The stories of success

On money that I had earned during summer vacation in the USA (those trips were very popular at that time) my father and I bought a second-hand 10 ton tri-axial tilt. So during my student years I had always enough pocket money on my student’s wishes. As the sphere of international shipping was familiar to me, I decided to dedicate my diploma to this topic. Having successfully graduated from Belarusian State University of the Faculty of International Relations with the specialization Private International Law, by chance I got a job in BRUIC "Belgosstrakh" in the department of cargo insurance and carrier liability. I settled the losses connected with the violation of customs transit procedures with the use of TIR-carnet. It was the time of dashing 90-s,when many wagons of cargoes disappeared almost every day. That job was a good start for me as it was a serious organization, it gave me a lot of experience and it was my first job.

Later, when I was thinking about the financial perspectives, I understood that I need a promotion. By chance in 2004 I was invited to the interview at STA- logistic Company. I was very impressed by the progressive views of the company and by the technical task which I had to prove. I understood at once that it was the place where I wanted to work. And I got the job as cargo manager in groupage cargo department in this company.

Soon the previous head of the department left the company. During the month, when we were working without the chief manager, I demonstrated my leadership ability and I got an offer to become the head of the department, in spite of the fact that I was a newcomer. At that moment I had been working for the company just for four or five months. Anyway, new position gave me more strength and I was eager to start my new job.

For that moment my views on the delivery system of groupage cargo were not clear enough, to say nothing about the managerial skills. But I had a stunning feeling that there were huge possibilities in front of me and I had firm belief that I could do it. At that time the company was not very popular but our director created an atmosphere of unity and made us feel involved in something great, which helped us be sure in the success of the company.

Business approach and European technologies were promoted in the company and everybody could feel success in the air. We started to grow very fast and in a year and a half the department of groupage cargo became the most profitable. We made a partnership network with Lithuanian companies and organized our first cargo lines. We succeeded in making the competitive prices and increased the number of orders. At that time managers rendered all kind of services – from the product sale to the execution of documents.

As the volume of production grew, we started to transform the inner structure of the department to differ the main functions. The business was on the up and up and it made turn my head. There was time when I left the company and was trying to start my own business. But soon I understood that I didn’t realize the full responsibility and seriousness of this step. At that time I had not clear understanding of the situation and soon realized that it was not the thing I wanted to do in life. I’m very grateful to the employees of the department of groupage cargo of that time and, of course, to the director of STA-logistic Company, who understood my true motives and delusions and supported me with my intention to come back to the company.

So the second phase of my career in STA-logistic Company started. Soon I proved my position as the head of the department, at that time the department included Russian and Belarusian business units. In 2006-2007 we started to develop in the Russian market of the delivery of groupage cargo. At that moment there was functional distribution in the company and system approach to making business. When the volume of delivery of groupage cargoincreasedwe met a problem: our previous partner couldn’t handle the volume of our services and besides, the outsourcing costs of customs clearance in Europe became considerable. At this period we tooka decision to open Lithuanian office of STA-logistic Company. Themajorpart of our colleagues was dealing with groupagecargo delivery to Russia and Belarus.

 So we started to combine the tasks of two offices and create new functions. In a year the department of groupage cargo, including Moscow colleges, became to work at full capacity. At that time the department consisted of more than 30 employees, including those working in Lithuanian, Russian and Belarusian offices. The structure of the department was composed of four units.

In 2007 – 2008 we started to develop our business in two markets, building a system of cooperation of two offices and units with the aim to find an optimal scheme of work. Recently we worked a lot on automation process of groupage cargo delivery. We developed and implemented TMS block on ACCESS basis which connected all the departments on-line and facilitated many processes with loads, its consolidation, registration etc.

Later all these achievements were included in the development of corporate information system on Microsoft Dynamics Axapta basis, which is in progress now.In 2009 weimprovedour sales methods and the quality of services, as at this crisis time the level of competition in the logistics market grew rapidly. In spite of the crisis we were a well balanced team with perfectly-established system and it helped us make big progress in the first half of 2010. It was a period of fast growth. According to our experts’ estimates, about 15% of groupage cargo in Belarus was delivered by STA-logistic Company at the end of 2010. And these numbers told us about great success of the Company.

