Читать книгу Tough Business - Владимир Баранчиков - Страница 8

Developing the first success, our management established promising contacts with the administration of one of the refineries in the central region of Russia. The advantage was that this plant had the status of a special exporter and shipped products abroad. Decisive in this situation was the consent of the plant’s directorate to the shipment of products by our buyer. In other words, if you have an export contract, you are already the king. At that time, the profit for various types of petroleum products ranged from ten to fifty dollars per ton. Shipped a «chopper» (three thousand tons) – and you have a hundred thousand dollars in your pocket. Due to the difference in prices in Russia and abroad, some clever guys made redirects, that is, they indicated a foreign station at the final station in Russia or on the way. It was illegal, the prosecutor’s office was initiated, but these heroes did not always get what they deserved. By the way, so, according to some sources, one Russian oligarch also started, but his criminal case mysteriously disappeared on the way from Komi to Moscow.

In connection with the above, a new influential man in a black suit from Cardin, who kept all contacts with the Kstovsky Refinery, Vladislav Konstantinovich Gorchakov, appeared in our office. Vladislav Konstantinovich, a senior officer of the Ministry of Defense, was on close terms with the management of the Holding, addressed without a patronymic, and with us, guys from our department, at a long distance only. And the department itself actually turned from foreign economic to oil, reflecting the main line of activity, which added specifics and corresponded to the historical specialization and spirit of the city of Grozny. The bet was on the wholesale sale of petroleum products, large funds were invested for the purchase of goods, but with the right trade policy, the profit promised to be also significant with a small number of staff. Since there were already volumes of goods for sale, we tripled our efforts, looking for buyers from nine o’clock in the morning to nine in the evening. That’s where the reference book I bought in Moscow, in the underpass, came in handy. Scientifically speaking, it was pertinental information, and it turned out to be very valuable.

One fine August day, the phone rang on my desk and an unfamiliar voice asked me to answer the phone. We have been waiting for this moment for a long time – the Swiss company Konechim has shown interest in purchasing fuel oil in the amount of twenty thousand tons with delivery to Ukraine. Having clarified the details with me, the manager of the foreign firm, Viktor Sergeevich, promised to send an official purchase offer in my name. This was received two hours later by the fax of the assistant Khazir Daudovich, and the president literally burst into our office with this paper. It followed from the letter of Konechim that they were ready to conclude a contract, but lowered the purchase price by one dollar per ton.

– Vladimir Ivanovich, can you write forty-six?

– Khazir Daudovich, – I answer calmly, – I will settle this question on the phone for our original forty-five.

And so it happened. The next day, our president left for Moscow to sign the contract, and Vladislav Konstantinovich went to Nizhny Novgorod to coordinate the contract with the refinery.

And it started spinning. The contract was not easy, as we supplied fuel oil to sixteen sugar factories in Ukraine under the order of Ukrzaliznytsia, the Ukrainian railway. The contacts of specialists in Kstovo were transferred to me, and now the standard work of the commercial department has started: shipments of goods, tank numbers, quality certificates, acceptance certificates, invoices… And conversations, conversations – with the refinery and Moscow. The situation turned me into a mining leader, and my colleagues into assistants: the head of the department reprinted the numbers of three hundred tanks, Sergey piled up a draft bilingual contract in Russian and English, and I finalized it under specific conditions. Sometimes Sergey first to pick up the phone and introduce himself to Viktor Sergeyevich, but he politely and invariably demanded me – he did not conduct any negotiations with other persons and did not transmit any requests. I have always had respect for this person – both as a specialist who taught me a lot, and as a real intellectual. When I had the opportunity, I stopped by his Moscow office, of course, on business.

No matter what aesthetes say, but the main thing in business is money. According to the terms of the contract, Konechim paid us part of the goods, and the rest was paid upon delivery, after specifying the actual amount of fuel oil shipped. Oleg Borisovich called me to him and asked a question – can Konechim pay earlier? He generally liked to build a situation «for himself» and sometimes forced me to be a magician. It was a good school, and I adopted this principle – «I can do the impossible.» Well, I called Viktor Sergeyevich, asked, and they paid. Upon completion of the contract, we, the trio from the Foreign Economic Department, were rewarded according to our contribution to the victory, as in the fairy tale about Masha: the author of these lines – in the bowl of Mikhail Potapych, the head of the department – in the bowl of Anastasia Petrovna, Sergei – in Mishutkin’s bowl.