Jobs: Mikhail Slobodin, CEO of Beeline. What awaits Beeline: a big interview with the new CEO of Beeline company management

Hi all. I decided to leave myself a post in my journal "One of my days ....". For history and archive. To be honest, I did not 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 in One of my days can safely not read it. Well, for those who missed - at will.

My name is Mikhail Slobodin, a well-known person in narrow circles. A not very well-known head of a very well-known Russian company. Companies with a glorious and bright past, a challenging present and an obviously bright future. I present to your attention one of my days, May 21, which actually turned out to be a complete reflection of the fact that now the vast majority of my life is devoted to the bright future of this company. My other life, unfortunately, passes me by, which certainly worries me and my family, but what to do - took up the tug, do not say that it is 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 about it. So if you feel that there is a lot of information and comments - do not read and move on. They may not be for you.

1. Oh, this standard phone call. Pulls you out of sleep at your scheduled 6:45. Beloved eldest daughter on the screen brightens up the awakening. The brain wakes up and turns on very quickly. I am glad for myself that I have not forgotten since yesterday that today I am recording my day.

Let's go ... I take a screenshot, at the same time lingering on the photo - the mood improves.

2. I quickly go to the bathroom. Every minute is scheduled in the morning, but there is an instruction to fix it to the maximum, so I try to follow it. Trying to take a selfie in the bathroom - that's what a lot of people have told me. I decide to do this for the first time. It turns out horror, two attempts - the horror does not stop. Finishing torturing myself and my phone. Selfie is a special art that needs to be done especially - I even begin 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 inside, I go out onto the balcony and photograph the view from the balcony in the bathroom. A wonderful day is starting. Super. The mood rises 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 treehouse and a swing tied to a branch is a childhood dream, and now this dream has become a reality for the youngest son.

The birds are singing, it's warm, the breeze - well, this day is just starting off great!

4. Brushing your teeth, shaving and everything else - well, you know what I mean :) It takes less time than taking pictures. Time is running out and you need to get dressed.

The workspace here is very organized. Spending more time designing how things are organized saves time every day. Ties (I even have two branded ties in my wardrobe for working in sales offices), belts, cufflinks, shorts, socks, including striped yellow and black socks - everything is at hand.

You can dress even in complete darkness. It takes no more than 4 minutes to get here. Well, I don’t forget about the badge - which in our country means a special love for Clients and knowledge of the NPS system (Our Service Indicator) - the badge is issued only to those who have passed this exam. And those who didn't pass - don't work in the Company for a long time.

5. A quick and modest breakfast - salad in pita bread and tea. Simple and tasty. I eat very quickly - the costs of a difficult childhood, so that tea does not even have time to cool.

6. Time is running out. The big clock in the kitchen reminds you to hurry up. My working day traditionally starts at 8 am, and in order to be guaranteed to be in the office by this time, you must leave no later than 7:10. Already back to back, and one important morning duty has not yet been completed.

7. And here she is - my morning duty has come :) Our night watchman Funtik pulled himself up for a morning portion of his feline happiness. A master of begging, especially when he knows there's a big chance. We satisfy Funtik, in parallel, to save time, taking pictures and even shooting a video. Oh, how little a cat needs to be happy. He made one creature happy in the morning - the day is not lived in vain!

8. Funtik and a flowering garden escort me. It is certainly a miracle, going outside to inhale the aroma of flowers, fresh morning greenery, listen to the birds sing and walk not on asphalt, but on a green path. These 30 seconds in the morning from the door to the car give so much positive, which is enough 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 deviate a little 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 much he is with me.

11. The beginning of my journey to the office is also a real beauty. A linden alley in the village at the beginning of the journey, and then the road lies through a very fresh forest in the morning, still fresh because of the young greenery. The air invigorates as well as the bright, despite the early morning sun. To convey this feeling to you, I had to stop several times. But it's worth it :)

12. Having passed the forest and leaving 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 positive, I see who liked me and how much, I like the works of other instagrammers I liked - Dasha @daryadaryad, for example. I'm watching Twitter - our head of the Siberian region reported on passing the test for knowledge of the NPS (I won't repeat it - you already remembered it), I understand that Serezha can already be awarded the badge. Test passed 100% - excellent. Well, at the same time I throw my favorite news into my Flipboard, one of the best news gathering app in my opinion. More than 2,500 people have subscribed to my magazine, in which I collect all the news about telecom, our Company and competitors, these are employees of our Company who can receive first-hand information almost online with a minimum of costs.

I work out the evening trouble-ticket - in the SMS that comes to my phone, the phone number of the person in charge is immediately indicated (Simple. Convenient. For you - this is not only for Clients) and with him, in hot pursuit, we sort out what the problem was, how smoothly and organized the incident was been worked out and what needs to be done to improve the system and minimize the risks of recurrence. Everyone knows that I will definitely call. This morning, we dismantled an evening incident in the Central Region, one of our IT systems, which ensures the operation of the mobile Internet, failed.

