Пресс-центр

09/02/2017
"Бизнес и власть"
You go outside and you see proper, kind, patriotic people

You go outside and you see proper, kind, patriotic people

Raimbek Batalov - Chairman of the Raimbek Holding Board of Directors talks about his goals and values ​​in personal, business and public life.

“These days the word “systematic” is somewhat jaded, every leader considers it his duty to mention it during meetings. However, it seems to me that not everyone truly understands what they’re talking about.”

- Raimbek, let's take this moment as a starting point for our conversation. In which direction does your life move? Does everything satisfy you?

- Yes, I am satisfied with my life, with what I have right now. I believe that if your attitude to present is negative, there might not be a successful future as well. There are complications, of course, but I look at them philosophically. It is important to set goals, to which you’re aiming, obstacles do not matter - experience will tell you how to overcome them. It's like cyclists – there is going to be hard at some segment of the track, some sort of crisis. Same in life – crises occur periodically. You have to endure through hardships – eventually things will turn around. Everything changes, life does not stand still. Most importantly, you have to have goals. There are different paths that can get you from point “A” to point “B”. You are the one to decide which one to take. You have to understand whether the environment around is ready for you to move from “A” to “B”. This happens, you set a goal for yourself, but either you, or the environment around you, are not ready yet. Just as in nature. The fruit ripens at a certain time and under certain conditions. Favorable weather results in good harvest. You know what happens if conditions are bad. At the moment we have a delay with tomatoes. We’ve made a decision to use local tomatoes for juicing (laughs). But it keeps raining, and raining, and raining. Tomatoes ripened three weeks later than anticipated. Just as an example.

- And what are your goals?

- I have goals in many different directions. First of all, there are the purely family goals. You know, when you have six children you want to provide them with good upbringing, education, you hope they find a job they like, create strong families and so on and so forth. This is a big task. It doesn’t work out by itself; you have to put in an enormous effort. Therefore, there are family goals. Elder children have grown up; they have come into business, doing their favorite thing. I want them to find themselves. Secondly, I set business goals; they are also clear and understandable. Business projects differ, but each has its own clear strategy. At the moment we are increasing the share of local Kazakhstani products used for our production. This is very important. There is no future without it. This fall we’ll see our first results - Juicy juices will contain pureed apples from our own gardens. Third, there are social objectives. They include sports development, supporting youth entrepreneurship, cultural initiatives. I want us all to live in an interesting and comfortable country. To have completely different quality of life. Thanks to my business, I have an opportunity to travel the world, see best practices. I believe that Kazakhstan and Almaty in particular - is the country and the city, which can be made really comfortable. There is an understanding of what needs to be done.

- Which projects are particularly close to your heart? What exactly would you like to change for the better?

- I used to be a sportsman and now I am involved as well. I know the entire system from the inside. I understand that without developing mass sports and infrastructure we will never achieve sufficient results in professional sports. Even though they allocate large budgets for sports two main problems are evident: firstly, the corruption has penetrated very deeply into this area, secondly, main attention is drawn to expatriates, while our own school for children and youth is far behind in terms of organization. We must understand that through supporting sports, we cultivate a healthy lifestyle. This trend is now gaining momentum worldwide. Even our officials are changing: if during the 90s, they were hanging out in, let’s say, saunas, today they participate in marathons, triathlons and other sporting events. This is a good change; however there is still no appropriate material and technical basis for general public. Parents do not always want their kid to become an Olympic champion, they usually just want their child to learn how to swim, how to ride a bike.  Most of sections in our country are only available is you’re ready to pay a lot of money. I see that as an insider and understand what changes are needed, where public-private partnerships can step in, where club system approach would work better, how to effectively spend budget funds and attract private funds by doing so. There is nothings unbearable here, one just need to be seriously dedicated. Any people talk about it, for many years, but it’s time to turn to actions. Use systematic and professional approach. These days the word “systematic” is somewhat jaded, every leader considers it his duty to mention it during meetings. However, it seems to me that not everyone truly understands what they’re talking about. In order to be able to create a system, one ought to see the whole picture. Classic scenario – there must be a strategy and tactics.

- Raimbek, do you think you succeed in working systematically towards your goals in all three directions that we talked about: personal life, professional, social?

