Evgeny Borisovich, the telecom industry is a constant big dynamics and big risks, as new technologies very quickly "age" business models. How does this affect the development of long-term strategies, and what is the generally reasonable "planning horizon" in today's telecom?

There was a period when the role of operators in the future was not clear. Content providers earned on them, but the revenues of the operators themselves barely grew. This is not only the Russian situation. There was a period of uncertainty all over the world.

Moreover, in Europe, due to the actions of the regulator, which tightly regulated prices, the telecom industry has stagnated for a long time. The state was tightening the screws because its goal is to provide cheap communications. But cheap communication is possible only at cheap prices, and cheap prices are a road to nowhere, since the telecom had no profit and had no money for development. Following the fall in income, shares fell, and the volume of investments fell sharply. The circle was closed.

Literally 2-3 years ago, there was a lack of understanding in the industry - where to move? Many operators were looking for themselves in this life. They increasingly turned into a pipe through which other players started pumping various content, including video, and making money on it, actually "parasitizing" on operators.

Google, NETFLIX, Yandex, Facebook, LinkedIn and other platform operators work on your smartphone or laptop. The operator sells Internet access, fixed or mobile, for a ruble. And content players earn five rubles on services "on top" of this access. That is, everything flows into someone else's pocket. At the same time, the traditional source of income for operators - voice services - were increasingly leaving the market.

That is, the question arose "what to do?" To be or not to be?

You're right. And then "the piano was in the bushes." A new round of technological growth has begun. The digital economy has emerged. The concept of "Industry 4.0" has developed. Due to the emergence of a large number of applications, an increase in the speed of Internet access, with the development of the power and capacity of end devices, smartphones - and every smartphone now contains colossal computing power and memory, is capable of processing huge data streams, moreover, online - all this has led to the fact that operators began to turn into a center for making money again. It turned out that without their infrastructure for collecting, transferring, storing, processing and analyzing data, the digital economy is impotent.

A huge number of so-called “end-to-end” technologies and concepts are developing around the digital economy - “Internet of Things”, artificial intelligence, robotics, “big data”, the concept of “urban mobility” has emerged, the number of projects in the field of smart cities, digital transport, health care. The market for services based on geolocation, traffic analysis of people, social groups, and so on has grown dramatically.

And “suddenly” it turned out that the operators are almost the exclusive owners of those “digital traces” that we and the business leave in life. Operators know what restaurant or fitness club we visit, what streets we walk, what we eat, who we sleep with, who we call, what social networks we go to on the Internet, what websites and pages, when and from where. They even know what we are and where we buy. They know how a modern digital business works. And all Digital services are impossible without them.

Probably, the operators began to think whether it is possible to make money on this information?

Sure you may! But this requires a complete change. Do you remember what the Rostelecom logo used to be? It was "ear" - a telephone receiver. Now Rostelecom is positioning itself not as a telephone company, but as an operator of digital services and services. As a result, he even changed the logo. To reduce associations with telephone communications.

Operators have begun to invest more in infrastructure development. Implement cloud services. Develop cross-industrial monetization models - at the intersection of telecom and transport, telecom and finance, telecom and media, telecom and medicine, telecom and agriculture, telecom and industry.

Operators have become more in demand. They suddenly became the center of most of the technological change in the digital economy. The telecom markets in the world and in Europe went up, the quotes of the operators also began to grow, because the operators began to earn more. They found their "gold mine". What does it consist of?

Remember the "gold rush" in America? Who made money on it? It was not those who mined gold that made money, but those who brought shovels, tools, food, matches to the prospectors - that is, all the supporting infrastructure for gold mining. Operators in the digital economy are becoming such a key infrastructure through which digital gold can be mined across all industries.

The telecom industry “suddenly” found itself in the epicenter of a new “big bang”. As new products mushroom grow, ideas and business models emerge. At the same time, the digital world is evolving so rapidly that products and services may become outdated by the time they enter the market.

Therefore, operators need to drastically shorten the cycle of product development, product launch, ROI and monetization.

