November 22, 2001
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November 22, 2001
S ergey Filimonov, Vahtang Yakobidze
Gregory Shenkman - Greg Shenkman
Comes from the S oviet Union Greg S henkman embodied the American dream
Greg S henkman created in the United S tates , two s ucces s ful technology companies , has become the larges t s hareholder among individuals of telecommunications giant Alcatel and preparing for the implementation of projects in Rus s ia. Before S henkmana no S oviet emigrants could not achieve s uch s ucces s in the Wes tern hi-tech bus ines s . The main condition for s ucces s , according to S henkmana - is boundles s faith in his idea. Gregory was born in Kiev in 1961. Gregory's parents emigrated to the US A - in S an Francis co - in 1979, when he was only 18 years old. «How are all leaving, I had ambitions of many - s aid S henkman. - When I arrived in the U.S ., then realized that jus t did not fall from heaven and will have to make all by yours elf. And to imagine that after s ome time I will be more s ucces s ful company, I could not even in the mos t daring dreams ». The benefits of reading His tory S henkmana - the embodiment of «American dream». He s tarted his career from the very bottom: hired at various nizkokvalits irovannuyu work. «There was a time when I worked as dis hwas her in a cafe in S an Francis co - he recalls . - But I came out of the dis hwas her is bad: I have trans ferred too much s oap, the dis hes often beat, but once inadvertently filled with water every ins titution. As a res ult, at this point, I did not res is t ». Idea where to go, ambitious young man s ugges ted an article in a bus ines s news paper. «Back in the early 80's I read that the telecommunications indus try - one of the mos t promis ing and it will
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grow fas ter than others . I believe it », - s ays S henkman. He s tarted working in the telecommunications company Haris - firs t as a s eller, then marketing manager and then regional manager. Then S henkman worked for Northern Telecom, later became a branch of Nortel Networks . It las ted until 1988, when S henkman concluded that it is difficult to work as an employee and the bes t way - to create their own bus ines s es . «I will not come to the corporate life and culture. I have too many ambitions and des ires . They do not always coincide with the objectives of the company for which I worked. S o I s tarted looking for s omething els e, although in their original locations s howed very good res ults », s aid S henkman. Zakapyvaya rat holes Greg with his friends founded a cons ulting company EVP inc. Primary inves tments amounted to $ 20 thous and, and mos t of the money S henkmanu lend his parents . The firs t cus tomer was a new company from Japan - the company Pres tige International. The cas e quickly went on the mood, but was again unhappy S henkman. «Our work was hard and marginally profitable. Cons ulting is bad becaus e with each new client you need to s tart from s cratch, to invent s omething new. I came to the conclus ion that the bes t option - to invent s omething new, then a new copy. For s ome time we have replicated the experience of working with Japanes e clients , but then realized that this is not the mas s cons umer product. As a res ult, we decided to create a company that would control telecommunications networks », - s ays S henkman. At that time, the emerging information technology market, there was a failure, which oborotis tye American journalis ts called «rat noroy, in which no one wants to get». It was a bad interaction of telephone companies and corporate computer networks , telephone companies that they s erve. S henkman, together with his friend Aleco Milos lavs kii (als o originally from the US S R) have created a company Genes ys Telecommunications Laboratories [Genes ys Labs - NAS DAQ: GCTI], des igned to clos e the «rat hole». The decis ion of the company look like this : when a client Genes ys received a call, a s pecial s oftware identify caller before s omeone pick up the finis h. Then it redirected call the mos t appropriate pers on. This s eemingly
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copybook decis ion allowed for a few years to make the Genes ys contact with millions of turnover, while the number of its cus tomers include large corporations s uch as S ony, Charles S chwab, American Airlines -S ABRE and others . Brainchild S henkmana directly attributed to the two merits : firs t, the company opened a new line, connecting the indus try of telecommunications and information technology. This area became known as CTI (Computer-Telecom Integration - «computertelecommunications integration»). S econdly, the experience of Genes ys made in a different way to look at outs ourcing - delegation of part of the internal operations of the contractor. If before the outs ourcing was not in honor, but today its s ervices to the res ort, many leading companies (s ee «Ko» № 33, dated 3 S eptember 2001). In doing s o, according to the S henkmana, Genes ys has developed to a certain point only at their own expens e. Only in 1995 were involved in money inves tment funds , which gave impetus to the rapid growth of the company. In 2000, Genes ys turnover amounted to more than $ 300 million My ten percent Triumph S henkmana began s elling his company to French telecommunications equipment manufacturer Alcatel in January 2000 for $ 1.5 billion The caus e of the s ale, he explains as : «The company, like people, has many s tages in its development - childhood, adoles cence, maturity, etc. At s ome s tage we decided that Genes ys need to have more partners , s o that future s tages of development implies a greater ris k ». The main part of the trans action was effected through an exchange of s hares , res ulting in a S henkman is the larges t among individuals s hareholder Alcatel. But, becoming a millionaire overnight, S henkman did not res t on our laurels and to create a new company. «One of my phobias - I can not imagine mys elf without work», - he acknowledged. New company S henkmana, known as the Exigen Group, has been actively buying up s maller companies working in the field of information technology. «The world market for IT-technology is enormous , its turnover is more than $ 200 billion a year - explains the choice of direction S henkman. - Even if you win jus t 10%, a very impres s ive figure ».
