Back in 1990, in a classic (6m2) Leningrad kitchen of a rented apartment, sat two fellow-students – Leningrad Polytechnic Institute graduates. One of them was a technicalspecialist at the National Assemblage Trust, the other drew things at the National Planning Institute. The country was rapidly changing; our young men felt like doing something great and unique; however, their routine was dull and boring, and their future uncertain and vague.
“We can’t go on like this anymore”, we decided, and, having invited a German acquaintance to be our partner, started a joint venture. In those days, it was the St. Petersburg city administration who registered joint ventures. Occasionally, the first registration certificate for ÎÀÎ Intekhmontazh was issued 11 December 1992 by Vladimir Putin, then the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the city administration. We started it all from scratch, having nothing else but a team of 15 fitter workers and engineers.
Electric mounting was an obvious choice, the only thing we could do professionally. The team, which I had managed at Gidroelektromontazh, was quite skilled. Besides, we believed that that the power industry, being strategically important for the country, did have prospects. Now we could count only on our own – and on our brothers-in-arms, of course. The young company was increasing its turnover threefold each year and conquering the market rapidly.
In 1996 we decided to expand our service range substantially. Intekhmontazh transformed into a group consisting of seven subsidiaries, each with a professional focus on a certain kind of service in industrial engineering. Many of the services are not provided by ITM Group any longer; however, some of the new business directions – fitting manufacturing equipment, in particular – became the core competence of the company.
Today, ITM Group is an established and well-known firm employing over 450 highly motivated specialists. We are planning to reorganize the company and to create an investment and construction holding.
Over the 14 years of its existence the company has changes its name three times, and its organizational structure twice. In business, only narrow-minded people take straightforward paths. Our basic principle is striving to adjust to the rapidly changing business environment. To make strategic plans, we attracted professional consultants, including representatives of the top five consultants in the world. We wrote our own business plans. But – and this is important – the main tool for an entrepreneur is a gut feeling. You have to feel where “the wind is blowing”, organize an adequate structure and become the winner! In order to achieve success, we hired highly-paid managers, and turned out to be absolutely right: a while later, they appeared to be well worth the money, and the output exceeded all our expectations.
A real-life example. We received an e-mail from an American customer
saying how delighted he was about the work of our team and especially its project leader, a citizen of Italy. Many people hire workers from Middle Asia, but we hire managers from Italy. And it proves right!
By the end of this year we will have received the Quality Management Certificate ISO 9000. It is an extremely complicated task. We will have to describe and document all the business processes of our firm. But we are eager to do that. Many Western customers start tenders with an inquiry about an ISO certificate. There is a certain power and fascination in the fact that in Russia business processes are not well-instructed. There is room for the power of a personality. What an instruction could make a leading specialist arrive for the launch of a power unit at 12 at night, when 6 hours before his only daughter was getting married? But he did arrive, and did a great job!
There are lots of such examples. What matters is not the financial bonuses, but being part of a great business. SSE Russia provides systemic knowledge. For an entrepreneur, it is always important to look at theoretical knowledge through the prism of present-day reality. Managers at our company have the right to give their suggestions when the most important development
issues are discussed. It is in the team that we find efficient and optimum decisions.
We have come a long way together with the Russian economy, changing and getting stronger at the same time. We have reached a turnover of tens of thousands of US dollars. But we have not stopped searching. To stop is to die. Our goal is to prosper today and in the future. Let’s build our future together! | 
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