In this regard, the question arises - where and how to look for trends and opportunities to make money?

Trends are flowers. Is it harder to figure out how to strategize big players, conservative in nature, in this fast-paced world? How to "make an elephant dance"?

Now the approach to strategy development has begun to change. In a situation where a product becomes obsolete in one year, it is impossible to make a strategy for five years. It is possible to designate only key directions, and move within them, constantly adjusting the trajectory of this movement. For example, it is necessary to take into account the trend for increasing the speed of access in the network, the trend for maximum coverage and an increase in the number of devices that are simultaneously in the network, exchanging data and traffic with each other. Trends in consumer behavior change, digital trend, mobility trend in all industries. Etc.

Can you give an example?

Everyone has heard about 5G technologies and standards. But only a few know that there is more of a concept than a standard in its purest form. These are functional requirements for future networks that can be technically implemented in different ways. For example, the network must simultaneously support up to 1 million devices in the coverage area, transmit data at a speed of 100 Mbit / s, maintain a connection when the subscriber moves at a speed of up to 300 km / h, ensure the reliability of data transmission and the signal delay time at the required level, etc. .d.

Until now, for example, Russia has not yet allocated the radio frequency range on which 5G will develop. But all operators understand that this technology needs to be developed and are investing huge amounts of money in it.

All these factors force the players in the telecommunications market to do everything very quickly. Unlike, say, the energy industry, in which the construction and recoupment cycle of an energy facility can be 20-25 years. In this case, the business plan can be done slowly, for a whole year. And everything in telecom will become outdated in a year. It is necessary in a month. That is, the market itself, the digitalization of industries, the digitalization of the economy and the transformation of all businesses require new approaches to the development of product and business strategies of operators.

Thus, the development of end-to-end technologies of the digital economy, the need for digital transformation of all industries, again brought operators back to the center of the ecosystem. And operators are increasingly strengthening their positions. And they start earning more.

How are such changes in approaches to strategy development taken into account in MIRBIS programs?

Within the framework of the MBA-TELECOM program, we pay special attention to this. We consider specific business cases of foreign players, we show how they were able to reorganize, where they got into trouble, what alliances and partnerships they entered into, what products they developed, how they made organizational changes. It's not just the business model that is changing. The operating model, approaches to IT management, network development, the formation of a system of key indicators, and personnel qualification requirements are changing.

We try to invite colleagues from the market - active experts, consultants and managers who are now working in the telecom industry. They are professionals, for them teaching is an additional drive. They are interested in communicating with the audience - to come and tell new cases and trends, test their ideas, share their experience, discuss with the audience.

And as a result of these discussions, a joint vision of development is developed and strategies are born.

Now a situation is being formed in the telecom, similar to, for example, the oil and gas sector. Where there are literally a couple of "core" players that form the ecosystem around them. Are there monopolies in telecom?

Of course, the telecom market has been strongly consolidated over the past 10 years. This process is going on all over the world, and in Russia we are even 5-6 years behind with this consolidation. There are 5-6 large and a dozen medium-sized players left in Russia, which together occupy about 90% of the market. The remaining 10% are small.

But I would not call this situation a monopoly. Competition remains and is supported by the state. Such consolidation is a blessing. Now is the time for colossal investments that only individual companies can afford. Only a major player with a subscriber base of tens of millions can consolidate resources and afford to invest tens of billions in new technologies such as 5G. And to make money on this, "beat off" the money invested in technology due to economies of scale, when unit costs per subscriber decrease and it is possible to maintain business margins at an acceptable level.

And it takes years and consolidation to create a major player. A small local operator, for example, an Internet service provider with 10,000 subscribers, will never be able to develop any new technology. He can only follow someone to buy new equipment and try to make money on it. But the biggest money can only be made by staying ahead, leading this process and investing in global technology trends. Therefore, there are fewer and fewer small and medium-sized players in Russia and in the world.

In order to lead the process of change in the market, telecom operators are becoming key members of consortia and international associations that develop new technologies. They are investing in developing standards to control this process, and to be the first at the trough that will form in a few years.

