[citimail]

CMEA 30-JUN-97 17:36:38 029857

To: Victor Bashkirov (EUMOW:IB), Sergey Boyev (EUMOW:SPB),
To: Alexander Chukhlantsev (EULON:CEEMEA), Yuri Danilenko
(EUMOW:IB),
To: Irina Eliseeva (EUMOW:IB), Elena Gavrichenko (EUMOW:IB),
To: Ekaterina Goviadinova (EUMOW:IB), Julia Grigoruck (EUMOW:IB),
To: Dea Gunia (EUMOW:IB), Alexey Iodko (EUMOW:IB),
To: Alexei Kandidov (EUMOW:IB), Anton Karamzin (EUMOW:IB),
To: Ella Korop (EUMOW:IB), Galina Kolesnikova (EUMOW:IB),
To: Andrei Kuzmichev (EUMOW:IB), Genia Nazargalina (EUMOW:IB),
To: Evelyna Nechiporenko (EUMOW:IB), Natalia Nikolaeva (EUMOW:IB),
To: Katya Novikova (EUMOW:IB), Varya Orlova (EUMOW:IB),
To: Tania Ozerova (EUMOW:IB), Liza Pochtareva (EUMOW:IB),
To: Nikolai Pogorelov (EUMOW:IB), Yelena Poznykhova (EUMOW:IB),
To: Helen Pykhova (AFTUN:IB), Evelyn Rodionova (EUMOW:IB),
To: Tatyana Shpakova (EUMOW:IB), Svetlana Shemetova (EUMOW:IB),
To: Alexander Sinenki (EUPRG:IBF), Konstantin Teleshov (EUMOW:IB),
To: Zulfia Vershinina (EUMOW:IB), Natasha Yeremeyeva (EUMOW:IB)
From: Miljenko Horvat (EUMOW:IB)
Date: MON 30-JUN-97 17:36 GMT
Subject: Time for another message and it is not even Christmas!
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This is a time of many changes and some of you have been
wondering what it means and how it will all come out. While
I cannot see into the future nor explain everything, I do
believe I can interpret a few things in a way which will
put them into perspective and perhaps help you in dealing
with what it all means.

As most of you know but it is still worth repeating, this

is not an institutional, official position or view. This is
a kitchen table conversation over a cup of tea while it
is getting dark outside and it's either snowing or one can
hear the frogs and crickets through an open window in the
middle of the summer. When time seems to move more slowly
and becomes that much more appropriate in pace to our own
thoughts.

There have been some changes and there will be more changes
but some things never change. What will never change is our
history and our character which we have built through that
history. Seemingly, what also will never change is that in
some office somewhere around the building I will be hiding
until the day your grandchildren come in to play with computers
on "bring your child to work day". I know it probably will
not be that way but it just feels so.

Our character is what we are as a group and what we are is

the best damn bank in the biggest darn country in the world.
We got there because we were good to begin with and then
we got better. There were many obstacles in the way but look
at what happened. Despite all of them we are still the best
and only getting started. We are Citibank in Russia and people
will teach case studies in business schools about us 10
years from now. Don't you forget that.

Many individuals contributed but the character is not about

individuals. Michael will leave and so will others but even
if 5 years from now there is not a single person left who
was there when we lit the candles, the character of the institution
will still be there and it will still be "our" bank. We should
feel good about that and we should feel good in general. The
"feelgood" factor has been missing lately and as a result
a doom kind of attitude has taken over. It is time to stop
that. It is time to "sieze the day" - carpe diem - even more
than we ever did before.

Let me tell you about what we can be which I promised I would

do in my X-mas message. We can be one of the
top 10 banks in Russia in 3 years and one of the top 5 (by
profitability) in 5. We will have a consumer business which
will revolutionize the way banking for individuals is done
in Russia. We will pioneer the mortgage lending business
for individuals and cause markets to appear that have not
existed before. We as a group (Citibank in Russia) will continue
to be the fastest growing part of Citibank worldwide and
will become one of the most significant chunks of revenue
for the corporation.

In order to do that we must compete and competition is very

simple. Just take as an example a football team. If the team
has 11 players and each of those players is better than each
of his counterparts on the other side of the field, how could
that team loose? Of course strategy is somehwat important
but by far the most important are the players on the field
and if each of them is individually better (stronger, more
skilfull, better prepared) then their opponent, victory
becomes a logical conclusion of an inevitable process.

All we have to do, each and every one of us, is be better

than our individual counterparts in other businesses and we
simply cannot do anything but win. Fancy management consultants
call this "benchmarking" and make money out of explaining
people how to get there. But the essence of it is quite simple
and it has to do with individual excellence which when it
exists in a group feeds on itself and grows exponentially.
We have that excellence and everybody contributed to it including
people who are no longer physically part of it ("who is the
most important person in this bank?" is the question we all
remember and will remember as well as the person who asked
it - if you are too new to know, ask your colleagues). We,
as component part of our group identity, will take the best
part of any individual contribution, so from Michael we will
take the dedication and work ethic, from Mehdi the coolness
under pressure, from Mr. Moore the sense of what a wealth of
experience means etc. What we have is only a tip of the
iceberg and we'll be a fountain of excellence for years and
decades to come. The more people contribute to us their best,
the better we will be.

In the process, we all make mistakes and there is no way

of avoiding that. The important thing is that we correct
them as best as we can and move on. I will be terribly
disappointed if I continue to see the doomsday and "things
aren't what they used to be" type of attitude. Of course
they aren't - they are much better! All of you have more
opportunity to develop as professionals, business is booming
and there is every reason to be excited about the future.
If you are worried about continuity - it's not much to offer
but look at me, I'm here, I have been here and will continue
to be here and that's continuity too.

See you soon,

Miljenko

P.S. Technically speaking, it was not possible for me to

send the message to everybody so I decided to send it to
the list I used for x-mas. For obvious reasaons I did not
send it to the entire Citibank Russia mailing list. Please
look around you and pass it to you colleagues who did not
receive it and you think they would care to see it.
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