Elmir Hasanov, the Chairman of the Board of MuganBank who supports “Milan” football team strives for forming a united team not only on the playground

Elmir Hasanov, the Chairman of the Board of MuganBank, the guest of  our “Winning formula” rubric today proved to be, rarely for a businessman, a very sociable and sincere interlocutor. In an exclusive interview of 1news.az with the chairman he shared with us not only his secret of success, but also talked about his family, interests and inclinations.   

- Mr. Hasanov, let’s begin our conversation from your childhood. I wonder, what did you want to be when you were quite younger?

- Yes, besides I was seriously going in for football yearning to be a professional football player. Later on in my adult hood I changed my mind for chemistry and even studied hard to be admitted to the University, but at the last moment decisively positioned myself for the institute of national economy (now called State University of Economy), for the profession of chemist then, unfortunately, no longer continued to be up-market … 

- I am in banking since 1994.  And my first coming to MuganBank was in 2001, and to the post of a deputy chairman. During my 20 years of experience I have already managed to work in five banks. I have worked for three years in Shirvan Oil, an oil company and a year in automobile sector as a managing director of Honda Azerbaijan. However, then I realized that it was not for me and again returned to banking.

- It seems you have driven a long way for which you have today. It took rather much to find yourself…  

- I confess, I have got such a character that I am not afraid of turns in my life, I prefer to often change my field of activity. It is  interesting for me, and helps to find something new for myself. I nearly forgot to speak of my especial pride, that’s my diploma. I continued my education and obtained my MBA in  Business School University of Strathclyde, which is one of the best universities of not only Britain, but also the world. That was my dream…   

- …which was not so easy to realize. Three times I applied, but could not gain the required scores. I was examined first in Tbilisi, then in Moscow and finally in the very Edinburgh, whereupon was admitted at last. By the way, I myself paid for my studies there for which I was obliged to sell my car and spent all the money I had saved for five years (smiles).  

- They welcomed approvingly. It would be a sin, otherwise, to hinder the goal which was really wanted to be achieved.    

- Mr. Hasanov, as judged by your narration, we shall not need to be much surprised, if tomorrow we see you  in a sphere far from the banking sector…

- (Smiles). Today I have got many plans in MuganBank which have not been realized yet. Therefore I don’t foresee any significant changes to be made to my sphere of activity in the near future.

Any manager who has self-esteem consciously or unconsciously wants to meet difficulties in order to prevent them in the future. You see, when everything is always fine, there comes a kind of stagnation and what you are doing becomes no longer interesting.  

-  What changes happened in the bank after your return?

- What is most of all taught to managers in business schools and always persistently recommended to realize is to build a united team.  You should never work alone, it becomes easier when there is someone to rely on. And for this, you yourself need to be open. There are management structures which are built on a vertical which, as a rule, are not so viable, but there are also horizontals. Above all I could achieve to unite our team for a common spirit within a short time.    

-What niche, do you guess, MuganBank can fill in the national banking market?

- Each bank, certainly, has its own niche in the market. True, many of them try to sell everything and become as a grand supermarket, however, such an approach to my mind is not reasonable. We, for instance, closely cooperate with agricultural organizations, mortgage fund, small and medium-sized businesses, and don’t more or less approach the consumer market.

Yes, today our bank is in the top twenty among the banking organizations of the country, but truly speaking, we try, but not yearn to get into the top ten, here is also interesting and easy for us to work in. We mainly focus on quality which we are striving to achieve. I mean the quality of lending and level of service. Service of high quality is rather a hard task. And the quality, our priority is achieved when you rely on your employees and support their initiatives. Then each as a part of the united team themselves will feel the responsibility for a corporate work.

- Now, let’s wander a little from the subject. Do you have your lunch at home or…?

- No, we have a canteen here on the ground-floor, where the employees of the bank all have their lunch together. As for the supper, I don’t have it as I am somewhat inclinable to corpulence.

-But doesn’t your wife complain of your remaining indifferent to her meals?

- No, she doesn’t, on the contrary, it is much more convenient for her, as she also works in the banking sector like me (Smiles). It’s of course a joke. For her, as well as for each Azerbaijani woman, family is sacred…

- So you and your wife seem to be competitors.  How do the two competitors live under the same roof?

- (Smiles). I would not say, there is any special competition between us, and indeed the bank in which she works unlike ours is on the top ten.

- In Bakuriani ski resort.  I went there with a group of friends. Imagine, there were so many people from Baku that even such a joke came of: «Bakuriani left crisis at the expense of Azerbaijanis!». Generally, l like sport. And Bakuriani is a  ski resort where I could rise for the first time on skis and as to experts, very successfully. But snow, unfortunately, was not so much…

As for rest in whole, as I mentioned before, I am fond of football since my childhood. Twice a week in the evening I leave all my affairs behind and ran after the ball, that’s my consolation. In working days, it’s impossible for me to get home before ten in the evening, which I find quite normal for a top-manager. My week-end  is fully at my children’s disposal, we often go to the cinema, have dinner in a restaurant, sometimes play football in Playstation and I, as a rule, always lose. My son is also a passionate football fan, but unlike me who is the fan of “Milan”, he supports “Manchester United”. By the way, my son says that he will also work for the banking sector like his dad.  

- In which period of history would you prefer to live, if you were given such a chance?

- It would be interesting for me to live in 70-s, during the time of hippies, I think, life was pretty meaningful and interesting at that time. Today, due to the growth of high technologies, when almost from all sides you are surrounded in shafts with flows of information, there is a constant sensation that you may miss something important.  

- As a football fan, I would like to answer this question by terms of this game. There are stars, who are known by all and whose successes are in full view of everybody, but there are also ordinary workers , the members of the team whose work is not seen by anybody, they keep in the background, but final success as a whole in many respects depends on activity of those, apparently, at first sight invisible figures.   

The key is to believe yourself and go towards the desired goal slowly, but confidently.