On the issue of major players. It is known that they are increasingly creating their own corporate universities, training specialists personally for themselves. How does the MBA-Telecom program manage to compete in the business education market?

We do not compete with them directly. We have different goals and a different target audience. The structure of any MBA program at MIRBIS Business School includes two parts.

The first is "general" - general concepts about management, strategy, finance, team management, HR, and so on. The second part is specialization. There are several specializations in MIRBIS. There are functional specializations - marketing, strategy. And there are industry specializations: IT, industry, construction. For 12 years, MIRBIS has been living and alive with the specialization "Management in the telecommunications industry".

It is interesting that the composition of students who come to this specialization is changing. This is a reality associated with the economy of both the country and the industry. After the crisis, the demand for business education declined. In addition, there used to be many listeners - representatives of major players. This flow decreased due to the consolidation of players and a significant reduction in staff. Finally, all major players - Rostelecom, Megafon, VimpelCom, MTS - are developing their own corporate universities. Naturally, they tend to pass most of their employees, especially their talent pool, through their own corporate programs.

But not everyone is admitted to a corporate university! And there are many “inquisitive” managers and specialists who want to “restructure” and “reboot” their brains, understand how modern business is built and functioning, and move to a new stage in their careers. It doesn't matter where they work. Large or small operator. Therefore, there is a constant demand.

Interestingly, the TELECOM MBA program has always had an approximately equal ratio of listeners from operators, system integrators and vendors. And there are many integrators and they do not have their own universities. In addition, there is a constant demand from operators of the "second tier", including from regions, whose representatives can come to the modular program (3 days a month).

Why do people go to study at MIRBIS? Isn't it paid?

Good question. Indeed, corporate universities usually teach for free. But there are internal criteria and cut-off points by which specific people are given the opportunity to come there. And many are left behind.

And if in such a situation a person decides to study on his own, for his own money, to "break away" for 2 years from the family - this means that he has a very strong motivation. Very prepared guys come with life experience who have worked for 5-7 years in telecom. They know a lot, they understand what they are missing, and they are able, on the one hand, to formulate what they want more, and on the other hand, to be in dialogue with the teacher. For their money, they try to "squeeze" the teacher to the maximum, to force him to give the freshest material.

The motivation for applicants to the program is very simple. First, they want to be able to systematize the knowledge that they had, practical experience. Secondly, they want to receive a powerful "information charge" on various aspects of work in the telecommunications market. These are marketing, business models, strategy development, legal environment, operational management. In addition, - project management, development of product strategies, risk management

As a result, they can climb a new step, see the market from a bird's eye view, enter the “third dimension”, have a choice for themselves both in their career and in development. And achieve better results. By thinking differently, people begin to see new niches, ideas and opportunities for themselves and their companies.

And who are these people?

The average age of people who come to the program is 30-35 years old. These people are usually already at the level of the head of the department, the head of the department. They have already gone through a bunch of trainings at their companies. And for some reason - someone recommended them, or they themselves wanted to rethink something.

Interestingly, in recent years, up to 50% of our program students come on the recommendation of former colleagues and “bosses” who have already completed the training course. "Bosses" want their subordinates to grow up to them and speak the same language.

How can a teacher maintain competence and be in demand among his students in such conditions?

I have been working in the market as a consultant for the last 15 years. And therefore, my duty, probably my way of survival as a consultant, is to constantly look for and know new cases, opportunities that arise in this market. And not only and not so much in Russia as abroad.

The telecom market has become more open. People communicate with each other. In order to keep up-to-date information in my head, I maintain a fairly wide range of personal contacts both among consultants, including foreign ones, and among operators.

In addition, I conduct real projects on the market, and thus see a lot from the inside - what is the demand, what problems, what tasks are being set.

Given the fact that the market is changing very quickly, I have to change by 30-40% every year the courses that I personally read, these are Business Models and Alliances in the Telecommunications Market, Development of Strategies for Telecom Operators and Marketing in telecommunications ".

