PJSC Severstal, one of the world's leading vertically integrated steel and mining companies, has formed a management in its structure that will develop digital businesses. This direction was headed by Sergey Khabarov, who until recently held the position of Investment Director at Geome Vetures.
The Business Development Department is part of the Severstal Business Development and Corporate Venture Projects Directorate headed by Andrey Laptev.
“We are convinced that the future of the industry belongs to those companies that can learn to use innovative business models. Severstal has already accumulated considerable competence in creating services based on digital solutions, for example, our innovative online store. Now we intend to use them for the development and incubation of digital projects that can become independent businesses of the company. At the same time, we will focus on digital solutions that are directly related to our industry and industries that consume our products, for example, construction, which will allow, among other things, to ensure the implementation of the company's marketing strategy, ”commented Andrey Laptev.
According to Andrey Laptev, we are talking about platform solutions, online products and services (such as marketplaces) aimed at end-users of Severstal products. Over the past year, Severstal has already launched several pilots of digital businesses to gain a deeper understanding of consumers and create additional services and sales channels for target segments, including construction and building materials.
“We expect digital projects will, on the one hand, play the role of additional services for our clients, and on the other, being full-fledged businesses, they will serve as an additional source for fulfilling the ambitious goal of our updated strategy to grow EBITDA by 10-15% annually, "added Andrey Laptev.
At the same time, Severstal will continue to adhere to a cautious approach to investment. It is planned that investments in digital businesses at the first stage will amount to several million dollars a year.
For reference:
Sergey Khabarov graduated from Moscow Finance - legal academy with specialty "Securities Market". He was trained at the Business School of the Open University of Great Britain under the program "Effective manager" and at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation under the program "Corporate Governance". Previously, Sergey worked for GeomeVetures, Net Elemet (NETE: NASDAQ), Rocket Iteret, Fastlae Vetures, Marsh, PriceWaterhouseCoopers. In his previous position at Geome Vetures, he held the position of Investment Director, responsible for the formation of the portfolio of technology projects, internal incubation and organization of the process of working with startups.
