- 1994-1996 - All-Russian Correspondence Institute of Finance and Economics, majoring in “Finance and Credit”,
- 1997-1998 - Higher Commercial School of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade of the Russian Federation and the International University of Management (Paris) under the MBA program. He defended his PhD in Economics at the Higher School of Privatization and Entrepreneurship.
In 1999, he received a PhD in Economics from the Higher School of Privatization and Entrepreneurship. The topic of the dissertation is “Strategic management of enterprises/organizations.”
Career
2015: "Russian fitness group"
On September 2, 2015, Nikolai Pryanishnikov's departure from Microsoft was announced. He left the corporation for the sports business.
Nikolay Pryanishnikov moved to the Russian Fitness Group (RFG), which manages the World Class and World Class Lite fitness club chains, Kommersant reported, citing the press service of the RFG and Microsoft.
“I intend to implement a growth strategy, strengthen leadership in Russia and make World Class a successful international company,” Pryanishnikov said.
Microsoft noted that Pryanishnikov helped the company achieve “significant results in business growth, increasing customer satisfaction, and Microsoft’s contribution to the Russian economy and social development” in Russia.
Tomorrow I start a new chapter of my life. I accepted the offer to become the CEO of the largest Fitness company in Russia and Eastern Europe - World Class (Russian Fitness Group). I want to say a big thank you to all my colleagues and partners at Microsoft. It was a super successful 7 years of my career and life. Together we have achieved outstanding results in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe. Thank you all for your partnership, achievements and great time! All my life I have loved sports and have been involved in fitness for many years. When I became a World Class client, I personally experienced a new level of service. These are Clubs where you want to come, where you want to train and spend time and part of your life. My new mission is to help people be healthy, beautiful and successful. I would like there to be more World Class Clubs, they would be closer to clients. Professionalism, service, innovation - these are our approaches to work. I’ve been involved in telecommunications for 17 years, I’m proud that I made cellular communications available in Russia, I’ve been promoting new technologies for 7 years, and now I’ll make people fit and happy. And from a managerial point of view, this is a good development. CEO of a large company, responsibility for results to shareholders, ability to make decisions on strategy, operations and investments. Thank you Microsoft, hello World Class! Forward to new heights, life, sports, management! Do you play sports? September is a great time to start, and the best time is to join the N1 network of fitness clubs
2009-2015: Microsoft
Since January 1, 2009 - President of Microsoft in Russia, head of the company's Russian office.
Nikolay Pryanishnikov announces the results of 2010 (amateur recording)
In June 2014, Microsoft expanded the powers of Nikolay Pryanishnikov, appointing him vice president of business development in Central and Eastern Europe. In his new role, Pryanishnikov focused on implementing Microsoft's new leadership strategy in the field of cloud technologies and mobility solutions. He was responsible for technology policy, Microsoft's business development in the public sector, as well as interaction with government and public organizations and the company's contribution to the development of social initiatives.
Instead of Pryanishnikov, he was appointed president of Microsoft in Russia from July 2014 Pavel Betsis, who previously held the position of head of business strategy in Central and Eastern Europe at the corporation.
1999-2008: VimpelCom
In May 1999, Pryanishnikov was appointed Deputy General Director, Commercial Director of OJSC VimpelCom. From October 2000 to June 2004, he worked at VimpelCom as First Vice President, Commercial Director. From June 2004 to April 2007, he served as executive vice president responsible for regional development, and from May 2007 to June 2008, he led all Russian operations. Since July 1, 2008 - Executive Vice President for International Business Development.
1992-1999: Beginning of career
Since 1992, he worked at the Moscow Cellular Communications company as a sales representative, then as head of the market development sector and marketing director. In October 1996, he was appointed General Director of CJSC MSS-Start (Mobile Center). Since April 1997, he held the position of Deputy General Director for Commerce of Moscow Cellular Communications LLP.
Participation in large projects
- Implementation of a set of marketing initiatives and activities in the Moscow Cellular Communications company, which led to the growth of the company’s business (subscribers, revenues, profits) during the crisis year of 1998.
- Launch of a new product: “Phone in a box for $49”, marking the beginning new era the use of mobile communications: the transition from the perception of mobile communications as an elitist type of communication to mass and accessible to everyone.
