Q & A
Makhmud Shadiyev ,
General Director of Nemetskiy Dvor LLP , co-owner of Becker & Co
Another thing is the number of people or staff . There are certain things you can influence , like a performance system . You may have a certain culture , beliefs that are very classical / typical issues , but it all depends on people , how they react . If you change one piece of your puzzle , and to me it ’ s a big puzzle because of how it works , the whole culture changes . The culture is a dynamic thing . You have to have stories , tales , legends being told . It brings something to your culture , influences it . If the culture is strong , you have these legends and stories being born and people who adjust and adapt to it . If the culture is not really strong , you have people who are not influenced . It may even disrupt the process . I would say it is not so easy – you have to adjust , listen and you have to try to adapt , maybe sometimes you even rotate people to understand .
I have one example . We have a company where we decided to implement changes , so we brought half of the people together from one company and the management board from another company , nothing happened . Sometimes we have higher expectations from people than necessary . But culture is a dynamic thing and it is very open to all the influences . You have to be open . diversity is good . Demographic changes , technological changes , operational system changes – all change the culture . You have to be purposeful when you are pursuing your goal , that is important . If you are purposeful , that is the main goal , and you can continue to
change the culture . You should be dynamic – that is my experience .
Anatoliy : Yes , it does come from corporate culture , from the CEO . In our case , recuperating depends entirely on the leadership of the CEO , because we all are in such a difficult period . I think , we all here are owners of at least the main stock of business . This may sound cynical , but if something does not work in corporate culture , say “ goodbye ”. We evolve over time of course , so you have to stay in sync . If I ’ m impressed by people , I ’ m eager to collaborate and go the way together – if I ’ m not , I don ’ t . It is simple . The culture can be different . For example , we have industrial processes , construction , retail and restaurants . The education level of people is absolutely different in different groups of business . I will not lie , I have to adapt to all such cases . If you come to a construction site and you talk to people as if they are at a board of directors meeting – discussing issues according to a schedule – you will just go broke . Also , if you come to retail and start to talk to young people like you would with workers on a construction site – they are likely to run to some other competing company . That ’ s why I have about 40 people with whom I ’ m moving . The board of Directors is my culture , people with whom I can communicate in one language . In other cases , we have to adapt to the environment to be successful .
Armanzhan : I agree with Eldar . Of course , there are lots of books and tons of literature about corporate culture and how to use the information in companies ' operations . But Anatoliy ’ s point of view is more appealing because within our company several different areas have been developed over the years : telecommunications , mass media , construction , and airline . Companies are different , and relationships within them are being built in different ways . Media is fundamentally different from the other businesses , like construction and aviation for example , because your work in the media business is not with just people , but with geniuses . All employees are absolutely convinced that they are geniuses . It ’ s very difficult to change their minds about it , and in fact it is not even necessary . I ’ m saying this because in different companies we see absolutely different moods , and I have to adapt and understand each business and each company ’ s mood .
How we got started ? We began by reading a ton of literature . But it appears that we did everything right from the very beginning : organized teambuilding and talked about goal-setting . Money was tight at that time , and many people basically worked for ideas . In the end , I realized that it is the best – to work for ideas , everything else comes somehow . People believed in it , and it worked .
Makhmud : I think it ’ s the same as with the previous question . There are so many ways how a CEO can be successful . He builds the corporate culture in the company . For me it hasn ’ t changed much with years . In any business there are the same certain principles that I have always kept . Even when you start your business with your friends or family there should always be some kind of subordination and discipline . No matter how big or small the company is , whether it is a startup or an already established business , I insist on people calling each other by their patronymic despite age . There should be respect . I agree with all the speakers that cultures may be different in a company ,
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