Yury Rovensky - General Director of RosBusinessConsulting, an online solutions and business information provider - has succeeded in combining a career in business and in the academia. He received his doctorate in economics two years ago, and subsequently served as advisor to the chairman of the State Investment Corporation. He has been at his present position for a year now. Rovensky spoke to The Leader on the importance of education in the Russian labor market and the prosperity and expansion of RBC

Russian business information agency RosBusinessConsulting was founded in 1992, and the holding has been working with the Internet since 1995. Over the years, RBC has rapidly expanded into parallel markets, including Internet services, which were launched this year. The RBC holding includes the RBC Website (www.rbc.ru)- the heart of the organization, www.sport.rbc.ru, www.job.rbc.ru, www.relax.ru and free e-mail service www.hotbox.ru. We spoke to Yury Rovensky, general director of RBC to find out the secret to RBC`s sustained success despite international disappointment in the New Economy.

WHY IS RBC is so successful, when internationally the Internet sector is experiencing such difficulties?

I wouldn't say it's a problem all around the world. But it is true that we are the only really profitable company working in the Internet market in Russia. The level of our profitability is very high, from 25 to 30 percent. We managed this because we never took part in the general euphoria over the so-called New Economy, and didn't believe that the Internet was sent from Heaven and would bring colossal profit. The Internet is just an instrument, not a business in itself. That is the attitude we have always had. Calculations on the capitalization of a company or the success of a Website are often based on such virtual measurements as the number of site visitors. This is not a real basis for measuring a company's success; it has no economic meaning. We use more traditional indicators, such as profitability, turnover - real figures.

What kind of success has job.rbc.ru experienced?

We launched the site for two rea-sons. We noticed a distinct lack of analogous search resources and job supplements. Promises of large salaries often suck people into working at places they don't want to, like Herbalife, and direct-marketing businesses. A condition for advertising on our site is that the name of the employer should be advertised. Also, the site was launched in 1999, in the first re-animation after the financial crisis of 1998, when some 40,000 people lost their jobs in Moscow in the banking sector alone. And this resource, under the big RBC holding umbrella, received that same audience - which isn't looking for work as a nanny or driver, but for middle and top management positions. We have 12,000 vacancies on the site today. The number of visitors on the first page of job.rbc in a month oscillates from 18,000 to 20,000 visitors.

What kind of problems do you have recruiting and retaining Web specialists?

The main problem, especially at the period of large Nasdaq growth a year and a half ago, was competition from companies that offered much higher salaries. This happened even with Russian companies, above all the ones with Western investors behind them. The thing is that RBC has been working in the Internet market since 1995, and the basic team was formed then. These people have been working together for a long time and understand each other well. This is where we differ from other companies that appeared and threw money around. We are one of the oldest Internet companies in Russia. We don't try to compete by offering competitive material benefits. The main benefit RBC offers its employees is stability. RBC practically didn't reduce its personnel at all after the fall of the Nasdaq index. We are the only company in Russia that managed to cope with it. This wasn't easy; it meant that RBC had to fund its activities not on the basis of profit, but on its internal reserves. So our people are not afraid of losing their jobs tomorrow. They are also motivated by the bonus system that we have at RBC. Also, we barely hire new people off the street for new projects; we have an internal team who, depending upon the quantity of work, forms local teams to realize projects. Similarly, we don't dismiss people when a project finishes, because when you hire people on a one-off basis, you can't guarantee quality.

Did you plan the stages of your career?

My career is not the result of chance. Yes, I wanted to work in economics; yes, I wanted to learn from foreign experience. That's why after studying in Russia, I studied in Holland and then in the United States and then continued to work at an educational institution - I worked at the Plekhanov Academy, combining teaching work with administrative work. But it is not enough to just possess knowledge: You need to use it. I needed to structure the knowledge I had received, and teaching was very useful for this. Because when you have knowledge that you don't formulate or express, it is passive baggage. Despite being very busy with my main job, I continue to give lectures at the State University of Management. This is extremely important for me. Not only do I get pleasure out of contact with students, it's also a stimulus because I have to prepare myself for each lecture. Unfortunately, self-development often takes second place for managers.

What does education mean to you?

For me, education is the basis for success. I firmly believe that it is not possible to achieve any real results without having a good educational basis. You can't build a castle without foundations, and education is this foundation. It not only builds your view of the world, it is not only knowledge, or the ability to analyze and make decisions- it is what enables a person to learn.

It seems to me that the difference between academics and businesspeople is particularly great in Russia. Do you agree?

It is no secret that the relationship between the academic and the applied spheres in the West are much closer than in Russia. The academic sphere in Russia was artificially broken off. Very few scientific-research centers, laboratories and educational institutions have strong links with large commercial companies. In the West, it is generally someone in industry who orders research to be done. As a result, there is daily contact between the two spheres. This has never been the case in Russia.

How can the situation be improved?

First, a certain order should be brought into the educational system, which is very far from perfect today. Employers should have a greater role in deciding how to teach and what should be taught. I can count the educational institutions in Russia that are realistically oriented to labor-market conditions on my fingers; the Plekhanov Academy, the Finance Academy, the University of Management and the Academy of Economics. That is why it is not a question of administrative reform, but of ideological reform.

What are your career plans?

My present job is very exciting and the company is growing dynamically. I think that, generally, people begin to think about career changes when their job starts to bore them. Fortunately I never have the opportunity to be bored, not even for one day. Over the past year RBC as grown twice fold, from the point of view of both personnel and annual turnover. Given that the average rate of growth in the IT market is only 15 percent, we are five times ahead.

What is your growth strategy at RBC?

We were a source of financial information from the beginning. The main growth will be in programming and Web development. That's not a strategy -it's a statement of fact. As far as strategy goes, we are gradually widening the RBC brand and the services RBC offers on parallel markets. We are hoping for a lot of growth in the future in the IT sector, programming, Web development and integration systems.

We are also involved in trade distribution, offering special-management systems in the oil and gas industries and creating special programs for the automation of logistics and Intranet decisions.

by Karin Jones