A physical education teacher by education, Vladimir Sedov created the largest company in Russia for the production of mattresses, Askona, and now he is selling it and building a private city of Dobrograd in the Vladimir region
03:37 About the dashing 90s
06:36 How did the big business idea come about?
11:49 About the first contract with IKEA
13:21 How to lose everything and start a business from scratch
19:25 What is the most important thing in business
23:50 How much can you build a unique city
Like many Russian entrepreneurs, Vladimir Sedov started in the early 1990s with barter schemes and wholesale and retail trade in whatever. But by 1998 he was tired of it. "Who am I? Speculator, farce. I felt uncomfortable in this clearing. The business was successful, but I did not get pleasure, ”he recalls.
Therefore, in 1998, the entrepreneur rented the building of the former kindergarten and organized the production of inexpensive mattresses in his native Kovrov, Vladimir Region. “When this provincial company appeared on the Moscow market, its products did not look very solid,” recalls Alexander Sakeyev, general director of the ABC of Your Dreams mattress salon network. But Sedov focused on the best Western factories and gradually adopted their experience, expanding production. For example, in 2003, an entrepreneur visited Swedish enterprises and began to develop a factory on the model of Hilding Anders: he copied not only the IT infrastructure, but also the principles of financial reporting.
Russian mattress market
According to the analytical company Tebiz Group, Russian companies produced 3 million mattresses in 2016, this figure was 4% lower than a year earlier. In monetary terms, this is more than 30 billion rubles, calculated the general director of the company "ABC of your dreams" Alexander Sakeyev.
According to the general director of Askona, Roman Yershov, his company now controls 52% of the domestic mattress market. The key competitor, the Ivanovo manufacturer Ormatek, occupies 25%, according to Anton Makarov, owner of the online furniture store divan.ru. The remaining market share is distributed among the companies Consul, Toris, Sarma, Lonax and others.
According to the co-owner of furniture retailer Hoff Mikhail Kuchment, distinguishing feature Russian market mattresses is that the share of imports on it is insignificant. Sakeyev from ABC of Your Dreams agrees: 95% of mattresses sold in Russia are made on its territory.
"IN last years the market sank: the consumer saves, and the mattress is not an essential item. If earlier, after five years of use, it was taken to the country, now they don’t do that. Plus in the regions appeared great amount small garage productions: the entrance ticket to the business is inexpensive, it is enough to have a special table and a sheathing machine, ”says Elena Pogorelskaya, leading manager of the Consul holding.
Sedov's business reached a new level when Askona signed a contract with IKEA in 2004: the furniture giant began to buy 20 models of mattresses from the carpet manufacturer. Now IKEA accounts for about a third of the company's revenue. The Swedish company saved Sedov's business when in 2006, due to a short circuit, the factory in Kovrov burned down. The entrepreneur then placed part of the orders at factories opened a year earlier in Chelyabinsk and Novosibirsk, but this was not enough. He personally agreed with the late founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, on an advance payment of $ 1 million "for a firebrand", and the American equipment manufacturer gave a delay of nine months under the personal guarantee of one of its top managers. Sedov managed to start production just four months after the fire.
Vladimir Sedov has been involved in Ascona, Russia's largest manufacturer of sleep products and mattresses, for 25 years, but since 2010 he has been systematically going out of business. He has a new large-scale project: Sedov took up medicine, participates in social projects and rebuilds a whole city with his own money
Askona owner Vladimir Sedov (Photo: Arseniy Neskhodimov for RBC)
Two and a half hours, and the high-speed "Swallow" will drive from the capital's Kursk railway station to Kovrov, a small town in the Vladimir region. Another 12 km, or 15 minutes along an asphalted forest road, and you find yourself in the Kovrov satellite, located between the Nerekhta and Arga rivers.
"City" (hereinafter we will call it that), in which there are three or four streets, you can go around by car in 20 minutes. There are no high-rise buildings here, but two-story townhouses of light stone and dark wood and sand-colored apartment houses lined up in neat rows. Here you can visit one of the most modern skate parks in Russia for free, play golf or ride the new ski slopes. Lakes, parks, forests are the basic “infrastructure” that a school, a kindergarten, shops and even a spa center will fit into in the coming years.
This is Dobrograd, a private city that has been built and developed since 2014 by Vladimir Sedov, a native of Kovrov and the founder of Askona, Russia’s largest manufacturer of orthopedic mattresses and sleep products, with an annual revenue of almost 21 billion rubles. (company data). The enterprise's factory in Kovrov is the largest in Eastern Europe.
Sedov dedicated 25 years to Askona. However, since 2010, he has been out of business, selling in parts the once 100% stake in the company to the Swedish giant Hilding Anders Group. In a few years, Sedov's share in Askona will become zero, but the businessman is only happy: he invests the proceeds from the sale of the enterprise in Dobrograd, his main project in life, according to the businessman.
Cities that don't exist
Dobrograd resembles a cozy and clean American suburb, only for the time being, rather, a ghost suburb. In addition to workers, employees and several visitors to the local restaurant "Stork's Nest", the RBC correspondent did not meet a soul during the day. In the same restaurant, in mid-October, a solemn reception was held for the governor of the Vladimir Region, Svetlana Orlova, judging by the photos posted on Instagram, then it was much more crowded.
Sedov's driver stops the car outside the Club House, a long, stylish, light-colored building with dark panels that houses the administration, a fitness club with a swimming pool, a conference room, and a first-aid post. Workers are finishing landscaping. Near the lake adjacent to the forest. In the summer, this reservoir was covered with a wooden stage, powerful lighting devices were placed in the forest - a classical music concert was held in Dobrograd, Sedov proudly recalls.
The idea of the future of Dobrograd was spied on by a businessman and avid traveler abroad: the founder of Ascona was inspired by the Portuguese smart city PlanIT Valley, which has been built since 2010 by the English company Living PlanIT. In the world of such examples over the past decade, a lot has accumulated: Chinese Dongtan, Nanjing, Tianji, Masdar in the UAE, Finnish Sitra Low2No, etc. All projects are designed to solve one problem - to improve the standard of living through the use of modern technological and urban solutions (security, ecology, energy saving, etc.).
Sedov is not the first who wants to repeat the world experience in Russia. In the 2000s, many large businessmen announced their intention to rebuild satellite cities, but none of the projects was fully implemented. In 2007, the owner of Nafta-Moskva, Suleiman Kerimov, planned to invest $3 billion in Rublevo-Arkhangelskoye, but eventually sold the project to the head of the Binbank, Mikail Shishkhanov, along with obligations under the Sberbank loan - instead of exclusive houses, the master plan included mass construction of 5.2 million square meters. . But this project did not materialize either: the asset was transferred to Sberbank for debts, and already in 2008, at the suggestion of Dmitry Medvedev, it was decided to create an international financial center in Rublevo-Arkhangelskoye.
Vasily Anisimov, the owner of Coalco International, had been planning to build a private city since the early 2000s: firms associated with the businessman bought up the land of three farms with a total area of 12 million square meters. m, and Bolshoy Domodedovo was to appear in their place. However, the territory is still being built up in small plots and various contractors - a residential microdistrict, for example, is being built by Andrey Molchanov's LSR group.
