Business in Russian
part 1 part 2
Now it is very fashionable to say that business is being squeezed, it is not allowed to grow and develop, that a government program is needed to save a domestic small producer, state support is needed. But until a turning point occurs in the minds and a thoughtful approach to building a business appears, nothing will help. Svyatoslav Biryulin will tell you how the business appeared in Russian and why companies that did not think about the problems of growth in time have no chance.
Imagine a village where there is no soap. They don't deliver. And you have an entrepreneurial streak - you borrow from friends, go to the city on gazelles, buy soap in bulk, bring it and sell it three times more expensive, because the demand is frenzied. «For these three prabout cents» and you live – the next time you go to the city already on a truck and sell also in neighboring villages and call it «to build a regional network ». You are a successful entrepreneur. Do you need a development strategy, marketing research, or a WMS system? No, because they will buy everything from you without them. This is how the Russian business of the early 90s began.
Then you have a competitor who magically starts selling the same soap cheaper than you buy. There is no reasonable explanation for this, but looking for a reasonable explanation for the habits of Russian businessmen is a threat to the mind. However, your three prabout cents are in question, and you are nervous. Your salespeople moan that they can't sell anything in such conditions, and you fire them because business is not a place for weaklings. You hire new ones and also fire them. And then, along with soap, bring shower gel, since oil has grown, and with it pensions and salaries, and your fellow villagers want to smell not only tar, but also violets. The average margin "per circle" is growing a little, you can live, although not by three percent, but by two. You still don't need a development strategy, marketing, CRM and HR. You are still a successful entrepreneur. Banks are running after you in droves to give you money almost for nothing, and you take it. With them, you open 20 branches and an office on Red Square and declare yourself a federal company. You put your accountant in charge of it, because you are too lazy yourself. This is the management of the early 2000s.
Half of the product lies on the shelves for six months before it is bought, another quarter has been gathering dust there since the opening. But the margin from the last quarter is such that it covers all these problems.
Oil is growing, and you are building a store. Then the second one. Half of the product lies on the shelves for six months before it is bought, another quarter has been gathering dust there since the opening. But the margin from the last quarter is such that it covers all these problems, and it doesn't bother you. More precisely, you don't know about it, because your elderly accountant keeps all the inventory records in 1C prehistoric version, and there everything is by the boiler method - revenue, cost, profit. The main thing for you is profit, because it's your new car and paying your son to study in London.
But here from friends (you don't read the business press on principle) you will learn the terrible thing "the feds want to come to your village". Or even "transnationals". Which have marketing, CRM, HR and, worst of all, low prices. The prospect of living on one percent scares you, and you go to the "goober", who had his ears ripped off at school, and over a bottle of fake cognac discuss "measures to protect local entrepreneurs and taxpayers from the Varangians". An ancient temple is suddenly discovered on the site looked after by the "feds" (then you will build a third store there), it has not been possible to supply light to another site for three years, gas to the third, and so on. This attack manages to be repelled, but bad news comes from the chief accountant – she was called to the tax office and unequivocally hinted that taxes would still have to be paid. At least some. Two percent turns into one and a half, but there's nothing you can do about it. At the request of the "huber" and out of foresight, you join the "United Russia" and donate to the new temple under the cameras. This is the management of the end of the noughties.
And then consider the most "scary" scenario that turns on if you continue to believe that money goes to money, and the business should grow by itself.
In the end, "the feds" connect enhanced resources, "the guber" is called "from above" and they still open. But since oil is growing and your business is already big, then one percent turns out to be good money. You still don't have a marketing, inventory management system or strategy, but you are still a successful entrepreneur. You are thinking about stopping drinking cognac with a "goober" and generally moving away from "operational management" and moving to your son in London.
You still don't have a marketing, inventory management system or strategy, but you are still a successful entrepreneur.
But then a terrible thing happens.
Firstly, the price of oil is falling.
Secondly, banks suddenly become extremely ungracious and begin to tear their money out of you with ticks.
Thirdly, you find out that out of 20 branches, 19 no longer belong to you, and the 20th has burned down.
And fourth, your business suddenly becomes interesting to certain structures. A film crew comes to your store in broad daylight and finds out from a terrified receptionist that the markup on soap is as much as forty percent. The plot comes out on local TV, where "forty percent" are glued to the face of a pensioner crying in full screen with large tears, forced to wash without soap. TV people are filming your house behind a high fence, built back in the era of the three percent. And if until recently you were written about as a local Sam Walton, then here you suddenly appear as an ogre drinking the blood of the working people. The police department, FSO, FSB, sanitary inspection, Rospotrebnadzor, tax and drug control service come to your office. They all find something and take away servers, reports and the "black" cash register. You run to court, but they look at you as a seriously ill person. You lose the courts, having learned a lot of bad things about yourself in the courtroom along the way. Then you are invited «to a conversation , during which they kindly explain that «even the question is not worth it –to give or not to give », and offer to honestly sell your business «good people» at the price of a used car. You dig – drink alone, shoot videos for YouTube and scold the authorities. You write an appeal to Putin that no one reads. «The goober» can no longer help you, since it was removed due to «loss of trust». They call you again and say that if you don't stop greyhound, then there is a free option to sit for a year or two. Everything is simple for us:there would be a person, but there will be an article. As a result, you still give the business away with one percent and an accountant, but without strategy, marketing and HR, since you have not started them.