- Regional development of VimpelCom: construction, successful launch of networks and operations in more than 70 regions of Russia.
- Making VimpelCom a leader in the number of active subscribers in 2005-2006.
- Successful launch of the Windows 7 operating system in Russia.
Quotes
- As the president of Microsoft Russia, Nikolai Pryanishnikov said that in order to improve the quality of work, users should stop using old versions of programs and, especially, “crooked” programs like Open Office (at an informal presentation of Microsoft Office 2010 in September 2010).
- “We have made a strategic decision - we are going to the cloud and making all our products available in the form of cloud services. Our slogan - “We are all in” - says that we are all inside the cloud and all our products are inside the cloud. At the same time, we are trying to make so that the client always has the widest choice: to use Microsoft products based on their infrastructure or to use them in the form of cloud services. There is a third option - to use a combined approach, i.e. deploy some of the products on your own infrastructure, and use others in your own infrastructure. cloud" (December 2010).
Family
Married, has four children.
Hobby
Joint sports activities with the family (visiting a fitness club with the eldest son, classes at sports ground with the youngest, swimming pool with the whole family, etc.).Education and academic degree
He studied at the Moscow Automobile and Highway Institute (MADI) and graduated from the university in 1994.
In 1996, he completed his studies at the All-Russian Correspondence Institute of Finance and Economics with a degree in Finance and Credit.
In 1998, he graduated from the Higher Commercial School of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation and the International University of Management (Paris) in the MBA program.
He defended his PhD thesis on the topic “Strategic management of enterprises/organizations” at the Higher School of Privatization and Entrepreneurship. Candidate of Economic Sciences.
Labor activity
In 1992, he got a job as a sales representative at the Moscow Cellular Communications company, then was appointed head of the market development sector and director of marketing.
In October 1996, he took the post of General Director of CJSC MSS-Start (Mobile Center). Since April 1997, he was Deputy General Director for Commerce of Moscow Cellular Communications LLP.
From May 1999, he was an employee of VimpelCom OJSC for about nine years. He came to the position of commercial director, was deputy general director, and in October 2000 assumed the position of first vice president. Since June 2004, he held the position of executive vice president, responsible for the regions, and since May 2007, he led all Russian operations. Since July 2008 - Executive Vice President for International Business Development at VimpelCom.
Since January 2009, he headed the Russian office of Microsoft as president. In June 2014, he was promoted and was appointed vice president for business development in Central and Eastern Europe, and Pavel Betsis took over as president of the company's office in Russia.
On September 2, 2015, it became known that he was leaving Microsoft and starting to work at the Russian Fitness Group (RFG), which manages the World Class fitness club chain (to date).
Hobbies
Since childhood he has been interested in sports - athletics, football, boxing, swimming. According to him, he visits the fitness center every day and allows himself intense exercise every other day so that his muscles can recover. Since he started working at the fitness club, he has focused on healthy eating- I almost completely gave up unhealthy desserts and starchy foods, and also stopped eating at night.
Marital status
Married, has four children.
The Russian Fitness Group (RFG), which manages the World Class and World Class Lite fitness club chains, has found a general director - Nikolai Pryanishnikov, former vice president of Microsoft in Central and Eastern Europe. Over the six years of work in the American corporation, Mr. Pryanishnikov has established himself as a competent lobbyist, market participants believe. In the Russian Federation, Nikolay Pryanishnikov plans to begin international expansion.
Nikolai Pryanishnikov has been appointed general director of the Russian Fitness Group on September 3, the company told Kommersant. “I intend to implement a growth strategy, strengthen leadership in Russia and make World Class a successful international company. The group has the financial capabilities for this,” Nikolai Pryanishnikov told Kommersant. I. o. General Director Yulia Khodbina remains in the Russian Federation as Vice President for Legal Affairs. "Nikolai wanted to lead the business and promote it to the international market. Plus he really loves sports and healthy image life," said a Kommersant source familiar with the situation. According to him, his departure from Microsoft is not related to the recently announced personnel changes at the corporation, during which a number of top managers left it, including the former head of Nokia, Stephen Elop.