- I am trying my best. Although, sometimes is doesn’t work systematically.

- Which directions you would think of more successful?

- Family is great, fortunately, everything is fine. Life experience had taught me to be systematic in all three areas. Considering business, we have a strategy and a clear understanding of where we are going. Another issue is that there are sometimes not enough opportunities to realize these goals. Of course, there are different ways to get from “A” to “B”, but I have certain principles that I do not want to break.

- What are your principles?

- Independence, decency, ethics.

- Talking about your goals on each of three directions, how would you evaluate the stage of their completing?

- With family, everything is simple: six children, two of them have already made their first step to an independent life. Both graduated from universities, it’s their first year of work. The rest of them are still kids - 7 years, 6 years, 3 years and 6 months. There is a saying, small children - little problems; grown children – big problems. It is important that children find themselves and stand on their feet. It is clear that not everything depends on me. My responsibility here is to give advice, provide help and support at proper time.

- What helps you get along with your children? After all, the older they become, the more difficult it is to understand each other.

- No doubt. Here’s my recipe: communication is the key, being a good listener. We, too, at one time were as categorical, and had our share of conflicts with parents. Adults always had their own view of things – of love, school, friends and the world in general, and we had our own. Naturally, our children view the world in a different way, unlike us, who do so from the standpoint of our own life experiences.

- Is there a conflict between fathers and children?

- Sure, such conflicts occur periodically. The main thing here is not to balk and take it to an extreme point. As in business - it is necessary to find solution, to convince if necessary. In the process of debriefing you may find that you yourself were somewhere wrong.

- Would you say that your eldest children have found themselves?

- My son and daughter have received good education. I never pushed them too hard. I stated right away, you want to be a librarian – be it. You want to go into business – you’re free to do so.

- They chose business?

- Yes. That is what they like.

- Was it your experience that influenced their decision?

- Probably. I must say that my son have been involved in business during his school years and throughout university. Every summer he would work on different levels - in marketing and logistics, manufacturing, finance, and sales. He had, what we call a "sandwich", while studying at university: two years of learning, one year of practical work and then another year to complete his education. I think this system is very good - the combination of practice and theory. This way the approach to gaining knowledge is more conscious. My son studied at the University of Reading in London. In the final year he moved to Barcelona to a compatible university. At first I was against that, but he convinced me. Having spent nearly 7 years in the UK and understanding their culture, he transferred to Barcelona, ​​where the level of teaching is somewhat lower, but it allowed him to get an understanding of different culture and mentality. His strongest argument was: he no longer needs to study marketing, finance and other disciplines; having understood the business in practice, he was determined about things he really needs. At the moment he has his start-up in Spain and is applying the practice and knowledge he received in Raimbek Company to his business.

I think that in the next six months we will demonstrate our retail model with the "Blue Ocean" elements.

- Did you go through business education yourself?

- I graduated from the university of Architecture and Construction, but I had quite a lot of training.

- Would you say that life itself is the strongest university of business?

- No, education matters. Although, not all trainings were really useful. There were some that took place for the sake of having them. Two thirds of all trainings I went through have taught me nothing new.

- Which trainings have helped you the most?

- It was very interesting to listen to Mr. Kim, the creator of the "Blue ocean" strategy. I went through his training and now apply this knowledge on my business.

- Did he come to Almaty?

- It was in Vienna. Reading the book is one thing, which I certainly did. Another thing - personal communication and a closer analysis of his cases. When you have business experience, and seem to understand what is said in the book, however real life analysis is always better and more interesting. Take, for example, classical music: the London Symphony Orchestra, which has more than 100 musicians, is unprofitable. But when classical music turns into a show and starts filling stadiums, it is quite another matter. This is the "Blue Ocean", in which there is no competition.

- As I understand, one of the key objectives of your business is to use Kazakhstan's raw materials for the production of juices.

- Not just for juices. I’ll say it again – having your own raw material base is a matter of business sustainability, combining business with pleasure. There are not many options for Kazakhstan, in terms of creating economic security. Agriculture is one of them. There are other spheres - logistics, tourism, etc. There are opportunities to create a "blue ocean" in each of these industries. For agriculture it is organic production. We are in between crazy markets (in a good way), like Russia and China. We have lowest logistics costs and a huge transit potential. There was a "Silk Road", still is and always will be. Nothing else you can make up. The flow of goods and capital follows this “Silk Road”, and we are in the middle of it.

