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Our interlocutor heads an organization that has a special weight in the economy of Azerbaijan, the company winning the trust of millions of users and is the most advanced and largest mobile operator in our country. He has also spent 10 years of his working experience in this Company.

Of course, we are talking about Azercell Telecom and its CEO – Mr. Vahid Mursaliyev. However, the Internet does not have a lot of information about a person who manages this large corporation.

So, who is Vahid Mursaliyev, what type of person he is, and most importantly, how he will describe himself? This very question was the first in our interview with Mr. Vahid Mursaliyev:

- Who is Vahid Mursaliyev? How do you normally present yourself when meet others?

- You are well aware of my current position - I am the CEO of Azercell. I started my career in the company in 2005 as head of the Legal Department. In just 8 months this department was transformed into the Legal and Administrative Department. After that, I was appointed as General Counselor to the CEO and Director of Legal Affairs and General Administration. On January 5, 2015, I was appointed as the acting President of Azercell. According to the decision of the general meeting of the Company shareholders I was officially appointed to the post of the President of Azercell on December 1, 2015.

From oil sector to telecom

- You are a professional lawyer. In what area you worked prior to Azercell?

- I have worked in the oil industry for many years. Since 1984 I worked as an operator on the Oil Rocks. After 7 years of a dedicated work as a laborer, I was appointed as an instructor of the trade union committee.

In the summer of 1992, by chance, I got an offer to work in "Azerineft" Company. The former president of this company Senan Alizadeh liked my speech at one of the meetings on the Oil Rocks. Immediately after that event I was invited to join “Azerineft”.

Then I received an invitation from the American "Mobil". At the time I was offered a very high salary, which was 10 fold of the on I had in the local oil company. Obviously enough, I accepted the invitation. In addition to this work, I also provided legal consultancy to a number of companies in the country.

We have had discussions with corporations from the UK, USA, Turkey, signed different agreements. We worked on the largest oil projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline. Since I was a member of the technical and commercial group, I often went on business trips. This experience turned out to be very useful in subsequent years.

In 2000-2001, I have done a research in the field of corporate management at one of the most prestigious US universities - Case Western Reserve in Cleveland. I also took certified courses on business management. In 2005 I had the opportunity to participate in the experience exchange in one of the consulting companies working in the energy sector in Chicago, USA. Two days after the return from US, I received an invitation to join Azercell. At first I declined the offer, because I was happy with my current job. However, an employee who called the second time was more persistent and convinced me to attend the first interview. After several meetings, as August 12, 2005, I started working in Azercell.

- Was not that risky to leave a promising oil and gas sector in 2005 and completely change your profile by joining the telecommunications?

- Maybe it was. At that time, if someone had mentioned words as "frequency", "interconnection", or “number portability”, the say the least, it would surprise me. Only after starting a new job I realized how diverse the telecommunications sector is. To tell the truth, I have learned a lot, become an expert in a completely new field.

Of course, while I worked in the oil company, I often traveled abroad, participated in meetings with large companies, international corporations, which helped to accumulate extensive international experience. But only in Azercell I became a part of an international corporation. During the research in the field of corporate governance in Cleveland, I got to learn the experience of many international companies, studied the duties and operation of the Supervisory Boards, the Boards of Directors and other management bodies. Despite Azerbaijan was lacking similar systems back then, Azercell has already been using corporate governance, as the Company was a part of large international and solid corporation as TeliaSonera, and was managed in accordance with its standards.

The first thing I did was to start studying the founding documents of Azercell. We have made the necessary changes to the contracts, combined the management of legal and administrative units and created a department that functions like clockwork. I would also like to highlight that even back then we had very strong lawyers and experts the department. With their help and creativity we have been able to create the best system of contract management among companies of TeliaSonera Eurasia, and most likely in Europe. We have not had a chance to get bored. We had to work a lot to learn something new and advance. I never liked to lag behind the colleagues, I have always tried to be the best or one of the best. I do not know how I did it, but I always make an effort to achieve this.

- Did you think then, that by accepting the offer to work as a lawyer, one day you would become president of the company? Was this one of your goals?

- To the truth – it was not. In general, there was no practice of nominating local staff to the senior positions. I took a huge responsibility as the head of the legal department. I was planning to increase its workload. In US, not the company, even an ordinary family has own lawyer and do not sign any documents without his consent. In Azercell I have achieved exactly this: the legal department must approve every document, which is deemed official.

