Higher State Institute named after N. Lysenko. A veteran of MTS, a native of Ukraine, became the CEO of Beeline. Wi-Fi will die very soon, and the “Yarovaya Law” will cost a lot of money

Latsanich Vasil Igorevich(born in 1972, Uzhgorod, Transcarpathian region, Ukrainian SSR, USSR) - Ukrainian and Russian manager and manager. Member of the Board and CEO (since 2018).

Father - Igor Vasilyevich Latsanich (1935-2003), opera and symphony conductor, teacher, People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1979), People's Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan (2001).

In 1995 he graduated from the Higher State Musical Institute named after N. V. Lysenko (Lvov, Ukraine). He received additional education in marketing at educational institutions in Moscow, Brussels, Prague, Vienna and London. From 1996 to 2001, Vasil Latsanich held a number of marketing and general management positions at Coca-Cola Ukraine Ltd, Coca-Cola Bottlers Siberia in Russia and Ukraine.

In 2001-2005, he was the head of the marketing department at MTS Ukraine. In October 2005, he was appointed Marketing Director of MTS Ukraine. Since 2010, Vasil Latsanich has been co-chairman of the TV Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine. In March 2011, Latsanich was appointed General Director of MTS Ukraine. In June 2012, in the position of Vice President for Marketing of MTS OJSC, he joined the Board of Directors of MGTS. From January 10, 2018, he took up the post of General Director of PJSC VimpelCom (for a period until December 31, 2020).

He is fond of music and collecting.

Related articles

WiFi will die very soon

The new general director of VimpelCom, Vasil Latsanich, told what he expects from the state and why he is no longer interested in counting cellular subscribers.

11/28/2017, Tue, 12:17, Msk , Text: Igor Korolev

Vasil Latsanich, a Ukrainian, will become the new head of VimpelCom. Prior to that, he worked for many years in the structures of MTS.

Vasyl Latsanich to head VimpelCom

VimpelCom (trademark Beeline, part of the Veon Group) has announced the appointment of a new CEO. He became a Ukrainian Vasil Latsanich.

Veteran of MTS

Latsanich worked for many years at VimpelCom's competitor, Mobile Telesystems (MTS). Since 2001, he has been in charge of marketing at the Ukrainian mobile operator UMC (the future subsidiary of MTS). In 2011, the head of MTS-Ukraine, a Russian Andrey Dubovskov headed the Russian MTS. After that, Latsanich became MTS Vice President for Marketing.

From MTS to Beeline via Italy

Last summer Latsanich. At the same time, information began to circulate on the market about his transition to the position of Vimpelcom General Director. However, Lananich could not immediately take this position due to restrictions on working with competitors.

In this regard, Latsanich first moved to the Veon headquarters in Amsterdam, where he oversaw the Italian subsidiary of Wind Tre.

VimpelCom has been looking for a new CEO for a year

VimpelCom has been looking for a CEO since the fall of 2016. Then the company Mikhail Slobodin, who was put on the wanted list due to allegations related to his former place of work - the energy company IES-Holding.

Vasil Latsanich, new CEO of Beeline

VimpelCom is headed by a Norwegian Shell Morten Johnsen(Kjell Johnsen), who shortly before that came to Veon as a curator of the Russian and Italian divisions. At the same time, it was stated that Johnsen would not work in this position for a long time, and they were looking for a new candidate for the post of head of VimpelCom.

In 1995, he graduated from the N. Lysenko Higher State Musical Institute in Lvov (Ukraine) with a degree in Opera and Symphony Conducting with a qualification of Musical Theater Conductor, Symphony Orchestra Conductor.

He received additional education in marketing at educational institutions in Moscow, Brussels, Prague, Vienna and London.

Labor activity

Coca Cola

From 1996 to 1999, he worked in the Ukrainian representative offices of Coca-Cola "Coca-Cola Amatil Ukraine Ltd" and "Coca-Cola Beverages Ukraine", having gone through a career path from a trade development manager to the director of the Ivano-Frankivsk branch and a sales channel development manager in Kyiv.

From the late 1990s to early 2001, he worked as a marketing manager for Coca-Cola Bottlers Siberia (Novosibirsk) and Coca-Cola Krasnoyarsk Bottlers (Krasnoyarsk), major Russian bottlers of Coca-Cola products in Siberia.