Then came March 2011. At present time we strengthen our position in the Russian market. And it’s good that we’ve already done a great job and we don’t have to start everything from the very beginning as many Belarusian companies do. As this article is about success than I have to turn your attention to building a team of groupage cargo department. At that time the department included the team of professionals and like-minded people. Nowadays there is a very strong managerial team in the department as well as in the whole company. Also one of the most important achievements was the formation of international division of labor in the department and the automation of significant processes of the activity.

We managed to get through long and successful way of development in spite of crisis time. We stood on and enhanced our profit, technologies and professional skills. Today we set forth even more ambitious goals. And we are sure we can make them true.

“Probably I do not have enough motivation to sell myself to this company now – I thought. I decided to pass through the examination session, to meet the New Year, to spend some more student weeks and then go…

It was the end of January 2006. In the morning I had an interview in TELS Company and they were waiting for my decision. In the evening the same day I had another interview in STA-logistic Company – the second chance. We were discussing the technical task with Eugenie when Sergey Nikolayevich joined us. He asked some more question and then the most important one: “We have four directions: assorted lading, complete cargo, delivery of car and finally multimodal shipping. What do you think can be interesting for you? Probably, it’s not a shame to confess now that at that moment I considered one of the company’s activities was auto sales.  Also, the word “multimodal was unfamiliar to me as I just knew the expression “mixed shipping. However, the decision was made immediately – I chose the department of the multimodal shipping, as I had small understanding of that sphere, which meant that I would get a lot of experience and knowledge of it. And we decided to start working from the next day.

My first day at work was February 1, 2006. And at this very day I found out that the intermodal deliveries department was consisted just of me… The first day I was reading everything that I had to, also I found a book about sea transportation of about two hundred pages. I examined it thoroughly after which the terms seemed not so strange to me.

February, 3 I got an inquiry to organize a rail transit from Ukraine to Belarus. For that moment I had no idea what to do. “A clever tongue will take you anywhere – I thought. And the proverb turned out to be predictive. Looking for the consultation about rail transit I got to our office in Kiev. I do not really remember the details of this project but we managed it for sure.

Then I got a list of tasks of twenty three items for a fortnight from our director. I could not remember any salt down, so it meant that I succeeded.

In a fortnight there were already two persons in the department. It was Anastasia Mihalchenko who joined me. And it was another cup of tea! The first thing we did was the examining all lists of the suppliers, to define the prices for the coming inquiries from our clients. And it seemed unbelievable but in the first month we had four loads to deliver. The destination was not Shanghai – Minsk. It was Tel Aviv – Gdynia – Minsk and we had to repack the load to the tilt in a harbor, to correct a bill of lading and telex-release and to visit the vegetable factory of Minsk a lot of times. Finally during the second month we could earn about 3000 USD. During the meeting, announcing my first success, I made my colleges laugh when I promised to earn three times more in May the same year. Well, but this idea helped me understand the coming failure.  In April we did not have any inquiries, the same in May. And suddenly we realized that we should act in a different way.

The first decision of inexperienced person in such a situation is to sit down and just wait for the clients, who are going to come themselves – and it was a mistake. Anastasia and I equipped ourselves with many different catalogues, internet-resources and company’s archives and started calling, calling and calling. Then we got some inquiries, had some meetings and that brought us regular orders. Less than in a year we became not so big but successful and profitable project.  

We had more and more loads to deliver and it was getting not so easy to manage with all of them. And the axiom of management came to our mind: “Any grow needs delegation. And to delegate we had to hire more employees which meant that we should know how to manage it.

At this very moment we were no longer craftsmen – we became a manufactory. And at this period Suzanna Chashchina came back to the company. And due to her experience we started to grow even faster. Also we got a co-worker in our office in Moscow. The aims were getting more and more ambitious and we needed tools for its achievement. By the way, company gave everything possible for the workers to manage the actively growing business. 

I remember, in 2008 I had a pleasant feeling that except of the fact that we did everything in a right way, it seemed that somebody gave us strength and power. Every month we beaded records. The department was composed of eight persons already including offices in Minsk and Moscow. According to those measures the department was generating income, gaining prestige among the clients and inside the company and every co-worker considered himself rather successful and well provided person. General atmosphere of satisfaction definitely relaxed us. But in a month crashed the crisis.