With confidence I can say that after all these steps the legal department of Azercell became the best in the Eurasian region.

- What was the reason for not appointing the local staff as the company manager?

- I believe it had nothing to do with distrust. There were a lot of local specialists and managers of international caliber, but since the telecommunications sector was relatively new for Azerbaijan, the country was in need of foreign experts to develop this sector. Invited experts attracted local talents and prepared them as professionals. Gradually, some of these local staff began to occupy leadership positions in the company. When I joined Azercell, big number of local specialists was holding senior positions here. Only the heads of financial and technical departments were Turkish citizens. Today, many staff members, who grew up in Azercell, occupy top positions in the business units of TeliaSonera Eurasia.

In my opinion, my appointment as president of the company is a continuation of the same policy. To date, we have formed a very good, strong team. I am sure that everyone who is represented in senior positions here is very much capable to manage the entire company. Apparently, at this point, my nomination was not only substantiated, but also destined.

- Mr. Vahid, how would you describe yourself?

- This is the most difficult task for me – assess myself. It is much easier to speak of my weaknesses. For example, I am a very soft-hearted person. Therefore, despite my profession, I could never work in the law enforcement. I believe this is not the most convenient trait for a manager. I have always tried, whenever possible, to do good to people. Sometimes, when I see negative feelings towards me, I do not let myself to live with a sense of revenge. Despite the fact that I am not a religious person, I strongly believe in GOD and I am sure that everyone gets a response to their actions from HIM, whether they are good or bad.

Public opinion, the perception of others is very important for me. It might be my weak point. I cannot imagine that someone would ever lie looking straight into someone's eyes.

I administer an injection better than the most professional nurse

- Do you like to read?

- Speaking figuratively, I do not read on the ground, but in the air. I love to read books, though not always find enough time for that. By the nature of my work, I am often on business trips, so I spend time flying. Since I cannot sleep in plains, I spend my time reading. Usually, I read the works of Chingiz Abdullayev. He does not get tired of writing, and I am fond of reading.

At home I use my spare time performing on tar. I also graduated from a musical school, so as I get extra time, I go to the guest room, and perform something for my own pleasure. There was even a time when my performance was shown on TV. I played the oud in an ensemble, and played the solo guitar.

- As we speak, you keep on revealing very interesting facts about yourself. What else would you share?

- (Laughs) Since the fifth grade, I learned to do intramuscular injections. Today I'm doing an injection better than the most professional nurse. At the time when we lived in the village, my mother taught me that, in order not to look for a nurse when it was urgently needed. After the marriage, when children were sick, as a custom, they would only let me to do them injections.

- So, you grew up in the village. When the transition to urban life happened?

- Yes, I was born and grew up in a simple and low-income family of intellectuals in the village Midzhan of Ismayilli region. At a preschool age, due to my father's secondment, we lived for some time in Agsu and Shamakhi regions. Then, in the school years, we were back to Ismayilli. At first I studied in the eight-year school in our village, and then completed my secondary education in the school number 3 of Ismayilli city and entered the law faculty of the Baku (Azerbaijan) State University. I should point out that I was one of two candidates for the gold medal at the school, but the medal was fairly presented to another contestant. She knew exact sciences better than I did.

In the 80s of the last century the national leader Heydar Aliyev (God bless him) took control of the admission process to the Law School. At that time, the children of law enforcement officers, shop managers, as well as of high-ranking officials were not allowed to enter this faculty. I was a boy from an ordinary family, who applied and got admitted. We were very poor. There were days when I had no money even for two meals per day. There were nights when I could not find the shelter and had to sleep at the railway station.

- This means that a lot depends on the person? We had a preconceived impression that success in Azerbaijan is possible only with the help of connections or friends?

- If a person has a purpose, will and readiness to fight - then the road is open. There is a possibility of a chance. All the rest - it's an excuse.

In school, I went to a summer camp to learn Russian in the village of Ivanovka. When I was in the 9-10 year of the school I stayed up late at night, listening to the press conference of one of the leading politicians of his time, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. In those years, I memorized the entire text of the negotiations between the USSR and US on the strategic arms limitation (SALT 2). When I was 18-19 years, I enthusiastically studied the technical and military capabilities of nuclear submarines of USSR Navy.

