UMMC’ general director was recognized as one of the best top managers in Russia’s industry. His career as an engineer, manager and businessman has been made at one and the same enterprise. That is Uralelektromed JSC (the city of Ve�khnyaya Pyshma), where he has been working for more than 20 years. In interview with Eurasian Metals Andrei Kozitsyn told about some episodes in his biography and his present-day activities.

    EM: How would you assess the UMMC outlook on the whole?
– The outlook depends on the level of competitiveness. This notion is a complex one. It covers the company’s own potential like quality of the raw material base, state of capital assets, technological level, labor productivity, etc. as well as external factors, which influence the structure of our earnings and costs. And here UMMC faces quite a lot of complicated problems and we would like to secure support and understanding of the State as far as our attempts to solve them are concerned.
It is not that difficult to calculate a number of personnel really needed to ensure the volume of production, which UMMC has today. Just compare: there are 15 000 people working in Outokumpu, which has a sales volume equaling $6 billion. There are more than 60 000 people working in our company with a turnover of $1.6 billion. It is well known what to do. But if tomorrow we bring a number of personnel in accord with the potential of raw material base and actual production needs, reduce along the way a number of people, who are involved in the social sphere, then, what the State will do with those, who immediately become unneeded?
Time is required to get rid of the economy’s structure inherited from the past era when the two thirds of the able-bodied population were working in the heavy industry creating excessive «metal for the sake of metal». We are proceeding from this reality.
It is important for us to make the enterprises’ people confident that their skills will be in demand in five, ten and twenty years. All things, which are being done today, are meant for even longer terms. This concerns forming a reliable raw material base, renewing the whole technological cycle of copper production and reprocessing on a large scale, increasing volumes of putting out finished products. And all these are aimed at creating a reliable material guarantee and ensuring decent social security for those, who work in the company.
EM: What are the responsibilities of UMMC general director? Who determines these responsibilities and how?
– It is hardly possible for a director of a large enterprise or a company to formulate his responsibilities and put his activities within strict limits of the «from here to there» kind. Formally there is a distribution of responsibilities in UMMC, of course, but, frankly speaking, I do not know if there is such a document concerning myself.
My direct responsibilities are all that is directly connected to production and business operations. But I am also to deal with many problems, which by their nature might seem to have nothing in common with managing an industrial company. For example, it is necessary to participate in forming revenues of budgets of those cities and regions where UMMC enterprises are located since our enterprises are town-planning ones.
Politics is somebody else’s area, I feel much more confident doing business. But you cannot ignore politics because the local legislature directly influences the region’s life and much, including situation at enterprises, depends on who the lawmakers are. If they are folks, who are familiar with production, finances, who know the current state of the market economy, or they are just windbags obsessed with looking for culprits. There is also a need to work with lawmakers and executive branch at the federal level, with ministries, natural monopolies. For example, questions of subsoil use and licensing are now the extremely pressing ones for our company since it incorporates many mining enterprises.
So, in a word, to outline the scope of these responsibilities or list them formally in some instructions is impossible. The life itself determines what areas you have to deal with, where to put accents in the job that I am doing.
EM: How often do you hold meetings?
– I hold them practically every day and I did so especially at the end of 2001, when the situation demanded them. The company’s board of directors had been meeting daily in November and until mid-December as they worked out responses to all, let me put this way, external threats, which could have a negative impact on the company’s stable development. Among them were the further increase of prices for services of natural monopolies, downfall of prices for our metal products, preservation of the fixed dollar-for-ruble exchange rate. So, we had to make calculations anew and correct UMMC budget for 2002 by reducing funds for a number of programs.
EM: Your company incorporates over 20 enterprises, not counting other production and non-production facilities. Do you manage to visit them at least once a year?
– I visited each of them and not once. I can tell you in detail what is going on and where. But there is no need to travel permanently. We have the board of directors and appropriate services. There are approved current and prospective plans of enterprises’ operations, budgets defining main items of expenditures. These tasks should be accomplished. Enterprises’ directors are invited personally to report on results of the past month and their plans for the next one.
There are, of course, special occasions like commissioning of a new important production facility or the plant’s jubilee. In such cases I always try to be there, among workers of this or that enterprise.
EM: What determined your choice of becoming a metallurgist and your subsequent professional advances: you were pursuing your goal consciously or circumstances played their special role?
