Businessmen: the path to success of Boris Rotenberg, Richard Branson, Ruslan Goryukhin

In this article we would like to talk about the path to success of some businessmen and top managers who could use the opportunities provided by life, were not afraid to take risks and overcame difficulties that other people could not cope with.

Boris Rotenberg, Richard Branson, Ruslan Goryukhin. Let us focus on the activities of these individuals — two Russian and one British businessman. Moreover, there are many interesting things that can be told about each of these people.

Boris Rotenberg

There is probably no person in Russia who has not heard of Boris Rotenberg and his older brother Arcadiy. Indeed, the names of these billionaires are well-known: they actively cooperate with Gazprom, were involved in the construction of Olympic facilities and the Kerch bridge, are included in the lists of the richest people according to Forbes. Besides, Arkadiy is a close friend of the country’s president.

The older brother has always been an authority for Boris. It was he who brought him to the sambo section, where the boy Volodya Putin, with whom Arkadiy hung out, also went.

From childhood, Boris had the desire to always win. This helped him take prizes in the youth championships of the USSR. He received the title of master of sports in two martial arts at once: sambo and Japanese judo.

And after graduating from the Institute of Physical Education, he worked as a self-defense instructor at a police school. Boris opened his first business in 1991 after moving to Finland. This was «Anirina Oy», a company that sold Finnish goods to Russia.

In the late 90s, a businessman and a judoka returned to his homeland. And in 2001, together with his brother, he opened SMP Bank, where, in particular, financial operations of the “Rosspirtprom”, federal state unitary enterprise were carried out. “Rosspirtprom” included hundreds of Russian distilleries.

Since 2003, the companies founded by Boris have been the main suppliers of building materials and pipes for Gazprom. They won large tenders for state orders for the largest projects in the resource industry.

Since 2010, the Rotenberg brothers have been actively engaged in the construction business. Among the large projects, it’s worth to recall the Olympic venues, Nord Stream, and the Kerch Bridge.

Since 2018, Boris has been a minority shareholder in «Gazprom Burenie», one of Gazprom’s subsidiaries.

Richard Branson

One of the most charismatic businessmen in the world, of course, is Richard Branson.

He began his commercial activities in 1967, when he was 17 years old. Richard dropped out of school and founded the magazine “Student”. His magazine published courageous articles on topical issues, interviews with celebrities. The magazine has become popular among young people. But over time, the publication lost its popularity and stopped paying off. It had to be closed.

Richard’s next business idea was the postal sale of used record labels at discount prices. Simple but brilliant! Music lovers ordered one or another artist and a music album, and the order was sent to them by mail. Branson called his service “Virgin Mail Order.”

The number of orders increased so much that he had to open his own record store. There was a soft sofa on which the customers could listen to records before buying them and enjoying the music.

Richard Branson intended to grow his business further and opened Virgin Records Recording Studio. Thanks to this studio, for example, the musician Michael Oldfield, who was denied by all other recording studios, became popular throughout Europe. This studio also made cult punk rock group Sex Pistols and singer Sting popular.

Subsequently, the businessman organized a Virgin Group consortium, including many companies, one of which is the company Vision, which is engaged in the production of films and the creation of computer games.

Experts believe that the secret of Richard Branson’s success is his fearlessness and willingness to take risks. He was never afraid of new beginnings, became a “pioneer” in many types of commercial activities.

Ruslan Goryukhin

Here is a great example of a businessman who managed to adapt to the conditions of uncertainty that were during the so-called “perestroika” in the early 90s in Russia.

Back in 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev launched a program involving the modernization of the Soviet Union. It should have been reforms in politics, economics and society. But nothing positive came of them, the measures taken did not lead to the desired result, and the Soviet Union collapsed.

The conditions of complete uncertainty were created in the country then: stagnation and decline. But for enterprising people, it was an opportunity to show their commercial talents. One of these people was the young Ruslan Goryukhin from Odessa.

He was only 20 years old when he founded his first company. Ruslan was looking for opportunities for a profitable business and realized that it was possible to establish the production of bags and suitcases for people involved in the purchase and resale of goods. Commercial business has been quite successful.

After that he managed several other light industry companies.

Ruslan Goryukhin was not going to stop there. In the mid-90s, he moved to Moscow and could establish supply chains that had been broken as a result of inflation and economic problems in the energy sector of Russia. Thanks to his activities (in particular, Goryukhin organized a system of “barter transactions”), a large steel company received new customers and was able to restore the production process (which decreased by almost 70% due to the crisis).

Moreover, Ruslan Goryukhin started with small barter deals, but when he saw that things were going well, he began to apply this method on a large scale.

Thus, he built up a reputation as a very reliable business partner. After the devastation of the early 90s, reliable partners could be counted on one hand.

As a result, what was uncertainty for others became opportunities for Ruslan Goryukhin.

Today Goryukhin lives with his family in Switzerland and is engaged in passive investing and philanthropy.