BUSINESS SPECIAL

From Call Center to Top Boss

By Yelena Andreyeva

Special to The St. Petersburg Times

It took only seven years for Nikolai Demenchuk to build a career at MegaFon. Having joined the company as a call center operator, he rapidly worked his way up the corporate ladder to become appointed deputy director and commercial director at its Northwest branch.

Born in 1974 in Leningrad, Demenchuk said that he had never planned a career in business.

“As a child I had trivial boys’ dreams to become a sailor, a fireman or an astronaut,” he said.

Having entered St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation to study radio engineering and technology, Demenchuk always managed to combine study with work. In order to make some money and gain work experience, he never hesitated to accept different jobs, working as a driver, an electric equipment adjuster, and even a remover-layer operator.

Eventually having graduated in 1996, Demenchuk joined MegaFon Northwest, then known as NWGSM, where he started working as an operator in their technical support service.

“At that time, ten years ago, it was not yet a real call-center. There were just 5 to 6 phone lines to take the calls of clients,” said Demenchuk.

“Anyway, it was the most rapidly developing department in the whole company where, besides a competitive salary and an interesting professional environment, there were lots of opportunities for professional growth.”

Just three years later he was promoted to call center manager. Demenchuk said that, besides gaining practical work experience, he never refused the chance to participate in different training courses and seminars, including several internships at Nokia in Finland, and at Call Center Management in England.

In 2000, wanting to satisfy his growing thirst for knowledge he entered the International Management Institute of St. Petersburg to study for an MBA degree.

“It was a very good course that enabled me to systematize everything I had learnt before as well as to find out lots of new stuff.”

It was only then that Demenchuk thought of changing jobs and even left MegaFon for three months.

“I grew professionally as the company was growing. And having worked as call center manager for a few years, I realized that I had the desire for further professional development but at that time there were no opportunities within the company’s call center,” he explained.

“That’s why I accepted an offer to run an interesting project at Telecom Design. However, in 2003 I returned to my ‘native’ company in the position of commercial director.”

Now, as deputy director and commercial director at MegaFon Northwest, Demenchuk is in charge of commercial services, the company’s largest department with over 450 staff working in marketing, sales, advertising, public relations and client servicing divisions.

Besides checking reports, discussing issues with the company’s other top managers and dealing with urgent problems, Demenchuk said that most of his time is devoted to negotiating with his team in order to reach decisions by way of consensus.

“I think that logical, systematic thinking and strong communicative skills are a must for all top managers who are constantly facing a variety of choices and must coordinate the work of their subordinates,” he said.

Having started his career from the bottom, Demenchuk said that he does not understand many of today’s graduates who immediately expect good positions with decent salaries just after graduation.

“The labor market in St. Petersburg is saturated. There are only a few good specialists with sound work experience available,” he said.

As a piece of advice for those who want to achieve professional success, Demenchuk said that instead of mainly aiming for a career, it is important to think of gaining work experience in a good company, be purposeful and never stop self-development.

“To become a good manager, you need to elaborate a systematic approach to work,” he said.

Demenchuk’s strong work ethic is highly appreciated by his colleagues.

“Nikolai is a top manager of a European, Western breed, a high-level professional who not only has a detailed knowledge of the company’s work but also applies a completely systematic approach to management. Moreover, he is just a nice person to work with,” said Yevgeny Vasilyev, general director at Petersburg Transit Telecom.

After busy work days Demenchuk likes to relax by playing tennis, diving or going alpine skiing.

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