If Your Horse Is Dead, Dismount!

Is there a connection between the Belarusian Steel Works (BSW) and the Indian parable?

A brief excursion from the managers of BSW on how to collapse the most powerful enterprise.

How did it happen that once the sponsor of the entire infrastructure of Zhlobin turned into one of the most destitute factories, which is forced to take a loan in order to pay the wages of 11 thousand people?

For a long time, the company had been showing itself quite successfully. 15% of the output was for the domestic market, and everything else was exported. Quite high-profile brands were among the customers of the factory. For example, even Volkswagen had something produced by BSW.

The first melting and pouring took place on October 15, 1984. Derozhant Akopov was the first director of BSW. However, Yuri Feoktistov made the greatest contribution to the development of the enterprise. He did everything to make the factory show the highest productivity until 1999. Actually, Feoktistov managed the factory for ten years (1989-1999) and even caught pre-Lukashenko times when the head of a large factory had to be primarily a manager, not a performer, and he administered the entrusted funds very efficiently. The factory entered the international market directed by him. Production began to develop and, most importantly, the workers of the enterprises received high salaries, and the city's infrastructure expanded. Feoktistov made a decision in his day that influenced the success of the BSW for all future years. The choice was on which products to give more emphasis: to produce pipes or wire. The CEO decided on the wire, and the factory won a share of more than 10% in the global steel cord market as a result.

However, in 1999, by order of Lukashenka, the Chief Executive Officer was detained. At the factory, there exists the opinion that Feoktistov did not return the earned money into the budget, but invested the funds into the factory according to his ideas about the effectiveness.

The approach to the work of the following CEOs was far from perfect. The factory began to work according to obscure financial schemes, and the leading posts occupied the personalities engaged in the interests of the authority. Starting from 2004, despite all the warnings of economists, the factory decided to completely change the specifics. The factory suddenly decided to produce seamless pipes instead of a confident and progressive production of steel cords. The management of the factory did not listen to anyone, did not consider the risks. They could no longer be stopped: the factory began a cycle of endless “modernization”, which, according to theoretical evaluations, should have brought billions, but brought only losses. As a result, this solution became the first sign of the crash of the giant in the past, the factory, which brought outstanding profit and was the pearl of Belorussian industry.

In 2020, BSW earned 34 thousand Belarusian rubles of net profit. This is an unthinkable trace amount for such a large-scale enterprise. At this time general debts before the creditors was catastrophic 3,6 billion rubles.

The BSW has an affiliated company in Lithuania to promote products in the markets of the Baltic countries. “BMZ-Baltija has only 12 employees and no production, but the sales volume is several hundred million euros per year. Not only European, but also African countries supply Belarusian metal through Lithuania,” the website lrt.lt wrote.

The BSW did not remain beside the protests, and workers joined the national strike on August 10, 2020. Several shop floors simply stopped work. The workers warned the authorities on the eve of the elections, that in case of falsification they would protest.

Foreign companies are increasingly refusing to work with the unstable enterprise now, in 2022, despite the fact that international sanctions did not touch the BSW. Pirelli, Yokohama, Scandia Steel and American tire manufacturer Goodyear added to the list this week. These companies stopped business relations with the Belarusian metallurgical factory due to the violation of the rights of workers and repressions, which directly or indirectly affected everyone in Belarus.

It is a good time to recall one Indian parable as an appeal to the workers: "If your horse is dead, dismount!". Now, the leaders are tying beautiful bows to the horse. Is not politically correct to call a dead horse dead, they say. They buy golden horseshoes in the form of "modernization" for it. Allocate anti-crisis funding for dead horses. They write technical regulations that establish criteria for the degrees of deadness for horses. They are trying to swap riders from two dead horses and see what happens. They say that we always rode like this - on dead horses...

But we understand that the horse is dead, and it's time to dismount. Only in democratic Belarus, the conclusion of new contracts and the renewal of old are possible. Only a competent manager should be the head of the factory, and not dilettantes appointed by the usurper. Having carried out a number of events, it is possible to put the BSW and any Belarusian enterprise on its feet. Leave the dead horses alone finally.

Long live Belarus!

Artem Chernikov, especially for the "Basta!" telegram channel