Prior to the crisis that began in 2014, according to consulting company Metrium Group, there were at least 15 megaprojects designed to increase the comfort of Russians, but only two are being built - Novoye Stupino and A101 in Kommunarka. Developers have begun to treat large-scale projects more cautiously and carefully think through their concept, believes CEO"Metrium Group" Maria Litinetskaya. “Many did not want to take risks, changed their plans to more predictable ones, but such projects have a future: both in the Moscow region and in New Moscow there are enough undeveloped territories, where there is a clear lack of quality housing, infrastructure and jobs,” explains Litinetskaya.
The main problem in the development of private urban projects in Russia is the lack of the necessary demand, since even in Moscow and the region, the supply of residential real estate exceeds the real level of income and opportunities for the population, says Evgeny Plisetsky, deputy director of the HSE Institute for Regional Studies and Urban Planning.
Sedova statistics does not stop. He has already invested more than 9 billion rubles in the implementation of the project of a lifetime, in five years this amount will grow to at least 22 billion rubles. The businessman is sure: Dobrograd will pay off. “Any city is just a development project. If the project is good, it cannot be unclaimed, ”Sedov is resolute, adding that he plays for a long time and expects at least 15 years.
Planning for years ahead and methodical calculation is Sedov's usual strategy. In the early 1990s, at a shipyard - a manufacturer of military boats in the Nizhny Novgorod region - he began to produce the first mattresses, as a result, this business grew into Askona. Almost ten years later, Sedov began to look for a buyer for the company, and after about the same period, he would finally approach the final part of the plan.
Top manager time
Short circuit - and the mattress factory in Kovrov, the largest plant of Askona, in December 2006 almost burned to the ground. But Sedov managed to cope with the shock - primarily thanks to partners, suppliers and even competitors.
The Swedish giant IKEA, for which Askona produces mattresses, almost immediately allocated about $1 million in prepayments for the production of the enterprise, which was to be rebuilt. By agreement personally with the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, says Sedov. The press service of the Russian IKEA confirmed that the company provided "significant financial assistance" ten years ago.
To fulfill obligations to partners in full, Sedov placed part of the orders at his regional plants (Chelyabinsk and Novosibirsk), built a year before the fire to expand his business. Part of the production undertook to produce for "Ascona" competitor - the company "Toris" (made the Mediflex line). And the American partner, the manufacturer of equipment for mattresses Leggett & Platt, persuaded customers to skip Ascona in the queue for a discount and let Sedov's company operate at its facilities.
“I spend a lot of time on relationships with the people I work with,” Sedov explains the responsiveness of partners. Today Askona produces 9,000 mattresses a day, about a third of them are sold by IKEA. The company also produces products under private labels of retailers (for example, French Auchan, Russian Hoff, Lazurit, Lots of Furniture). About 35% of Askona's products are purchased by government agencies and private business from different areas: the company cooperates with Russian Railways, the Ministry of Defense, hospitals, hotel chains, yacht manufacturers, and so on.
“The last time I was at the factory at the beginning of the year,” Sedov admits laughing and leads him to look at the Askona workshops. Only a piece of a burnt wall, specially left by a businessman, reminds of a ten-year-old fire at the Kovrov factory. Sedov is a member of the board of directors of the enterprise, participates in decision-making on budgeting and development. But Sedov stepped away from the operational management of the company in 2010 - after the sale of a controlling stake in Askona to the Swedish concern Hilding Anders, which is one of the ten largest world mattress manufacturers.
"That's a hit"
From the need to deal with the affairs of Ascona, Sedov "stomps with terrible force," but that was the condition of the Swedish side in the deal - the former management should remain at the helm, the businessman explains. “They were afraid to get a company without me, but they were also afraid of my influence. For Westerners, I think too out of the box [non-trivial],” he said.
Sedov chose a buyer for his business back in 2003, when he began to prepare the company for sale. “I just realized then that in 2010 the business would have such a scale that it would be necessary to go either to an IPO or out of it itself - later it would not be possible to sell,” Sedov explains the sequence of actions. In 2003 "Ascona" occupied 17% of the market in terms of money.
Having decided on the future buyer of the business, Sedov went to Swedish enterprises and began building Ascona in the image and likeness of Hilding Anders - from production and IT infrastructure to the principles of generating financial reports. The businessman was helped in this by cooperation with IKEA, which began in 2004, two years before the fire. If a company working with a furniture giant manages to earn at least a ruble, then it is effective, Sedov is sure. “They set absolutely fair conditions for quality. They told me: “Why do you tolerate that their employees check the cleanliness on the tables and in the toilets at our enterprise? the businessman recalls. - But that's a bummer. If IKEA won't do it, then I'll do it."
When Hilding Anders and Ascona entered into a deal, the Swedes were surprised that they practically did not need to spend money on integration internal processes. In addition to production, at the time of the sale to the Swedish giant, Askona had a network of 300 stores under the brand of the same name (today there are more than 800, about half of which are franchised).
The cost of buying and selling a controlling stake in the Kovrov company was not disclosed by the parties. Experts interviewed in 2010 by the Vedomosti newspaper estimated the stake at $100 million (about 3 billion rubles at the Central Bank rate at that time), Sedov calls this amount "pretty accurate." Hilding Anders also received a call option to buy out the remaining shares. The Swedes took advantage of it in June 2016: Sedov sold another 25% of Askona. And in a few years he will leave the number of shareholders.
The consolidated revenue of the Kovrov company in 2015 amounted to 20.7 billion rubles, the profit is not disclosed. SPARK-Interfax lists the key legal entities separately: from the database it follows that the profit of Askona Vek LLC (the production part of the business) in 2015 is 1.9 billion rubles, the Askona trading house is 1.5 billion rubles. In total, there are 12 legal entities in SPARK-Interfax, in which Sedov acts as a full or partial owner, their total revenue for 2015 amounted to almost 25 billion rubles, net profit - 3.4 billion rubles.
Vitaly Vavilov, a partner at Strategy Partners, estimates the current value of the entire mattress manufacturer at about 30 billion rubles. It turns out that for a quarter of the company Sedov could gain about 7.5 billion rubles. - without taking into account agreements with Hilding Anders, which the businessman does not talk about. Representatives of the Swedish holding did not answer questions from RBC magazine.
“I see in my environment people who continue to sit in the chair of the general director, and they have nothing to do there for a long time,” says Sedov. The most effective age for the CEO of a company, according to the businessman, is 35-50 years old, when a person has “experience, a desire to take risks and the ability to balance on the verge of excitement and caution.” After 50 years, caution begins to prevail, Sedov is sure. “The last thing I want is to be buried from my chair,” says the businessman, and at 44 he tells managers that everyone has the opportunity to take the post of head of the company.
Rector of Moscow State Technical University N.E. Bauman Anatoly Alexandrov calls Sedov "a small nuclear reactor”And believes that he has long been cramped within the Ascona business. Aleksandrov met Sedov last year at the Territory of Meanings youth festival, where they also agreed on a joint educational project - retraining teachers, developing methods and programs for the Kovrov State Technological Academy named after I.I. V.A. Degtyarev.
“When a person has the task of earning a lot of money, this is not at all a shame. But when he begins to feel responsible for his city and build appropriate projects, he wants to help, ”says Alexandrov. And now Sedov has a lot of projects “with a sense of responsibility”.
social smack
In Kovrov, since the times of the USSR, an informal but influential association of the heads of the largest companies in the city has been operating - the Board of Directors of Kovrov enterprises. The firms that are part of the association provide approximately one sixth of the total volume of products manufactured in the Vladimir region in shares (gross regional product; 60.3 billion rubles). Sedov became the head of the council in 2014.
