Pressa. Articles.

• Eugeniy Filatov "Well-earned Victory" Published in "Your Mariupol" newspaper #83 15.12.1999

Syedyshev Oleg Petrovich, born in Kuzbass, worked as a surgeon, a psychiatrist, one of the first men caught up by the wind of "perestroika" , who have found his own business. At present he is the founder and the director of the LTD enterprise "Status - Eco". The firm has won a prestigious European prize " Quality" in a fierce competitive activity. - Oleg, where did you live as a child , who are your parents? - I was born in Kuzbass in 1949 in a family of workers. My father was a foreman of the famous Kedrovsky coal open-cast mine, where my mother also worked as an accountant. I went to school just near the pit, in an industrial community. - Oleg Petrovich, what influenced your choice of the future career ? - Mr Chance proved to have influenced my life many times. For instance, I broke my right thumb as a child, and it could be amputated. Luckily, a well-educated surgeon had saved my thumb. So I decided to be a surgeon! On leaving school I didn't hesitate to enter the Kemerov Medical Institute, and in 1972 I began working as a surgeon in Kurgansk region. By the way, I was undertaking my specialization course with a world-known surgeon Illizarov as my teacher, who is famous for his achievements in complex fracture treating. I had to apply the Illizarov apparatus to my patients several times, but, of course, the major part of a village surgeon work is treating hernias , appendicitis, etc. Two years passed. And Mr Chance interfered into my life again! I had a doctor-psychiatrist operated on with his hemorrhoids problems, who, as it turned out, after graduating from the institute had worked as a surgeon as well, and then he changed his specialty. While I was keeping him under observation during the postoperative period, we used to talk a lot on professional topics, and he made me think seriously about practicing psychiatry. As a result, I transferred to the Kurgansk regional mental hospital, where I worked as a psychiatrist as well as in other places. - What was the reason for such a transformation from a doctor to a successful businessman? - In fact, it is early to speak about success yet. As for the start point of my business activity, still it was a matter of chance! But this time I mean the chance to succeed for all creative and stirring people wishing to leave the common route and to pave their own way. I am speaking about the times of Gorbachev and his "perestroika" . At this time I made a decision to leave the position of the Chief psychiatrist of a prominent medical unit , attending to uranium mines and industry. After the fact of signing the famous agreement between the USA and USSR, the volume of uranium output and the whole infrastructure reduced, and I decided to move to Donbass region with my family. - Did you have any relatives or friends in our region? - No, I just wrote several letters to various institutions and very soon received a formal invitation to take up the lattice vacancy of a psychiatrist in Mangush regional hospital. It was this hospital where I initiated my business as a psychotherapist. I treated successfully the cases of stutter, enuresis, nicotine addiction. This activity was rather successful, and soon I was offered the position of the head physician of the holiday centre "Mirny", State Supply Ministry of the USSR. On the basis of this wonderful holiday centre, situated on the Azov sea coast in Melekino I began my first commercial enterprise " Republican self-sustained sanitary centre "Azovets". I continued practicing psychotherapy in the centre, but there was also the dental surgery room, the room of neuropathology and general therapy. The holiday-makers were delighted to combine the warm sea effect with the possibility to have a medical checkup and a high-quality treatment , and all these for quite moderate price! I could easily go on with this activity without worrying about my future well-being. But I have to admit that , being brought up as a man of a socialistic society, I found it unjust and depressing to make money in the sphere of health treatment. Even now, working in tough conditions of market economies, I insist that the medical service should be free and available to all levels of the society. - And again it was Mr. Chance that changed the course of your life ? - Exactly! My house at that time was in front of the Mangush regional printing shop, I used to drop in and to watch the printing and polygraph process and I started thinking of the business potentialities of this field. Soon within the "Azovets" centre I started the branch -" Advertising Publishing centre of polygraphy" which began deluging Mariupol and then other cities with the production which had no analogues in the state publishing house and, thus, being in keen demand. The first pocket and paperback productions were the books of dream interpretations, followed by a long series of folk medicine brochures, also the collections of cookery books like "Ukrainian Cuisine" , "Greek Cuisine, etc. - more than 40 publications. Then followed more than 100 publications of anecdotes and detective stories , all of them were pocket-sized, quickly