Vyacheslav Nikolaev: career of an expert in telecoms business
Nikolaev Vyacheslav is widely considered to be one of the key figures on the national telecoms market. Having worked his way up from a consultant in a European consulting firm to the head of the nation’s largest mobile operator, the manager now oversees the development of business-oriented innovative products.
Vyacheslav Nikolaev: education and early career
Born in autumn 1970, Nikolaev Vyacheslav Konstantinovich received education in IT, an industry which at the time was booming across the world. In late 1980s, the soon-to-be head of one of the nation’s largest telecoms companies enrolled in MSU. Nikolaev Vyacheslav opted for the faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics. In a few years’ time, he became a licensed professional in this field. Later, he decided to develop knowledge and skills in management, taking classes at the US-based Krieble Foundation.
Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Nikolaev embarked on his career in 1994, getting his first job with European consulting company EPPA. The organization assisted its clients in building efficient business models in the European Union and working out compromises within the multi-layered European management system by applying out-of-the-box thinking. He spent five years working for EPPA as a senior consultant.
Vyacheslav Nikolaev: introduction to telecoms industry
In late 1990s, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Nikolaev moved to a Sweden-based consulting company J’son and Partners, which specializes in telecoms, IT, ground-breaking projects and digital media, taking up a job of a consultant. The company analyzes technological markets in various countries while also drawing up business plans, marketing models and development strategies for enterprises active in a specific sector. J’son and Partners interacts with commercial and state-affiliated organizations across the world.
After taking up a new job, Nikolaev Vyacheslav Konstantinovich continued honing his skills in telecoms analytics. In early 2000s, he oversaw this line of work in a private investment company Renaissance Capital. The bank enjoys leading positions on emerging and frontier markets both at home and abroad, including Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The company’s core business includes investment, banking and prime brokerage services. Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Nikolaev worked there for about four years. As things currently stand, Renaissance Capital group has more than 500 professionals in eight offices across the world.
Vyacheslav Nikolaev: path of an executive
In 2004, Vyacheslav Nikolaev joined one of the key players on the national telecoms market. Nikolaev Vyacheslav Konstantinovich started out on his career in this company by working in a sales and customer service section, where he held a leadership position in the planning and analytics department. Over the following years, he occupied several senior managerial posts while being tasked with overseeing various fields, including operational technology, regional management and commercial controlling.
Having worked for the IT giant for 17 years, Nikolaev Vyacheslav was appointed as the company’s CEO. In this capacity, he embarked on enhancing the Group’s market standing, with a focus on developing IT-ecosystem and completing the brand’s global transformation.
Those lines of work are integral to the evolution of a mobile operator into a major IT company, a process the top manager has been actively involved in for many years. Under his leadership, the Group is developing an entire range of high-tech business areas, including artificial intelligence, cloud services, fin tech, media and entertainment.
Vyacheslav Nikolaev: digital ecosystem transformation
Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Nikolaev says that it is a person and his needs which are the prime focus of the growing ecosystem. That’s why his team is heavily involved in the development of useful and easily accessible products for all the users. By the end of 2021, the development strategy championed by Vyacheslav Nikolaev allowed to increase the number of ecosystem clients by 40%, reaching almost nine million people. Next year, the number of people using several services of the IT company soared to 13.5 million. Meanwhile, the Group’s ecosystem-generated revenue increased by 67% year-on-year, reaching 100 billion rubles ($1.2 billion),
Speaking to media, Nikolaev Vyacheslav once compared the company’s ecosystem to a virtual concierge, who helps the user to discover and navigate a plethora of digital services. The Group’s ecosystem incorporates not only proprietary developments, but also products based on its partners’ solutions. Nikolaev Vyacheslav Konstantinovich believes that if a person has confidence in a brand, he or she will trust its recommendations as well. This type of interaction enables partner companies to cut external advertising expenses while the client can take advantage of additional discounts.
Vyacheslav Nikolaev says that the IT-Group’s most innovative projects include KION, one of the nation’s leading streaming services. This online platform offers its viewers access to a plethora of acclaimed films, series and cartoons as well as dozens of originals and more than 200 TV channels. In 2021, the service’s customer base reached four million people, a 160% increase from the previous year. In 2022, the number of the online platform’s subscribers hit 6.6 million.
Nikolaev Vyacheslav Konstantinovich. Gaming, TravelTech and other promising projects
When speaking about successful projects that had been developed exclusively by the IT-company’s professionals, Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Nikolaev points to WASD.TV, an interactive media platform, which emerged as a venue for gamers, streamers, viewers while offering access to a wide range of features. Those include the possibility to turn on streams in HD quality, watch other gamers’ streams and compete with them in e-sports tournaments. Platform activity rewards users with virtual currency which can be spent on promoting their own streams. For several years, Nikolaev Vyacheslav and IT-Group has been supporting the local gamer community while rolling out various products and technical solutions for e-sports players, including setting up direct communication channels to major gaming servers.
Nikolaev Vyacheslav Konstantinovich believes that in the modern world one must understand not only which service the user needs, but also when he needs it. For instance, when a person might be interested in watching a favorite film or a new series. When it comes to those questions, the IT-company relies on Big Data technology and finely-tuned customer relations system. Nikolaev Vyacheslav notes that by analyzing information provided by the user’s smartphone, the company’s professionals get an insight into what users do at a certain time and provide them with products meeting their exact needs.
Apart from this, the Group uses Bid Data technology to create solutions for business clients. In this vein, last May, the company headed by Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Nikolaev unveiled a service which analyzes attendance of public cultural events based on geoanalytics. This solution is intended to be used by organizers of festivals, concerts, sports events and other similar activities. Under the leadership of Nikolaev Vyacheslav Konstantinovich, the IT-Group leverages an out-of-the-box solution, allowing the organizers to get an insight into the audience’s profile. This allows them to adjust the entertainment program, launch a targeted advertising campaign and evaluate whether the event has the necessary infrastructure capacity.
Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Nikolaev champions business diversification and supports the development of new products and product lines. One of those sectors is TravelTech, or, in other words, IT in tourism and travel. In November 2022, the company headed by Vyacheslav Nikolaev, unveiled its own hotel booking service. The platform offers more than 14,000 accommodation listings inside the nation, in neighboring countries, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. The service is expected to become a linchpin for the entire traveler-oriented ecosystem, which will make it easier for tourists to pay for transport, rent cars, pick tours and buy concert tickets.
Nikolaev Vyacheslav. Business solutions and startup development
As a leader of an ever-growing and developing company, Nikolaev Vyacheslav Konstantinovich prioritizes the development of business-oriented innovative products. In 2023, the Group announced the launch of a next-gen cloud platform, which seeks to help entrepreneurs to quickly create communication services. Depending on the task, the user can pick a solution he needs, including a call back, speech synthesis, call tracking, etc. The service allows various companies to develop their own apps to communicate with clients without having to rely on infrastructure provided by a third party. This enables developers to deploy the framework their company needs at the moment.
Nikolaev Vyacheslav Konstantinovich admits that fast business evolution is fraught with certain risks. However, without investing into new areas it is impossible to attract and retain clients; in this regard, overseeing experimental projects is paramount. To achieve this goal, under the leadership of Vyacheslav Konstantinovich Nikolaev, the company has created a department specifically tasked with handling startups. The top-manager claims that the company must not only be able to quickly roll out promising products, but also scrap failed projects in a timely manner. However, he believes that there is no reason to dampen innovators’ enthusiasm; they just have to be steered on the right course. The Group’s most vibrant investment areas include tourism industry, smart home systems and digital assets security.