In parallel, I test the speed of the Internet, answer the e-mail that has accumulated over the night - there is not much work mail, but there is. You have to start your work day with a clean slate :)

13. 8:00 So time flies absolutely imperceptibly on the road - I drive up to the office - we have it at the intersection of Krasnoproletarskaya and Sadovoe. In general, the journey took exactly 45 minutes and I arrived back to back at 8 o'clock, but right on time. The sun is already starting to bake, the sky is turning blue, the day will be hot. This is where my mission as a photographer ends before the end of the day, and my colleague takes the baton of photo fixation daryadarya . Well, now, thank God, you can fully concentrate on work.

Our glass building is called "cucumber" by employees among themselves. The team of the Moscow region is concentrated in it. Today we are working in it - we have Deep Dive, but simply deep immersion in the development of business 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. So far, silence and desertion - after all, 8 in the morning, but literally in half an hour the people will start to catch up.

15. We are all in the light, summer has almost come, good mood - now we will start.

16. But before you start, you need to catch up with coffee a little (I know that I need to write coffee, but I catch up with coffee).

17. Our atmosphere is relaxed and cheerful, although we discuss serious problems. The team of the region has recently formed, the atmosphere in the team is very positive, and this is very good. In life, many things must be treated with humor, but the essence, of course, should not be lost either.

18. A lot has already been done - and the main focus of the discussion is how to consolidate the positive dynamics that we see over the past few months after a difficult 2013, what are the advantages of the new client strategy and a change in attitude towards the Client - the guys are optimistic. The enemy will not pass. The clients will be ours. What I love about the telecom industry is the real fight for the customer. Everyone has their own "way of working with the team" and we are looking for our own.

19. Sergey Rubtsov is our leader of Moscow, and I look to the future with confidence and optimism. A big start has already been made and big plans for this year - both in terms of the quality of the network 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 an action plan for "capturing Moscow" and restoring the trust of our Clients, I have a traditional meeting when visiting each region. The meeting with the key employees of the region is our growing shift. But before the guys have eaten all the sandwiches - I reserve a couple in order to ...

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 Artyom will not starve - and it's a holiday on his street now. The task of the General Director is not only to ask, but also to help his team in difficult times, in order to ask even more later :)

22. 11:00 Meeting with key employees, many different questions, lively dialogue, I have something to think about, but on the other hand I asked - what have you personally done to make the Company better, better for the Client?

A few minutes ago, the 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 the work, and when the question returned to the return line, what tasks each of those present personally did and plans to do - this is where the people swam. So it is necessary to work on the internal culture - both for me and, of course, for all our employees. Especially key.

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 paper :)

24. This spring, bike racks appeared in front of the office. So far, not many employees come. But in Perm, our longtime critic and at the same time a regular client max_perm insists that they appear at every sales office. I'm afraid that the great Maxima will stand there in splendid isolation, and like this one is great. But oh well, let's see - the summer will show.

25. The first part of the DeepDive presentation and discussion block is over - it's time to go to the fields. We get on the bus.

26. 12:30 Now the plan is to visit retail stores. our sales centers. I ask you not to pay attention to a strange bag in the back seat, I accidentally hit the lens.

27. In order to exclude special preparation for a meeting at any one point of sale, and at the same time check the performance of the mobile application, I choose a sales office to visit right 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 do not look around - as a result, you miss the life of the city.

30. We are already at the gate. We have a common entrance with the Euroset. The place is lively, the exit from the subway. But soon this office will have to be removed - the Moscow government is "cleansing" the clearing in front of the metro. This is probably correct, but for us it is an additional fuss.

31. To begin with, we go to the Euroset - this is not our competitor, but a partner. On many issues in the development of our network of sales offices, we focus on its best practices (although there are questions and problems there, like any business). Since May, MTS has announced. that ceases to accept payments in the Euroset. I decided to check - I randomly entered a number belonging to MTS clients and transferred 100 rubles to his account. Everything works. And one of the MTS Clients will also unexpectedly be glad to receive 100 rubles, usually the opposite happens in telecom - they suddenly write off for something;)

32. A wide variety of phones in the Euroset - eyes run wide. And of course, I look at how the proposals from our Company are presented. Everything is fine.

33. Let's go to us - the entrance to the Euroset door to door. I look at our explanation of tariff plans for Clients. It has become much simpler and more beautiful, but still the inner sense of beauty tells me that the ideal is still far away. We will probably ask for help and ideas from our creative bloggers - we will announce a competition.

34. Talking to our salesperson. We discuss how we are better than 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 on the nuances. But this is not the main thing - we are discussing how the new motivation system works and improving the quality of our salespeople. It was launched recently, is much simpler than the old one, and generally makes 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. Disassembled in great detail.

