Bosco di Ciliegi is Russia’s top fashion retailer and Yekaterina Moiseyeva one of its leading managers. The company has a reputation for unique work culture, special bonds among employees and a demanding yet family like working environment. The leader spoke to Moiseyeva about her company, her career and the high profile her company enjoys on Russian fashion and cultural stage.

Does your title “head of retail” correspond with the scope of your responsibilities?

No, not really. My position is head of the retail trade department but, actually, I work in several offices in our company. I’m in charge of anything relating to organizing trade, personnel training, trade processes in the stores, opening new stores, analysis, ordering articles and goods, their presentation, everything... I am also head of our buyer department, which incorporates buyers from all our sectors: women’s, children’s and men’s clothes and boutiques in general. They conduct research, analyze reams of statistics, work out budgets and prepare orders, and my task is to control their activities. I perform administrative work and deal with personnel matters as well — top-manager training, recruitment. Of course, I have assistants in all these areas of activity, especially for recruitment — over 800 employees are already working for our company. Interviews with candidates are carried out almost every day, and I often take part in their preparation and conduct.

What qualities influence your choice of a candidate? We are told you are very demanding..

In the first place, a person should be pleasant and agreeable. Some people simply radiate positive energy, and you feel comfortable with them.
In the course of an interview, we look at the ways the person presents him- or herself. Motivation is an important aspect as well. I like to work with people have an adequate sense of self-esteem. Such people know what they want from work and value their workplace.

Is employee turnover high in your company?

Actually, not very. We need to replace those who leave due to natural reasons like maternity leave. However, the backbone of the team remains the same. Most of the top managers have worked with us since we were students.

How did you manage to build such a stable team?

It so happened that our boss Mikhail Kusnirovitch brought most of his college friends to the company at the initial stage. And now most of our staff are chemists, graduates of Mendeleyev Chemistry College. We had a wonderful time at the college, and spent a lot of it together with our so-called “enthusiasm team.” The team director was Mr. Kusnirovitch, and our present financial director Mr. Suprinenko was the college top-liner. The head of the logistics department, the head of the computer department and our best manager are all former team members. You can just imagine the atmosphere: 10 exams per semester, laborious chemical experiments, and, after all the long lectures and exams, we stayed and danced, sang and rehearsed until midnight. This spirit and enthusiasm has remained with us and we have tried to implant it into our corporate philosophy.
Most of all, we value the approach of taking pleasure in daily work.

Your profession is connected with a lot of traveling to foreign countries. What foreign languages do you speak?

I learned German in school and college. Unfortunately, we undervalued the importance of learning a foreign language in the ‘80s and the beginning of ‘90s. I could not know how much I would need Italian. Nevertheless, when I found myself in Italy and had to communicate somehow, the language came to me almost in a year. Now most of our team members and I speak Italian fluently. I even swear in Italian sometimes: It is such an expressive language! I never learned English, though I can understand words specific to our profession. I tried to cope with French, but it turned out to be much harder.

Bosco di Ciliegi organizes all these fashion and cultural shows. How do you keep up with such a pace?

It is boring to live without anything happening for long. We don’t want to let the routine capture us.
We get pleasure from such events, which is why we prepare them all by ourselves and never hire special advertising agencies. I know that nobody would understand and present a collection as I would — as I was the one who chose it and I see all the combinations, how it fits into the company’s philosophy and so on. During an event, everybody is involved in the preparation process and is responsible for a certain part, be it costumes, decorations, food provision, computers, or what have you. We all feel unified. For example, now everyone is occupied with outfits for the Olympic Games.

How did you succeed in the competiton for dressing Russian winter Olympics team?

I won’t say that we succeeded until I see our Olympic champions marching in our clothes. Actually, I thought that our uniforms would look different than they did when I saw them in the news. We tried to choose the best specialists in every area and make items out of the best materials, so that our champions would feel comfortable and proud too. We will soon see whether we reached the goal.

Which of your activities appeal to you personally most of all?

There have been many, and we remember them all affectionately. One of the recent events was the planting of a cherry forest in September. For me it was a memorable and successful event because we managed to create the most important thing — a warm atmosphere. Moreover, we wanted it to be warm in every respect — with Russian food and beverages, relaxation and a bright program. Another is the Marina Rinaldi collection show in Novosibirsk. It is always a problem to find models for such demonstrations, as Marina Rinaldi is a store for stout people. We decided to invite clients to work as models, and people accepted this idea with great enthusiasm. We already have lines for the next shows now. We invited Moscow makeup artists and stylists, and the women looked marvelous. The atmosphere was very exciting, to say nothing about the commercial success: When the women’s husbands saw them so glamorously decked-up, they couldn’t leave without buying all the clothes their wives had demonstrated.
I also enjoy our New Year’s celebration on Dec. 27 a lot. Every year we have a new theme; for example, this year’s was called "Bosconcert." Every boutique was given the name of a particular theater or concert hall and they all competed. We had a performance till 5 a.m. Each store prepares for this performance all through December. It is a great honor to receive our orange flag reading "Best Store," their names are inscribed into the Bosco "Golden Book," and they receive pecuniary prizes.
What are your plans on working in the regions?
We work with three cities now — Samara, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk. We train people, buy clothes, hold ceremonies and fashion shows and invite Moscow stars and local models to participate. Right now, we do not have any plans to cover all of Russia. For me, it is harder to buy items for other regions, as there is a difference in mentality. I cannot plan exactly what people in other region would wear and what would be a success. We started the experiment, and now we are looking at how it goes.

What other personal interets have you been able to realize through your work?

I liked and still enjoy music; I wanted to become an operetta singer. I was involved in organizing parties and spending a good time with friends. Now, these things get realized in our events, in the musical festival in particular. The goal of the festival was to bring great performers, musicians such as Bashmet, Pletnev and others, together. We wanted to enlighten people about classical music who think it’s too complicated. For example, one of my friends thought that Rakhmaninov is a terribly complicated and difficult composer and that he would never be able to like his music, as he had heard only complex pieces before the festival.

And you act as a juror in many of these contests..

Being a part of a jury is interesting, but I always want to choose all the candidates. Of course, the real winner can be seen immediately because of the quality of the product and its presentation. We are trying to invent profitable prizes for the winners. For instance, at "Russian Silhouette 2001" we offered to buy and sell all the winner’s clothes and share our knowledge with them, and it turned out to be a worthy partnership.
As to our competitors, we chose a way that helps us survive intensive competition in the very beginning. At first, all our competitors wanted to distribute trademarks among themselves so that each retailer would sell only one brand and customers would base decisions on that. We, on the other hand, counted on high quality of service and atmosphere to attract clients to specific stores. This strategy helps us compete in today’s Russian market.

Your Website is still in the developmental stage. What are your plans for Internet presenxce?

Mr. Kusnirovitch engages himself in everything concerning public relations and advertising and pays a lot of attention to it. I think he is not satisfied with the style or quality of the Website’s design. He received proposals three times and was never completely satisfied with them. However, we realize that the Internet cannot be forgotten about in the modern world. I hope that the site will be finished during this year.

Would you like to ask Yekaterina Moiseyeva some questions? E-mail them to leader@theleader.ru. Read her interview on line on www.theleader.ru