Meet Igor Rõtov, Äripäev CEO

Igor Rõtov laughs easily.  The shoulders of his checked tweed jacket are wide and loose, and when he jokes with his colleagues, you can see the chuckle in those big shoulders.  An outsider might wonder what Rõtov has to laugh about, given the burden those shoulders bear—the economic situation for most business-to-business papers is no joke.  But Rõtov has a good reason to smile—he has kept Äripäev profitable through the roughest downturn in the paper's 20-year history.

Bonnier Business Press CEO Casten Almqvist has credited management at Äripäev for the Estonian business daily newspaper's ability to stay in the black-a feat that one might say borders on the miraculous.  In this candid interview, Igor Rõtov opens up about how he went from professional chess player to CEO, his regrets, what he thinks makes a strong leader and what he looks for in potential employees.

How did you get started in publishing?

This is quite easy.  I finished high school in 1982.  After that, from 1982 to 1990, I was a professional chess player.  I just played within the territory of the former Soviet Union.  I didn't have enough talent to play at a high level, to make a lot of money playing chess.  So I studied economics [at Tallinn Technical University] and journalism [at Tartu University] at the end of the 80s.  For a short time, I worked as a reporter at the biggest Estonian daily, Rahva Hääl, from 1990-1991.  It was a great time to be a journalist and it was very important because Estonia was gaining independence at that time. 

But then at the end of '91, I got the proposal to start Äripäev.  Business was not so popular, not so influential at that time. It was interesting because it was very special in Estonia.  In autumn of 1992, I became Editor-in-Chief at the age of 28.  Since 1993, I was also CEO or managing director, so from 1993 to 2007, I had two positions—CEO and Editor-in-Chief.  Then the company became too big for me to have these two positions, so that's when Meelis [Mandel] took over as Editor-in-Chief.

What are the qualities that define a good leader? 

Theoretically, you need analytic skills and administrative skills in leadership to manage people, and I think because I was a chess player I had those analytic skills.  But I learned a lot over this time.  Those analytic skills are not so important.  What's important is to find and keep the right people. 

When I started, I think we systematically built market share while creating our missions and values.  Then we found people to follow those values.  It was never most important to make a big profit.  It was most important to find the right people, and to produce really good service for Estonian entrepreneurs.  Our mission was to improve Estonian entrepreneurship.  Äripäev was always influential politically, with the new laws, and Äripäev as an institution was very important for all of Estonian society.

Also, it's quite easy to be popular, to be friendly. A good manager needs to make the hard decisions sometimes, especially times like these.

What do you look for when you are hiring someone?

I look for the same values.  It's quite important to write understanding good journalism.  The second is hard-working people.  I dislike people who don't work after 5pm and the people who don't work on Saturdays or Sundays if it's necessary.  Also—this is quite important—they should have a good relationship with each other.  We make most of our decisions by consensus.  We should pay high salaries, but more important is that you should find new opportunities and new ambitions for your people. 

What's the greatest lesson you've learned in your 17 years at Äripäev?

When I started, I didn't have enough experience, but I learned on the job.  Maybe it's not good to say that, but it's true.  I was quite strong with analytic things.  I used to think I was smarter than others.  In the middle of the 90s, I started to understand that it is not so effective to make all the decisions by yourself.  A good example: before 1997, every year I would make some development plans, bring them to board meetings and we would realize them.  Since 1998, I asked all of my department chairs for five ideas.  So in 1997, we realized five new ideas, but in 1998, we had 100 ideas, and we realized almost all of them.  All of our department leaders need to generate ideas themselves.

Do you have any regrets in your career?

One very wrong decision was that when I went to university, I chose my foreign language as German.  When I started in Äripäev, I didn't understand the English language—it wasn't until about four or five years ago that I really began speaking English.  I didn't know that English would become so important for me [he laughs].

In business, I think I underestimated the online business.  We started our online business [releasing some news for free instead of only allowing subscribers to view news online] in 2006.  I think the right decision would have been if we started two or three years earlier.

What do you think the biggest misconception about you is?

Maybe some people think because I am a former chess player, I am very analytical.  But I am also quite emotional in some parts of the jobs, especially during the hard decisions.  Not all people understood immediately.  Maybe this is my style—I try to talk as much as possible.  [Points to the propped open tinted glass door to his office.]  My door is always open for everything.  My email, my Skype are always open.

This is perhaps part of Swedish culture also.  Estonian culture can be hierarchical—you have your big bosses.  But here, in a human perspective, we are very equal.  We try to be very open.  We talk about everything, good and bad.  There are no secrets inside this company.  Except maybe personal salaries [he laughs].

Also:

Äripäev: In the Black and Gaining Market Share