Nikolay Pryanishnikov worked at Microsoft for more than six years. At the beginning of 2009, he was appointed head of the Russian representative office of the corporation. Already in June, Microsoft in Russia had serious problems: the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) suspected Microsoft of abusing its dominant position during the update of the Windows Vista operating system. The FAS found that Microsoft had unreasonably stopped sales of the previous version of Windows XP. For this, the corporation was threatened with turnover fines, which, taking into account its revenue in the Russian Federation at that time (about $1 billion), could exceed $15 million. However, already in September, the FAS dropped the claims against Microsoft.
In 2010, Microsoft signed an extended agreement on access to the source codes of Microsoft products with the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "NTC Atlas" subordinate to the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications. Back in 2002, the American corporation allowed Russian government agencies access to the codes, but then the parties agreed that the FSB would certify not individual Microsoft products, but platforms that can be used to create “electronic government.” Over the years of work as head of Microsoft in Russia, Nikolai Pryanishnikov “practically doubled his business,” the corporation notes. In the summer of 2014, Nikolai Pryanishnikov ceded the post of head of the representative office to Pavel Betsis, and he himself was appointed to the position of vice president in Central and Eastern Europe, where he “was involved in supporting socially important projects of the company in 33 countries.”
Stories with the FAS and the disclosure of FSB source codes are tasks that Microsoft under Nikolai Pryanishnikov successfully handled, says Gleb Mishin, head of Lenovo in Russia, the CIS and Eastern Europe. “Nikolai was a competent specialist with an understanding of how our government agencies that deal with control and supervision work,” he added. Nikolai Pryanishnikov “knew how to work with the state,” agrees the founder of the Lanit IT holding Georgy Gens. “Nikolai is a corporate man, a good classic manager. If he was looking for a job and came to me, I would accept him. World Class was lucky,” says Mr. Gens.
A 2012 UBS presentation stated that RFG was a leader Russian market fitness services (13th place in the world): forecast revenue for 2013 is $169.3 million (an increase of 15.2% compared to 2012), EBITDA is $22 million (an increase of 5%). About 80% of RFG's revenue comes from premium World Class clubs. In 2012, UBS estimated the annual turnover of the entire Russian fitness services market at $2.1 billion. Currently, 67 clubs operate under the World Class, World Class Lite and Fizkult brands in 23 cities of Russia and Kazakhstan.
In April 2014, a new shareholder appeared in RFG - VTB Capital, which bought 22.5% of the shares for $19.3 million. Another 22.5% of RFG belonged to Goldman Sachs. 50% of the shares remained with the company’s founders Olga Slutsker and Maxim Ignatiev. According to Ms. Slutsker, the network is faced with the task of expanding both in Russia and abroad, and in order to achieve its goals, a “bright, talented manager” was invited to the team.
Vladislav Novy, Oleg Trutnev
I'm a big believer in the management career path. If you look at my career, it's going up steadily, and everything is sweet and good. But there were difficult times: when I was a young manager, holding two positions at the same time, I had to manage people who were twice my age. I just took advantage of the fact that I worked a lot - on weekends, in the evenings. And after a while I simply knew more than my colleagues. Due to this, authority began to grow.
In my career there were two transitions with a decrease in salary, that is, completely different situations can arise in life. Sometimes you have to take a step back, sometimes you have to move to a new position, sometimes you have to choose what you like and sacrifice something. The most important thing that we all need to keep an eye on is passion, that is, the love for work, the desire, the readiness, the energy that you receive. Follow your feelings! A good test is Monday: with what emotions do you go to work that day?
My recommendation here: new position, new projects - every two years/five years. If you are a middle manager or a manager or director of a department, you need to change direction every two years. If you are the president of a company, the general director, you still need to change after five years. To be honest, I went through this. I was the president of Microsoft Russia, I had a good position, good salary, and I thought, maybe I’ll stay for another sixth year, seventh - it’s still good, warm, cozy. But I realized that, firstly, you yourself become less effective - you have certain patterns, you get used to something. And the new leader will give some new direction. Secondly, I also need development, because after five years you already become a little rustic. And I moved to the position of head of Microsoft's business in Central and Eastern Europe, and now I work at World Class.
Conclusions: Conscious, dynamic development of your career is the key to personal and company motivation.