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If Genes ys has developed s lowly and mos tly by their own means , in the cas e of the Exigen Group was to focus on s peed. The reas ons for choos ing s uch a s trategy has been s omewhat: firs t, the partners now have a s olid s tarting capital, and s econdly, according to S henkmana, the market has evolved s o rapidly that the time delay is s imply not to be. Exigen Group to create information s ys tems for financial companies banks , ins urance companies , as well as companies - operators . Today, the number of clients Exigen Group is compos ed of many major U.S . banks - Chas e, Citybank, Wells Fargo, ins urance companies , members of the American top-10, as well as the leading telecommunications operators , including Deuts he Telekom, Britis h Telecom and S BC. «One of the mos t difficult of our tas ks was to integrate large groups of people. Previous ly, they had different objectives , and then were forced to work together. In s uch a s ituation, it is important not to mis take, not broken s ys tem - s aid S henkman. - We helped the experience with our firs t client, becaus e he was from Japan. In our work we focus ed Japanes e methodology keyrets u (Keirets u) ». Sushi, Banzai and keyretsu Keyrets u (Keirets u) - variant of the companies in the conglomerate, has been widely us ed in Japan after World War II. Thes e as s ociations were not holding management company, were of the divers ification and cons is ted typically of different types of banks , ins urance companies , mining companies , manufacturing firms and retail chains , chemical companies and fuel indus try. Unlike previous forms of as s ociation - dzaibats u member keyrets u (Keirets u) could be any company, not excluding, and s mall bus ines s . Thus , the company has received greater acces s to capital, financial as s is tance from the Bank keyrets u (Keirets u) - however, in exchange for the bank's participation in the management of the firm. C reator of the new religion With income growth habit of the owner of a large s tate, by his own admis s ion, has changed little. «My living conditions almos t the s ame as earlier. When you work a lot of things others did not notice. Peacockery in the s pirit of the new Rus s ians found in America, but ultimately it all depends on the Rights of the focus on what it», - he s aid. Focus on the problem, according to S henkmana - the mos t neces s ary component of s ucces s . «Every bus ines s - that in the field of hi-tech,
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that any other - requires ideas . Need an idea and knowing where you want to come. There are moments when, apart from faith, you have nothing more nothing: no guarantees , no money. Hard times come frequently, but you can not los e confidence that you are right. No faith the money will not help. Our bus ines s to get there, we created a new bus ines s . We did s omething like a new religion », - he s aid. Do not los e S henkman and the his toric birthplace: «My company was founded by immigrants from the US S R, we have a lot of Rus s ian s pecialis ts , and we have ambitious plans to develop bus ines s in Rus s ia. There is a will, there is hope, and perceived ability to trans form it into one of the leading technological powers ». This talk s pecifically S henkman does not want to, but only s miles cunningly. S o it is quite pos s ible that s oon, and in Rus s ia know about keyrets u (Keirets u). S ource
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