Andrey Umansky Alean Biography

In total, more than three million tourists took advantage of the “majority” of the company's services. And in September, on International Tourism Day, Alean -Tour LLC - the best metropolitan tour operator in the field of entry and domestic tourism - was awarded the Yuri Senkevich National Tourism Prize. Ilya, where were you born? What did you remember from childhood?

I was born in the city of Zelenograd, which is part of Moscow. It is curious that from here almost all bright representatives of Russian companies working in the domestic tourism industry. At school, favorite items were history and geometry. A strange combination, but it is. I was accepted into the pioneers, as they say, in the last entry in the classification of the "desperate bully".

At first they even forgot, I had to remind the teachers. Mom is a computer science teacher, dad is an engineer at the electronic equipment factory. Now they are retired and are quite successfully engaged in personal economy. Who did you dream of becoming at school? It was a difficult period of the 10ths. Everyone wanted to become businessmen, businessmen and bankers, to earn money. Nobody dreamed about "romantic" professions - a fireman, a teacher, an astronaut.

In the year, my older brother Andrei Umansky organized the Alean tour operator company, one of the first and most successful in the domestic tourism segment. Even then, Andrei was not only the youngest, but also one of the most charismatic directors of travel agencies. His enthusiasm also infected me: I spent all the school holidays and all my free time within the walls of the company, carried out minor instructions and various tasks.

I was interested, and I appreciated my brother's trust. What happened after graduation? My further story is repeated attempts to get out of tourism and return to this field of activity. After the first year, I left because I realized: technical sciences are not mine. He entered the Russian International Academy of Tourism in Skhodne a specialty - management, which he safely graduated in the year.

Is your whole life connected with Alean? Yes, it is. As in the classical biography of the American top manager, I went through all the levels at Alean - from the sales manager to the general director. I took the last position in the year after my brother left for another project. Why did you leave periodically? Once I heard the phrase: "Tourism is not a profession, but a way of life, they leave it in a year or never leave." Probably, I came to tourism too early, and he too quickly and organically became my way of life.

And I did not realize this and tried to look for myself. In the year, when Andrei went to work in Norilsk Nickel, he suggested that I lead Alean. The decision was not easy, because by that time I had my own quite successful business. But with Alean so much connected me that I eventually agreed. Did you understand that tourism is incurable? The experience gained outside of Alean is a good help today.

When you yourself grew up from scratch, you understand how important support is at the first stage. You know what it is to prove that you mean something and can. That is why today our company is as loyal to its partners as possible. And it doesn’t matter what your sales volume are on the side of the partner, because I know what to gain the confidence of the client today for its agents, of which there are more than 11 thousand, we have created a “one window” system, when the agent decides absolutely all his issues with the curator.

Please tell us about your team. Given the employees in regional representative offices in our state, more people. In Moscow, approximately a person work. Our team is young. For example, the average age of the specialists of the Department for Work with Agencies is 22-25 years. Older employees work in accounting. We are constantly in active search, we are betting on young and ambitious employees.

Sales volumes are increasing annually, so fresh forces are needed. In addition, 3-5 employees have annually go on maternity leave. Are you a strict leader? Don't know. I allow a lot, but I demand even more. If each employee in his place understands what he can and what he should do, then there is no need to be strict. What is the best thing about? Of course, the result!

Inside the company, we evaluate it for the execution of the budget. But external grades are no less significant and pleasant. When for two consecutive years, the results of your company are 1.5-2 times higher than the average market - you understand that you work for nothing. Share your success components? The key success factors are trust and loyalty, both from partners and the team.

Building of comfortable relationships and maximum honesty in everything give a good result.

What do you think about competition? Competition is the main stimulus for evolution. We are constantly in an open dialogue with agents, this dialogue gives us many new ideas for development. But only a strong competitor is a key incentive of revolutionary changes. Can you say that you are a workaholic?It depends on what you mean by this. While I am passionate about the process and satisfied with the result, I am happy to sacrifice my personal time.

But this is not an end in itself. Still, the work should remain one third human life. How do you rest? My main hobby is new impressions. With equal pleasure, I get them both from communicating with new self -sufficient people, and from new places and countries. My long -standing hobby is a motorcycle. This is speed, wind resistance and constant change of impressions.

For example, for these May holidays, I traveled half the European Europe. A fairly intense event, but I enjoyed. Another hobby is fishing. And I spend the usual weekend in the country. It turns out that to equip the house is no less exciting and responsible than developing a business. What travels impressed the most? Strange as it may seem, traveling around Russia. Europe in this regard is more predictable and banal.

But when you look at the map of the Russian Federation, and then you fly to its edge, the spirit is breathtaking from a grand scale, distances and wild beauty. For some reason, we measure everything with the “Switzers”, so we have thousands of places unique in beauty. And thanks to the profession, I see places that many will never see.