Mikhail Chubisov

RAIMBEK PEOPLE

A series of interviews with employees of the Raimbek Company dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the company.

"IT’S NEVER LATE TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE"

Mikhail Chubisov is a long-time employee of the Raimbek Company. He is a theoretical physicist by training, has a Ph.D. degree. He was the one who 20 years ago introduced advanced mathematical modeling technologies to the company.

- Mikhail Alexandrovich, how did you end up in Raimbek Company?

- I joined the company in February of 1997. By that time I managed to get my Ph.D. at the Institute of Nuclear Physics, and after perestroika I ended up working in commercial structures. I was invited to Raimbek by one of my former colleagues.

I got interested in working in Raimbek because of the magnitude of tasks. Even then, in the nineties, the company was setting ambitious goals for opening large production facilities to serve the local market. These were projects of establishing production of juices and UHT-milk. By that time I’ve already gained some experience in computer modeling of business projects. I wanted to try and apply my knowledge onto such grand projects. Before that, in my former workplace, I was managing the depository, took brokerage courses, learned to evaluate businesses from Americans. I was really fond of this sphere.

- How does a physicist turn into such a unique expert?

 - I graduated from Tomsk State University, as a theoretical physicist, department of Theoretical Physics, majoring in "Solid-state Physics". I was involved in computational experiments at the Institute of Nuclear Physics: computer modeling, calculations of radiation passage through matter. Well, cash flow transfers are much easier task than simulating physical phenomena on a computer. Also, I was interested in applying similar experiments here, in economics.

Generally, this new job tasks revolved around financial design. This includes creation and development of business projects and financial models. The latter is not just accounting statements. In fact, the entire chain is built up based on production technologies: from the very establishment of the enterprise and to the realization of finished products on the market.

Young people – scientists, physicists – people from our laboratory, who left the country in the nineties, are still working in computer modeling sphere. They took these topics, their dissertations and successfully continue their work. Why were they leaving? Why did I leave the science I loved so much?

The thing is that it was very hard for a theoretical scientist to work at that time. Science is a continuous thing, where downtime is not acceptable; any delay causes a backlog from colleagues from foreign countries. We didn’t have any scientific journals or books, the country couldn’t afford purchasing them for us. There weren’t any money for business trips.

In theoretical physics, 2 - 3 years of lagging behind, not dedicating yourself to the topic completely, means dropping out. Doing things half-way is not my style. So I left science. I left it when I was 53. You know, age is never an obstacle. I’d say that my physicist career was pretty successful, and I decided to try myself in a different field. There was no time for regrets, for looking back. We had to move forward. Our children were growing up. They had to be educated, provided for, supported in every possible way, so we didn’t have time to hesitate.

- Was this transition difficult for you?

- It depends on a person – if there’s a will, there is a way. I liked moving forward, learning new ways. I learned much more than I thought I would. There were unexpected things in economics, in matters of managing the enterprise. Therefore, I didn’t really think much about the fact that things were very different than they were during my time as academician.

I was also very intrigued by the team work, of utilizing so many things that other specialists did. The trick was to accumulate this information, analyze it, generalize and construct an operating company on computer. It’s like a living organism. Both in real life and on computer. My work in physics, theoretical work, was involving computers as well. For me, computers, massive old-school machines at first and PCs’ later, are like pens for some. It’s a work tool.

- Do you remember your first day of work at the company?

- I got to the project financing department, to Yerlan Shinturinov. We dealt with everything that concerned financial planning, forecasts and development of the company itself.

The first thing that struck me was the energetic youth. It didn’t matter what time it was, everything was supposed to be done yesterday! Old-timers of the company probably remember two famous black leather couches, the ones we’ve spent our days and nights on. I got into a team with people who worked and processed things very fast. Yerlan Shinturinov and I were working together then. You know how two pianists perform a piece on a single piano, almost without words. It was a unique time. After that came the experience (laughs).

Later on newer computer technologies appeared, the staff expanded, duties got divided. A youth was taking over some things from us. But, honestly, we look up to them as well, because young people have new views, new ideas. These are different people; they bring this novelty, even to the understanding of things that you already know. I've always been lucky with people. I'm used to work in team, although I, in fact, am a loner. But the team is important to me. It is the first judge of your achievements.

- You mentioned that ideas of large-scale project were the ones that drew you to the Raimbek Company.

- Yes, when I joined the company, I began with the project of a factory for bottling soft drinks. Then there was a project of managing a broiler poultry farm. And later we modeled and built the plant for juice production - Raimbek Bottlers. It was a very successful project, in all aspects – the site itself, the personnel of the factory. All calculations that we made, turned into actual figures, very precisely. This inspirited us, and we began our calculations for UHT-milk production project, which was also successfully implemented and is still operating.

- What is your personal contribution to the success of the company?

- What was it that I gave to the company? I may put it this way: I assigned appropriate numerical values to the business indicators that people with liberal arts background came up with intuitively. That is, the accuracy of assessment, the logical construction from the very idea to launching of the project, its maintenance and analysis of what was taking place in production and in finances. Even the staff is evaluated using certain models.

There are no branches of the national economy of Kazakhstan, in which I didn’t take part in, generating business ideas, projects, creating financial models. We even modeled the project of dairy farm construction, as big as 2 thousand heads. We created a model of the farm, starting with turnover of the herd, the import of animals. This complete model, well, we say, technological, was created through financial planning and forecasting. The project was approved by Dutch, German and Israeli experts. We were negotiating with Russian division considering equipment. They were all amazed at the program that we created. The plan is ready; it can be implemented once the appropriate financing comes along as well as a big site for the fodder base is found.

We were developing as a diversified company from the very beginning. There were interesting ideas, good start-ups, some of them very successful. Successful, because the employees of the company were very strained, were encouraged by their achievements. We came from place, where working in good faith and getting paid for it later was considered the norm. Today, the initial conversation starts with discussing the salary and then “we’ll see how I work for that amount of money”. Perhaps, younger generation is more pragmatic than we are.

- What in your work pleases you the most?

- The greatest pleasure to me is to witness how ideas turn into something neat, that it works well; to make sure that our work results in beautiful outcome. For example, the juice factory. We got exactly what we’ve predicted, calculated for. Both in terms of costs and revenues. The market is changing, and it's nearly impossible to forecast for a long-run, but the actual accounting reports coincided the planned ones. I remember, after one year, Yerlan Shinturinov said: "Guys, everything matches!" And I told him: "Is it really? Well, good job everyone then!" (Laughs).

And we have amazing people working here. Sometimes even their stories of joining the company are amazing. In due time one of the first producers of “A-Studio” band have been working with us. Petroleum engineer by training, by the way. Can you imagine?! Knowing these people, communicating throughout the work leaves an unforgettable impression. If someone leaves the company, for one reason or another, we keep in touch – this is one of our joys as well.

Everyone builds their lives their own way. If something makes you unhappy, you should change it – the sooner, the better. I find working in Raimbek interesting. I met interesting people, I solved interesting problems, I received fair compensation, what else could I wish for?