Page 33 - RusRPTSept22

became clear that the Kremlin was moving towards ensuring full control over the company.” The second to leave was a longtime friend of German Gref, Ilya Strebulaev, a professor of finance at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University (he was an independent non-executive director of Yandex, but since 2018). The company itself clarified that the positions of Dyson and Strebulaev would remain free for the time being.
Another major player in the Russian IT market, Ozon, decided in April that from now on, the online retailer will be managed by a collegial body of several representatives of the top management team. This happened after the group's CEO Alexander Shulgin came under personal sanctions and was forced to leave his position, as well as leave the board of directors. There, he was replaced by the financial director of the company, Igor Gerasimov, as an executive director.
Why is it important
There are tectonic shifts in the history of large Russian business management, says The Bell's interlocutor from a large recruitment agency. Inviting a foreigner or a person with a big name to the board of directors of a sanctions company is now a mission-impossible task. Companies can only look for some options within the country.
Finding a person even in a so-called “friendly” country is a big problem, agrees another recruiter. “We are part of a global network and communicate with colleagues abroad, we can say for sure: foreigners do not want to work with Russian companies. Everyone says: “Let's wait until everything is over, and then we'll see.” And this applies not only to sanctioned companies.
In late March, the government proposed temporarily allowing Russian companies not to elect boards of directors. “Now this is especially true for public joint-stock companies, where such a governing body is mandatory,” acknowledged Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. “In the current realities, meeting this requirement may be difficult.”
But the problem is not limited to boards of directors. In general, the labour market for managers has been divided into two groups: those who left or want to leave, and those who, for various reasons, decided to stay, headhunters say. The former are not ready at all now to have anything to do with Russia. They try to distance themselves from the country as much as possible. The second group only tries to minimise the risks of contact with sanctioned companies, although there are those among them for whom this is not important, one of the experts says: “Are they qualified enough and meet the requirements? Probably not always, but there are some options.
In Russia, in recent years, digital managers have emerged whose companies and services could compete on a global level, argues The Bell's interlocutor in an HR recruitment agency. Now it will be extremely difficult for them to continue working, he believes: in a situation where the Russian market is isolated from developed countries, it is unlikely that they will be able to make world-class products. The market for top specialists will “shrink”: this will affect the number of tasks, both competition and quality will fall, he predicts.
33 RUSSIA Country Report September 2022 www.intellinews.com