McKinsey Russia

Helping Russia

Having studied in Boston and worked in the United States, I realized that I wanted to go back to Russia. I joined McKinsey in Moscow and immediately went to the Urals for my first project. Since then, I’ve been able to work with companies in power, oil, transport, consumer goods, and the public sector. Moreover, supported by McKinsey, I studied for my MBA at INSEAD, one of the best business schools. I think I did the right thing in returning to Russia. The political culture and the business environment are taking shape here, so the problems we deal with are unique in scale and fundamental by nature. They are difficult to solve but utterly absorbing. Finally, when you are successful, when you and your team handle a task that no one knew how to deal with, the feeling of satisfaction is immense.

We are a team

At work I am driven by a desire to help people as well as to show good business results. McKinsey consultants globally share a number of values, which we use as a guide. One principle I always remember is “putting the client first.” I can sense that my colleagues share the same approach and this helps us work well as a team. Mutual support and morale mean a lot at McKinsey. We all pursue a common objective that can’t be achieved without concerted action. In practice, we team up in two or three days. We learn a lot from one another and almost everyone I’ve worked with has become a friend.

Rational thinking

Sometimes it's funny. I wake up and schedule all my activities mentally: “I’m going to have breakfast. Go to the kitchen, open the fridge, take out an egg, etc.” It was at McKinsey that I learned to describe processes in detail. In two years, I have achieved more and developed more that I could have imagined. I’ve learned to analyze situations more quickly, draw conclusions, and make well-thought-through decisions rather than spontaneous ones, as I used to.