audience. The real estate market, for instance, has been rapidly growing, so we have reacted to it by launching RBC Real Estate. The consumer market's expansion prompted us to launch RBC Credit, while the development of the various services led to launching Tourist.ru (resources on tourism), Autonews (information about automobiles), 5ballov.ru (education), and new technologies (Cnews). We are also beginning to work with informational and entertainment resources and the non-business market segment, as we believe it to be a very promising market.

- The RBC group of companies is rapidly developing. In recent years you launched several new projects. Furthermore, RBC is now spreading outside of Russia - last year the company entered Ukraine's media market by launching RBC Ukraine agency. What are the company's plans for the future? How do you foresee its development?

- We have now officially expanded beyond Russia, but we are hoping to continue our development outside the CIS as well. We are closely looking at Eastern European markets and do not rule out the possibility of making acquisitions, but it all depends on the conditions. The Internet is a global market, and we are ready to do our business here, look for new partners, and of course we are open to offers. We have projects and services that may be interesting for other countries, and it would be wrong to ignore development possibilities for our business. We are poised to enlarge the range of our information resources, as we need more advertising space. We plan to start by hiking up the number of new Internet projects and becoming more active in terms of Internet purchases.

- What do you think is currently happening with print media? Do you believe that in the near future they will be completely replaced by online publications?

- No, I do not think so. The newspapers are not going to vanish, but the ration between online and print publications will certainly change. I think subscriptions will nearly cease to exist. Analysts project that in England this will happen as early as 2010. But those newspapers that manage to find their own niche in the new market conditions will be able to retain their readers. The Wall Street Journal, for instance, changed its format in the beginning of the year: from now on, up to 80 percent of all materials will be analytical, while news will be published on the newspaper's website. This is an excellent example of the way the Internet forces newspapers to adapt to new conditions. We have gone a long way in conquering the Internet - from not even understanding what it is to being completely mesmerized with it. Just a few years ago we used to capitalize the word 'Internet' (transl. note: it is currently not capitalized in the Russian language), whereas now it is just a working environment for us. It is convenient, popular, and most importantly - functional. I do not think the Internet will force newspapers out of the market. If you take the right approach to publishing, it can become a good resource for attracting new readers and advertisers, while the website can provide readers with not only the latest news, but also with an archive of publications and other useful services: editor's blogs, video materials, podcasts, and so on.

- Do you consider yourself a successful person? Have you been able to fully realize your potential or is there still room for growth in terms of your career?

- I do not want to kid myself: a career ladder does not lead to the stairway to heaven for a person to climb … This is rather a matter of self-realization. I consider myself successful, but it is too early to talk about full realization. I have many plans, and I am still young, so it is too early to look at my life's achievements! You can see what is happening on the media market at the moment - over the last two years it has become an arena for the realization of many talented people's ambitions. This is a very complex and interesting market, and the competition is constantly growing. This is precisely the kind of environment that demands complete self-devotion, where success is impossible without personal and professional growth.

- I imagine that since you are working on such an extensive number of various projects within RBC, you have no time for rest. If you do, however, what do you like to do in your free time, when you have it?

- My work schedule is rather full, and I am really just happy when I get enough sleep. To be honest, however, I do not like passive rest. I like to travel and always try to find time in my schedule to discover a new country for myself. Three or five days is enough to get new impressions and boost my spirit. I have recently decided to count how many countries I have already visited and realized it was over 150. So my life reminds me of an old joke: a man comes to a tourist office and asks the manager to tell him about their best vacation tours. The manager brings a globe and tells him about many different places. After a while the man looks at the globe and asks: "Do you have a different one?" I still think, though, that I can find an interesting place to go to; I would just pay more attention to the quality of provided services. Even when I am on vacation, I need a working phone, an Internet connection, the opportunity to hold video conferences - it is very important for me not to feel isolated from the rest of the world when I travel.

The Internet is developing rapidly at the moment. New projects and resources appear nearly every day, which is precisely why the competitiveness of information companies is becoming vitally important. Experts say, however, that RBC's projects are simply destined to be successful. And it is not only thanks to brand recognition, but also the business qualities of the company's managers. Time has shown that Yury Rovensky is not simply a man with great potential, but also one of the young Russian professionals who has successfully mastered modern management techniques.