One of the key tasks of the association is social support. For example, the plant V.A. Degtyarev contains a park, which, in fact, is central to the city. Askona has built a huge multifunctional sports ground in the microdistrict next to the central office. The Kovrov Electromechanical Plant, together with the All-Russian Research Institute Signal, reconstructed storm sewers, and the Kovrov Mechanical Plant donated 40 playgrounds to the city. Sedov himself has already sold back to the Kovrovsky district the site on which the school in Dobrograd is being built, - he says it should be state-owned.
About five years ago, guided by this logic, the businessman began to cooperate with SU DSK, a major developer in the Vladimir region. After the previous shareholder stopped developing the development company and left the capital, it was under threat of closure. The mayor of Kovrov, Anatoly Zotov, asked Sedov for assistance. “I wanted to keep jobs and agreed,” says the businessman, he persuaded two top managers of Askona, Oksana Kurakova and Svetlana Isakova, to invest in the developer. Today, together Kurakova and Isakova own 90% of DSK. And Sedov himself provided a distribution channel for the developer's housing by creating Askona Invest. Now, according to Sedov, the issue of his entry into the capital of DSK is being discussed; what share the businessman can acquire, he does not disclose. Zotov, in the answers to RBC's questions about cooperation with Sedov, transmitted through the press service, did not comment on the businessman's words, referring to the fact that he is not a shareholder of SU DSK.
Sedov talks about the importance of the social function of business when we are sitting in the office of the chief physician of the Kovrov First Clinical Medical Center (PCMC), Vladimir Emelianenko. This five-story multidisciplinary medical center Sedov opened in May 2015 on the site of one of the first production sites of Askona. The businessman spent about 4 billion rubles on PCMC. - so much was spent on rebuilding the building and buying Philips equipment needed to provide high-tech medical care.
Suddenly, one of the doctors of the PCMC looks into the office and is interested in Sedov's health. “Everything is in order,” the businessman answers the newcomer, and tells me that he had a small operation in the morning. “In an ordinary hospital, I would have to lie down, but here I am already on my feet,” Sedov rejoices. He enthusiastically tells how he lured Moscow professor Emelianenko to Kovrov, about advanced equipment and about joint scientific and practical activities and an educational project for the retraining of doctors with the Moscow Cancer Research Institute. P.A. Herzen.
In less than a year of existence, PCMC managed to enter the program of the last stage clinical trials two medical preparations applied when oncological diseases. The names of medicines are not disclosed at the center, trials will begin before the end of 2016.
The PCMC also received the right to serve quotas of patients from the Moscow region: surgical, cardiological, ophthalmological and gynecological patients from Balashikha, Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Pavlov-Posad, Noginsk and Schelkovo will receive care at the PCMC. The press service of the Ministry of Health of the Moscow Region did not answer questions from RBC.
In addition, the Sedov Center managed to enter the compulsory health insurance program: about 60% of the services provided were paid for by the territorial fund of compulsory health insurance Vladimir region. VHI accounts for 25% of the center's revenue, a significant part of which is direct contracts for employees of enterprises in Kovrov and the Vladimir region. The publication Vademecum estimated the revenue of PCMC for 2015 at 90 million rubles. PCMC is one of two private multidisciplinary medical centers in the Vladimir region, Vademecum points out.
In December, a center for additional professional education will open on the basis of the PCMC: under the personal supervision of the founder of Askona, it will be engaged in advanced training and retraining of doctors and nurses from all over Russia. And next year, Sedov is going to increase the capacity of the center's hospital from 55 to 80 beds. New places are needed by the PCMC to provide emergency assistance- Previously, patients with cerebrovascular accident were taken to the city clinic for diagnostics, but from September 25, the Sedov Center began to receive them. To increase the inpatient department, the businessman plans to move the dental and cosmetology departments to Dobrograd. In general, no matter what Sedov does, all his recent undertakings lead to his main project.
Hills according to plan
“Life is divided into two main parts: work and home,” says the businessman, showing us a demo townhouse. - I want to create comfortable space, from which I would not like to emigrate to other countries.
Inspired by Western examples, the businessman and his team carefully preserve the ecosystem of the site during the construction of Dobrograd: all objects - residential and non-residential - fit into the existing hilly landscape, the forest is not touched, and the park trees were partially transferred to new sites. City communications, Sedov assures, are built using a special technology, engineering networks are laid underground: sewage processes waste into organic fertilizers or water.
In addition, a special system for managing urban communications from a single center has been developed for Dobrograd, Sedov boasts. Information collection systems were developed by the local Vladimir company Systems and Technologies, and the Swedish ICT was engaged in the algorithm for analyzing and predicting problem areas, such as wasteful spending of resources.
All housing in Dobrograd is currently being built and sold by the Askona Invest company (revenue for 2015 is about 34 million rubles), and Homemartenergy is engaged in engineering, finishing and all technical work (about 14 million rubles). Both firms are part of the Goodwill group of companies, which is controlled by Sedov. At one of the next stages of the construction of Dobrograd - four- and five-story houses - SU DSK will join the work.
However, Sedov is already negotiating with third-party developers to enter the project on a contract basis (the businessman does not disclose the names of potential partners): he says that several companies are already interested and are ready to follow the concept of the project and the master plan. The first contracts should be signed in 2017.
The first stage of Dobrograd houses began to sell about six months ago. So far, only nine plots have been bought and settled, not counting the house where the businessman himself lives with his family. Before the New Year, about 70 houses will be filled, in 2017 - 300, Sedov is sure. A small townhouse in Dobrograd with an area of just over 172 sq. m for three rooms and with a garage can be purchased for 6 million rubles. For comparison: in the neighboring holiday village Zelenaya Mile, a house of 150 sq. m will cost about 4.2 million rubles.
In the coming years, the development of Dobrograd will go on 1,000 hectares owned by Sedov's firms. There are also reserves for expansion, which can be redeemed later, the businessman admits. Over the past few years, Sedov has been consistently buying up private agricultural land plots ranging from 6 to 30 hectares.
From the documentation of auctions for the lease of land in 2011-2013, which were conducted by the administration of the Kovrovsky district, it follows that in those years the cost of buying out 1 sq. m ranged from 10 to 30 rubles. The total cadastral value of 86 land plots owned by Goodwill Group and associated with Sedov firms exceeds RUB 910 million. The businessman himself does not disclose the amount spent on the purchase of land, specifying that the transaction prices were not "a determining part of the investment" in the project.
However, Dobrograd is being built not only for life, but also for tourists. More than 1,500 residents of Kovrov and residents of other cities of the Vladimir region are already coming to the city of Sedov on weekends, says Mayor Zotov. They are all attracted by the sports infrastructure, which has already been built by the businessman's brigades.
Enough patriotic
"Thank you. Good luck". On October 10, 2016, President Vladimir Putin left such an inscription on a stand with a map of Dobrograd. The head of state arrived in the city of Sedova for a plenary session of the Council for Physical Culture and Sports as part of the forum "Russia - a Sports Power". "We need to replicate" Dobrograd, the president concluded, speaking from the stage about the importance of involving the economically active population in sports, the development of corporate sports and public-private partnerships in this area.