Nikolai Pryanishnikov with his twin brother
Leadership Development
I want to remember the lesson from my first teacher. My twin brother and I were excellent students. But one day our first teacher said about us: “Very good kids, they study so well, but they have absolutely no initiative.” When my parents told me about this, I realized that if I continued like this, I would definitely never achieve anything - I would just good guy who studied well. And I began to develop leadership skills. It wasn't easy because I was a bit of an introvert and I had to fight with myself. I began to speak publicly and took the initiative. And when you start doing this yourself, you develop a willingness to develop. I believe that a lot is inherent in people, but a lot can be developed in yourself.
Conclusions: develop leadership skills, people will follow you and exceed your plan.
Photo: Evgeny Dudin / Kommersant
Determination and orientation
Correct orientation is the key to a manager's success. And the main orientation, in my opinion, is result orientation.
I worked in both Russia and Europe, and noticed a slightly different style of work. The European management style is more democratic, everyone listens to each other. Ours is a little more directive. My recipe here is this: we listen to everyone, we listen to different opinions, we are ready and open to any dialogue, to any feedback, but then we are the ones who make the decisions.
I have a kind of handbook - “Five intense six-month goals.” I also have key projects and my key people to help achieve these goals. Why is this important? We all work in a large environment: we have a lot of turnover, a lot of documents to sign, a lot of questions. When you have a tip like this at your fingertips, it gives you the opportunity to step away from that routine, sit down on Friday and look at what you are doing to achieve your goals and set the right priorities.
Development and change
We live in a new world where the trend towards change is accelerating. Today we need to talk about a new world, new technologies, and accordingly, completely new requirements arise for a modern manager: result orientation, determination, readiness for change and constant development. And in this matter you need to be honest with yourself and demanding of yourself. Look now at what you are doing really differently compared to a year ago. And you will be surprised: you will see that, basically, we change little, we are all conservative.
Conclusion: we need to change, otherwise we will be uncompetitive.
Technology, efficiency, speed
Today there is a lot to do - we are all in a flow of information, decisions, actions. A systematic approach is needed, otherwise you will constantly be “putting out fires.” You need to first think about what you are doing, develop a system, and then it will function normally, and you will live well.
How to work quickly? Of course, I would like to say that you need to speed up everywhere. But I recommend looking at what bottlenecks you have - where you are making a lot of effort, but then something gets stuck. If you expand them, then it will be easier.
Conclusion: The ability to prioritize and delegate, efficiency, use of technology and speed is your path to success.
And here I will focus on technology. Who today always has a complete corporate office at hand, that is, on their computer or smartphone they can access the corporate network, approve all documents, sign all payments, and so on? Today technology makes this possible. One of the recommendations here is to not waste time traveling to the office to approve anything: we should work from anywhere. As a manager, I don’t need people to spend their hours in the office - leave early, take your computer with you and work from home if you need to. Leave later to avoid traffic. We, managers, do not need people to work in a rigid schedule from 9 to 18. It seems to me that these are some kind of backward methods, and we need to come up with new ones. Come to work when it's convenient for you, leave when it's convenient for you, and get your work done from anywhere.
People management
How to be a people manager? First: think and clearly define who your key people are. Moreover, these can be not only your subordinates, but also those who influence your results. Pay attention to their motivation and go deeper into it. You need to be in good contact with people. If you know a person and his motivation, you know how things are going at home, how he lives, how he works, what his goals are, it will be easier for you to motivate him.
Contact people regardless of hierarchy, communicate more with them. I go to clubs and communicate there not only with the manager, but also with coaches and employees, just to understand how they live. This always helps a lot.
The president of the Russian branch of Microsoft runs a structure with offices in thirty-four of the country's largest cities, thousands of employees and a revenue of about a billion dollars. Pryanishnikov is called the best anti-crisis top manager: this winter he launched the “Your Course” project - a network of free centers to improve IT literacy of the population throughout Russia.
“Your Course” centers have just opened in Ulyanovsk and Krasnoyarsk. What are the goals of this project?