- On which stage of the realization of your big plans are you now?

- We have many different projects on different stages of implementation at the moment. Each has its own strategy. In food production we set to increase exports, including to China, launching new products and product lines, creation of new productions and of course - working on our own resource base. I’ve mentioned our first results earlier. There is an import that we are developing and will continue to work on - everything there has long been debugged. It is understandable that nowadays the dynamics of life is completely different. E-commerce is on the rise. If we talk about retail, we have to analyze such things and correct the flow of this kind of business. I think that in the next six months we will demonstrate our retail model with the "Blue Ocean" elements.

- What are the basic things you have accomplished for the successful implementation of the strategy?

- You know, in my time I worked in different sectors of the economy. I have an experience in energy sector, oil and gas sector, processing of metals. Today, one of the key directions of business is food industry. We are always committed to things we do well and things what have favorable environment. We have built an effective business model. It will enable us to be independent and to maintain a balance. Regarding food production and import of products, we have a well-established scheme of production, distribution and sales. We are improving this business-machine, adding new projects to it. The basis is created.

- I mean, the key things, specific steps. For instance, how many gardens do you have and what are the volumes of your production? Those things you base your strategy implementation upon.

- What I said before: it is not enough for you to be ready, what important is that the environment around is ready as well, is favorable for business. Unfortunately, our country needs more time to create a full-fledged base of raw materials for production, of juices, as an example. It is important that we were pioneers in this sphere, with our gardens and financing schemes to support them. We’ve created our apple orchards on principles of reverse leasing to set an example for our state development institutions. Another question is that it is only now becoming a reality. It is very good that there are other initiatives - from Margulan Seisembayev, Dinmukhamed Idrisov.

- "Ordabasy" Corporation, led by Dinmuhamed Idrisov, turned to agriculture?

- Yes, he had planted almost a thousand hectares of gardens in Panfilov district. Made significant investments. Well done. There is a critical mass of businessmen willing to invest in agriculture at the moment. I am sure that in 2-3 years’ time we are going to have a necessary amount of raw material for the production of juices. Generally speaking, we were pioneers in this area, and now the sector is alive again. State followed up - after five years, but still, they began to use the funding scheme, which does not require pledges from the farmers.

Living in accordance with your values – is the most important thing. Otherwise, you won’t be able to move from point "A" to point "B".

- I understand that your “public” direction revolves around creating sports infrastructure, so that youth can get involved in a healthy lifestyle. What's been done to implement this idea?

- As I have said, one can’t move forward in any sphere without a systematic approach. We have written a cycling developments program in Almaty. You ought to develop sports in particular region. We demonstrated the need to develop mass sport, professional sport; ways to use principles of public-private partnership and the club approaches. This way, both public and private resources will be involved, thus forming healthy competitive environment. Different events are required to support these initiatives - amateur, professional, etc. The KPI is clear - if there are 1000 people today involved in the sphere, upon creation of adequate infrastructure, 10 000 or even 100 000 people may also take their part in supporting and practicing sport. Our program provides an understanding of volumes and kinds of material base required for mass, youth and professional sports. This is a complex issue. One needs to research the topic in depth to understand it. When we were writing this program, we took into account the Soviet school of knowledge and experience of 25 years of independence, as well as the best international practices. I personally traveled all over Europe, USA and Asia, and together with our team developed an approach that takes our realities into account. I don’t think it is right to come from abroad, and say, “Well, let's do this same exact way they do”. There is a set mentality. It should be changed gradually, but rather dynamically.

- Is this program under implementation?

- The implementation started gradually. It is a new form, so it takes time.

- Does this public-private partnership thing work?

- Of course, it works. Not all at once, there are questions about the project coordination with various departments, but those are just working details, we are ready for it. I am quite sure that we are going the right way and have no doubt that everything will work out well. Not just in development of sport, but in other social projects as well. Youth – is yet another point of our social priorities. I am a member of the AlmaU University Board of Trustees. It’s the second year of our support of the student entrepreneurs' movement Enactus Kazakhstan. We even established our own contest within the framework of this movement - "How to feed Kazakhstan". The first results are very encouraging, we were especially pleased with creative energy of regions. Kazakhstani business has excellent prospects with such brilliant youth.

