A year ago, Sergei Likharev’s career was at a crossroads. Fresh out of business school in the United States, he was tempted to work in America, where his parents reside, but decided he could best use his background in consulting and physics in his native Russia. Last year Likharev became the commercial director at one of Russia’s largest telecom companies, Golden Telecom. The Leader sat down with Sergei Likharev to discuss his career swings, his work at Golden Telecom and his prognosis for the Internet industry in Russia.

Sergei Likharev already has a Ph.D. in physics from Moscow State University and an MBA from Cornell University. The latest feather in his cap came last September, when he was offered the job of commercial director at Golden Telecom, Russia’s largest Internet provider.

How did you come to work at Golden Telecom?
When I was studying at Cornell, and looking for a job here, I had some interactions with my current boss. We had worked together at the American Chamber of Commerce and were both part of the telecommunications committee there. Last fall, he called me for the job. I carefully studied it because I had several opportunities to work in the United States. But I preferred to work here.

Many Russians who study in the United States stay to work there. Why didn’t you?
I had a great temptation to stay and take another position, but I had this offer from Golden Telecom. The other position was too close to science and technology and engineering. I understand now that I’m more of a business manager. I had no problems with living in the United States, but I just thought from my own personal perspective, my main goal was to be useful. I’m much more useful here. This is my country. If I do not develop it, who will?

Would you advise aspiring Russian businessmen to get their MBAs abroad, for example, in the United States?
Yes. I came to Cornell with nine years of professional experience. I had been working in such areas as science and consulting and investment-product management, which require a lot of thinking about how to do things. But there’s a lot of knowledge that I got at Cornell, especially in certain areas like accounting and finance, which I hadn’t been that exposed to in the past. But the greatest thing I got was systematic knowledge. All these pieces of knowledge I got from books or magazines or hands on experience, these interconnected pieces of the puzzle, Cornell put them together for me. It was a great experience for getting fundamental business knowledge.

How does being a commercial director or manager compare with being a consultant?
I finished with consulting much earlier, in 1997. I progressed well and sold and managed big projects by myself. However, I came to understand that for me it’s much more interesting to do business myself rather than advise others how to do it. Consulting is a great job. It requires a lot of scientific thinking and analysis. But I’m a person that needs to do a task myself. If I’m responsible for commercial activities, no one else in the company is responsible for this area. I have my team, of course, to advise me, but each of them has his or her own tasks. If I fail in the commercial activities, I am the only one to blame. That’s why I have to think and focus much harder and more strictly than consultants do. Consultants just prepare the report and then some other people need to implement it. I get to see the results of my personal work.

Could you please describe your main responsibilities at Golden Telecom?
I’m responsible for product and pricing development for our services to be adequate to the market from an economic and technology point of view. I’m responsible for sales and distribution of our services. And I’m responsible for marketing, promotion, PR, advertising, etc. But all of this is for corporate services, which we sell to companies and legal entities. I’m not responsible for the business of RussiaOnline, which sells its services to the public.

How has the telecommunications industry in Russia changed in recent years?
Russia’s experienced all the changes that the worldwide telecom markets have experienced. In short, it’s become much more business-focused. Golden Telecom is much more earnings-oriented, even in traditional services like telephones, Internet access and data and transmission services. At the beginning of this year, we had what we would say was the reincarnation of the Internet and “e-business” building but from the natural-business point of view. Many of our clients are starting to talk about “e-business” solutions but not from a hypothetical or idealistic point of view but from a core business one.

What do you mean by “e-business solutions”?
If you want to do some business on the Internet, you need three basic components: First, you need Internet access, the medium to interact with somebody. You need some special software solutions, starting from the simplest Websites that have some catalogues to systems that really atomize and computerize your interaction with distributors or partners. And third you need infrastructures — where do you put all these systems. So this is what we provide.

Is Golden Telecom Russia’s largest Internet provider?
I’d say we are the largest consumer Internet provider, from the number of customers, but other companies could argue they’re bigger from the revenue point of view, from the business-to-business point of view. But yes, we’re really the biggest in total.

Which of the sectors that Golden Telecom specializes in — telephones, the Internet, data services — is growing at the fastest pace?
In corporate services, I’d say that broadband Internet is growing the fastest, especially in the sector of medium and small businesses, like ASL Solutions. For large businesses, I’d say that everything is growing. There’s growing interest in integrated solutions. Companies have stopped thinking about separate telephones and separate data transmissions or Internet, when we can provide them all in one by capitalizing on the synergy of these technologies.

At what stage is the development of broadband technology in Russia?
I’d say that interest is definitely growing; however, it’s in the early stages of development. We see this business potential, but we are not at the stage of developing it. Right now we’re more business-focused — on larger solutions for larger companies. It’s hard to comment on the future of broadband because statistics and experience are still very limited, so we are mostly focused on regular dialup services.

In what ways is Golden Telecom trying to boost the number of Internet users in Russia?
We cannot boost the Internet ourselves. It requires a whole lot of market and society changes. In the foreseeable future, the first method of Internet access will be dialup, so in Russia dialup solutions and development are needed. In Moscow it’s more or less OK, but there’s still a lot of problems outside. Commercial companies cannot solve this issue themselves — it requires state influence. Second, there is the problem of education. People, that is, private people not companies, are still not aware of the benefits that the Internet brings. There should be more popularization of the Internet from the point of view of usefulness. Finally, it requires technology solutions — increasing modem pools, building networks and other solutions to simply get more stable connections. Advertising cannot solve this problem alone.

How do you foresee Russia’s telecommunications and Internet industry in 10 years?
Ten years is way too far ahead for anyone to predict. But in the telecom sector, I’m optimistic there’ll be growth; first, because of general economic growth in Russia. The second driver is the level of telecom penetration in both the consumer and corporate sectors. Speaking of the Internet, I believe that everything should evolve naturally. What’s more important is the development of e-business, not so much the Internet, as we’ve seen by the recent bubbles abroad that have burst. We are expanding. Golden Telecom currently has 130 outposts in the C.I.S., 17 commercial offices in Russia, and half of our revenue comes from outside of Moscow.