Human resources Conference - Your personal assistant in personnel management
"Eventum" - an opportunity to become better! Interview with the General Director Alexander Shumovich
Added: 10/31/2005
The thesis that the organization is a projection of the personality of the "first" leader does not require proof. Eventum company, having appeared on the business training market more than two years ago, immediately attracted attention with a huge number of seminars and conferences on a wide variety of topics, a yellow-orange energetic style, a strong website and high-quality printing. What kind of individuals “give birth” to such companies?
You will learn this from an interview with CEO Alexander Shumovich.
- Alexander, how did you come into this business?
-After graduation, I thought: "Where to go to work?" In the resume, I indicated that I graduated from school as an external student and became a winner in the competition of business projects, getting on the cover of the central newspaper. Having chosen the Latvian business school, I worked there for 8 years and grew from a conference sales manager to a branch manager. By that time, we had already done projects abroad, and also sent teachers to study in the UK. And then I felt that I had ideas that required entrepreneurial risks, for which I was ready - and I opened my Eventum company.
- How is Eventum in concept and implementation different from other players in the business training market?
-Firstly, the organization of seminars and conferences is a core business for us, we do ONLY business events.
-Secondly, we do not have teaching staff from business trainers. We work with strong professionals, experts in their field, who, in addition to the main business, consider it important to conduct seminars. I read with I. Mann, the author of 100% Marketing, that among the many marketing directors who made a career, only one did not conduct seminars. All the others noted that at some point in life it became important for them, as it also gives self-expression (recall Maslow’s pyramid).
I also began to read seminars when I realized that the accumulated experience allows us to share it with others.
Thirdly, I wanted to do business the way it should be: a great organization, a great product, great seminars and conferences.
- What does “great event” mean?
-This is a lot of little things: beautiful booklets, packages, pens, a smile at a meeting, staff attentiveness, a high-quality database, thoughtful reports. To be engaged in this business it is not necessary to be a "supergene". Almost any thinking person can do this, but the trouble is that many people understand how it should be, but they cannot realize it. Since the relationship between people and many processes, often unpredictable, are important in the service market. When a large number of people gather, the situation becomes even more unpredictable and we need to make sure that everyone is satisfied. Strength is in a sincere desire to make the best possible event, even in those little things that are not immediately noticeable, but if they are noticed, they amaze a person.
Is this business in tune with your personality?
- Consonant. I am focused on continuous improvement, continuous development, I read a lot. For example, I once read how Howard Schulz made Starbucks a global company. Before joining this company for 20 years, there was a chain of coffee shops in Seattle for a narrow group of connoisseurs.
His idea was to make coffee houses a national network and the whole book “breathes” good coffee. I read and seriously switched from tea to coffee - he convinced me. I told my friend about this book and he asked me: "Do you like to do seminars?" I love, but that’s not the point. Why do people go to study? They find information that allows them to become better. In practice, we are selling the opportunity to become better.
Also with the company: by training our employees, I try to help them become better. And for me the biggest reward is when some employees say that they have learned to relate to business, something else ... Our "super goal" is to make us better and our business to work more efficiently.
- And where do you get ideas for your events?
- In the head! (Shumovich points a finger at his head).
I talk a lot with people and read a lot: books (on average one per week),
periodicals, news sites with various situations, a chain of reflection on which leads to something. This is if we talk about the spontaneous arrival of ideas.
But they can be searched methodically. I recently read a book about the Apple story, and the first thing that struck me was the bookmark attached by the publishers. The very idea that a person reading a book should be comfortable. In search of an idea, I imagine myself in the place of the author of Apple, and the task is simplified, a solution is found. I sit down in front of a white sheet of paper and, without looking back at past projects, I write again. Like "something" should be. And after that, the task is to transfer the solution from point A to point B.
- What books did you like from the read?
- Useful for our business is Mark K. Scott's book, Professional Services Firm, and Harry Beckwith, Selling the Invisible.
And from the personal - "Pour into your heart" Shul