Year 2009 was a testing period for many companies and people. Incomes halved and there were big costs in our budgets. The middle of 2009 was a peak of failure. It was ineffective just to fill in holes, the number of which was increasing. The solution was suggested by the company – we had to develop dynamically on the new market, the dimensions of which were so huge that there were no limits for growth even in the crisis time. Then regular visits to Russia and meetings with clients followed. The situation was getting better and by the end of 2009 we overcame before-crisis rates.  

Activity in the Russian market and the recovery of Belarusian market gave us huge amount of orders, and it showed the necessity in radical expansion of the backlog and the geography of our services, which led to the cardinal changes in formation of these very services.

Year 2010 started. As for me, there were three years in one. It was full of technological changes and know-how.

Here is a short list of the tasks which were realized:

• Formation of our own services of the delivery of assorted lading from South and Central part of China.
• Signing of contracts and the successful work with new big agents in Southeast Asia.
• Changes in the principles of airfreight, reduction of purchase price and growth in the numbers of air transportation.
• Having regular big contracts of shipping with the main sea lines.
• Creation of full-fledged international team (16 co-workers, including 4 working in Moscow office).
• Making Moscow office a payback firm.
• Development and implementation of new IT-system of planning and recording of lading.
• Successful realization of inner project of re-engineering of the business processes.

The department gained the second position by profitability in the company.  

At the present moment there are 17 employees in our department. We are standing stable on our feet, competing with serious forwarding companies in logistics market. We extended our market out of the borders of Belarus and struggle for the largest clients. We definitely know our plans for the future. On the eve of eights anniversary of the company I can with great pleasure shake hands with Anastasia Michalchenko, Suzanna Zhuric-Chashchina (who, except gaining great success, found a successful husband in this company), Viktor Ezepov, Veronika Maaluf, Irina Vabischevich, Andrei Voloshin, Svetlana Stepanova. For a long time all of them make a professional team, which managed to create everything I wrote about. There are a lot other “stars among us, I mean people who play important roles for the department and I am sure we will see their potential soon.

In general I can say that 6 year ago I came to the company of positively-inspired people. That was a comfortable place of working where everybody was if not friends than defiantly close co-workers. Now we are a serious business-structure or in other words a small government with its own constitution, community and way of life. But what remains firm is that we are a company of successful and self-confident people, who can extend their confidence to others.

So, in a word I tried to describe the way from nothing to success. And success, by the way, is like French language or ballet – it needs constant practice. I am sure that in a year there will be much more progress which we can share with the world.

The study in BSEU of the finance and credits specialization in foreign economic activity was going well: I played for the university basketball team, I took prize-winning places during different conferences, I got a president grant, also I was a laureate of the grant of the Ministry of Education in a scientific discovery etc.

As I had to earn living for my family I changed my plans about scientific activity at the graduate center and began to pay more attention to practice than to theory. For a year I worked as a specialist for a company in the planning department. Both mentally and physically it was difficult to work there. That is why there was high personal turnover in the company and some employees could not work more than one day. But I remember just good moments from my first work place as it was a “university of life for me. Now I understand that any work cannot be more difficult than it was at that company and this thought make me stay positive.

After I passed an interview and proved a technical task I got a job in STA-logistic Company in the financial department. During the first week of my job, the company was celebrating its first anniversary. I took part in a non easy process of the development of the company. Together with STA-logistic we were passing through difficulties and making the achievements.

For two and a half years I was working as a financier and leading financier. I was dealing with management account, its perfection and automation. It helped me to master programming which now is my hobby. Since 2 and a half year I worked in the company as a chief financial officer. At thatmoment there were three employees in the financial department and another three working in the accounting department. The range of my duties and responsibilities widened.

There was a long list of tasks for the next four and a half years. The department grew together with the whole company. More and more specialized positions appeared in the financial department and management system of the companywas improving, which helped to manage the accounts payable and accounts receivables of the company, carry out budgeting and provide the internal control, to automate business processes and to carry common administrative and specialized on different countries business accounting. 

At present we develop the administrative business accounting on a new level within the framework of currently implemented corporate information system on the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform.I can say loud that now there are eighteen employees, responsible for the financial and accounting sector of the company. They are not only good professionals but very honest, open-minded and friendly people as well. Every month we realize planned tasks in order to make better the technologies and business-processes in the sphere of finance. Besides, we have a lot of other plans for the future with the aim to support and develop the success of the STA-logistic Company.