The co-owner of the Trust banking group is a former professional boxer. At the age of 19, he left sports, but uses his fighting qualities in business: Yurov compares the financial market to a boxing ring. After the 1998 crisis at Group Menatep, he managed to implement a successful banking project, and five years later he bought out Menatep SPb Bank and Trust Investment Bank (formerly Trust Investment Bank) from their disgraced owners. Today, Trust is one of the twenty largest credit institutions in the country in many respects.

Regardless of the situation, you need to take the fight. Business is like sport. The basis of competition, one way or another, is the desire to capture market shares, make a profit and increase the value of the company. If there is a challenge, you must accept it. And even if you are not sure of success, you must make every effort to win. This good stubbornness was brought up in me by sport.

From a financier’s point of view, risk is an unemotional concept. This is an opportunity to both lose and earn. We constantly work with risks and try to manage them. On the one hand, I am conservative in business tactics. But when I see that the situation can be changed in my favor, I almost always take risks.

The degree of trust in business largely depends on the similarity of interests . It depends on the extent to which business partners are like-minded, how constant they are in their intentions and want to implement their original plans. Over time, one of the partners may have other ideas. Some people get tired, others, for example, will think that they already have three yachts and don’t need anything else. In this sense, the long-term nature of a partnership is not always determined by mutual trust.

I consider it a mistake to refuse to implement an idea for fear of making a mistake. Any mistake, after making which you take a step back in order to move on after reflection, is an achievement. There are fatal mistakes, but they are usually associated with the implementation of a poorly prepared project.

The boss must be tough towards those who do not fulfill their duties. If, for some reason, an employee does not fully realize his potential and the capabilities of the organization in which he works, this means that he is taking someone else’s place. Another person, no less ambitious and purposeful, could realize himself.

My understanding of career growth is to create a larger business , in which I participate in the management. Career is not in the administrative hierarchy, but in the scale of the tasks being solved.

There is still no normal financial business school in Russia. The banking industry is already 15 years old, but graduates of foreign universities still have more extensive and practically applicable knowledge than those who receive an education in our country.

What is important is not the fact of having free time , but how you use it. I try to value both my own and other people's time. After all, for each individual person time is finite. I had to sacrifice communication with children in order to achieve results. But now that the business is built, it’s a pity to take away free time from children.

I love to read. Since childhood, I have been interested in Russian history in its various aspects. At some point, I started buying rare, out-of-print editions for my library. But I don't consider this a collection or an investment - I buy these books to read.

What I value most in people is not self-sacrifice for the sake of a high goal, but such a rare quality as the ability to serve. When a person, be it a doctor or a historian, puts the interests of others above his own. I have met such people, but not many. In business, the main thing is to make money, and here honesty and the ability to keep one’s word come first in evaluating people.

recorded by Andrey Krasavin

Principles of Ilya Yurov