36. Photo of the Company's management - the first time I was in the sales office after the appointment - October 2013 (this was the first experience of working as a consultant) there was also a printout on the wall - but the guys, in order not to change the whole piece of paper, changed only a small part - pasting over the old 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. When moving between offices, we feed ourselves a little.

38. Now next in line is the KNOW-HOW salon, this is the former ION and this is a new format for telecom - a full-scale store for the sale of any computer equipment and phones with the function of training and service. The weather is great and Sergey talks along the way about how this format differs from our traditional sales offices.

39. We talk with the guys on the topic of what we need to improve in order to have more customers and more sales. The guys there are commercial, they feel the Client and his needs better. All the same, the staff in KNOW-HOW is more experienced than in our young monobrand. The conversation turned out to be two-way. You get a lot from these meetings if you know how to listen and ask questions.

40. 14:30 The city lives its own life. It's great summer weather outside.

41. 15:30 After the sales offices we go to the control center of our entire Moscow network. The office of the technical directorate is located in Sokolniki. This office has a huge history associated with the development of the company.

42. 15:35 But before you start discussing the quality and development of the network, you need to have lunch. Traditionally, we have lunch at a local canteen. We eat for money, so if you forgot your wallet, you need to ask a friend. Sergey Rubtsov wished to document the fact of lending me 500 rubles. By the way, you need to return the favor.

43. A full meal - I decided to take everything and compote to try. All together costs about 350 rubles. Not cheap for lunch in a corporate canteen. But overall delicious.

44. Canteen staff feedback is a great and easy way 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 - our control center for the Moscow network. It collects data on the current mode, problem 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 in many parameters and in different dimensions. The colors on the screens do not always correspond to our idea of ​​the presence, absence of a problem - but the guys live in their own color scheme, where red does not always mean bad :)

47. Our techies are not used to paying attention to obstacles on their way, but just in case, for the most daring and direct - a special inscription on the door :)

48. We discuss how the work 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 you will chase after two base stations - you will not catch a single one.

49. There are many thoughts and many questions that need to be addressed. 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, on occasion, I will show what is happening with the quality in dynamics.

51. Imagine that one such "cabinet" serves almost 400,000 subscribers.

52. The heat, everything is floating, and the bright sun reflecting from the windows of the opposite building gives such incredible pictures.

53. Business is made up of details. For example, it turns out that diesel generators are on trailers. And these trailers haven't moved for several years. It seems illogical, but on the other hand, firefighters demand that diesel generators stand at a distance of at least 12 meters from the building. The territory does not allow, where will you stick them? Here they are, permanently parked.

54. Together with the engineers, we climb onto the roof of one of the buildings of the technical directorate to our base station. The sun does not burn like a child. What is it like for our guys, dressed in full gear in this heat.

55. You must wear a helmet at technical facilities. Order is order - whether you're the CEO or not doesn't matter. The sun is bright, hot - that's such a disgruntled face :))

56. The guys came to change the angle of the antenna. Taking the opportunity and a minute pause, I return the debt to Dasha - I photograph her at the time of adjustment. She looks, unlike me, extremely harmonious both in a helmet and with a camera.

57. The change in tilt is only 4 degrees, and the connection 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 on which the antenna is installed), here are questions from landlords, and the availability of the necessary keys to open the premises - we have thousands of keys with which our employees get to where they fix the equipment. Sometimes you have to hook or crook to the place where you can do something with the equipment, especially when there is an emergency. 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 broad. So the connection will be better, and the speeds will be higher, and new offers for Moscow customers will be interesting. With a sense of accomplishment, we conclude the Moscow theme. My program is not finished. And the guys are already going home with a sense of relief.

Moscow is beautiful on this day - the blue and deep sky, the bright sun and still fresh greenery make everything somehow very festive. I'm on my way to the next meeting. The only thing that annoys is of course traffic jams. The peak is in the center.

59. 19:45 Finally getting 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 the IT transformation project of our Company 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 proposals for our Clients. But it will take a decent amount of time. But the road will be mastered by the walking one.

60. 21:30 After Eli Gelman's help (a small favor is always nice, and it cost me nothing to do it) in his hitting the Aeroexpress at the Belorussky railway station (it was going to the St. Petersburg forum), I go home. On the way home, I sort through the mail, look at what happened from the news on all my information and social media channels. Reply, comment and all that.

By the way, I always buckle up in the back seat of the car. This is my habit from work at TNK-BP. There, security was given a lot of attention and this habit, which remained as a reminder of this work, is maintained by me as a memory of this very interesting period in my life.

61. 22:30 We arrived. It's getting dark, but it's still light. After all, summer is coming soon. My iPhone was included in the fixation of 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 a cat. This is my duty.

64. The air is amazing outside and the birds are singing, but not loudly, but in the evening. View from the balcony to the gazebo - I can only get to it on weekends.

