Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction to the Second Edition
- 1 Athletic Leadership Explained
- 2 The Agenda and Practices of Athletic Leaders
- 3 Effectiveness of Athletic Leadership: Outputs and Outcomes
- 4 Vitaly Saveliev: Passion and Innovation at the Old Airline
- 5 Eugene Kaspersky: Saving the World
- 6 Alexander Dyukov: Quiet Transformation of Gazprom Neft
- 7 Herman Gref at Sberbank: Entrepreneurship in the Least Likely Place
- 8 Athletic Leadership in Other Regions: Roger Agnelli, Dong Mingzhu and Jeff Bezos
- 9 Athletic Leadership for Non-Athletes
- Appendix: Research Methodology
- Index
5 - Eugene Kaspersky: Saving the World
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 October 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction to the Second Edition
- 1 Athletic Leadership Explained
- 2 The Agenda and Practices of Athletic Leaders
- 3 Effectiveness of Athletic Leadership: Outputs and Outcomes
- 4 Vitaly Saveliev: Passion and Innovation at the Old Airline
- 5 Eugene Kaspersky: Saving the World
- 6 Alexander Dyukov: Quiet Transformation of Gazprom Neft
- 7 Herman Gref at Sberbank: Entrepreneurship in the Least Likely Place
- 8 Athletic Leadership in Other Regions: Roger Agnelli, Dong Mingzhu and Jeff Bezos
- 9 Athletic Leadership for Non-Athletes
- Appendix: Research Methodology
- Index
Summary
I am an expert at adaptation and overcoming adversity. We win or we learn, that's what my coach John says, and that's what we do.
– Conor McGregorI love competition, so when you talk and tell me what you're gonna do, all it makes me wanna do is work harder.
– Usain BoltEugene Kaspersky is an unconventional leader. When you enter Kaspersky Lab HQ you feel as if you have stepped out of Moscow straight into California. Employees wear colourful T-shirts, shorts and sandals. Sunshine floods through enormous windows into a vast open space. The CEO occupies a small glass-walled corner office filled with Kaspersky Lab memorabilia, while software programmers working on new endpoint protection products sit right next to his suite. The message is clear: these guys are the most valuable resource of the company. ‘And they are fun to talk with,’ confides Kaspersky.
Dressed in a green Hawaiian shirt (‘We are a green company’), jeans and sneakers, and talking fast in heavily accented English, Kaspersky looks more like a programming genius than the CEO of a global company. ‘I don't give a damn about how I am dressed. I have a cheap watch and I adore jeans. I only care about comfort,’ he says. With unbridled passion, Kaspersky explains that the world is full of bad guys of different types – hackers, thieves, organized crime, rogue businesses and governments. They are becoming more and more sophisticated in the ways they conduct their dirty business, and their negative impact on the global economy is becoming more and more tangible. It is not possible to eradicate them altogether, but his mission is to make their lives very tough indeed – and he is confident he knows how to do it. Kaspersky Lab is engaged in developing and distributing antivirus protection software, which creates positive cash flows. However, the company also assists national governments and international security bodies (such as Europol and Interpol), actively participating in joint investigations of cyberespionage or cybersabotage malware and providing technical expertise. These activities require cash disbursements but give the founder even more moral satisfaction than his highly profitable products.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Athletic CEOsLeadership in Turbulent Times, pp. 105 - 120Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2019