Before the arrival of the president, Sedov changed the name of his city: it was originally built as Goodwill. “When they decided to go to the federal level — to acquaint officials with the project, we were told that the name of the city was not patriotic enough,” says Sedov, either jokingly or seriously. In any case, the forum was a success: judging by the reports of the local press, the founder of Askona was able to personally talk with the president about Dobrograd for almost 20 minutes. Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the head of state, did not disclose the details of the conversation to RBC magazine, but specified that Putin "evaluated Sedov's project very positively."
About 2.5%, or 24 hectares, of the total territory of Dobrograd are allocated to the sports resort and family recreation park. A mini-football field and a golf course, illuminated ski slopes with a total length of about 100 km and a 30 km bicycle path, the Grand Arena sports complex with a capacity of 400 people, a town for passing TRP standards and much more. The skate park built in Dobrograd, the only one in the Vladimir region, was planned to be made of wood, but Sedov insisted on a construction with a concrete bowl: this is how they are building all over the world now, says Alexander, director of development at the FK-Ramp skate park design and construction company Koksharov.
Infrastructure for sports and entertainment cost Sedov about 800 million rubles. - this is less than half of the planned amount of 1.7 billion rubles. Residents and visitors of Dobrograd can use all sports facilities for free. But Sedov wants to involve the administration of the region and Kovrov in the development of facilities: in return, he is ready to give the halls for the creation of children's youth schools. However, generosity can be explained by logic: Sedov is still unlikely to be able to recoup sports costs.
An example of this is Sheregesh, one of the most popular ski resorts in Russia, located in Kemerovo region. In 2015, about 1 million winter sports enthusiasts visited Sheregesh, but this is not enough to recoup the investment of local businessmen.
In particular, a modern four-seater chairlift installed a few years ago never started to bring in money. The owner of the Kuzbass Fuel Company, Igor Prokudin, spent about 600 million rubles on it: with an annual revenue of about 80 million rubles, of which three-quarters goes to salaries, spare parts and taxes, “the prospects are gloomy,” the businessman told Sekret Firmy in the spring of 2016 of the year. Installed for 200 million rubles. in Sheregesh ten years ago, the Khlebnitsa lift did not pay off, Prokudin specified.
Sports infrastructure in private cities is always created to increase the capitalization of the project: investors expect to recoup its value directly by selling real estate, says Marina Smirnova, head of the hotel business and tourism department at Cushman & Wakefield.
Sedov argues the same way: visiting the sites by families from nearby regions will be an advertisement for the city - someone may want to move to Dobrograd. Such advertising, according to Sedov's idea, should provide the city with a tourist flow of 2 million people a year by 2022. The population of the Kovrov satellite by this moment will exceed 30 thousand inhabitants with a total building area of 25 thousand square meters. m, Sedov dreams.
In a few years, according to the RBC magazine, a station of the Moscow-Kazan high-speed railway line may appear in the immediate vicinity of Dobrograd: the governor of the region, Svetlana Orlova, could contribute to its appearance. The press service of Orlova did not answer questions from RBC. If the station really appears, Dobrograd will be separated from the capital by 50 minutes by train. Sedov rejoices: the new station will attract new settlers from the current Muscovites.
Dobrograd's main problem is that it does not have a city-forming enterprise, argues Smirnova of Cushman & Wakefield, so attracting young middle-class families will be problematic even with the advent of a new high-speed route.
So far, Sedov has no plans to build a large-scale manufacturing business in Dobrograd. He expects to transfer to the city both representatives of large local businesses and individual divisions of large companies: for example, negotiations are now underway to move IT specialists with a federal holding, Sedov says, without disclosing details.
So far, Dobrograd does not even have an official status. The project, according to formal signs, has outgrown both the village and the microdistrict - the last word for the government of the region, where the documents for registration are now located. However, waiting for Sedov is a common thing, because even waiting for him always turns out to be planned.
About Dobrograd, cornering speed, resources for growth and entrepreneurial approach
"Technologies of Achievement" - a rubric dedicated to the philosophy of achievements in the first person. We are interested in ideas, principles, personal qualities that are the basis of decisions that lead to achievements.
The author and presenter of the column is Sergey Sitnikov, entrepreneur, public figure, founder of the Development Technologies company, which specializes in transforming ideas into achievements. The rubric's interviews are published in the "Director" magazine.
Vladimir Mikhailovich SEDOV, founder and president of the Askona group of companies, creator of the city of Dobrograd, chairman of the Board of Directors of the city of Kovrov
Born on May 7, 1966 in the city of Kovrov, Vladimir Region, in the family of an engineer and a nurse, he was educated as a physical education teacher. In his youth, Vladimir Sedov was an active participant in the bard movement, in 1986 his big solo concert took place in Kyiv.
In 1990 he founded hometown Askona, which has become the largest manufacturer of orthopedic mattresses and sleep products in Eastern Europe with an annual turnover of more than 23 billion rubles, is the largest supplier of IKEA.
On December 16, 2006, a fire completely destroyed the Askona production, after which Vladimir Sedov restored and modernized the company in four months, personally agreeing with the founder of IKEA Ingvar Kamprad on an advance payment of $ 1 million. Top manager of the American company that supplied the equipment, Ed Grether, vouched personal property for the reputation of "Ascona", agreeing to a delay of nine months. The first mattress was released two weeks after the fire.
Today, the company employs more than 4,500 people (2,500 in Kovrov), producing 10,000 mattresses per day. Network in 80 cities of Russia. The company's production facilities are located in Kovrov and Novosibirsk. The most expensive King Koil brand mattress costs $75,000.
In 2010, Vladimir Sedov went out of business by selling a stake in the Swedish concern Hilding Anders, and in 2014 acquired 2,600 hectares of land in the Vladimir Region, where, having invested more than 4 billion rubles in infrastructure alone, he began building the city of Dobrograd for 40,000 people.
SS: How did the decision to found Dobrograd come about?
Sun: The first decision was empirical. There is a story: our plant is located in Kovrov and at the start there was a desire to improve the living conditions of people in this city, we asked ourselves: “How to make people in it happy?”
What is the difference between the cities that were in Soviet times?! Before there was a feeling of happiness. It's not about the infrastructure, it's about the atmosphere. Soviet time differs from the present in that there was confidence in the future. Now in Belarus people do not live well, but, in my opinion, they are happier, because there is more such confidence. They know what will happen a good education, workplace- that gives people peace of mind.
We wanted to create something similar in Kovrov, to provide all social benefits, but we faced a lot of difficulties, including at the municipal level; realized that life is not enough to change the current situation. Therefore, Dobrograd is a reaction to a failed result. We tried to change the situation, but failed. What is “it didn’t work out” for an entrepreneur - it’s a fakap (mistake, failure - ed.)! It can not be so! “Psyhanul”, I think, we will try to do it ourselves, as we imagine it, and we started to do it!
It was later that we realized that this was a development project, and there are many such projects in Europe.
SS: What will the city be like in 50 years, who will manage it?
Sun: It must be relevant to its time, which will be in 50 and 100 years. Previously, no one in the cities assumed that the infrastructure would not correspond to the current time: roads and so on. When houses and streets were built earlier, no one imagined that the family would have two cars, trade would move to supermarkets, not always Soviet people will walk or take the bus.
Speaking about the architecture of modern cities, I will say that only Tolyatti, perhaps, corresponds to the present time, Italian architects participated in its design: the streets are 250 meters wide (in 1964 the city of Stavropol in the Kuibyshev region was renamed Tolyatti, in honor of Secretary General Italian communist party Palmiro Togliatti - approx. ed). And now the authorities of this city have no problem making changes, adding another lane on the road, for example. The traffic system is built only through a roundabout, which reduces gas pollution and accidents.