65. 22:30 I swam with my youngest son in the pool, he is still a midnighter. Absolute energy and positive, joyful swam (at the age of 3 he swims without any improvised means, dives, gets everything he needs from the bottom - in general, the subject of our pride). He himself, too, threw off the burden of the working day and recharged. I do not publish photos - my mother has a principled position on this matter.

23:40 But the work program is not finished - we need to finish the post in LiveJournal, started a few days ago. Already at night I finish the final version.

66. I set an alarm clock for a new day and go to bed.

Mikhail Slobodin

General Director of OJSC VimpelCom since 2013. Held the positions of Executive Vice President of OAO TNK-BP for Strategy and Business Development, President of OAO Russian Communal Systems, President of CJSC Integrated Energy Systems (IES), Vice President for Energy and Department Director of OAO TNK-BP Management . Candidate of Technical Sciences.

Michael, thank you for the time and attention given to Lifehacker. The first traditional question: what does your workplace look like?

Very simple. I have a large office, but I use 15-20% of the area in it. Everything else is the entourage from the previous scope. The office has glass walls and constantly open doors.

I have a MacBook Pro 17 on my desk that I take with me when I need it. I don't have any other computer. The general concept is that I do 95% of all work from my phone. The computer performs a different role: posts are more convenient to write than on mobile, because, unfortunately, LiveJournal has a completely non-working mobile application. I do everything else from the screen of the iPhone 6. It so happened historically that 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 an office phone, but I rarely use it. And video conferencing.

What is the role of paper in work?

There is one paper on the desktop - an A3 sheet with a plan for the week. And that's it. People come to me without papers, show everything on the screen. Because a person who comes with Apple technology can show everything they need using Apple TV, either from their phone, or from an iPad, or from a 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 with Keynote, use Pages for texts. For business purposes I use Word and Excel. I use iPhoto and Final Cut a lot when I need to compose videos, 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 group 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 with top management and teams. This is one of the leaders in group work, we have about 80 employees using it. It is convenient to discuss team things with him online.

Depending on the situation, I use many other applications. If I go to take pictures, I use an application that helps download photos from the camera via Wi-Fi (and I have a Canon EOS 6D) without making any manipulations with the memory card. If I take a quad with me, as I recently did in Georgia, then I have the dji-Vision application, which allows me to control the quad from my mobile phone.

How do you get news?

I don't read newspapers at all and don't have any problems with it. I use MediaMetrics - this 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 implemented media monitoring in a non-standard way. Not in the form of a newsletter in Word or HTML, we did it based on the Flipboard mobile application. Thus, what the media writes about us, in the form of a single stream, is seen 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 social media user. How do you work with them?

In terms of social media, I have all the necessary mobile applications installed. Instagram- one of my favorites. I have 8.5 thousand subscribers there. This network has a high level of positivity because there are more women on Instagram, and the female audience generates more positive content. In LiveJournal, in which among the users there is a significant preponderance towards men, and already of a respectable age, sometimes just trash is going on. Nevertheless, it is an interesting platform that allows you to express your thoughts. Obviously, I use applications " In contact with" and Facebook, Twitter works mainly for reception: there people often raise interesting problems and cases on the work of Beeline. I use Snapchat to keep in touch with my older daughter.

How often do you check new messages?

Part of the information that comes through social networks is work. Through the networks, I receive feedback from clients: what is not working for us, what should I pay attention to. Such responses give a lot, because we have a service business and you always need to understand what is happening in relations with customers. Therefore, I regularly check what and how about every two hours. If there is a problem, I send it to those who are responsible for this sector, please report back. The fact is that such a process goes beyond solving a specific problem of one client. From each such case, you can draw a large number of meaningful conclusions about what is failing in the entire system. It is the system that needs to be fixed.

We have a social media group in Slack where guys report important signals. Actually, Slack is a working tool that is checked much more often than social media accounts. Therefore, if something requires my quick reaction, then I react - it's not difficult.

Of course, I'm not always on social media and I don't always look at updates every two hours, because events and meetings do not allow this. I parse most of the messages when I go to work, from seven to eight in the morning, and when I return home: I look through the press monitoring, create a journal on FlipBoard, forward messages and tasks. I spend my travel time deeply screening what happened and analyzing the feedback.

A blog in LiveJournal is in a sense a form of self-expression, but it is clear that it appeared solely for business purposes. I would love to spend the free time more interestingly for myself and my family. But this is part of what we are doing at Beeline, with Beeline and around Beeline.

How do you plan your schedule?

I have, of course, a receptionist who makes the schedule. And a fairly 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 the assistants have planned, and I set up some meetings myself.

Do you always want to go to work in the morning?

Of course not. I flew in from Georgia last month. It's warm, it's good, it's wonderful. And then - a blizzard, snow, get up early. I am an ordinary person, I really want to sleep, but I have to do the job. Therefore, I almost always arrive at work by eight in the morning. A large team and a bunch of tasks is a big responsibility, and then you come to work, get involved, forget about all the morning difficulties. You know, as in a joke: the hedgehogs cried, pricked themselves, but continued to eat the cactus. And then it turned out that the cactus is very pleasant to the taste.

