When news is released that the head of state intends to visit some place, some tension is felt. As a rule, the head of state comes to places that are having problems or where decisions need to be made at the top level. The visit to the privately owned R&D enterprise Adani on 20 March was an exception. The company is an example of modern innovative manufacturing. It has something to show and something to surprise with. BelTA reporters went on a tour of the premises together with the company's Director Vladimir Linev, who talked about his own way of achieving success, about work not for the sake of money, and relations between the state and the private sector.
Surely most of the residents of Belarus have encountered Adani products albeit they did not know it at the time. Every year at least 4.5 million people have to be examined with assistance of the x-ray machines Adani Company makes. Adani products are used in airports all over the world, in diamond mines, at border checkpoints, at strategic installations, in schools and embassies… The list can go on and on.
“A month ago we signed a major contract worth £26 million for a period of ten years with the UK Ministry of Justice. They've chosen us as a strategic partner,” the company's founder and director general says with pride. He can cite many examples of business cooperation like that. Adani Company sells products to 86 countries across the globe. In 2019 it exported nearly $40 million worth of products. The figure is expected to be close to $50 million in 2020.
Vladimir Linev speaks about his company with passion and enthusiasm. It is not just business but the work of a lifetime for him and has been for 30 years already. “Adani's success is explained by our drive to tackle the society's problems – protection of lives and safety of people. We are a socially responsible business and it makes us competitive,” Vladimir Linev is convinced.
Adani Company is proud to state its accomplishments since it does business in an honest and sincere manner. For instance, in 2019 it paid Br9.25 million in various taxes to the central state budget and the municipal one.
Visitors entering the lobby can see dozens of patents for R&D results that the scientist and businessman Vladimir Linev is proud of.
“We are a hi-tech full-cycle innovation company. When I say innovations, I mean we use an original idea to create a unique product not only for the benefit of the company and its owners but for the benefit of the society as well,” the CEO said.
As he takes us on a tour of the premises, Vladimir Linev demonstrates the latest products: a digital mammography machine for the early screening of breast cancer, a radiotherapy machine for treating skin cancer, a battery sorting technology that can separate hazardous components from those that should be recycled.
It seems you are doing too well. No problems at all?
We do have problems, internal ones. But if I start talking about them in public, it would be like waking up a bear, and I don't need that.
But for many people the head of state's visit represents an opportunity to ask for assistance…
I don't like asking for something. I usually try to handle my tasks on my own.
What about your relations with the state? What do you mean when you say you run a socially responsible business?
I'll give you an example. The Healthcare Ministry contacted us once, they needed a modern CT scanner. And we made one. The price was half of what Western manufacturers had been offering up till then. Now Adani CT scanners are used in seven district capitals across Belarus.
Thus, medical aid became more accessible for people in small communities while the state budget saved a considerable amount of money.
There is another important thing to consider: by buying the CT scanners from us, the state supported a Belarusian producer, the money stayed in the country instead of going to offshore zones.
How did you manage to make equipment as good as Western one but at half the price?
We offered a special price for Belarus. We offer different prices for the Russian market where such equipment also enjoys very strong demand. We will be able to recover missed profits in other countries, via other projects. Healthcare is a complicated line of business, there are too many regulations. If we focused on medical equipment only, we would have been bankrupt already.
Besides, I don't think the current system of purchases via tenders is perfect. Why do they have to buy something from a Belarusian manufacturer via a tender? Tenders take a lot of time. To clarify: tenders are organized not only for the sake of buying new equipment, but for buying maintenance services, spare parts and components. We are ready to work directly. We are open. Meanwhile, some foreign companies use any methods to win tenders, not exactly honest ones.
Is there room for patriotism in business or is it just business and nothing personal?
The way I see it patriotism is not limited to one country. It is a combination of the person's views on life. If I wanted only to make money, Adani's business model would have been totally different. But now 80% of the profits are reinvested in the company. Although I could have just pocketed them.
Since the company was founded in 1991, you've lived through more than one crisis. Are you confident you can handle another one?
I'd describe the current global situation as psychosis and panic. Nobody knows what will come out of it but I am 100% sure it will damage the economy. It will threaten many projects of ours as well. But we have some margin of durability.
If a huge amount of money was invested in buying new businesses in the past, it won't happen anymore after the current crisis. Large amounts of money will be removed from the economy. There will be no money to waste in the world.
What consequences may our enterprises and the country's economy face?
You have to understand that the world has changed a lot. Assembly line production is no longer important. Quantity is now less important than quality, diversity, and the speed of presentation on the market.
Companies that compete with their business models instead of their products will succeed. An effective and flexible management structure is needed.
Let me give you an example. When we made the CT scanner I've mentioned, we didn't have to invent anything new. We just had to make it to the customer's specifications. Adani takes six to eight months to design a new product and make it available on the market.
There is a crisis of overproduction in the world. Customers are often dissatisfied with standard products, products need to have individual characteristics. We primarily cater to what our customers need. Thanks to that we've been able to secure contracts with DP World, a multi-billion corporation, one of the largest port operators in the world.
If we talk about the country's economy as a whole, in my opinion, neither market reforms nor privatization of large state-owned enterprises will produce the desired effect. The game of mergers and acquisitions is a thing of the past. Many companies in the world are ready to work not for the sake of profit but for the sake of work itself. In order to survive in overproduction conditions they need an alliance with high-level players that have target markets and a name to themselves.
The key thing today is to organize work, organize the system of business administration. It is necessary to create an effective model of an innovative economy in parallel without touching large enterprises. Such an economy relies on high technologies. Fast economic growth is possible thanks to high-technology products because such products have a high added value formed by considerable intellectual work.
Yes, Adani's added value per worker is impressive: Br158,000-162,000 since 2017. In 2019 your output per worker was Br335,000. The figure was Br280,000 in 2017 and 2018. How much do you pay your staff?
I believe that people should get paid for producing results instead of showing up for work. Workers need to understand that it is not the company or the CEO that pays him or her, but the society for what the worker creates.
Salaries at Adani Company vary greatly: some people are paid Br1,000, some are paid Br12,000 and more than that. The average salary in the manufacturing division is Br2,300. It is Br2,750 in the R&D division.
The effectiveness of the staff is measured not only by their increasing productivity, by how someone can make more parts per hour. Effectiveness is achieved through intellectual labor.
We tackle complicated tasks. And we need highly skilled specialists. They work in small teams and enjoy a considerable degree of independence.
We hire about 100 people per year. We intend to double the number of specialists within the next three years.
Many enterprises keep awards and recognition boards since the Soviet times. Adani Company uses boards of competences. Those are magnetic panels with chips of different colors, photos of specialists, and a list of all kinds of skills. They vividly demonstrate what the specialists are capable of. For instance, someone may be a whizz with computers while someone else is an average PC user. A project supervisor can recruit a team to accomplish a specific task after reviewing the data.
You've been part of Adani Company for 30 years already. If we talk about money, you've earned a sufficient amount of it. Yet throughout the interview you've been saying that money is no longer the key motivating factor for a person. What keeps you working instead?
For me Adani employees are already part of my family to a certain degree.
My goal is to create a unique business model, a self-developing innovative machine. I am building a collective management system with this in mind.
I'll try to explain. People should not feel as if they were slaves driven to work in order to get money to buy food. It is also business for Adani employees, a place for self-realization. They can use some of the salary to invest in Adani projects. By doing it, they become participants of the business and come to understand that their financial results directly depend on their work.