In Moscow, they are forced to demolish houses and build road junctions, but the regions do not have such budgets. IN European cities usually there are no industrial enterprises in the city center, which significantly relieves the center.
As for the management system, one must understand that any management system of an existing city has inherited features, and municipal management has already established standards through which each new leader looks at solving problems and looks at them as a given. The tasks have changed a long time ago, but the system remains the same. Breaking the system is problematic and painful, so the question: “Why?”
We studied the experience of a number of the best cities in the world, made friends with several mayors in order to hear on the ground what they think about governance, what they are guided by, what tools and technologies they use. A lot of unexpected things opened up for us, we plunged into the municipal government and it was a “refresh” (update - ed. note)!
This is not so much the management of roads, objects, but the management of feelings, emotions, when at the end you can understand: do people like living here or not, do people leave or not?
SS: Feeling happy?
Sun: Yes, that's right. It's simple - is your population decreasing or is it increasing? It doesn't matter if it's Moscow or another city. If you were doing well, people would not have left. But we need to find out why they are leaving, study the needs of the residents, and understand what is “not good”. Just how are we used to? Some officials say: “This is good, people just don't understand that “this is good”. You have to take it for granted! And to lay the needs of people in the goal-setting of managers and performance indicators for evaluating their activities (key performance indicators, KPI - indicators of success in a particular activity or goal - ed.)!
SS: Can happiness be measured in KPIs?
Sun: KPIs are just key metrics and they can vary. In business - "business", in social projects - social. In city management and business management, you need to evaluate efficiency, “target” your work and evaluate the quality of performance. I talked with the heads of municipalities of the Moscow region who were trained in Skolkovo, I can say that it is very comfortable in terms of understanding such social KPIs.
SS: How will succession be achieved in the management of Dobrograd?
Sun: Dobrograd will become a municipality next year. Otherwise, we will not be able to give investors even big guarantees if it is a completely private story. The state system gives these guarantees, in terms of infrastructure and other things. There are such projects in the USA, when the developer, starting the project, created a classical administration, adjusted the management system for the future municipal government, implemented it at 30% of the projected volume and transferred it to the municipal government. The structure of the Dobrograd mayor's office already today is consonant with the classical structure of municipal government - this means that, in addition to the basic elements, it also includes those that a management team should have.
SS: For example?
Sun: We are well aware that any work includes two important areas: infrastructure management and development. People who are engaged in operating systems will never be able to develop, they simply do not have enough time for this. There is a team that deals with operational tasks, and a team that deals with changes.
We were forced to study the best world practices of municipal government. It turned out that in our country there is no single information system for municipal government. How can you make decisions without timely information you can trust?
First, we found a private company in the US that has been writing software products for municipalities for 63 years. These are systems that do not allow stealing, the adoption of legislative decisions and their implementation is transparent.
Today we are making such an IT system, we have found a team that is ready to start from scratch. This is an analogue of an ERP system for business, with the help of which you can make better management decisions with less effort, using a cheaper method.
An international team is working, they are doing projects abroad, the base is a Russian organizer, owner and spiritual leader, our scientists. Part of this team moves to Dobrograd after the New Year and writes a program, studies and scales up our best practices.
In addition to the fact that the system provides tools for management, a new level of opportunities, it allows you to seriously influence the level of income. In Barcelona, we signed a contract with Mastercard and Visa, now you can analyze and make decisions more intelligently, for example, where to open a store, based on what places with what average bill and what purchases are made. Every home will have an Amazon delivery system. I am sure that in 2-3 years we will have the most informatized city.
And it's very good story- We have a lot of partners in state authorities, in federal ministries. For the center, there is an opportunity to show other cities how all this will work in our example.
SS: Let's talk about the management of Ascona. What is your official place of work today?
Sun: I am unemployed (laughs). The board of directors is not formalized as a body, but exists as a decision-making center. I am the unofficial president of the group, I participate in strategic sessions and in the final version of the defense of the budgets of large companies, I attend reporting events once every three months. That's how it's always been set up. Even when I was the head of the company for the last five years, in fact I was not one, I asked my deputies, “You are professionals, you are all smart. - Can you communicate with each other? - Then, communicate! “What the hell do you all need me for?”
You could come to me on three occasions. The first case, when there is a problem and there are good solutions, to consult which one to choose. The second case is an emergency. The third - you can’t agree, but then the question is: “What the hell are you pinning for me? So you should be fired!"
Tight control only in finance, strategy and HR.
SS: I noticed that key executives have been with the company for a very long time, with 15-20 years of experience...
Sun: Not a single person in the company has left in 30 years. Nope, one is gone. It's very simple: why do people leave? A person leaves because he believes that he is worth more. The second reason is that he does not receive tasks that would arouse his interest. For a person, the main commodity is himself, and wages are the cost of this commodity. Exchange value. How to increase the cost of goods? Solve more and more difficult tasks every time! If it solves a more complex problem, its value increases. Going outside, looking for a job, it's like going to the stock exchange, only to the labor exchange. We have more difficult tasks every time. There is no point in going somewhere and looking for something. What is the point when there is already the next task, everything is clear here? No new stress is needed, and each new progress increases the value of such a manager.
SS: Who is the main initiator of the tasks?
Sun: Only me.
SS: How to involve the team in these tasks?
Sun: You know, it doesn't always work right away. I've just been working for a long time, and we have a fairly good understanding. I make these decisions and initially, as a rule, no one is enthusiastic about it. I myself stand at the origins: I show involvement, interest, faith. Not just invented and said, but the team sees that the leader climbs everywhere himself, does it himself. If this business is not done, it means that I should be sent to hell.
SS: In an interview with RBC, you said that you don’t draw up business plans at the entrance to a new project ...
Sun: Never... This is such an entrepreneurial approach, "based on intuition." And there's a lot to see good ideas who are successful overseas. Everything that is in the USA fits in Russia without problems. What is in Europe - you have to see.
SS: What is your approach to management? Is there a place for "European management"?
Sun: I would compare the Scandinavian, American and Japanese approaches to management. In the Scandinavian version, there is more emphasis on managing a business through finances, a long discussion of all issues, risk analysis, evaluating the correctness of decisions and making only when all team members are confident. Of the benefits - low probability of errors, strong financial management; of the minuses is the low speed of making and implementing decisions, especially now, when such high speed changes. In the American approach, we determine the vector, designate dangerous points and make a decision to be executed. During execution, how everything goes and these dangerous points are controlled, a number of decisions change during execution. In the Japanese approach, a lot is connected with the personality, it is permeated with the mentality and culture of the country.
We at Askona are closer to the American system. Speed, in my understanding, is the most important thing. I think if you know how to control the processes so that you don’t get carried away at the speed of the turn, speed is your advantage. Now speed is the key! Or are you overboard. Speed - either you run or you die!
SS: What were the most difficult decisions you had to make?
Sun: I believe that there are no difficult decisions, in principle. The decision can seem complicated if you don't clearly know what you want. It can be a difficult choice when there are multiple solutions. Having a strategy is very important. If there is no strategy, then any decision is difficult for you, because you have to think “do I need it or not”. If the strategy is approved, then any managerial decision is the execution technology, just the execution of the strategy. That is why I attend the strategic sessions myself. They are prepared for six months and take from two to four days. There are disputes and decisions are made.