What is the place in the schedule for sports?

I exercise two to three times a week with a personal trainer. I do fitness or boxing, I want to increase the number of classes to four per week, I'll see if I can implement my plan.

You have worked in many high-tech industries. When do you have time to study?

The knowledge from the university did not come in handy for me. The most basic thing that I got at the university is the mechanism for obtaining knowledge. When I came to study, they were still teaching political economy, but two years later it became pointless. The only subject that was interesting was economic mathematics, where we studied according to Western textbooks. And I certainly wasn't taught what happened 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 colossal source of information to look at yourself and around you.

Learning through books is hard. You can go to the MBA, where teachers will teach you everything. But it is much more expensive, takes more time, and 80% of all work is useless. If you yourself choose what to teach, then you spend a penny, allocate as much time as you can. But this is a difficult plan to implement.

I read mostly business literature in English. I can recommend some of the most interesting books:

• John Maxwell, The Five Levels of Leadership;
• Patrick Lencioni, "The Five Vices of a Team";
• Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. I highly recommend this book to everyone, because it is actually about management, about the system and about how not to do it.

You started to take leadership positions quite early. Do you have to be a leader or can you become one?

It depends on what to call "early". In the nineties, when the old directors and their socialist methods stopped working, those who had just graduated from the university and were something of themselves quickly became 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, then you will definitely improve your performance. We can say that leaders are born and the rest did not have a chance. But almost everyone can be a leader at a very good level.

What is stopping you at work?

Nothing really 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 are inherent in the company itself, we interfere with ourselves, 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 offered to use some kind of magic to master one skill perfectly without training, what would you choose?

I dream of singing well, but I have a big problem with hearing. It can also be trained, but I am a person who likes to do everything well. Even if I spend a lot of energy on training, I will become an extremely mediocre singer. So I would ask to be taught to sing.

Lifehacking by Mikhail Slobodin

First. Always try to do more than you have to. Always try to raise the bar for yourself, otherwise you will quickly fall into the zone of normal, but mediocre.

Second. Constantly learn. Few people remember the slogan “Study, study and study again”, but in vain: life is too changeable. Jobs you can work in five years from now don't even exist today. Therefore, you need to look around and draw the right conclusions from everything that you saw.

Third. You have to believe in yourself. Not in the mode of stupid self-confidence, but be sure to try hard to do the job 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 completely incomprehensible why he needed it. So set yourself the right goals.

The third largest subscriber base operator in Russia, VimpelCom (Beeline brand), has been headed by a new leader since January 2018 - Vasil Latsanich. Previously, he held key positions in another telecom company - MTS. Whether the new leader will copy the management style of competitors, whether the issue of selling the operator's infrastructure will be resolved, what about the Euroset stores that the operator inherited and what is the role of the state in the telecom industry - these questions were answered by the new CEO of VimpelCom Vasyl Latsanich.

In recent years, only the lazy have not noted that extremely negative trends are occurring with the once second largest operator in Russia in terms of the subscriber base. Shareholder intrigues, a significant debt load and the need for austerity, and therefore underinvestment and failures in the quality of the network, high staff turnover and partial reduction, lack of own retail and willingness to outsource everything - all this is the latest history of VimpelCom. The new leader will have a hard time, but our today's hero sees his goal in this. Moreover, he has extensive experience in telecom.

Vasil Latsanich has been heading PJSC VimpelCom 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 senior positions in the MTS group of companies, where in recent years he has served as 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 customer experience transformation and digital development.

Previously, Vasyl Latsanich held a number of positions in 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.
Vasyl graduated from the Higher State Institute named after N. Lysenko in Lvov. He has an MBA from London Business School.

- You have worked for about 16 years at MTS. Did you think that someday you would become the head of Beeline?

Of course, never thought about it. And I never imagined it. Beeline has always been interesting for me, but it has always been 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 corporate 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 market opportunities, and, interestingly, overlapping people, including executives. Of course, the corporate culture is different in some nuances. We see the different positions of the operators and their different behavior, as well as different goals.

I would like to note that Beeline is a young and lively organization. It shows up in behavior. By the way, the biggest difference between operators from each other is associated with banding. To some extent, we have already become 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?

We are doing something this year that is 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 be, I really hope, the best not only among operators, but also among all networks selling portable equipment. After that, we will also actively reform it and bring it online. Our ultimate goal is to really become more Internet addicted precisely in terms of displaying the maximum number of our actions with the consumer: buying, selling, servicing - all this is online.

- And how do you plan to develop online sales?