I update them because new ideas, opportunities, models, and cases appear. In my lectures I use the experience of project management that I personally have, or that of colleagues with whom I communicate. And I try to include these cases in the curriculum so that the lectures correspond to the realities of the current day. Nowadays, many cases are related to the digital economy and digital transformation.

Other teachers do the same. They are all from the fields, they are in the market, they are not "academics", they are practitioners. They have fresh and updated material.

That is, communication with colleagues in the market allows you to keep abreast of all the changes?

Quite right. Moreover, communication and exchange of ideas goes on with the audience. Usually we create a chat with each group in Whatsapp and there is an active correspondence, links to interesting cases are posted. If I go to a conference and find an interesting presentation there, then I also post it in the general chat. Listeners do the same.

Listeners do not see each other as competitors. They see partners. Everyone is open to sharing knowledge and experience. That is why they come to MIRBIS.

In addition, usually half of the people who study with me on the MBA-TELECOM program are representatives of operators, and the other half are different system integrators, designers, service and application developers, as well as vendors - equipment suppliers. These guys come with one more purpose: in order to sell their services and hardware to operators, they need to know the anatomy of the operator's business from the inside - its pains, problems, tasks, goals. Know how and where the market is moving in order to anticipate demand and speak the same language with your customers - operators.

Several years ago, the group included a representative of one large supplier of network equipment, and at the same time the director of the network infrastructure development department of a large operator studied. They met at school and then this acquaintance grew into a fairly large deal. The group giggled that they "owe a percentage" to MIRBIS.

That is, people who have passed through MIRBIS are a business, complementary community?

Yes, people are very interested in communicating, exchanging and sharing.

In my strategy development course, I divide the entire group of students into three subgroups.

The first is those who are responsible for developing the strategy. The second is external experts, consultants who are consulted to understand trends, some ideas. And the third is the members of the board of directors, to whom the first subgroup defends its strategy.

When people are divided into such subgroups, firstly, they begin to generate ideas and be creative, and secondly, to enter the role, think, discuss, look for weak points and criticize each other, set goals - and a very strong synergy is obtained.

Then we change "places", we run this situation three times - that is, everyone plays the role of everyone. In the process of such interaction, people rally, begin to play as a team, understand the roles, the possibilities of working in a team for the benefit of each other.

Therefore, I have never had a problem of internal competition. Moreover, I believe that the MIRBIS “telecom-mafia” was formed from people who went through a business school.

Representatives of this "mafia" work in all large companies, help each other, "pull up" and recommend employment if possible. They continue to communicate, exchange ideas and cases. They regularly gather just to chat over beer - to discuss something - that is, informal relations remain.

In addition, I try to always support graduates, recommend them at any employment opportunity, and promote them in the market - since I personally know many top managers from operating companies.

On the other hand, I involve my former graduates in reading master classes for today's groups, they talk about their specific professional experience.

So, personally, I pay enough attention to maintaining such a "hangout of exchange" for the graduates of the program, so that it lives and develops.

Our graduates and today's students are a community that has a positive attitude towards MIRBIS as a business school, whose members brought good memories and positive learning experiences from it.

I have never met people in my specialization who were upset or unhappy. On the contrary, up to 50% of new students - as a rule, come on the recommendation of their colleagues, managers, someone else.

They come to rebuild their brains, reformat their consciousness - and move on.

You spoke figuratively about the "telecom mafia". Can I have a couple of examples? Of those who have completed the program and are now successfully working?

I believe that everyone is successful! And there are an order of magnitude more examples than a couple.