SS: What advice from the founder of Askona for small business owners. How to become average?
Sun: The first and most important thing is your personal readiness for this. Many people are stopped by the scale of numbers, fear appears. It must be understood that managing a million is no different from managing a billion. Numbers should be treated as numbers, not as things that decide "to be or not to be." I have often seen that morally this fear is present. And if you left even a drop of it in yourself when you start the ascent and go there, then just in case you secure yourself and do not what you would normally do.
For example, I have friends who are still proud that they do not have a single loan. I say: "If you don't have a single loan, then you need a course in financial management." Because, firstly, money is a resource that allows you to grow; secondly, the value of the money you use internally is often more expensive than the value of borrowed money.
Small business, as a rule, grows on its own, big business - develops only on borrowed money.
The second problem, the barrier - "I don't want to take loans!". They are proud of it. You will never be big unless you use borrowed money. If you develop on your own, you can crawl from “small” to “medium”. Big is the growth of everything! There is no such business with such margin flow and EBITDA (operating "pre-tax" profit - ed.) to develop your business.
At one time, I did not have enough money for the growth that I wanted, even when I invested all the profits in development! The bank also could not give as much money as needed for such growth - covenants in terms of scale. In the worst year ever, our growth rate was 19% when the market fell 30%. I sold the spring business (In 2002, Askona sold the spring shop to the American corporation Leggett & Platt - ed.), to raise the mattress, raised the mattress direction for two years, and then bought back the spring one.
SS: Does the quality of intra-industry cooperation allow you not to lose product quality in such transactions?
Sun: This is a very complicated story, I have always been better at things like this with foreign companies. If the partners are foreign companies, then, as a rule, everything I agreed on will be fulfilled. It is more difficult with Russian ones - they are in a more turbulent zone, in general, more difficult conditions for doing business, there is no such history of quality, there are more defaults.
SS: What do you think about modern business education?
Sun: There are two stories here - the first management line and a more highly specialized one. For example, a financial director must get a good education in the field of financial management, without which I cannot imagine his work. As for the first persons, I have not yet met good business schools. There is even such a joke about the MBA: “Why did you send the deputy to the MBA, do you want to get rid of him faster?”. An MBA does not give knowledge, it just brings order to a room where there was chaos. Very often the opposite effect occurs - knowledge has not yet been added, and they just put their head in order, and ambitions have grown many times, and a person begins to make decisions based on them.
Therefore, we wrote our own business education program so that narrow specialists understand how all parts of the company work together.
Now education is more important, such as they do, for example, at the Startup Academy in Skolkovo. Until the basics of this knowledge enter the school, talk about good quality education in universities is not necessary. My son is 12 years old and business, economics and philosophy are already in his curriculum.
SS: How is the current period different from when Ascona started?
Sun: Now it's harder for business, easier for life. Although in Russia in most markets it is still low-competitive. There are examples of businesses with 25% profitability. But low competition a big problem for market development. There is no such control accuracy, high requirements for efficiency management. That is why managers who have gone through the school of highly competitive markets are so valuable.
SS: If today you were choosing a region for investment, what would you pay attention to in the first place?
Sun: I will go to the region where I understand the leader in terms of the personal factor. For example, we met with the Governor of the neighboring Ivanovo region almost immediately after his appointment, I understand his most important task. I liked his way of thinking. Now we are considering projects for which we will be able to enter the Ivanovo region. One of the main topics is the change in the architectural appearance of the city, agriculture and medicine.
SS: I still have questions that I ask all the interlocutors. They are short, can you answer on the fly without thinking?
Sun: Not thinking hardly (laughs). Let's!
SS: Do you believe in fate?
Sun: I believe.
SS: What would you consider your main achievement, if not the achievements of your business?
Sun: (thinking) Probably, I didn’t succeed in anything else ...
SS: What do your friends most often ask you for advice about?
Sun: How to build a business... (laughs)
SS: Who among those who are not living with us now inspires you the most?
Sun: I feed on the creation of people: good poetry, music, creations of nature.
SS: What are the three main qualities of someone you would call a leader?
Sun: The first is confidence. Responsibility. Understanding.
The material was prepared under the heading "Technologies of Achievements" of the magazine "Director"
Interview: Sergey Sitnikov, photo: Andrey Safonov
Owner of Ascona Group of Companies
Founder and shareholder of the Askona Group of Companies, which includes: the Askona company, the First Clinical Medical Center, the construction companies SU DSK and Bilong. Since 2012, Vladimir Sedov, with the support of the state, has been building the city of Dobrograd at his own expense.
Vladimir was born and raised in the city of Kovrov, he began to build his business in his native city.
Business development was gradual and began with trading operations. After 8 years, he decided to significantly expand the scope of activities: the result was the opening of his own production of mattresses. Vladimir did not stop there and decided to develop further: the production of his own spring systems was launched together with the well-known American holding Leggett & Platt. Further, the expansion of the range and the introduction of new positions began.
This made it possible to increase work efficiency and significantly increase production volumes.
For more than 10 years Askona has been a leader in the market of products for healthy sleep in Russia and Eastern Europe.
Sedov has always set as his task the development of the economy of his native region and the creation of a business that can bring tangible benefits, improve the quality of people's lives. In early 2014, he focused on new projects. In particular, he became the initiator and ideological inspirer of the project of a new city for life - Dobrograd.
In 2015, Vladimir Sedov opened a unique medical clinic in Kovrov - the First Clinical Medical Center (First CMC LLC). It is equipped with the latest technology, and among the staff - the best doctors and PhDs in various fields.
In his free time, he enjoys golf and helicopter piloting. Vladimir Sedov is married and has a daughter and a son.
Roman Vladimirovich Ershov
President of the Askona Group of Companies
Roman Ershov is a key figure in Askona Group of Companies. It is on him that the successful implementation of the company's development strategy and the economic efficiency of the enterprise depend. Roman's main area of responsibility is the management and control of the main directions of the Askona group of companies - the leading manufacturer of Askona goods, the first city that is being built with private investment - Dobrograd, the leading medical center "First Clinical Medical Center".
Since 2012, Roman Ershov has overseen the development of the Hilding Anders chain in Russia and the CIS, which sells mattresses and beds from leading European brands from France, Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden. At the moment there are 200 stores owned by the company and franchisees.
Roman Yershov has been working at Askona for more than 15 years: he has gone from a manager for foreign economic activity to the president of the Askona group of companies. During his time at the company, Roman Ershov built a functioning system of wholesale and retail sales, and also formed an effective marketing strategy. Roman personally supervised the most important project of opening an online store of products for healthy sleep www.askona.ru.
Roman Ershov graduated from the Shuya State Pedagogical University. Later he received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation.
Vladimir Korchagov
Vise President, Ascona Group of Companies
Vladimir Korchagov joined Askona in 2003 as a marketing specialist.
In 2005 he headed the marketing department.
In 2008, he began to develop network retail trade as Deputy Executive Director for Retail Sales.
In 2011, he was appointed to the position of Director of Retail Sales.
Since 2016, he has held the position of Deputy General Director for Retail Sales.
In 2018, he was appointed Vice President of Askona Group of Companies. He is engaged in the development of new business lines and oversees the retail formats of the company.