A bright future is a future without shops practically. Even last year, the online store in Beeline retail, which was much smaller than what it is now both in terms of volume and turnover, occupied 1-3% of the point. Now it is already reaching 10%, and the retail itself has grown during this time. That is, we not only manage to grow retail, but also move another part of this growth towards the online store. And I must admit that Beeline woke up rather late in this direction, but it is gaining momentum very well. I believe that further the percentage of online trading will grow within this retail, and in the bright future we will reduce the number of stores. But I won't say when that will be right now. It 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. The 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. There are very few products sold in Apple stores, but there are always a lot of people who simply point their fingers at these products, roughly speaking. It is very similar to a car showroom, where you come to get acquainted with a car product. And, as a rule, you do not immediately leave the store on it.

I believe that we will follow the path that our colleagues have blazed. We just got into it later. This is a service supermarket. For example, the rapid development of the past two years is accessories. They are more in demand than phones. During the life of the phone, several covers change, several pairs of headphones, and all this must be taken somewhere. Both cases and headphones are tactile. They want to see, try, try on, and not just buy by clicking on the Internet. This is the showroom - come, see, try on. Either buy it there or order online. From the point of view of services - definitely: financial, insurance. Not only phone insurance, but in principle all types of insurance. This is a business that insurance cannot solve on its own, because insurance does not have such retail chains as we have. For the rest, for example, for a supermarket, they are not interesting, because there is a lot of fuss, and during this time huge flows must pass in the supermarket. And we, in my opinion, are perfectly tuned, and how retail 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 it is at gas stations, for example?

The store itself is really not just a store that sells phones. This is very boring. Shops where you can change the tariff? It's all the more boring. The current store format is evolving, and the experiments that we have been doing lately are just our attempts to find other new formats. I have already said that our task is not to build another retail outlet, but to make it better. Our offices must be the best. What makes them better? Will we sell phones better? No. They are all the same. Will we have better sellers? I hope so, of course, but you can't count on it. Will we have the best locations? All locations are the same. So what can you do to get better? Due to the format. Due to the modernity of service and new methods of working with clients. This is what we will be doing first. And among this there are really other and new services, including those that competitors have. It can be coffee, it can be multimedia and much more. We will experiment and do not yet know the recipe, what will be the retail, what will be the stores. We will search.

And when will you start the offline retail optimization stage and will close part of the stores? Apparently, Beeline has nothing to do with such a large network, given what you just said.

The development phase will move into the reconstruction phase. It is obvious. Reducing 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 around the country. But it won't be those big stores with lots of stock, lots of staff attached to those stores. We hope that in this way the optimization will be more efficient. First we need to make a good offline network. By the end of the summer, I think we will complete the stage of division and landing of the salons of the Euroset part. After that, our steps of experimentation, development, and reformation will begin. It should probably take at least a year. We need to make sense of everything. And in the end, we will come to become an operator without retail, or at least without the retail that we are all used to.

Do you think that the retail market, after the latest deals, is following the path of operator retail? Is it possible in this case to expect the appearance of such products as in Europe and America, when a subscriber is sold a contract with a smartphone and subsidized devices?

In fact, it has already happened. There are no independent players in this market. As for your question about subsidies, it all depends on the solvency of the population. And it's not too high. In Europe and the US, subscribers pay much more. But in fact, they actually pay not for communication services, but for the installment plan of the device they bought. They pay for new models of iPhone, Samsung, etc. The share of expenses for communication is extremely insignificant.

And what do you intend to do with the main business of the company? Recently, Beeline has lost second place in terms of the number of subscribers to MegaFon, and Tele2 is actively gaining a subscriber base.

The issue with the subscriber base is an entertaining math, but for me it is not interesting. Ask your colleagues in the market whether they are worried about this or not? I am sure that they do not worry, and they do it very correctly. The number of subscribers at one time was the most important indicator of the operator's development at the stage of growth in penetration, the first sale of a SIM card, then the second sale of a SIM card into a second device, then before the sale of a second SIM card into a dual SIM device - all this was very important. This is what we fought each other for, and now the fight is over. There is no point in chasing sim cards. If someone's bases are moving, then this is not reflected in income - that's how it is with MTS. Colleagues had a great last year, and at the end of the year they showed a good financial result, moving down by 2% on the base. This 2% base is not important, because it could be SIM cards that few people used. Beeline also has such SIM cards, like every operator.

- What is going on in VimpelCom's tower business? Is the decision to sell the towers and masts still valid?

We do not exclude the sale of the tower business. It's all about price here. No one has 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 affect the industry, the company and you personally?

I used Telegram, as well as other popular messengers on the market. Right now I won't be using it. I don't see it as a personal tragedy. Thank God there are other messengers.

- But what about the numerous Telegram channels?

I think that channels migrate to other messengers and applications, they will not be lost. The question is that it was conveniently implemented and became a habit. Now the habits 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 perfectly understand, most of the traffic within the packages is not assigned to specific applications and resources, they are one. In addition, Telegram traffic occupied a very small share of our subscribers. However, we will notice it. I suppose that people, like me, will switch to other messengers. After that, the 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. As for the impact on the industry, what will happen to instant messengers in general? If Telegram cannot or does not want to meet the requirements of the regulator, how will other messengers behave, because similar requirements will most likely be presented to them sooner or later. If they also do not satisfy, then they may have the same path as Telegram. Then there will be new messengers. Among them there are those who will meet the requirements of the law.