MTS

In November 2001, he was hired as head of the marketing department of CJSC Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC), which in 2003 became a subsidiary of Mobile TeleSystems OJSC and adopted the MTS Group brand.

In 2005, he took the position of Marketing Director of PrJSC MTS Ukraine. In the second half of the 2000s, he implemented a number of successful projects that strengthened and strengthened the Company's position in the cellular communications market in the face of intense competition: launched a service based on the CDMA-450 network, launched the first virtual operator (JEANS) in Ukraine, successfully rebranded in 2007 , formed an optimal portfolio of services for cellular users.

In the spring of 2011, he was appointed to the position of General Director of MTS Ukraine PrJSC, in the fall of the same year he was invited to the post of Vice President for Marketing of Mobile TeleSystems OJSC.

Since 2012, he has been a member of the boards of directors of NIS OJSC and Russian Telephone Company CJSC, since 2014 - Sistema Shyam Teleservices Limited and MGTS OJSC.

Since 2013, he has been a member of the Management Board of MTS OJSC.

On June 29, 2015, by the decision of the general meeting of shareholders, he was re-elected to the position of a member of the Board of Directors of MTS Bank PJSC with official duties involving the presence and active participation in the preparation and discussion of issues considered at meetings of the board and participation in the work of the strategy and risk management committee.

Beeline

On June 15, 2017, information appeared in the media that on June 30 he would leave MTS, and from January 1, 2018 he would become the head of the Russian VimpelCom.

Since January 10, 2018, he has been the head of VimpelCom (elected CEO for a period until December 31, 2020).

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 time frame. 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.

Vasil Latsanich, the current vice president for strategy and marketing at MTS, is leaving the company, two people close to MTS shareholders and one of his acquaintances told Vedomosti.

According to three interlocutors of Vedomosti, Vasil is a candidate for the position of CEO of Veon (former Vimpelcom) in Russia and may take the chair of Schell Johnsen. According to a person close to Veon, Latsanich's talks do not affect the Russian division of the group.

MTS PR director Elena Kokhanovskaya says that the company knows Vasil's plans to leave, but he has not yet submitted an application. “We understand his career aspirations. We wish him success in his new position,” says Kokhanovskaya. According to her, the company is deciding on a successor, but is not in a hurry, as the team is strong and successfully operating in the market.

Latsanich declined to comment, noting only that he did not write a letter of resignation from MTS.

The top manager had been looking for work outside the CIS for a long time, so he wanted to work in a global foreign holding, says a source close to MTS. He considered the first position in the Russian VimpelCom as a springboard for a career in the West, the source of Vedomosti knows. He says that the top manager's family lives in the UK and his aspirations are to leave the CIS.

Andrey Bykasov, PR director of Russia's Vimpelcom, notes that Shell Johnsen said at a recent meeting with employees that he would continue to be the company's CEO for a long time. Veon's director of external relations, Mark McGann, ignored questions about Lacanich's move to the group, but noted that Shell Johnsen remains CEO.

The interlocutors of Vedomosti remind that this is not the first top manager of the operator who goes to a competitor. Earlier, Mikhail Gerchuk, who heads the business of the Eurasia region, and Alexander Popovsky, who holds the position of executive vice president for corporate strategy and business development, moved from MTS to the Veon group. Lacanich has spent the past year focusing on business development strategy rather than marketing. MTS is not afraid of competition from his side, as the company still has a strong, healthy team, he said.

Shell Johnsen has been appointed CEO of Vimpelcom following the sudden departure from the company of Mikhail Slobodin. He said that he would occupy this chair until a replacement was found for him.

Prior to Latsanich's appointment in 2011 as MTS Vice President for Marketing, he headed MTS Ukraine. Since 2001, he headed the marketing department, in 2005 he took the post of marketing director of MTS Ukraine.

From 1996 to 2001, he held various marketing and general management positions at Coca-Cola Amatil Ukraine Ltd., Coca-Cola Beverages Ukraine, Coca-Cola Bottlers Siberia, Coca-Cola Krasnoyarsk Bottlers in Ukraine and Russia.

The interlocutors of Vedomosti in the management of other operators call the transition of Latsanich a very interesting and promising solution for Veon. “Vasil is a legend,” one of them says. He clarifies that it was largely thanks to Latsanich that MTS was able to consistently implement its strategy in the field of marketing and product development for a long time, which allowed it to maintain and increase the subscriber base without significant damage to marginality.