Ilya Adamsky
Director of Internet Commerce and Corp. Sales Euroset
Morozkin Alexander Mikhailovich
General Director of Askona Invest LLC,
15 years of experience in the field of development project management. Worked in large investment and construction companies (Eurasia OJSC, MGSN LLC (Moscow City Real Estate Service), Eastward Development CJSC, AFK Sistema OJSC)
In 2001, he began working for CJSC SI. For 5 years he has gone from the head of the construction site, the engineer of the technical department to the director of the Technical Customer. The company carried out investment and construction activities in residential construction in Moscow. Successfully implemented Business Class Residential Complexes.
In 2006, he managed the investment and construction company CJSC Financial Center MVB as General Director. The company implemented large real estate investment projects (Office and Business Centers) in Moscow. (Eurasia Tower (Moscow-City), MVB Financial Center
In 2010, he headed the investment and construction holding MGSN (Moscow City Real Estate Service) as the General Director. The company carried out large-scale housing construction in the regions of the Russian Federation and the Moscow region. Complex development projects were implemented in Voronezh, Yaroslavl, Krasnogorsk, Lipetsk, Kaluga
In 2014, he held the position of Executive Director of OJSC Leader-Invest (AFK Sistema). Realized Residential Complexes in Moscow business class
The present Time-CEO Askona Invest LLC, Bilong LLC
Deputy Chairman of the Construction Committee of Business Russia, Member of the Construction Committee of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, author of the articles "Effective Development", "Ways for the Development of Public-Private Partnership in the Field of Construction" and others. Author of the seminars "Development-art of balance". Co-owner of the consulting company Khors (provision of Fee-development services, consulting support for participants of the DDU).
Ivan Lashkov
General Director of LLC Trade House Askona and Askona-Vek
Education: Durham University, MBA International Institute of Economics and Law, Finance and Credit Yaroslavl State University. P.G.Demidova, Social and political psychology
In 2003 he graduated from the Yaroslavl State University named after I. P.G. Demidov.
In 2004 he graduated from the Institute of Economics and Law.
In 2008 he completed his studies at the Institute of Professional Financial Managers in London.
In 2013, he completed an MBA course at the University of Durham.
From 2002 to 2004, he worked as deputy head of the treasury at Yaroslavglavsnab.
In 2004, he received the position of financial director of the branch of JSC "Tandem-Volga". Worked until 2006.
In 2007 and until 2014, he worked as CFO at Arvato Hightech.
From 2015 to 2016, he worked as a financial director at Verallia (Kamyshinsky glass container plant).
Since 2016, he has been working as CFO at Hilding Anders International AB (Ascona).
Since 2018, he has been the General Director of OOO Trade House Askona and Askona-Vek.
Evgeny Kirillov
Non-Executive VP Finance in Vladimir Sedov Group of Companies
Since 1997 - worked as an economist in the Joint Stock Company "KMZ".
Since 2002 - Deputy Director for Economics and Finance of Proton CJSC
Since 2011 - joined the Ascona Group of Companies as a chief accountant
Since 2012, he has held the position of Deputy State Duma for Economics and Finance in the Askona Group of Companies.
Development and successful implementation of an M&A deal with Hilding Anders Group
Since 2016, I have been holding the position of Non-Executive VP Finance in the Vladimir Sedov Group of Companies
The founder of Ascona, the largest anatomical mattress factory in Eastern Europe, told the ChiefTime editor about how an entrepreneur differs from a manager, what a pedagogical fiasco he experienced in his company, and how he learned softness in business.
Vladimir Mikhailovich does not often spoil the federal press with attention. But we were lucky: we were invited for an exclusive interview directly to the factory in the Vladimir region. The main manufacturer of mattresses in Russia turned out to be a smart, charming and versatile interlocutor.
Tell me, please, how often do you praise yourself? And for what?
Often. For example, for good sports results. I recently won an international golf tournament for the first time! It took seven years to get there. And I always praise my intuition. Maybe in this way I feed her, because after all, I am essentially an entrepreneur - not a top manager, but an entrepreneur. The first differs from the second in the presence of intuition. We go where no one goes or has gone.
What is the root of intuition?
Intuition tells me only those things that are pleasant to do. It has never worked out so that intuition has pushed to something, and I do not want this. I think it is based on my internal request and my own answer. But these are unconscious processes. And the result is intuitively correct decisions. For twenty-five years there has not yet been a single unsuccessful project, and this can no longer be called just an accident.
How often do you make mistakes along the way?
For me, there is only one error class. This is either a mistake in people, or a mistake in your attitude towards people. Everything else cannot even be called mistakes: a financial blunder is not a mistake. A step that will lead to some strategic damage to the enterprise is also not a mistake, it can be fixed. Business is done by people, this is the main resource, so mistakes can only be made in relation to the staff.
Vladimir Sedov(born May 7, 1966) - founder and general director of the Askona Group of Companies, chairman of the city Board of Directors of enterprises in the city of Kovrov, Vladimir Region. Born in Kovrov, my mother worked in the ZiDa medical unit (plant named after V.A. Degtyarev), my father was deputy chief engineer at KEMZ (Kovrovsky Electromechanical Plant). In his youth, Sedov was an active participant in the bard movement, in 1986 his big solo concert took place in Kyiv. In 1990 he founded the Askona company.
How do you correct mistakes?
Thank God, there were few irreparable. I have several unpleasant personal moments when a person's life could have turned out differently if I hadn't made a mistake. That is, a person grew, grew, and I, as a leader, made a mistake, pushing him to take one more step towards growth. I should have understood that for him it was either never, or not now, but I took a chance, but the man got up and failed. It does not work at the peak, but cannot go down. What to do? When taking a position, it is important to maintain a good relationship. We do this, we even leave the salary the same. There were three such errors in total. I remember them by heart. This is my wrong assessment of the situation, but for people it was a certain stage in life, maybe even a manifestation of fate.
For financial security, in fact, not much money is needed. Big money is the same "smut"
Another difficulty concerned people who started working with me from the beginning. I am immensely grateful to them. But at some point they no longer fit into the company. For the simple reason that they didn't grow as fast as the company grew. This is fine. Not every person can grow. And it shouldn't. How to be with them? If you act simply, like a businessman, then this is: thank you, a medal, an order, goodbye. But with such a step, I would give a message to everyone who works with me: today you are needed, but tomorrow you will be thrown out of the gate like slag. What would be the loyalty of my colleagues to me, to the cause? Meanwhile, I saw that another year or two, and a dozen people will fly out of the cage. They themselves understood this, somehow they came to me: “ Listen, Mikhalych, we are not idiots: sit, get money, doing nothing. We can't do that. Let's leave without offense, shall we?».
And how did it end?
We have made a common decision. The people who started with me are start-ups by their nature. They are interested in new businesses that are now emerging. We decided that they would be the ones to launch new ideas. And the message turned out to be different: the staff is dear to us, this is the main resource that we do not waste.
How do you talk to yourself in such difficult moments?
I try not to talk to myself, but to someone. I have several very close people with whom I can discuss difficult things. Well, and then ... They learn from mistakes. And me too. Therefore, conclusions are drawn. For example, I realized that I don't know my staff very well. In this sense, the fire was indicative (the fire that destroyed V. Sedov's enterprise in 2006 - ed.). Up to this point, in my eyes, each person had his own career plan, voiced and unvoiced. And after the fire, it turned out that the people for whom I planned the big road came to a standstill and did not have the opportunity to grow further. By education and by nature I am a teacher, so for me it was an internal pedagogical fiasco. I thought I knew everything, but it turns out that I still don't know anything.