sold in the cities and railway stations of the five regions I concluded the contracts with. The situation changed in 1992 after the prices were "let going" and the elementary and essential food products were beyond our means, the demand in our publications decreased. - So, what was your way out of the situation ? - By this moment I have accumulated enough experience in polygraphs works. On December,25 , 1990, I started my independent publishing enterprise "Status Eco". There I launched and developed a large number of letterheads issue necessary for all kinds of account activity of offices and organizations. Our work in "Status Eco " was based on the highest service standards , which wasn't in use in our country then. We didn't wait for the client to appear, to prevent him from the debasement of going from table to table, the registration of a bespoke, making out a receipt, the invoice and the way-bill and receiving the ordered goods in the storehouse. We took it all over . We visited the client, took his order, got all necessary documents ready and delivered the ordered things! " the client is always right, even if he is not!" - it was our motto in life, not only in words. We did have competitors in our sphere , but we were monopolists in our service activity, at least till 1995. We achieved real success these years , the image of being swift, helpful, polite and qualified is still our present authority basis among our numerous clients. - What manufacturing capabilities do you dispose of ? - I happened to find out that in the city of Berdyansk , in the Informatics and Automation Academy of sciences of the former USSR Institute there is an excellent ,equipped by a complete modern offset printing set idle printing shop. First I concluded a lease treaty , and recently I entirely bought it. - Oleg Petrovich, it is widely known that you have returned from Paris lately, where , among the utterly small amount of Ukrainian claimants you have won the "Quality" prize in the O~III European International. Could you reveal the details of the contender selection for the rewarding ? - The committee doesn't impart the contender selection principles , it is known, though, that the customer survey results are of the decisive importance.Thus we may conclude that I was put forward for the honored reward directly by our clients who had estimated at it's true worth the professional style of "Status Eco" printing house. There were only four Ukrainian enterprises among the numerous claimants form many countries : Kharkov manufacturing firm producing rocket "Proton" and "Zenit" electronics equipment, Kiev Research Design Institute, whose famous inlay panel work is in Paris UNESCO head quarters, "Azov" enterprise and me is the only polygraphs works representative. The day of our arrival to Paris, November,14 perfectly remained in my memory by the fact of being the day of Ukraine President Elections, and my wife and I voted in the Ukrainian Embassy polling station .The next day the Reward sermon took place in Meridien Etoile hotel, situated next to Elysee Fields. In accordance with the sermon, being perfected by years, marvelous golden statuettes on marble foundation - the prize "Quality" itself- were given to the Embassy representatives of a country- claimant. It is not easy to describe my feelings at the moment of receiving the Reward. They included the pride for my business and the people shared their lives with me, and the joy , for the criteria and principles of my work proved to be the right ones. - Oleg Petrovich, now when you have had your well-deserved victory, have established numerous useful business connections , excited to have been to Paris returned to Mariupol, what do you plan next? How do you intend to advance your business ? - What do I plan to do? To work, of course! Concurrently I am planning to release some new interesting projects , I will not share the details so far, I can only say that they will be of a considerate benefit for us and our clients. - What are the essential characteristics for you in a person ? - I consider decency and honesty to be the most important characteristic both in people, in business and in life. - What place sports occupies in your life? - As a student I was a master of sport sambo candidate and the institute sambo champion. I used to be an active football and hockey fan, but now the lack of time tells on my sports interests. - What books do you read? - I adore Esenin's poetry, I have swallowed the huge amount of historical novels and at the moment detective stories have grasped my interest. - What music do you like? - I like the popular tunes of the time of my youth. I love opera. My special love is operetta, by Kalman in particular. - Tell a few words about your family. - My wife Natasha is an excellent cook, I highly appreciate her cookery, especially her pies. My daughter Katya goes to Lingva private school and is good at English, she has been studying it since she was 3. She is a student of excellent marks only. - What is the best past time for you? - In the family circle at home. I wish I had more time for that! - Oleg Petrovich, what are your wishes to Mariupol people? - I wish you Patience and happiness!