We are talking with Steven Fisher, Managing Director, Corporate Bank Head, Citi Russia & C.I.S., aboutreputation, values and crisis.
1. What helps you to navigate in complicated situations?
I think that you have to be true to your beliefs, and your beliefs are not necessarily just linked to yourself but linked to the society where you live, the community which you take things from but you have to give back. And we believe in our firm that the purpose is not just to make profits or to serve customers but we also have to serve the community where we're located. That's part of our obligation to ourselves and to our constituents as well.
2. Sometimes there are such cases where it's quiet difficult to tell what is the right thing to be done.
If you take risks with your reputation, with the value of your franchise and you can take a risk through lying, through breaking the law or through cutting a corner, through cheating, through not fulfilling your obligations, or trying to take an advantage of an unclear situation, all of it is related to your reputation. And your reputation is something that's extremely valuable, and if you lose it, it may be impossible to get it back, and if you are a publicly listed company if your reputation is affected even by one error of judgment, or infraction of the rules you can lose billions and billions of dollars of corporate value. So, my feeling is that corporate governance, we didn't talk about this but this is an important concept, the value of your franchise and of your reputation which means your commitment to honesty, commitment to following the rules, commitment to following your own stated beliefs and corporate philosophy, it's very important because if you misstep and you hurt your reputation the cost could be incalculable. We've seen this; companies go bankrupt because of failure to follow the rules, dishonesty or cutting corners, many cases of this.
3. Like YUKOS...
Unfortunately YUKOS case is very complicated and there are a lot of different opinions as to what it stands for. But, I think that a lot of Russian businessmen have understood over the last few years that a commitment to corporate governance, transparency, following the rule of law in both the Russian and international contexts has actually created value for their companies, and therefore for their shareholders and their employees. That is proven time and time again, and I think that the more people realize this, the quicker they implement it and sticking to it will be better for everyone involved and ultimately for the community and society as a whole, because companies that grow richer, do more, their employees benefit as well, perhaps more jobs are created, everyone will win , more taxes are paid, every one will win if your company is well managed and follows the most important corporate tenets which is transparency, honesty, statement of purpose, corporate governance principles being highly regarded, etc.
4. What is your opinion on crisis?
This question is very timely and my guess is that you will have plenty of time to do your interviews because I don't think that the crisis will be over that quickly unfortunately. By all means because it gives people an opportunity to share thoughts and I think now when there is a challenge and we all face this challenge, that it's important to share thoughts about what to do, what are the best practices to follow in times of challenge like this.
5. We are encouraged by one of the Russian banks to arrange somehow this process of exchanging views; they are looking to get suggestions which can be implemented in this particular situation.
I'm an optimist; I think that world economies, open economies do self correct. Sometimes this self-correction is painful but it does happen over time, and as long as you have open system, you will reach an equilibrium; and you will again rise from whatever was destroyed and create something new. It's proven time and time again.
6. Are there some subjects on which you would like to hear opinions of other executives we will be interviewing in the future?
I would like to know from Russian business leaders for example how they view their responsibilities in this crisis. The crisis did not start in Russia, we know that, but the global financial crisis has affected Russia just like it has affected the whole world now. And how do Russian business leaders view their responsibilities to deal with the effects of this crisis toward their employees, toward managing their companies, toward their other obligations. Would these views be different from views of business leaders in other countries? It would be interesting to share some comparisons.
Prepared by Liza Barzova, Good2Work Intern, on February 5, 2009