Another conclusion I drew from my mistakes. It is very useful to arrange stress tests for employees: deliberately offer a person a non-standard situation, so that if he has something inside, it becomes obvious.
How do your colleagues feel about such stress tests?
They are ready for the tests. If a company has been growing by 35 to 65% per year over the past ten years, then managers should grow by the same amount in terms of their qualities.
Many years ago, I asked a friend of mine, who at one time was the president of a large company, about this question: how to “buy” personnel? I still remember his answer verbatim: “You think that your manager will not cope, because you know him. But you think that the other will cope, because you do not know him. Grow yours."
And do not take from the side?
There are no external management personnel in the company. People only show up if I, as CEO, make a mistake. Suppose, at one time, he did not take care to strengthen the marketing sphere, and the manager failed in this. Here I put myself a minus. In this case, we take a person from the outside. But we clearly understand what we are taking for: for a specific task, for a specific period of time. And as a plus to the task, we say that he must prepare an adequate replacement for himself from our staff. It turns out that we solve the problem and train our own.
What are the principles of relations between your employees?
Definitely not in competition. It's inefficient, it's destroying the company. Competition works well for foreign market but not within business. The Commonwealth is not the same either. Perhaps the principle of strategy is important to me. There is a goal - and we all go there. The main thing is that the movement should be progressive. And everything is controlled quite simply: when the goal is set, motivators are found, then everyone understands where and why they are going. And when we reach the goal, we must set the next one - harder, more difficult. To have a drive, to have emotions. Otherwise, employees will start looking around: looking for emotions from another employer. For myself, I would not have grown a company for a long time. Today, employees force me to raise her. Their motivation also serves as my growth driver.
Holding company "Ascona"- Russia's largest manufacturer of anatomical mattresses and sleep products. The company's production facilities are located in Kovrov and Novosibirsk. The company was founded in 1990. In 2006, it produced its millionth mattress. On December 16, 2006, as a result of a fire, the entire Ascona production burned down, which became the reason for the start of a large-scale modernization. Two weeks after the fire, the first mattress was released. Today, the growth of Askona is up to 60% per year. The company employs 4500 employees, 2500 of them work in Kovrov.
At what stage of the business are you most comfortable?
It is very difficult for me to feel comfortable in business. All types of business are already tired: they are the same. The only thing I'm interested in right now is social project. At the same time, I am a businessman, and I treat the social sphere as a business. Exclusively as a business. It should not just pay off, it should make a profit. They say to me: “How can you still make money on the social network?”. And this is where it gets interesting for me. And here comes my $2 billion investment in the hospital. After which they said about me in the city that I was crazy.
So "just business" is boring. Like a story about a portrait of a girl in the Hermitage: in the family she was born the nineteenth child. And her mother was not even interested in finding out who exactly was born ...
Yes, it seems (laughs). Because it's the same every time. In fact, nothing changes, in whatever area you start a business: services, production, trade ... You are in the same environment, in the same legislative field, in the same emotions, in the same political environment. Nothing changes, absolutely nothing.
Do you remember the first feeling when you managed to exhale: “Me and my family are protected”?
What is "family protected"? Having money does not protect the family. You can have a calm family relationship without having a penny in your pocket at all. It's a different story. And for financial security, in fact, not much money is needed. Big money - this is another "smut", sorry.
I remember the first feeling of success, followed by two years of depression. At the age of thirty, when I entered the business, I had a simple goal: I must earn money for an apartment and a car faster than my father. I set myself a goal of fifteen years. These were the 1990s. But everything planned took place faster than I could come up with the next goal. And there was a void. It was a difficult period. In general, just kaput. Since then, I have formulated an iron rule: “Long before reaching the goal, you must understand what the next one will be.” Because the worst thing is when he walked and walked and came. Oops, that's all. There should always be plans. One is personal, the other is business. At least I'm much calmer when I know my way.
I have formulated an iron rule: “Long before reaching the goal, you must understand what the next one will be”
As you grow your business, what lessons have you learned?
My partners and I have always gone through business like this: we “feed” the business first, and then ourselves. Why do many businesses fail in Russia? Why is it very rare to move from a small company to a medium one? And from medium almost never to large? Because the owners begin to "feed" themselves earlier than necessary. Looking back at my history, I can say that only after about ten years of good arable labor for the first time you can “feed” yourself. But now there are a huge number of examples when - a great start, a wonderful run-up, and then ... a "stable" of cars and houses abroad. And the business is already underfunded. And as soon as the growth rate drops, the business dies.
If, for example, ten-year-old Vova Sedov were shown Vladimir Mikhailovich Sedov from the future, from our present ...
I wouldn't believe it, that's for sure. It's unrealistic. I didn't make such plans. And he got into business by recklessness. I just didn't know, so I went. If I knew what I know now, I wouldn't go. Our country is not very comfortable for doing business. If from the point of view of the theory of business and profit, then it is comfortable. But it is uncomfortable for a leader, for a manager, because you always feel government pressure. You always understand that there are political games in which you have to indirectly get involved. But it's hard to go there. Therefore, if the boy Volodya knew all this ... Then, having matured, he would have continued to work at school. And in the end, I would somehow get an apartment, and I would buy a car.
But you still went into business ...
Why do many businesses fail in Russia? 'Cause the owners start feeding themselves sooner than they should
Because it happened so... The factories decided to pool their money to build a sports complex. And in this regard, I was a sports and patriotically active physical education teacher. And I was offered to deal with organizational questions. I liked the idea and I left the school. But just a year and a half later, the financial situation changed. The factories were unable to finance the project further. Where was I to go after these one and a half years? I had to get out somehow. So I went into business. By the way, the best option is to drive yourself into a corner if you want to find a solution. What they didn’t do: they boiled jeans, wove hammocks, sold tomatoes. Until the idea of the main business was found.
When you have already consciously plunged into all this, which weak spots discovered right away?
These were ordinary working moments, associated exclusively with the level of education. I have a physical education and pedagogy education, it doesn’t get dumber. But he coped with this corny quickly: he found an uncle who taught management and economics. In three months I mastered the university program with him. I learned English myself. We are generally a bit of white crows in business. People around us often try to see the tricks on our part, because they are used to believing that the majority of business is quite aggressive and tough. I was softened by an American friend many years ago. Once he was present at the classic Russian negotiations, and then he says: “I can’t understand something, why do you do business like that? You need to do business beautifully, with a smile, with a compromise.” And he continues: “Here is one point, here is the second, show me the compromise between them. Where is he?". I show a dot in the middle, like everyone else. And he says it's wrong. And the right thing is to give in to the partner a little more and move your “point” closer to him. And he will do the same. But the area between these two “points” is a compromise. Then I doubted that this would happen with ours. But a friend convinced me to try. We just had a Nizhny Novgorod company as partners, and with it we acted harshly in Russian. One day this partner calls me and starts asking me something about concessions. I think, okay, I'll try. And I inform the partner that we are ready to offer even more loyal conditions than those he asks for. I was shocked by what I said. He is even more shocked by what he heard. And after two months I got the result, from which I was simply stunned. He returned a hundred times more than I gave him. I learned to do business gently. And now I'm not afraid of possible losses. Somewhere you will lose, and somewhere you will find. There are losses due to softness. But there are many more benefits to it.
Interview: Svetlana Morozova