Such centers will soon appear in every subject of the federation. In 2010, according to our forecasts, three hundred thousand people will use their services, and one million over the next three years. And this will ultimately improve the quality of life of our citizens. The acquired skills will help them finally integrate into the information society: the unemployed will find a job, IT professionals will improve their skills. Many people will realize that a computer can do more than just type. Perhaps they will think about working from home using the Internet, rather than spending half their lives in traffic jams.
By the way, about traffic jams. You studied at the Moscow Automobile and Road Institute, didn't you?
Yes, and I admit that if life had turned out differently, I could have worked on cars. If you have managerial potential, it will make itself felt and manifest itself in any area.
It turns out that your entry into telecommunications was an accident?
More like fate. While studying at a university, I placed an ad in the newspaper “Everything for You”: “A young man with an active lifestyle, knowledge of the language and his own car offers himself...” Several companies called me, I chose the best offer. So Moscow Cellular Communications became my first employer. At first, I sold not the now familiar mobile phones, but suitcases for five thousand dollars. They didn’t want to buy them, they had to convince them that it was very cool.
But you believed in the prospects of this business.
Yes. Then I moved to VimpelCom, and in my office the decision was made to launch the first product for the mass consumer - a Beeline box for forty-nine dollars. After that, such a boom began that it was stupid to leave this area.
Have you always been a leader?
As a child, I did not show such inclinations. About my brother and I, and I have a twin brother Mikhail, they said: “Good boys, but very modest.” And when I was studying at the institute, at some point I realized that if I remained modest, I would not achieve anything in life. He began to educate himself: he developed vigorous activity, took on several directions at the same time.
Which one of you and your brother is older?
ME: For fifteen minutes. We always reached out to each other. My brother ran faster and beat me at table tennis, but I achieved best results in boxing. Mikhail and I are similar, and strangers still confuse us.
You have a genetic predisposition to business, right?
Yes. My ancestors on my father’s side come from the famous merchant dynasty of the Olovyanishnikovs. Its founder, Osip Olovyanishnikov, began producing tin under Peter I. Things were going well, and in 1766 his grandson, Fyodor Grigorievich, cast his first bell by order of the Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery. The copper of my ancestors can be found in the bells of Peterhof and the Izmailovsky Cathedral in St. Petersburg, and indeed there was no province in Russia where they did not supply bells. Their business flourished on the eve of 1917.
Why didn't they leave the country after the revolution?
It's hard to say. Someone left, some of our relatives died in Kolyma, someone was exiled to Kazakhstan. But by and large, I’m glad that dad’s parents stayed here, otherwise he wouldn’t have met his mom... Mom’s teaching today German at the institute. I owe her a lot because her upbringing was structured and clear. Dad teaches architecture, and he, being a great scholar, was responsible for our intellectual development. It was he who instilled in us a thirst for new knowledge.
As a result, you have three higher education degrees. Why so many? Do you think that the most best manager one who has gone from being a simple seller.
There must be a balance. Good practices are not always effective in top management positions and vice versa. And recently I came to the conclusion that every eight to ten years it is useful to change the field of activity. In this sense, my transition from VimpelCom to Microsoft is indicative: a new company, new goals, new business models - this greatly increases the manager’s potential.
What tasks are you currently setting for your employees?
A strong top manager chooses goals that are ambitious but realistic. Despite the global economic downturn, Microsoft Russia should take first place among other subsidiaries in three years. I studied the situation and came to the conclusion that Russia is the most promising market for us, not counting, of course, America, where the level of computerization is much higher.
Have you formulated for yourself what a manager should be like in times of crisis? It’s not for nothing that they wrote a candidate’s dissertation on this topic.
An active position is required, not only to reduce costs and wait for weather by the sea. You need to clearly calculate your steps. The risk is possible, but measured. And you also need the ability to make decisions with lightning speed: there is no more time for thinking.
You got married at nineteen. What is your wife doing now?
She has her own business, a wedding agency. This was our mutual decision: my wife also has three higher education degrees and excellent entrepreneurial potential.
You have three children, do you hide your computer from them?
Well, this is already nonsense. Even my youngest, who is six years old, sits at the computer. Microsoft has created a secure website for little ones, Bibigosha.ru, where you can freely let your child spend an hour with all sorts of educational games. Our task as parents is only to limit it so that children do not sit all night and have time to read books.
