The FINANCIAL — On his third day in Tbilisi, Andrei Piataxin, 34, newly appointed General Director of Beeline in Georgia, traveled around Tbilisi aquainting himself with the characteristics of the city.
“The first thing that I looked for after my arrival in Tbilisi was a teacher of the Georgian language. People here are polite and hospitable. We have a similar faith and lots of things in common. There might be some political difficulties between our countries at the moment, but they are not relevant to the relations between our citizens.”
“When it was first suggested I move to Georgia, I called my father-in-law who served as a soldier in Georgia and asked him to share his impressions of the country. As it was long time ago, the first thing he remembered was that roses were flourishing in January. Of course he had a lot of positive impressions. My expectations were also positive as a result and I have not been dissapointed yet,” Piataxin tells.
“The political disagreement between Russia and Georgia has not influenced our business in Georgia. Although since the August war we have become more careful in what we do and say. Sometimes we like to avoid this topic and try to leave it out of the messages we give out,” Piatakhin reveals.
Piatiakhin says that Georgians should not consider Beeline a Russian company.
“The majority of our employees are Georgians. Some of them do not even speak the Russian language,” he says.
“Our goal is to work with people, to help them feel a sense of freedom in their everyday lives.”
When I was offered the chance to come to Georgia the main criteria was a knowledge of the English language, not Russian. “I think that the relationship between our countries is irrelevant to the message of our company,” he believes.
“I have many friends in Georgia and I will return, to visit them”, says Gordeev, predecessor of Andrei Piataxin on the post of General Director while introducing his colleague to Media.
Piataxin says that one of the reasons for Gordeev’s replacement was that he was offerd a new position in Vimpelcom, In addition recently, his wife gave birth to a baby. That influenced his decision to return to Moscow as well.
Andrei Piataxin, 34 years old, was born on September 5, 1975, in Lipetsk. In 1997 he graduated from Lipetsk Technical University. In 2007 he received an MBA grad at the American University of Business Administration.
Piataxin began his career in the sphere of telecommunications in 1996. In 4 years from an expert of the department of marketing he advanced to the Deputy Director of the Lipetsk branch of the Joint-Stock Company Mobile Communication of Chernozem region (ТМ Sotel).
Andrei Piataxin came to Vimpelcom in 2001 at the position of sales manager of the Lipetsk branch, and in 2004 moved to position of sales manager of the Ural region of Vimpelcom.
From 2006 Andrei was responsible for the corporate sales of Vimpelcom, at first in the Moscow region, and then on a corporate level. After integration of the business Vimpelcom and Golden Telecome in Russia Piataxin was appointed to the position of Director for development of corporate business in the regions of Russia.
Piataxin is married and has two kids. His family members think to move to Georgia aswell.
Currently Beeline occupies 10% of the Georgian market. The ambitious plans of the company involve becoming leaders of the market. “Currently we are lagging behind our competitors, but we know where to develop. Our goal is to continue increasing the market share over the next two years at the same pace we have kept up till now. Before the end of 2011 we plan to hold a 20% share of the Georgian market,” Piataxin notes.
Beeline covers 80% of the populated territory of Georgia.“In Europe there is an approved method for using the infrustructure but in Georgia we have not yet managed to cooperate with our partners. But we are still aiming to cover the whole of the country’s territory.”
“We are leaders on the price market. Georgian customers do not yet know that we cover almost 80% of the populated territory. We have made huge work in improving our service and now we just need to inform customers that Beeline is not only covering Tbilisi and some major cities.
Piataxin says that telecommunication companies Magti and Geocell are very serious competitors. But still mentions that abroad Beeline has the experience of competing with many more companies than are on the Georgian market. “We know how to work in tougher market conditions and we will use this experience”.
We are an international company, “You can find elderly women in the streets of NEW York, walking around with the stock shares from Beeline. Our company is qouted on New York Stoch Exchange. High executives of the Vimpelcom, which owned 51 % of Beeline in Georgia, are not even from Russia, like: Kent McNeley, Josef Vinatzer, Matias B. Hertzman.
Not to go any further this is the essence of our corporate mission: “We help People delight in the pleasure of Communications, to always feel free, anytime and anywhere.”
“Currently customers choose us because we offer them affordable connection and this is not a bad thing. So because of its current advantages, cheaper prices and wide spectrum of products, Beeline has becomed the Full-fledged National Operator ” Piataxin says.
“Offering only cheaper prices is not beneficial in the long term strategy and we realize that we cannot rely on this marketing technique for long. We should be recognized as a company with a strong communication statement.”
Piataxin says that to achieve their goal they need to complete their networking and technologically provide growth of mobile internet traffic. “Next year we will intensively expand and receive additional resources for this purpose,” he says.
“We only entered the Georgian market recently, which has its disadvantages. Becoming leader on the Georgian market is our long-term goal. However currently we need to prepare a basis for following out our plans. We need to be faster and more creative. We should adopt all new technologies. We need to make our service better than our competitors’. This will not happen in a short period of time, but we are optimistic that it is achievable.”
Piataxin notes that the global recession has affected their operations but the advantage of their product is that it is a commodity and people will buy it anyway. “The question is in which proportions customers will use our product.”
“Beeline continued to develop even during the recession. We increased the number of our customers with the help of a correct marketing campaign, which includes correct pricing and growth of the network. Of course, if it were not for the recession our results would be larger. As the company is still in the development stage we cannot limit ourselves in terms of expenses for development,” Piataxin declares.
Piataxin who has quite big experience of working in the development of corporate business, plans to attract more corporate customers. “Understanding that on some level our products were not fluent we did not work intensivly on this segment. But now realizing that we have improved service we will focus on them. The company has launched special resources for occupying this segment. Attracting customers away from your competitors is natural. On the other hand the economy is developing, new companies are appearing all the time and we are persuading them to become our corporate customers.”
“We need to entice customers to try our product if they are still skeptical about our service. We are not aiming to be an expensive product. Our goal is to be accessible and yet good quality at the same time.”
Beeline recently introduced a new TV commercial in Georgia, that was produced by Georgian Company.
Piataxin says that people accept things better when they can recognise that it is familiar.
“Foreign faces are not always affactive. When customers see our new commercial and recognise the streets of Tbilisi or Batumi they will accept the message we are putting out more closly.
Besides, Georgia has a fantastic Nature, Infrastracture and a very well trained professionals, so why should not we use them?
“Our head office, was satisfied with the new commercial and have now thought of shooting similar commercials for Ukraine and Armenia in Georgia. So as the company that covers a teritory with the population of 340 million , Beeline can help Georgian Advertising companies to extand their activites on the international level”.
“I have faith in the further development of the Georgian economy. Many steps have been taken by the Georgian Government. The openess of the economy is a basis for economical growth. Accordingly our company will increase and outstrip economical growth,” Piataxin says.
“Compared to 2008, the growth of our company was not so significant, still the results are living up to our expectations. Our expectations are ambitious, as Beeline simply can’t be unambitious.”
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