- By the way, what will happen to the messenger that was launched as part of the Veon project?

Messenger is working. No requirement has yet been placed on him that would make his work impossible. This is a good opportunity for us. Until recently, we looked at messengers with skepticism, because we understood that it was extremely difficult to win a share in such a highly competitive market, but in the new conditions, our Veon may have a second wind. Now the platform continues to develop on two applications - on Veon and on 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 is paradoxical, but we have seen that the traffic in Telegram has increased. It is possible that people simply said goodbye en masse. We have also seen a rather strange increase in Skype traffic lately. Moreover, we cannot understand whether it is video, audio or messenger. We did not see significant deviations in other popular messengers Viber 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 actions on the part of the state. But not only in the prohibitive sphere, but also in the regulatory and permissive part. For example, VimpelCom PJSC has acquired a large number of different frequencies, bought licenses, and regularly pays for their use throughout the country. At the same time, 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 the current consumers would be relocated. Nevertheless, it turns out that for many years there is a part of the affected frequencies that cannot be used by operators. These are the maximum power restrictions when the base station is operating, but not more than 2 W; full 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 flagrant, 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 for testing 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 transferring data. But we are not given frequencies. And they do not give them for various reasons, mainly under the guise that they are contaminated, someone uses them. We are told that you can interfere with someone.

Well, there are also a number of issues, such as Big Data, work with information about consumers, which we have in large quantities. Some of our colleagues in Internet business are already using them, but we do not have such an opportunity. And the reason is very simple. If we do something, just like they do, then they will come to us and say that you are using licenses incorrectly. But no one comes to them, because no one gave them licenses, they just take and use the data as they see fit. You can't even close them, because no one allowed them to work. These are exactly the things where business cannot manage on its own without the state.

In continuation of the theme of the role of the state. From July 1, the norms of the "Yarovaya package" regarding the storage of subscriber traffic come into force. Tell me, will you have time to fulfill the accepted requirements by the deadline - October 1? This is real?

Technically, we will do everything possible. But on my own behalf, I want to note the paradoxical situation when the law was adopted a long time ago, there is no specification text for this law. This is an absurd situation. For me, it is as if a law was passed that the colonization of Mars should be undertaken from July 1, 2018, but there is no text of the specification for the launch vehicle for mid-April. To build the technological means to comply with this law in the form in which we can now read it, it actually means to build a multiple data storage system within the operator. And at the same time, we do not fully understand whether it will be only mobile traffic, mobile and fixed, and then TV. And it does not matter that all this is licensed and stored. We are a big operator of IPTV and TV goes on Internet channels. Should this also be recorded? If yes, then these are completely different calculations. It's good that we have large data centers in our company. Therefore, we will be able to gradually introduce the requirements of the legislation in terms of technology, geography and volume. But I dare to assume that none of the currently living operators will be able to fulfill by July 1 that letter of the law, in the form in which it is 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 technological platform.

- And how much will the implementation of data storage cost?

I'm not ready to answer your question. We are evaluating our costs, preparing the terms of reference. But I am confident that all the big 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 timeframe. I have big doubts that small operators, including both mobile and fixed ones, will be able to do this. There are hundreds of them in the country, and they have to do everything that the big operators do. At the same time, most of their traffic comes from torrents, video, the same IPTV and other services. All this must be stored somewhere, processed, given access. Technically and economically, this is poorly solved. I would like to draw attention to this and hope that the law will be the same for everyone, and not only for those who can physically fulfill it.

- Do you have an understanding of what 5G is for from a practical point of view?

So far, 5G is an interesting dream that will migrate from one product to another over time. I remember when 5G was first introduced in Barcelona, ​​everyone was showing self-driving cars. Much less is said about them now. From the latest cases - this is industrialization in factories, a much more efficient connection than the usual Wi-Fi. This coverage of hot spots of traffic consumption within agglomerations, cities and buildings, partially reducing the load on 4G networks. We want to try all these 5G implementation options, test them, give us the frequencies.

- At the end of our interview, I would like to ask how you came to telecom? Where did it all start?

It all started, to be honest, for me with a semi-creative job - with a radio station. At the radio station, after working for several years, I was imbued with this most interesting new business. And after that came the first serious work. This is Coca-Cola. I had a chance to work with marketing right away. I wanted to move on. I just wanted to not miss something very interesting. In my opinion, it was mobile communication that was so interesting that I didn’t want to miss it. And when the opportunity arose, I fell in love with her. Mobile communication 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 leader in a company like VimpelCom?

