"Elitny Personal" (Elite Personnel), No. 2 (286), January 20, 2003

What is needed to achieve success in business?
Just to be born a member of a dynasty existing for several centuries? To receive good education? To see goals clearly and be able to achieve them or just feel internal comfort?
Today we discussed this issue with our guest, Yury Rovensky.

Yury Alexandrovich Rovensky was born in 1969. He graduated from the accounting department of a training college, from the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics, the Harvard Business School and the master program of the Groningen University (Netherlands). He has a PhD in Economics and he is a Professor. Rovensky used to head the International Center of the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics and worked as an advisor to the Chairman of the State Investment Corporation. Since September 2000, he has been the General Director and CEO of RosBusinessConsulting.

- You had, so to speak, a standard beginning of your career, i.e. school, a training college, a university, and you studied well in all these establishments:
- It seems to me that such a career beginning is not quite standard for successful people right now, especially in business. It is often the case when those who did not study very well become successful in business. This can be linked to fact that my generation was established at the edge of two epochs. At that time, a lot of people considered efforts for education to be a waste of time, and a lot of people could not find themselves. Simultaneously, another group of people, who missed something in youth, for instance, education, received a new chance and it was this group of people that made a breakthrough.

- Is it possible to say about a child that he will be successful in the future?
- No. A career derives from too many factors, therefore there could be no pre-planned career in Russia until now. In the West, a labor dynasty, a pre-planned career for a person beginning in early childhood, has been a regular practice for several generations. Until recently, nothing of the kind existed in Russia. A new generation, that continues the business of their fathers, who established at least stable developing firms if not empires, may start creating their dynasties. However, there is a possibility that this will not happen, as it is not always possible to set a basis for long traditions in one generation.
In fact, it is impossible to distinguish skills of an executive and a manager in childhood unlike creative indications of a genius, because these skills are not inborn but come with experience during a person's development.

- It is the lack of experience that managers of the older generation constantly reproach the new generation of executives with. It is assumed it is too early to become a general director of a top manager at thirty years of age.
- The young generation of executives have been proving their worth every day over the past ten years, proving to the older generation, to people in power and Western society. Not long ago the appointment of a person under 35 years old to the post of Deputy Minister caused a smile - this was unusual both in this country and in the West. Today the situation has changed. I cannot agree with the assertion that young managers have insufficient experience since they were formed as personalities during the reform period in Russia. They had to assimilate in three to four years what executives of previous generations took decades to do.

- When a person becomes a top manager or a minister at the age of 30-35 years, what will he do for the rest of his life?
- This is a very important question indeed: what is next? A person must be able to set both long-term and short-term targets for himself. A goal has to be gaugeable, and the community of our young executives learned to set such goals. The ability to plan your goals and manage them is an opportunity for further career and personal growth. This potential cannot be exhausted throughout the whole of human life.

- What goals do you set for yourself?
- The closest goal is the tasks set for the company. Over the past ten year, RBC was developing from a small family business to a medium-sized company. The next task for the company is to grow from a medium-sized into a large company over the next two or three years. And of course, there are plans to achieve personal ambitions and prove to yourself that this objective can be accomplished as well.

- What do you imply to the words "a large company"? I think that RBC is a rather large company for the Russian information market.
- Of course, it is large and money making, which is especially important. Currently, we employ more than 600 people. RBC has been at least doubling its annual profits for the past two years. We plan to preserve this growth rate in the future. In addition to an Internet edition that we have now, we plan to launch a business television channel to broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We successfully keep to this path: issues with attracting funds have been settled and personnel recruitment continues. Simultaneously with this business we develop a new direction, i.e. software development, the development of new software products. It is clear now that the company will have 800 employees by next year. In the first place, this will mean a change in tasks to be solved by the company's top management. These tasks will include market expansion, new principles of managing personnel, maintaining the labor-efficiency of the staff as well as the establishment of corporate culture, in other words, all tasks necessary for business expansion.

- So what are your management principles?
- I don't think there are any unique management principles "from Rovensky". They would include the delegation of authority, control over the execution of tasks, the involvement of everyone in the company's tasks, a clear motivation system, in other words, all principles that are well known to any third-grade student. But most important is to implement this knowledge correctly and consistently in practice. You cannot execute controlling functions from time to time, and the delegation of authority implies clear personal responsibility along with rights. The role of a top manager is to formulate lofty but achievable goals for the whole staff, in general, and each employee, in particular.