– I cannot say that my choice was the deeply conscious one. Who makes decisions essential to life being 18 years old? The time for such decisions comes when a person is more mature... I joined a mining-and-metallurgical technical college because my older brother was studying there. There were no doubts about the place of work. I was born in Verkhnaya Pishma and it was always considered prestigious for everyone, who lived there, to get a job at Uralelektromed integrated works. I started working there on July 5, 1979, after graduating from the mining-and-metallurgical technical college. After military service I returned to the works and I have been working here since then, since November 4, 1981. I started as a locksmith of instrumentation. Three years later I was offered a job of constructing control-measuring equipment section in the planned foil shop and heading it afterwards. Any construction works are a troublesome business and not too many people are ready to do it but I agreed. And I consider this experience very important. One gets necessary management skills by having to present reports at high-level meeting and defend his positions in disputes with contractors.
I became the section’s head at 24 and this was my first job as an engineer though I did not have a higher education. I had to justify people’s trust. Shop deputy supervisor, equipment department head, commercial director became landmarks of my professional growth. During those times the situation in the country as well as at the works changed dramatically. There were a lot of problems. Many people did not realize what direction Russia was moving. Just a few knew what a share meant. But by then I was already capable of making decision on my own.
EM: What qualities, in your opinion, should a leader possess?
– A leader should meet two essentially important requirements. First, you have to react in time (or better ahead of time) to the changing external situation and take professionally reasonable decisions on whatever you are responsible for. Second, you have to clearly realize the economic consequences of your decisions. And if these requirements are met, you will undoubtedly succeed. Deeper knowledge, skill and experience will come in the process.
EMY: ou have a scientific degree in economics ant this makes it necessary to go on in this direction as well. It seems that your experience in forming a large company during the national economy’ transition provides a solid basis for a doctor degree. What do you think on this?
– Yes, there is a truly interesting problem that I am working on now. Using UMMC as an example I am trying to substantiate a mechanism of economic interaction between large holding companies and regions of their production activities. These relations are analyzed on the basis of a certain pattern backed by calculations. If I manage to finish off this work, its results will be helpful to both region’s governors and holdings’ leaders because everything can be calculated within the frameworks of this mechanism. The will be no need to ask somebody for assistance or to «put pressure», to appeal to the Center, etc.
EM: Success, power, prestige, feeling independent� What all these advantages in life, which result from your special position, mean for you? And, vice versa, what bothers or burdens you?
– As I understand it, success is when you managed to accomplish what you intended to accomplish and you did it within time limits you set for implementing your plans. You, of course, can have many plans but you do not necessarily have a possibility to fulfill them all. There is, of course, a feeling of being independent as you make certain decisions, for example. But I cannot consider myself independent of people and circumstances. Here everything is in reverse, so to say: the more managing authority you have, the more responsibilities you get with respect to people, who work at the company’s enterprises.
As far as prestige, special position and everything connected with them are concerned � I do not attach any principal importance to this: I do not feel dizzy with it and I do not bother my head about it. But, you know, I am a human being and just like every guy around I like useful and beautiful things: my car, expensive watch, which I got as a present, rifles, hunting, sports. There is only one oppressing thing: the necessity to waste time on various ceremonial formalities, grand meeting, black-tie parties. I use every slight chance to escape all these.
EM: How do you usually spend your vacation?
– I do not go on vacation and the UMMC board of directors know it. It may be wrong but I still have not learned how to take a rest. I can endure two or three days at the most. I am crazy about my work, I just need it. My thoughts are always far away from the place where I am spending my holidays. Something always comes up to my mind, then I take the phone and � the rest goes to hell.
EM: An automatic question: why on earth there is such a self-sacrifice? What is the end purpose of your efforts?
– If the reasoning goes this way, then you can put the question differently: what purpose human beings are born for? All people want to accomplish everything in this life but not all of them succeed. It is an interesting life when you accomplished something that you planned for, when your ideas are being materialized in achievements of this large company, when you succeeded in changing things for the better and could see results of your efforts. Life is worth living for the sake of it... I hate saying fine, but empty words that we should leave something worthy after ourselves. But, of course, the goal of my life, of lives of those, who are working with me, is not limited to business and production matters. We will leave after us not only plants and works but also beautiful cities where normal people will lead their normal lives and where they will want to live. And if many years later children will be going to the temple, which we have built in Verkhnyaya Pishma, then we did it all right, then our life was worth it.