For example, PJSC Rostelecom employs a whole galaxy of talents! Kirill Menshov has "grown" to the senior vice president, IT director. Ruslan Titov is in charge of the construction of the entire infrastructure. Alexander Nudelman - Director of the Project Management Department of the Technical Infrastructure Block. Alexander Palkanov worked in Vympecom, now he has moved to Rostelecom (CC Information Technologies block), where he oversees the implementation of billing systems. Ivan Dadochkin is the project manager of the B2C segment product office.Tatiana Artemyeva (Kuznetsova) - came from MTS, now she is the head of the Settlement and Service Center of the MRF "Center". Anna Rodnova is the director for work with the mass segment of the Yug MRF. Kirill Kolesnichenko is the head of department in the department of planning client projects of Tech Block. And this is only a small part of the graduates. At one time, almost the entire personnel reserve from the Center and Ural Macroregions passed through MIRBIS. These are dozens of great managers.

Other alumni: Andrey Gurlenov - Member of the Management Board, HR Director, MGTS PJSC. Maria Markova - Commercial Director of MUSE JSC, Oleg Musienko - Head of the Department of Interaction with Government Bodies and International Cooperation of FSUE Russian Post, Ivan Shulga - Director of the Purchasing Department at ORANGE, Andrey Tolkachev - Head of the Primary Network Development Department of Svyaztransneft JS

Our guys are actively working in the mobile business. Elena Kiryushina made a career in VimpelCom in the operator block, then moved to a top position in T-Systems, then she was invited to Amsterdam to the VEON headquarters, where she is engaged in the procurement of telecommunications services in VEON Wholesale Services. Dmitry Yakovlev previously worked at VimpelCom, now he is the director for work with key clients and partners in Tele 2, Elena Yakovleva moved there from MTS and is responsible for the development and launch of products in the B2C segment.

Evgeny Kuvakin - Director of Project Management for State bodies and corporate clients in Megafon PJSC. Sergey Zlobin - Director of the Converged Network Architecture Department of the Technical Block of the CC of MTS PJSC. Dmitry Esin is the commercial director of Babylon Mobile CJSC (Tajikistan). For many years Arthur Vankov has been supporting the entire IT infrastructure of the Svyaznoy retailer (now a subsidiary of Megafon).

As I said above, there is a "mafia" in system integration and among vendors.

Vasily Elansky is the Deputy Director of the Technical Sales Department at ZTE. Dmitry Chindyaskin - Technical Director of RASSE LLC (development of communication and energy systems), I-Teco group of companies. Sergey Stasevich is responsible for project management at Teradata. Mladen Subbotic is the Sales Director for High Tech & Telecom Industries at SAP.

Dmitry Kostrov worked at MTS and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, now he moved to SAP, where he is responsible for security solutions. Alexander Fedorov - Director of Key Accounts at Inline Telecom Solutions. Evgeny Gukasyan worked at NOKIA, now he is the sales director for Russia and the CIS at Leonardo. Evgeny Labastov worked in the Geotelecommunications holding, now - deputy. General Director of Telecom Project 5, which designs and builds digital broadcasting networks throughout Russia. This is only part of the "mafia".

Does everyone stay in the industry?

Not at all necessary. We teach you to look wider. Change. Adapt. Don't stand still.

After graduating from the MBA, many graduates have reformatted their approach to life and decided to create their own business. Or they were simply lured into related industries. For example, Yuri Godyna left the Mastertel operator and, together with other graduates of MIRBIS, created his own company, Neurometric, a developer of computer vision systems and the Facemetric cloud service. At the time of training, Anton Klishin was the development director of Eleksnet, then he was invited to the post of rector of ANO DPO SNTA - the Academy of Professional Retraining and Advanced Training. Dmitry Goltsov worked for a long time in the operators KOMKOR and AKADO, and then organized a company for the sale of telecom equipment. Artem Polyansky created the educational online platform Zillion, and has now launched the next project - Digital Agency Plan.Net Russia (Serviceplan Group). Andrey Yatsenko created the company GORSERV - an analogue of UBER in the service sector, which from scratch in a couple of years reached a turnover of $ 100 million.