Plato said that the success in itself does not pursue someone and not waiting when someone comes. The man himself must strive for success. At that time, I was a graduate lawyer; I worked for 7-8 years as a laborer on the Oil Rocks. As I have already said, only by chance, I got a job in an oil company. I did not take it as granted and started learning English.

I do not believe that someone's professional growth demands the help of any friends or acquaintances. Of course, someone's recommendation can seriously help you at some point, or change the entire life. But along with this, there are certain stages through which people must pass on their own, without outsider's help. The efforts never get lost. I always share my views with my children. I convinced them that a person would definitely reap the fruits of his efforts.

- They are also hard-working and diligent?

- I have two sons. The eldest is 26 years. He builds his career in marketing management in America and now works in a very large and well-known company. The younger son, with the support of the State Oil Company, received a bachelor's and master's degree in the UK. My sons are very interesting, educated and honest guys. They cannot even think of deceiving anyone, not to mention the parents. Besides their mother, they address all seniors, including myself, saying YOU. I raised them self-sufficient, tried to keep under control. Today I am confident about the integrity and diligence of my sons.

- By the way, Azercell has always hired the most capable and young candidates. How do you feel of working with the youth? Does modern youth have sufficient diligence?

- One could easily witness different trends among our youth during the transition times. The state has done a lot to prevent negative changes in the development of young people. From this perspective, the program of sending students to study abroad is of great importance. As I mentioned earlier, the younger son got his graduate education with the support of SOCAR. Young people around him, and I see this trend in our company, are developing rapidly. We have a lot of talented young people. Some of the startups in Barama Innovation Center turned out as a good surprise and delighted me. I believe, thanks to the State attention, these positive developments will move forward.

My advice to young people is to urge them to be patriots and love their country, our Motherland, would be proud of the fact that they are Azerbaijanis, as the national leader Heydar Aliyev has said, and do their best to get an education and deepen knowledge. We must avoid bad habits, gossiping and envy.

- Azercell is a company that serves millions of people every day. Probably, there are unhappy customers, who sound criticism. What is your reaction to the case of unjustified criticism?

- Well, not only. We also face objective criticism and simple customer complaints. Azercell unites and serves 4.5 million customers, among which, of course, some might be dissatisfied. We never leave their questions unanswered. Sometimes the media presents inaccurate information to which we give a refutation. However, there are some absolutely baseless articles that spread totally ungrounded facts. Usually we do not respond to this kind of articles.

- I wonder if your phone is open 7/24? How many hours a day do you talk on the phone?

- Our work is very dynamic. Customers use our services around the clock, so our phones should be kept on. For this reason, for the first time in Azerbaijan, Azercell opened a customer service operating 24 hours a day.

As for me, I'm on the phone for about 1-2 hours a day.

- This year, TeliaSonera announced that it exits the Eurasian market. As we know, Turkcell has expressed interest in acquisition of Azercell. Is there any news on this?

- This question is to our founders. I am sure that TeliaSonera will inform the public about the developments in due time.

- What are the proposals developed by Azercell for 2016?

- I will not reveal all the cards, but in general, I want to note that, loyal to its well-established tradition, Azercell will continue to launch new technologies, services and campaigns. Basically, we plan to expand the coverage of 3G and 4G in the regions. We set a goal to make the mobile Internet available to all. The number of subscribers using mobile Internet by Azercell is growing daily. Along with this, we also lower the prices. We are not afraid of a temporary drop in income, which is caused by the proliferation of the Internet and the creation of favorable conditions for the use of this service. Only in 2015 we reduced tariffs for mobile Internet by 55%. I can confidently say that on our market Azercell offers the most affordable and attractive mobile Internet in terms of price and quality.

- What about the recent devaluation? How will that affect the company's operations and the tariffs?

- Obviously enough, we would face challenging times, but customer satisfaction is the top priority in our strategy. Thus, we do not sadden our customers by increasing prices or lowering the service quality. Change of shareholders will not affect the overall activity of the company. Today, 4.5 million people choose Azercell, 48% of the market belongs to us and we work on increasing our share.

- You have gone from a simple laborer to a company president. What does Azercell represent to you?

- Azercell is part of my life. In addition, I also feel myself a part of Azercell. Today Azercell - one of the most exemplary companies in Azerbaijan. This is a great school. Azercell will work hard to maintain and develop its leading position in the mobile market and justify the confidence of our customers by providing them the best of everything.

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