EFKO is one of the biggest food producers in Russia, a significant share of its exports going to the BRICS countries market. Executive Director of this Group, Sergey Ivanov, is not only a successful top manager focused on KPIs but also a “seeking individual”: searching for meaning, harmony, genuine relationships, and usefulness of his work for the world. Sergey Ivanov’s column about the meanings system that forms the foundation of his life and work opens a series of publications in BRICS Business Magazine about the most prominent entrepreneurs from BRICS countries, for whom business is both a continuation of their personal philosophy and a way to live meaningfully.
To figure out where you are going and where you are leading your team, you must first answer the question: “Who am I then?” I am 49 years old. I was born in a village in Transbaikal, where I lived until I was 16, then moved to Novosibirsk, finished a physics and mathematics school and graduated from university. Twenty-six years ago, I found myself in a theatre for the first time and fell in love with an actress I saw on stage. She reciprocated my feelings, and we have now been together for a quarter of a century. I have been attending church for 22 years and singing in a church choir for 14 years.
Sergey Ivanov (born 11 June 1976, Kizhinga village)
From 1997 to 2001 – Head of the PED, Chief Economist, Deputy Director for Production at the Novosibirsk Oil and Fat Plant.
From 2001 to 2005 – General Director of the Novosibirsk Oil and Fat Plant.
Also in 2005, he held the position of Director of the Oil and Fat Division of the Management Company Solnechnye Produkty (Sunny Products).
From 2005 to 2010 – General Director of the Management Company Solnechnye Produkty.
In 2011 – General Director of the company Dymov.
From 2012 to 2018 – General Director and Co-founder of the company Dauria Aerospace, founder of Exactfarming.
Since 2018 – Executive Director and Member of the Board of Directors of the EFKO Group, one of the biggest food producers in Russia (Sloboda, Altero and Pyshka brands).
I have always worked hard. I started from scratch, without connections, without starting capital. And, for a long time, I had a very specific dream: to earn USD 30–50 million by the age of 50 so that I could stop working and start living a normal life. But, in 2011, I found myself without a job. For the first time, I went to Mount Athos and, after spending several days alone, without a phone, without calls, I suddenly realized that, at this rate, I might not even live to see 50.
At that time, we were trying to persuade my father to move to Moscow to be closer to his grandchildren. He constantly replied: “I can’t live without work”. He worked as a forester, he needed the forest. And there, on Athos, I suddenly understood that I am just like my father: I cannot live without work either. So I need to restructure my lifestyle completely, learning to live here and now, not somewhere out in the distant future, and to have enough time for everything.
Most importantly, to change my attitude towards work. My wife Irina (Irina Serebrovskaya, Honoured Artist of Russia – Ed.), actress, director, teacher, once said in an interview: “Theatre is a way of life, to make this world a better place.” This phrase “hit” me deeply. I thought: how are we, business people, worse than theatre people? Maybe I also want to say that my work “makes this world a better place”.
I want to live so that it doesn’t feel painfully agonizing for the years spent aimlessly. This instruction from my mother has stayed with me for life.
And for that, you need to find a cause you wouldn’t be ashamed to look your children in the eye for. And to find people, a team, with whom you are no longer just earning money, but are living your life. It would also be good to set yourself goals that go far, far away, beyond the horizon of your life.
You must also take care of your health, so that it lasts for a long time. Improve your diet, fix your sleep, integrate sports into your lifestyle. That’s how I started running. And I have been into long-distance running for ten years now, and my running dream in is simple – to go for a run on my last day.
What else is needed in order to “work to the limit”? You must constantly learn, acquire new knowledge and skills. When I was 39, I suddenly realized with horror that I couldn’t read any book to the end. Forget a book – I couldn’t get through a long article. By the middle, I would forget what it was about. It was scary. I thought that’s how old age comes. Then I figured out that it was all a consequence of stress.
And eight years ago, I passed an exam in neurophysiology: at the time, it seemed like completely useless knowledge, and I had difficulty forcing myself to study the subject. Yet, in the end, I got an A and was ready to jump up to the ceiling from realizing that my brain is still capable of assimilating new things!
I started my career at the Novosibirsk Oil and Fat Plant, where I became the General Director. Then came Moscow, my own business in the aerospace industry with offices in America and Europe.
Then I returned to the industry and, after some time, realized that I am no astronaut. I am a collective farmer: I left the village but the village doesn’t really want to leave me. And what happens on the earth is somehow more native, closer, and calmer to me.
All my previous activities, including in the aerospace sphere, were essentially preparation for what I am doing at EFKO. Here, for the first time in my career, I was given an opportunity to touch on a business I can engage with “to the limit”. I now work with people that my heart definitely says: “these are my own.”
What is EFKO? It can be described in numbers: 20 plants, more than 20 thousand employees, 4 million tonnes of products a year, hundreds of billions of roubles in revenues. Even so, inside the board of directors, we answer this question differently. For us, EFKO is a system of meanings and ideas around which we have agreed to do business.
EFKO and BRICS
The EFKO Group is actively developing its activities in BRICS countries, focusing particularly on regions where food security and public health are particularly acute issues. These are primarily the states of Africa. BRICS accounts for 70% of Russia’s vegetable oil exports, and a significant contribution to this indicator has been made by EFKO’s activities.
EFKO also supports initiatives aimed at strengthening collaboration between the countries of the association. The Group actively participated in implementation of the New BRICS Technological Platform project, which, in 2024, was initiated by the Russian Government together with the autonomous non-profit organizations Agency for Strategic Initiatives to Promote New Projects and Platform for The National Technological Initiative. “Today, no country is capable of fully ensuring independence in technologies, even in theory. So, unions, alliances, and blocs are a natural and irreversible format. The task is to find forms of collaboration acceptable to all and launch integration processes within the scope of creating a unified technological platform”, commented Sergey Ivanov on this initiative.
One example of EFKO’s involvement in solving BRICS countries’ problems is support for the innovators’ competition within the Congress of Young Scientists. In December 2024, the winner of the competition was Thiago Edwiges from Brazil with a project for a low-cost bioprocessing plant for the sugar industry, which can minimize environmental damage. Scientists from China and Russia took second and third places. They proposed projects for developing a new material for the rubber industry and using AI potential for predicting natural fires.
We have formulated two key principles. The first runs like this: business is always a benefit that finds its place in people’s lives in an economically efficient way. Benefit first, then money. The second principle: business is a tool that helps every employee protect and provide for their family and realize their inherent potential to the maximum.
These principles require the company to set maximally ambitious goals. For example, for us, these are to defeat diabetes with the help of sweet proteins and to feed Africa with plant-based proteins. Or to find solutions that would help a person at 65 feel as if they were 30, restore cognitive functions, and reduce stress levels. This is exactly where our cellular nutrition and new probiotics are engaged.
But we have gone further: we strive to create a corporate environment in which every person who shares our cultural code can maximize their potential. In our company, any employee who has proven their value through knowledge and competencies can rise to company shareholder level.
Publication based on a speech by Sergey Ivanov at the Noôdome club space.
