Under the leadership of the "Varangians", the enterprise has substantially corrected its affairs, but why do they change so often?

On "Avtovaz" came another "Varangian" - this is how the factory names the foreign presidents. Frenchman Yves Karakatzanis replaced in this post compatriot Nicolas Mor at the beginning of the month. Under the leadership of the "Varangians", the company substantially corrected its business: last year AvtoVAZ received operating profit for the first time in five years, reduced its net loss 4.6 times (up to 9.7 billion rubles) and occupied 20.5% of the Russian car market. But why do presidents change so often?

It's cold and lonely

In the car industry Karakatzanis came from the company Hewlett Packard, and began his career in the logistics department of Renault in 1992. Then there was the post of the head of the quality department at the plant in Flaine, then - the logistics of components in the Eurasia region, since 2010 - the head of the external logistics department of Renault. In 2016 Karakatzanis headed "Renault Romania" and became the general director of the company Automobile Dacia SA. That he will replace Nicolas Mora as president of Avtovaz, it became known in April this year.

"There is no history behind Mor's departure, as, say, with Bo Andersson, with whom, indeed, we parted loudly and prematurely. It's just that in large corporations it's customary to rotate. Nicolas More retired - a new position of Renault's senior vice president, new areas of responsibility. As part of Renault's corporate culture, this recognition. Karakatzanis is an associate of Mora, 25 years old he is in Renault, of which 15 - together with Mor, "Forbes told a source in the board of directors of Avtovaz.

"It's hard for Europeans to work in Togliatti. Here you need to either bring your wife, children, or fly to them every weekend. If a person lives in France, how long will he fly back and forth like this? "- continued the source. How can I not remember the first "Varangian" Bu Andersson, who after retirement complained to the Swedish television that he was "cold and lonely" in Russia.

Answering the question about the connection of presidents through the brand Dacia (Moore also headed this brand), the source confirmed that Avtovaz is interested in adopting the Dacia experience: "Romania is much like us in many respects. In Soviet times, a huge (by the standards of their market) plant was built. Then it was privatized, later it was bought by Renault. Just like the VAZ, the Dacia brand evoked communist associations in people. I had to fight for the brand, restore it. In addition, VAZ, like Dacia, it is important to increase exports. In a word, these are good people for VAZ, as they were not responsible for a specific product, but for the brand and the country as a whole. "

Come reign

The first "Varangian" for "AvtoVAZ" was the former major of the Swedish army, the former president of the "Group GAZ" Bu Andersson. He replaced as president Igor Komarov, who headed the plant in 2009 and in 2013 left for Roskosmos. Andersson became famous for tough reforms, literally broke the existing production system at the VAZ, and eccentric orders. For example, he forbade indoor plants in all divisions of the enterprise, noting that the workers give them a lot of time. In addition, I dealt with the factory scientific and technical library. There were even rumors that Andersson ordered to burn the book depository, but later the journalists found it, it was transferred to the engineering college.

The Swede began his activity at the factory with latrines: he ordered to clean them and establish a drain. In the future, 20 million rubles were allocated for the reconstruction of factory showers and latrines: for these purposes, Andersson ordered the sale of a corporate park of luxury foreign cars. Top managers had to change seats in "Lada", and he himself went to Lada Largus. These were bright PR-moves, it is not surprising that Andersson fell in love with the media.

But at the plant, to put it mildly, they disliked him - the Swede conducted a strict personnel policy. He told me that he once found in the basement a group of people who slept and played chess behind a closed door. Nobody could explain to him what was their job, and he immediately fired them. During the course of 2014, the plant's staff decreased by 20%, and people were not retrained into new specialties, they were not offered alternatives. In Togliatti monocities this provoked a wave of protests, which shook Andersson's position.

Finally, the crisis in his presidency was crowned by the crisis of 2014: the losses of the plant exceeded 73 billion rubles, hastily put into production Lada Vesta because of the fall in the ruble exchange rate became a loss-making model, there were too many import details - the consequence of the Andersson war with local suppliers for the quality of spare parts . Starting with latrines, the Swede could not fully erase the Augean stables of VAZ: "Every day seems to be wasted. All the time it's like wrenching through shit, "he said in the documentary" Russian Work ", shown by Sveriges Television AB.

In April 2016, Andersson was succeeded by Nicolas Mohr. He continued to implement a strategy to reduce costs, search for new suppliers and put into production new models. With it, the crossover Lada XRay, the universal Lada Vesta SW and SW Cross, as well as the Lada Vesta Cross, entered the conveyor. However, the Frenchman did not manage to take the company to breakeven: in 2016, Moore believed that Avtovaz would become profitable already in 2018, but in February the period was shifted to 2020.