- Do these goals - personal, business, public – intersect at any point? Is there anything that unites them?

- My values. After all, I'm not doing it on someone else’s behalf. Living in accordance with your values – is the most important thing. Otherwise, you won’t be able to move from point "A" to point "B".

- Do you think you have some sort of mission, a calling maybe?

 - I’d go with values, all the same. I want to leave the house and go for a run in the park, arranged for different kinds of sports and activities. I want to be able to take my child to a sport section. I want proper infrastructure in our mountains – our main sight. All of this is about quality of life. I want to do everything in my power to improve the quality of life of citizens and guests of the country. You can think of it as my mission. We're not just talking about what can be done for Kazakhstan. No, we're writing a program, we indicate sources of financing and tools for implementation, both from the state and private sector. We understand the difficulties that might arise; therefore we are working on changing the legislation. As someone experienced in working with the state, I perfectly understand that even arrangements of bicycle paths does not solely depend on akimat. There is also the Ministry of Agriculture, which looks after national parks. The decision depends on the heap of other bureaus. Or the Zoo – there is no business whatsoever. I wish there was more to the city, not just loud attractions and electronic entertainments, but a whole different world, balancing the development of a child. And not just children! We were surprised to learn that not only children, but young adults and adults also visit the Zoo. I really want it to be consistent with the best international standards. So that there’s proper habitat for the animals, proper care. And students-entrepreneurs. At the moment we are teaching them appropriate ways to handle the business. They will create effective, innovative economy for Kazakhstan, new quality of life for all of us.

The period of intense accumulation, rapid growth, including that achieved through disregarding human values, passes.

- When people talk about their dreams, they often return to their childhood, finding things they could not achieve at the time.

- I want to mention that I don’t necessarily inculcate things I wanted as a child onto my own children (laughs).

- Not in children...

- But that is how it usually happens: parents tend to direct children into doing something they dreamt about themselves.

- Do you feel now that you’re doing something you’ve always wanted to do? You know, there are cases when person achieves something, and is not aware of the fact that this is exactly what he/she wanted as a child. For instance, were you thinking of becoming a professional cyclist when you were little?

- Actually, yes. I lived in a house that is still there, at the intersection of Shevchenko and International streets (now Maulenov street - editor). The windows of our apartment faced the “Dynamo” stadium. There was also an exercise bike in our living room that my father bought some time ago. Simple metal bike with the disc, but it could reach 120 kilometers per hour. So, imagine this – a room with an exercise bike in it, view on "Dinamo" stadium, from which all cyclists would ride into Shevchenko Street for training. When I no longer could do the underwater sports due to the displacement of the vertebrae, then I turned to this machine. Used to do my homework on it, read books, watched TV, all this while turning pedals. That was my additional exercise. So then I began to dream about cycling. I even went to the "Dynamo" stadium, peeked into the little room, used for sport facilities and coaches’ room. And I saw a man, as I remember, with a mustache, and not quite sober. "Do you have a bike?" - he asked. "No, I don’t" – I answered. "Then get out of here," - he said. It wasn’t a problem, I could have asked my parents for a bicycle, but that conversation repulsed me to go into cycling. Making up for it now!

- Meaning, you were not able to fulfill your potential in sports…

- I wouldn’t say so – I was the second in Soviet Union in underwater swimming, got “ Champion of Kazakhstan” title numerously, swam for youth and adult national teams. I just wanted to go into cycling, but - bam! – such impolite refusal.

- What was it you wanted as a child and was able to achieve? And what have you left for the future?

- I've spent my childhood in our country house (dacha).

- This is where the gardens came from!

- Yes, we had our own garden, tomatoes, potatoes ... I may be a man from the city, but as far as it goes with agriculture – that is where I am very grateful to my father. Whether I wanted or not, after I turned 3 I would spend all my time in our gardens. That was my responsibility. My father had planted one garden by himself, on the second one we worked together. I did everything - weeding, watering, pruning. It didn’t matter if I wanted to play football or run about with my friends. We are going to our cabin, watering, weeding, pruning, picking. Every Saturday or Sunday, systematically, sometimes even on a weekday evening.

- I wonder how your gardening at the expense of childhood entertainment did not avert you from turning to gardens again as an adult.

- Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Just like cycling – I pedaled on a stationary bike, got myself a training basis. This had infused a love for the sport. Or swimming - two training sessions a day. It wasn’t easy, but as you see, now I am involved in development of sports infrastructure. Similarly with working on land – I was fond of digging the ground when I was 3 years old. Growing up a little, having friends, football and other things, it wasn’t fun going to dacha, when everyone stayed in the city and spent time chasing a ball. Nevertheless, that has also affected me. Nothing passes without leaving its marks. Once, my brother and I were taken to the music school, and while our mother was talking to one of the teachers, we simply ran away. After that our parents did not insist on music. They could have pushed us, as it was done in other families, but decided not to. Therefore, I can’t play any instrument (laughs). But they made me work in our gardens, I was doing sports – and that continued into my adulthood.

- Raimbek, you were talking about the principles according to which you act, both in personal and professional life. When do you think you’ve developed them, and how did they grow into you?

- First of all, these principles are introduced through parental upbringing. Whatever we say, the example of parents has a strong influence: their conversations in the kitchen, the way they behave in different situations, their comments on various issues. Children see everything and accept the role model. This is very important; you need to be aware of things you say in front of your children. My father was the managing director of the Kazakh SSR Supreme Council; my mother was in charge of entire book trade of the city and region. However, they have always been decent, never bragged about their status, never abused the opportunities they had both in trade and in government apparatus.

- Agreed, parents influence our world outlook, but were there any turning points in your life, which confirmed or corrected those values and principles?

- These happen, from time to time. I believe they occur at every stage of life. Especially during teenage years. In sport. When you’re preparing for the Soviet Union championship, you’re exhausted, but you need to get over it. Step over your “can’t” and “won’t”. Streets had taught me a lot - Alma-Ata was divided by areas back then. Our area was called “Dramovsky” (Drama theatre area - Ed.), and there were many moments when there were just 10 of us and 25-30 of opposing group. You either run, or you stay and resolve the situation. Different things happened during student life. Then business began, during difficult 90s. If everyone succeeded then, we would have much more companies today. But someone was broken by the racket, someone broke under the system, some broke by themselves, under the heavy weight of responsibilities. Even today, 25 year in business and having 6 children, life continues throwing curved balls. It happens so, that the strength of the spirit is constantly challenged. I am certain that in 10-15-20 years’ time - situations will still appear, leading you to different scenarios. As the saying goes, the fate is in your hands: whether you turn right, left or go straight ahead – the results are going to differ. Life makes you stronger; it gets easier to cope with different situations. Many things depend on character; I can see that in my children - they’re so different. One grasps things quickly, another one – slower, more diligent. Meaning, one - it's genetics, two - as I mentioned before, upbringing, three - society, people surrounding you as you are growing up. It’s pure luck, chances are 50/50. You may get into the bad company on the streets – then you’re done. On the other hand, adults considered all street groups bad, ruffian. Some of these hooligans have died from drugs, were imprisoned. Another part became businessmen. A friend of mine, deceased, Nurlan Kapparov. At some point he has also been a part of our so-called “Dramovsky” gang. But he managed to get himself out of there, became a decent adult. Some kids followed the bad path and it ended badly.

Apparently, this is where the foundation your parents lay gets very important, whether you’re developing yourself through sport or something else. But society certainly has a strong influence too. Young people get quickly involved in dubious activities when there’s corruption all around. Even having studied abroad, you look at them and they are the ones promoting corruption in public sector even further. All because their families had different set of values, or there were no values at all, and people around work through crooked schemes. In this case it doesn’t matter that you were educated in civilized country and lived in honest society for several years. I wish we lived in proper society, with proper values. These days people are working in gardens, planting something, and this is good. Cultivate healthy lifestyle. It is important to create an infrastructure, so that people do better things, work on their own development. I wish we live a comfortable life, surrounded by kind, proper and patriotic people.

- Do you see improvements?

- Yes, of course, I see them. We have a really educated society. The period of intense accumulation, rapid growth, including that achieved through disregarding human values, passes. Many people today are becoming socially responsible. My friends are participating in many charitable projects; only don’t advertise themselves in that way. This is something only mature people can do.

- Thank you for the interview!

Oleg Khe

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