Roman Malkin worked at HP, now he is the director of the technical regulation service at NP GLONASS. Olga Sukhova was the head of the customer service department at MTS and Skylink, and now she is the director of the Contact Center at PJSC Ingosstrakh. Lyudmila Mishkina from the position of the beginning. department in MTS was invited to the position of the head of the customer service department at Home Credit Bank, where she then "grew" to the director of the department of remote services. Zhamilya Kameneva worked as the head of the department in VimpelCom, after completing the MBA program she decided to change the field of activity and moved to SAMSUNG, where she became the head of B2B marketing, and then at Konica Minolta as the director of business development and marketing. Since 2014, she has repeatedly been included in the top 100 best marketing and PR directors according to the ratings of Kommersant and AKMR.

Yuri Khrushch from 2004 to 2011 worked as a regional director at TTK, now he is the general director of VAZSYSTEM, the IT subsidiary of AvtoVAZ. Roman Gevorkyan develops e-commerce in passenger transport in interregional and international communications. Alexei Galkin was invited to PJSC Rosseti as head of the procurement department. Elena Ignatenkova worked as the head of the center for work with the corporate segment of the regional branch of Rostelecom, now she is the commercial director of RT-Invest Transport Systems LLC (operator of the Platon system). Alexey Varpakhovsky is the director of customer acquisition channels development at Alfa-Bank. Alexey Kopiev worked for many years as the head of internal audit at OJSC Svyazinvest, now he is the director of the Internal Audit Department at PJSC MOESK. Sergey Fedotov - CIO (IT Director) at TMK (Pipe Metallurgical Company).

As you can see, graduates grow both personally and in their careers. They are in great demand. I am very happy for the guys. And I maintain personal contacts with many of them. You can't list all of them.

Do you have your own "chips" for teaching in such a "fast" discipline as telecom management?

I have one trick. At the lecture, I say: guys, there is, relatively speaking, a course on strategy development. It is designed for 20 hours, and all this time I chew from A to Z, how to start, what to do, how to attract information, how to build steps, who will be responsible at each stage.

Imagine having only 5 minutes to speak and just one slide to show. What do I do in this case?

What is strategy in general? I tell the audience: “This slide has a lower left corner - this is the place that your company is occupying now. The upper right corner of our slide is the intended target state, the position that we have formed in our head is the goal we are going to come to. " Then a strategy is a sequence of actions that will bridge the gap between the current state and the target."

There is a chic English expression, to bridge the gap, "bridge the gap", "build a bridge." We find such gaps together. And then we are looking for how to overcome them. In fact, the strategy is the blueprint for building a bridge from the present to the future.

In my opinion, any one-hour lecture should be able to "fit" into one slide and tell it in 5 minutes.

The implementation of the strategy is achievable with the appropriate tactics. Who and how teaches other courses in MIRBIS within the framework of your specialization?

As already mentioned, at MIRBIS all training is divided into two blocks: general and specialization. Specialization can be in IT, construction, industry, telecom, innovation - there are several of them in MIRBIS.

Within the Telecom specialization, much attention is paid to tactics. This is operational management. There is a course "Using OSS \ BSS systems for operational management of the operator." It is led by the IT director of a major player. Basic course "Map of business processes of telecom operators, E-TOM map", read by Konstantin Samuylov - Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Head. Department of the RUDN University, the author of the best textbook in Russia in this area. The course "Development of product strategy and CRM" is taught by Ella Lokshina, a practicing consultant who has been the head of the service and marketing department in large operators for 20 years.

The author's course on modern legislation in the industry is read by Anton Bogatov, who heads the legal department of the representative office in Russia of the European operator TeliaSonera. Accordingly, he is well aware of both Russian and European practice in the application of law and regulation. He provides not only the foundations of legislation, but also shares his personal opinion on where the whole process is heading. Indeed, legislation changes by 20 percent over the course of a year.

Last question. We talked a lot about the changes in telecom. They say that in order not to fall, one must run twice as fast. How not to fall ...

In order not to fall, one must have not only a goal, where to run. You must have strength. The power of thought, the power of will. But this is not even the most important thing. You need to be resilient and open to updates. You have to be adaptive - this is generally a key competence for people and for business. One should be, as Taleb writes, “antifragile”. You need to have inspiration. And finally, a little bit of magic.

A source:MIRBIS.RU