- If a task set to a company is achieved, the top manager receives praises, but what if the goal is not achieved? Is there a personal responsibility of an executive and what happens to his career afterwards?
- Fortunately, this has not been my experience. Of course, I don't think that such an executive should put a pistol to his head but he should, at least, leave his post. The most important thing in this situation is not to brave out your resignation but to do your best to compensate for the damage inflicted to the company by unsuccessful management. At the same time, there are circumstances that cannot be controlled by the whole staff, not mentioning a single person, especially in Russia. There were enough occasions over the past several years when something perfectly established collapsed before your eyes. I think that the professionalism of a good manager includes the skill to honorably accept defeat.

- Is the recognition of personal merits important to you?
- If we talk about individual activities, such as science or teaching, where a school of a specific professor can exist, then recognition is very important. However, when we talk about management in large companies, it is clear to everyone that any success is the achievement of a group of managers. Every company has a face that represents this company on the external market, but it is impossible to achieve success only owning to this person. The recognition of personal merits is important for me as a person, but it is not a "drive" for me as a top manager.

- Success is a collective achievement but there is only your name on the list of first persons of the Russian IT business?
- That's right, but this rating denotes the place occupied by the company I am managing on the market. This rating testifies that RBC has made a breakthrough. To some extent, this is also the recognition of my success as an executive but not of my personal characteristics.

- There are public managers and there are executives of much larger companies who are hardly known to anyone. How would you explain it?
- Firstly, it depends on the requirements of a business, these requirements define the level of publicity of a manager depending on set tasks. Another reason is the charisma of an executive: an individual can be an excellent manager inside a company but preserve aloofness from publicity and, probably, be not good at public speaking.

- How do you organize your free time?
- I hope I will have it one day. However, I do manage to have a rest one day a week. Saturdays are mainly occupied by meetings and trips, that is why I try to combine business with pleasure. For example, not long ago I visited Irkutsk and had a chance to spend an hour on the Baikal Lake. If I had an opportunity to visit the national gallery during a trip to Amsterdam and see the paintings of Van Gogh and Rembrandt, this is a rest too.
I like to accept guests, I am a very communicable person. I like to be engaged in activities linked to landscape design and just comfort:

- Is it worth working on Saturdays and spend most time of your life on business?
- It depends on the individual. I know a lot of people who only work from time to time, and they are not idlers but highly qualified unique specialists who offer consulting services to companies. They are satisfied with spending two days a week on work and the rest of the time they read books, communicate or travel. This is their style of living. Management is a style of living too, only a different one. I will laugh in the face of a person who is a successful top manager and complains about fatigue. I am sure that the majority of managers enjoy their style of living very much. Being constantly active is a sort of a narcotic. Such people need to make decisions and achieve set goals. This is similar to thrill of the hunt.

- What would you do if you were not a top manager?
- I think I would draw pictures. I have a soft spot for painting and not long ago my friends presented me with an easel and paints. In addition, I have a diploma of a music teacher. I graduated from an academy of music in my youth and I still play music with pleasure. I also like to teach very much. Starting in 1993 I have been delivering lectures on business administration in the State Management University. In our rapidly changing environment, the profession of a manager requires constant self-education and no stagnation is acceptable. Moreover, it provides for very interesting communication.

- Do you have your own formula of success?
- I believe that real success requires a foundation, and only good education can serve this function. I don't think that a university degree provides sufficient education: specialization, advanced training and additional education, such as a master degree and special research are required. In the event education is not the hunt for a diploma but the hunt for knowledge, it will become the main component of success. The second component is learning ability and the third is ambition. Add motivation and ability to evaluate goals and you will have the formula of success.

- I heard more than once that success is just a personal characteristic:
- I would not say that success is a personal characteristic, it is diligence more likely. This is the feature that a person can become successful with. With this characteristic a person does not even have to be talented. Naturally, a talent in addition to diligence is excellent. Talent means uniqueness in everything. If a person's uniqueness is displayed in communication with people and if it is positive, this will speed up promotion. Not always but very often, uniqueness in making decisions helps achieve success. In addition, to be successful you need to constantly verify your actions and have the courage to admit your mistakes to yourself.
In fact, success is not a feature of character but a certain scale of inner feelings. Public opinion marks success as something extraordinary but a lot of people do not need it and they can feel special inner comfort without any external success.

By Oksana Krylova