Learning Italian Language Key to
The ANNOTICO Report
Most Educated Russians speak English, But Moscow State University wanted to encourage more Language skills, and decided to require the Italian Language above all others, That was either a Prescient, Whimsical, or Serendipitous decision, because just as the Soviet Union stated to break up, the disproportionately greater number of the first foreign business people to come to Russia were Italians, it provided great opportunities for Italian speaking Russians.
Irina Gofman
was one of those students, who studied the Italian Language,
and while researching her doctorate in Journalism, she helped Italian
companies to set up their businesses in
She soon became the general director of one of these Italian companies, which built and furnished offices and houses for the rising elite. The company had a permanent staff of 30 people, For five years she combined building offices with researching the Italian magazine market.
Gofman then
moved to the
Returning to
An amusing footnote, is that when Irena was first introduced to the Internet by her husband, she told him, " I Hate it, I'm Never going to use it!"
UNLIKELY LAUNCHPAD FOR RAMBLER CEO'S ASCENT
The
By William Bland
Special to The
Irina Gofman's
first experience in journalism was writing about underprivileged children for
the provincial newspaper Za Kommunism.
Fifteen years later she is in charge of Rambler Media, one of the
fastest-growing media companies in
Gofman enrolled in the journalism
"The university had to come up with a new language for us to learn, because all of us already spoke English," she said, speaking fluent English with just a hint of an accent. The students all signed up for French -- but since one of the students already knew the language they were told to learn Italian instead.
"Everyone freaked out at first," she recalled. "Italian is a nice language, but not a lot of people speak it."
Gofman, 35, owes her first business
experience to this arbitrary decision of her professor. It turned out that many
of the first foreign businesspeople to come to
When she graduated in 1992, Gofman was pragmatic: "I knew I wanted to be in media, but jobs in media didn't pay that well."
In order to keep in touch with the media world, she began a
doctorate comparing the success of various Italian weekly magazines. But Gofman wanted her brain to "work in different
directions," so while researching her doctorate, she helped Italian
companies to set up their businesses in
She soon became the general director of one of these companies, which built and furnished offices and houses for the rising elite. The company had a permanent staff of 30 people, but whenever a big project came in, it would take on up to 400 extra people. Years later in business school she found out that this was known as a "virtual company."
For five years she combined building offices with researching
the Italian magazine market. She only stopped working for the construction
company for seven months before submitting her doctorate. She defended her
Ph.D. while three months pregnant, organized a media conference in
In the
After two years as the vice president of Modern Times Group Russia, in 2004 she was appointed CEO of Rambler Media.
Gofman's vision for the company is
"to create a one-stop shop for information, entertainment and services for
Russian speakers." Rambler Media also owns a free-to-air television
channel and provides SMS-based content for mobile phones, but it is best known
for its search engine --
The Internet in
So, what's it like to be one of
"The culture of working women is much stronger here," she said. Her mother is a leading endocrinologist and her grandmother a philologist. Both kept their maiden names. She suggested that the macho element in Russian business helps because "men are more gallant than in the States." Gofman has worked with Italians, Russians and Americans but argues that to be successful, women just "need to be good at what they're doing."
Starting her own company has always been Gofman's
ultimate ambition. While she was in the
"Travel and Treasures" was to be a series of magazines circulated in airports and airplanes where travelers could read articles about their destinations. The innovation was that the magazines would also provide a catalogue of products associated with each destination. The magazines would appeal to busy businesspeople and forgetful tourists alike. She laughs at this scheme now.
Gofman was moved to learn that after
her first-ever article, one of the children whose misfortunes she described was
given a wheelchair. The media in
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