The leader or general director is a person who has great opportunities in the company and who distributes these opportunities to other people. This is my understanding of the CEO. The role of a leader 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 in this, in my opinion, these subtleties of leadership, and rough forms of leadership: sticks, carrots, motivation, punishment - this is old. I want to see "Beeline" loved. Beloved employees, beloved shop visitors, beloved subscribers and non-subscribers, too, Beeline. So that Beeline is for many people something they want to strive for, what they want to be in, what they want to associate themselves with and what they feel good about.

In section

One of the most famous Russian top managers, ex-CEO of Vimpelcom Mikhail Slobodin, probably will not return to Russia in the near future. Here, questions from investigators who are conducting a case of multi-million dollar bribes to the former leadership of Komi have accumulated for him. Slobodin said goodbye to Beeline employees, describing his successes in his last letter. However, the facts show that under a top manager, the company lost to its competitors. It is interesting that everything that happens with Slobodin perfectly fits into the principle of “two carrots” invented by him.

Goodbye, our affectionate Michael!

Events developed rapidly. First, there were searches 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 the criminal case on bribes to the former leadership of the Komi Republic for 800 million rubles. This top manager Mikhail Slobodin, who once led Vekselberg's IES-Holding company (now called T Plus). Since 2013, Slobodin has headed Vimpelcom (a mobile operator operating under the Beeline brand).

On the day when it became known about the interest of the investigation in him, the top manager first stated that he was in France on a planned business trip and would soon return to Russia. Then he stopped answering calls from journalists. It soon became known that he resigned from VimpelCom at his own request. And then he was put 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 was in charge of VimpelCom, the operator lost to its competitors.

Head and grief

At the end of August, the company's shareholders extended the contract with Slobodin. Although there were good reasons not to do so. 3 years ago, when a top manager came to the company, it was 43.5 billion rubles behind MTS in revenue and 26.7 billion behind MegaFon. Last year, the gap from the main competitors increased much more. MTS VimpelCom has already lost 74 billion, and Megafon 43. It's funny that Slobodin himself once promised that everything would be fine with financial indicators in 2016. However, he failed to fulfill his promise. According to the results of the first half of the year, the operator's profit decreased by a third. However, the shareholders felt that the CEO created the prerequisites for future growth. It is no longer possible to test this in practice.

But Mikhail Slobodin has become the most transparent, open and eccentric leader in Russian business. What he just did not do. For example, once having put on a good make-up, he got a job as an intern in one of Beeline's offices. There he ate syrniki, fought with clients and generally behaved, to put it mildly, inadequately. So Slobodin wanted to check how the company's employees react to non-standard situations. The top manager kept several blogs at once (now closed), personally communicated with clients online. He wrote articles for the Russian media, published a corporate newspaper. True, they say that he did not do all this himself, the promotion, allegedly, was 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 is not a sin to quote it:

“I urge our senior management team to unite and move forward, despite the extremely difficult situation that will develop around this one way or another. For you guys, this is a serious test - a test of Leadership. My energy, enthusiasm and humor - I would like to think that I have it all - you will miss, now you must find these resources within yourself to energize your teams during this difficult time.

This "what kind of guy he was" message has a lot of lyrics, but not enough facts. For example, in recent years, VimpelCom has lost not only to its main competitors in the Big Three, but even to 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 had a Beeline. Complaints to the company that there was no connection in his own apartment did not help. I had to switch to another operator and the connection, lo and behold, appeared.

"Gentleman" failure

However, for Slobodin, all these problems are already in the past. Forbes magazine learned the details of the investigation of the case against the top managers of T Plus. Allegedly, the arrested head of Komi went to a deal with the investigation Vyacheslav Gaizer, and also spoke about the activities of Slobodin in those days when he led the energy company. And 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 really planned to return. The manager even bought a ticket for the route "Nice - Moscow" on September 8th. However, the passenger did not show up for the flight and returned the ticket. It happened a day after Mikhail Slobodin was put on the federal wanted list in Russia.

However, this is not the most “delicious” detail. The manager could have been warned that the investigators had questions for him. Therefore, he did not fly to France on a planned business trip, but, simply put, he fled. In addition, he wrote a farewell SMS to his ex-wife: “Oksan, now you can only rely on yourself.” An explanation is needed here. Mikhail Slobodin divorced his wife 5 years ago, but financially helped her and two children who live and study in the UK (where he will probably move, because France easily extradites suspects to Russia). Now he has a new passion and a 5-year-old child. Whether they remained in Russia and whether they received a similar “gentleman's” SMS is unknown.

Horizontal carrot from the back

Once Mikhail Slobodin came up with a rule of personnel management, which was widely distributed 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 essence is simple - a vertical carrot symbolizes all sorts of goodies: career growth, salary and status increase. But the horizontal one, or as he called it “carrot from behind”, 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 his chair from an unpleasant sensation. Judging by the current behavior of Mikhail Slobodin, he also felt the same carrot, which this time ended up in the hands of the security forces.