BUSINESS

IT Boss Sees Business Development as a Moral Test

By Olga Kalashnikova

Special to The St. Petersburg Times

Information technology, or IT, is just one method of management that has been used by people for a long time, says Igor Bukhshtab, director of Lynx BCC Company, one of the city’s leading IT firms. "It’s just changed a little," he adds.

Part of the way IT has changed in Russia and changed Russia, as the country aims to become a global competitor on the market for IT outsourcing, is reflected in Lynx, a firm that rose from a local start-up to be one of IT giant Sun Microsystems’ closest Russian partners, working on system integration.

Founded in 1997 by Bukhshtab and Vitaly Kuzmichyov, on the base of local IT firm Business Computer Center, Lynx set its goals to cover the niche for the projects using technology for the UNIX operation system. The motivation for the company, however, was far less connected with securing a tidy market niche and more to do with "my professional knowledge and practicality," Bukhshtab said.

"I never wanted to be a businessman; never wanted to be a director. The fact is, we had some technological ideas and the only way to realize them was to create a company," he said.

Since graduating from the Leningrad State Electrotechnical college, Bukhshtab had worked as an engineer-constructor at Svetlana IT innovations center. It was during this time, in the mid ’90s, when the business idea originated, to reflect the way "life generally turned to accommodate business," he said.

The change to commercial thinking required more than a simple organizing of people and offices. For Bukhshtab the transformation meant a moral dilemma.

"There exist certain ethical rules, but in business people [happen to] break them to achieve results. Afterwards no one asks how things happen: in business winners are not judged," he said. "It changes a person, their psychology. And this worries me. I think about it a lot."

Whatever the complications, however, the business must go one. As one of the founders of Lynx and its director, Bukhshtab knows that his position requires leadership. "What is an enterprise — it’s taking responsibility and achieving set goals," he said.

One of Bukhshtab’s main goals was growing Lynx to be a reliable business partner for the world’s largest IT companies. Since 1997, the company has opened office in Moscow, and become a leading provider of IT solutions for UNIX operational systems.

In 2003, the firm’s biggest partner Sun Microsystems, set up its Russian UNIX Competence Center on the base of the St. Petersburg firm Lynx. UNIX technology center, used for solving complex computing tasks, cost more than million dollars. The center acts also as a showroom for clients to test the technology before purchasing it. In addition, it accommodates a study center to coach staff and research new technologies.

Over the years, Bukhshtab can point to having picked up a number of sizeable clients. These range from state institutions such as the St. Petersburg Administration Information-Analytical Center, the city’s power monopoly Lenenergo, transport firm Pulkovo Express, the local branch of the Central Bank, as well as major industrial enterprises: Elektrosila, the Leningrad Metal Works plant (LMZ), and ship-builder Baltiisky Zavod, among others.

One of Lynx’s vendors, American Power Conversion, or APC, which is a manufacturer of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and surge protection products, says it picked the St. Petersburg firm largely because of Bukhshtab’s character and business approach.

"Igor’s reputation within the IT sector could be called legendary. He is keen on new ideas, democratic, witty. He has the ability to adapt to the requests of the market. That’s a work-ethic that’s close to ours," said Maxim Ivanov, head of APC representative office in Russia and the CIS.

Besides business, however, Bukhshtab states there are other ideological goals he wants to achieve. His "mission," as Bukhshtab calls it, is to help Russia to become a world leader in the IT sector. For that, he said he is willing to invest in supporting the sciences and the country’s culture.

"Business is a basic branch [of life], but there are a number of moral principles too. There’s a wish for our children to live in civilized country. The government can’t do it. We can talk a lot about solving social problems and the improvement of society, but it is only when every citizen of this country begins to act, do whatever he can at his own level, that something can change," he said.

Lynx support the state’s higher education institutes, IT students, competitions for up-and-coming programmers, and invite those studying IT to come in for internships.

"This is not missionary work. [I think that] if you can — help, lend a hand," Bukhshtab said. "I am just paying back the debts, giving back to the educational system something in return for what I got out of it.

"If only the government provided some support, maybe by offering some kind of release from tax obligations, there would be less problems in our schools and universities, and more finances available to buy furniture, books, to increase teacher salaries."

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