Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
Over the year and a half of the existence of the discussion club “You have the floor!” many interesting people have become its guests. But it is especially pleasant when such a guest is not just a successful and bright person, but also a graduate of the Polytechnic University. So, the eleventh hero of the project was the founder and chairman of the board of directors of the RBI Group Eduard Tiktinsky.
Eduard Saulevich graduated from the economics department of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute and the advanced courses in economics and privatization of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. His company is engaged in development activities in the field of residential and commercial construction. More than 80 projects have been implemented.
Eduard Tiktinsky is an honorary builder of Russia, recipient of the Order of Merit in Construction, member of the Board of Trustees of the World Club of Petersburgers, initiator and ideological inspirer of the social project for talented youth “School of Leaders of the Future”, holder of the title “Expert of the Year” in the nominations “Expert in Business and Innovation” (2017) and “Expert in Education” (2021). In 2024, he entered the top 50 most famous people in St. Petersburg according to Sobaka.ru magazine. According to the Person 2024 rating from RQ Index and Urban, he is the first in management efficiency among CEOs of development companies in Russia.
At the meeting at the Polytechnic, Eduard Tiktinsky thanked the organizers for the opportunity to speak to students and emphasized that his goal was not to limit himself to a simple dialogue, but to convey to the audience truly valuable knowledge that could help them in the future.
This is what Eduard Tiktinsky said.
On the influence of parents
— My parents gave me a lot of freedom of choice and independence. From an early age I understood that I had to rely on myself, and I started earning money at 19. My parents also gave me a good education: I studied at an English school, then, until the 8th grade, at an English boarding school in Pushkin, and the 9th and 10th grades — at a good physics and mathematics school. As a child, I didn’t say that I would be an entrepreneur, because there was no such profession in the USSR, but I dreamed of becoming a lawyer, it seemed to me that it was such a competitive independent profession.
About student life at the Polytechnic
— When I was studying, it was a completely different era. Interesting, with a lot of challenges. It implied a lot of opportunities and an empty market that was slowly filling up, and the window of opportunity was slowly closing. So I will honestly say that I spent little time at the Polytechnic. Only in the first year, and then I came to take exams. And at the same time I studied at advanced training courses held by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, it was a high level and a powerful impetus.
And now times have changed, and the university years seem extremely important to me. For you, student years are a period of establishing social connections, refining some hypotheses, an opportunity to try and figure out what you want. Plus an element of a carefree life.
About starting a business in the 90s
— The vast majority of entrepreneurs who started their activities in the late 80s — early 90s will not tell you that it was a difficult period. It was a romantic period, a time of a free market, weak competition, where many things had to be built from scratch: inventing new schemes, literally creating industries — it was an interesting challenge. And the most difficult thing — and nothing has changed here today — is to go through your own crises. Everyone faces them, but if you are an entrepreneur, then your crises, as a rule, concern not only you, but also your business and the people you are responsible for. My crises were difficult, but useful, they gave the greatest impetus for further development. When you cope with this, you seem to be renewed, you become a little — or not a little — a different person.
On how to choose your path
— I am often asked: how to determine what to do in the future? I used to answer that you need to get to know yourself as early as possible, understand how you are structured, where your strengths are, where your weaknesses are — developmental books, various courses, psychology can help with this. And once we answered this question together with the outstanding world entrepreneur Len Blavatnik, and he said: you need to try a lot. He spoke about his experience, and he is also right. I had no forks or doubts about which path to choose, but if they are, then you need to try a lot.
On the difficulties of development activities in a museum city
— Now that we have dozens of cultural heritage sites behind us, there are no such difficulties. In our work, we need to be open, tell people about our completed projects — this creates trust and the opportunity to have a constructive dialogue with urban conservationists. I think that “urban conservationist” is a good word, for example, Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky is an urban conservationist, he and the “World Club of Petersburgers” helped us a lot when we were restoring the Levashovsky Bakery and building our Futurist facility on Barochnaya Street and Levashovsky Prospekt. But it can be difficult to negotiate with those people who only call themselves urban conservationists: they often do not accept any arguments, they simply implement their request for aimless social activity. But we love our city, what we do is our life’s work, this is why we came to this world.
About digital products and artificial intelligence
— For the development business, AI projects are still secondary things. But we don’t realize how quickly the world will change. As a physicist friend of mine used to say: At bifurcation points, all events happen much faster. We are at such a point now, and if we talk about key industries, then in the “robotics and artificial intelligence” bundle, the world will change very soon and very much. We still need to “pump up the muscle”, track everything that appears, and teach people to use these tools.
About a place of power and living life to the fullest
— My place of power now is the Central Park of Culture and Leisure. I hold meetings with colleagues and friends there, we walk and discuss things. Another place of power is the dacha. Whatever you do, it is important to live a full life: diverse, complex, multi-component. A person can achieve unrealistically great success by doing only one thing. But will such a person be happy? I have big doubts. It is very important to devote time to loved ones, communicate with friends, attend cultural events, play sports — this is what I call living to the fullest.
About sources of inspiration and energy
— I get my inspiration from the fact that I love my job very much. I try to do only what I like, what gives me strength and energy. And I am proud of what we do, although we are far from perfect. We measure customer loyalty, the willingness to recommend us, at six stages: buying an apartment, waiting, moving in, renovation, living up to five years, and living after five years. And at the living stage, the loyalty index drops because various everyday difficulties arise. And we get upset if something is not good enough, we try to improve: in the Futurist house, some residents are unhappy with the size of the gym, in our next house “MIR” the gym will be twice as big.
On the solution to the problem of the “gray belt” of St. Petersburg
— The “Grey Belt” is a serious conceptual project. There should be an understanding of how much the enterprises there can be modernized, how environmentally neutral they are, whether they can be left in a residential area. And if so, then that’s great, because we need short “transport shoulders”, we don’t need people to go one way in the morning, and then drive kilometers in the other direction in the evening, get stuck in traffic jams. Housing, production, and recreation areas need to be connected.
On the “excellent strategy” of real estate sales, or how the company plans to stand out from other developers
— I like your expression “excellent strategy”. Our strategy as premium developers is an outstanding product and outstanding service. When you come to us to buy an apartment, in our sales department you find yourself in an atmosphere of beauty, exquisite aromas, jazz music. You are treated to craft coffee and an exclusive dessert. One of our regular customers recently came to us again to buy an apartment, and he was offered a cheesecake, and he remembered that a year ago he was treated to some unforgettable golden eclairs. And he was a little upset that they were not available today. Then colleagues contacted the manufacturer of these eclairs, found out that they were no longer making them, but somehow agreed to make us a few as an exception. And they delivered a box of golden eclairs to the client in the evening. This is what I call outstanding service. Doing everything for the client and a little more, exceeding expectations.
At the end of the meeting, Eduard Tiktinsky was traditionally presented with a branded Lepota project T-shirt with number 11. Now we have a full football team, joked the host of the meeting, the head of the news portal department, Evgeny Gusev. And on the second T-shirt, which remained at the Polytechnic, the hero of the evening left an autograph and, apparently inspired by the last question, the following wish: “Become better than yesterday.”
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