Pericles is proud to announce our Student of the Month for December 2009: Georgy Berezhnov!
Georgy Berezhnov was born in 1986 in Moscow, Russia. In 2002, he decided to study robotics and artificial intelligence in Moscow University of Radio-Engineering Electronics and Automation, believing that this specialization would provide him with good scientific training and a broad perspective that would allow him to enter high-tech business. During his third year of study, Georgy joined Jaguar Land Rover Russia as a summer trainee. Immediately, he found himself torn between sales, marketing, and finance, suddenly realizing that his technical competence and people skills were a perfect match for the company. There, Georgy proceeded very quickly to gain a reputation for his enthusiasm and focus on delivering innovative solutions. Soon after his internship was over, he was offered the position of sales assistant in Jaguar’s sales department and seized this opportunity even though he knew that working and studying at the same time would be a real challenge. At that time, Jaguar Land Rover was a very small division of Ford Motor Company in Russia, with just eight employees selling 1000 cars a year. By the beginning of 2009, they became a stand-alone company with 70 employees, having sold 22 000 cars in 2008. In that regard, Georgy was fortunate enough to be part of the team which drove this tremendous growth. And after five years with the company, he had gained a deep insight into the sales and marketing aspects of the automotive industry.
After having worked at Jaguar part-time for a year, Georgy managed to transfer his courses to the evening and moved into a full-time position, starting as a sales planning specialist at the end of 2005. In that post, he was responsible for sales forecasting, production, and inventory planning, and he implemented a number of forecasting models and reports. Soon after that, Georgy was invited to lead a number of large international projects, including the launches of all new cross-brand ordering systems and a lead management system. He thereafter earned a fast-track promotion to the position of product manager, where he was responsible for Jaguar product- and pricing-strategy in Russia. Having realized the need to develop his people skills, Georgy sought out a new challenge, and after just a year and a half at the company, he was appointed to the position of Area Sales Manager, wherein he was responsible for the sales operations of the whole Jaguar dealer network in Russia.
In the short-term, Georgy would like to work for a management consulting company because he is looking for exposure to a wide range of companies and industries, as well as the opportunity to learn about mergers and acquisitions, new market entries, and strategic innovations. As for the long-term, he would like to focus his career on the management of an automotive company and help pioneer environmentally-friendly technological innovations. In this regard, he aims to position the company for optimal growth by utilizing the latest environmentally-friendly technologies, such as those that reduce carbon emissions with hybrid engines and, potentially, help to produce a fully recyclable car that does not compromise the quality of materials, power, ride, drive, and handling.
While Georgy has gained much valuable experience while at Jaguar, he now hopes to realize his full potential by joining an MBA program. He hopes to gain a new financial background, while also need allowing him to integrate his current competencies with a strategic vision and improve his soft skills in order to be a successful leader. We here at Pericles are confident that, like so many of his other goals, Georgy will be successful in this endeavor too!
Congratulations, Georgy Berezhnov!
