Extra challenges for business

Oleg Deripaska

President, Sibrisky Aluminium Group

Russia

What does the CEO Apec Summit mean to you?

The history of Russian legislation and the change from a protective system for industry by Government, has meant that our company, like others, has had to seek out a place for our product, develop new products and expand the whole aluminium process. The main target in attending the summit was to find a market and to find a partner with whom we could develop our products for this region.

How do you stay in contact with your organisation while in New Zealand?

E-mail and the telephone, of course. Communication systems are quite developed in Russia.

What makes your day at work?

This is a company which, three years ago, started from zero. It's very important to establish good relations, ones that will exist today and the day after tomorrow. We're looking for new markets. We have restructured and now we have to create our own strategy. So, what makes my day is to build up our good relations for our industry.

How did you get to where you are today?

In 1994 Oleg Deripaska graduated from the physics faculty of the Moscow State University. He assumed the position of chief executive officer at a huge aluminium works in Sayanogorsk, Republic of Khakassia. He was one of the youngest general-directors in the aluminium industry at the time. In 1997 with a team of innovative managers, the 29-year-old Oleg Deripaska set up the industrial group Sibirsky Aluminium (Source: the Sibirsky Aluminium Group)

What was the most important lesson you learned on your way up?

To be enthusiastic and to continuously look for new products and new investments.

What advice would you give to a young person starting out in your field of business?

We look for people who can challenge all situations, not just the ordinary ones. It is a very difficult task to sell a product, support the customer and set up goals. We have undertaken staff retraining programmes because they need to know their product as well as market it.

What's the biggest challenge to your organisation in the present economy?

Recognition of our organisation. In Russia nothing changes. Scandals, the "grey way" of doing business offshore, money laundering. Some people get exhausted from things which existed two years ago. We have to take more time to build up our reputation and to move to more important issues for our customers, our clients, our investors.

The former system of Government in Russia meant an infrastructure that promoted a business responsibility for social welfare issues. Social obligations have to be changed and now business has to work for profit. This is the proper way to run business rather than as a social system.

Russia's biggest challenge is to change the concept of efficiency in business and to change the image of what it is to do business with Russian companies. We have obligations. We have a need to change and a need to grow.

What ambitions do you have?

To be the biggest aluminium company in the world. The main goal we face is to understand that we are not just one company but several companies with different needs.

How do you relax?

We have branches throughout Russia and this involves lots of travel. The distance between the branches can mean a five or six-hour flight between the cities. To visit the region on the Mongolian Border, Khakassia and to go skiing in the "Switzerland" of Russia or to view the beautiful scenery of this area is my way of relaxing. You must realise how much travel is required to travel just across Russia, from one border to the other, it can take 12 hours by plane.

Two further questions were asked. One about transport issues and the other about Y2K.

Transport is very safe. There is a huge problem with the Russian Government not advertising what is really happening in Russia and not telling people about the success stores. What we have solved and how much industry production has grown over the past eight months for instance.

Y2K: We have followed the Year 2000 Compliance Russian State Programme and policy of the Government and we are not concerned with any likely problems. Russia's computerisation started a little bit later and the computers that were installed weren't as susceptible.

* More interviews with delegates to the Apec CEO Summit will appear in the Weekend Executive for the next few Saturdays.