Yulia Lebedeva: "If everything breaks down without you, it's time to learn how to set up processes"

On the eve of the CEO Summit, we talked with Yulia Lebedeva. She is the permanent head of the organizing committee of all conferences White Nights. Among the topics are the working regime, management and, of course, the future summit.

At the time of the conversation, Yulia is constantly in touch. From eight in the morning, he makes deals, plans a conference program (both in Barcelona and in St. Petersburg), throws off comments about the newly launched new media Game World Observer. But she’s not in the office. She’s on sick leave.

Alexander Semenov, Senior Editor App2Top.ru : Don’t you miss the time when you didn’t have to start the working day at eight in the morning to do everything in time, and the phone wasn’t bursting with messages?

Yulia Lebedeva, head of White Nights: Well, why immediately at eight? I sometimes start at seven (laughs).

I’m not really a lark at all. Only in the last couple of years I started to get to work early in the morning.

What for? In Russia, gaming IT companies traditionally start the day from 11-12 days.

Julia: I’ll tell you two reasons that are critical for me at once.

First. If you start before eight, then you can quickly get to the office by taxi when there are no traffic jams yet. The journey takes 25 minutes, not the usual 60 by public transport.

The second. In these first few hours, while everyone is still asleep, I manage to redo a lot of things that require a lot of concentration. No one writes, calls, or asks anything out loud.

If you come early on purpose to sort out some of the tasks, does this mean that you still miss the period when it was quieter?

Julia: No, it’s more a matter of personal effectiveness.

I don’t remember a time when there wasn’t much to do. It seems to me that it is not interesting to work half-heartedly in principle. It’s better to rest then!

This is usually the problem. If there is such a constant flow, then how can you even leave for a week at all?

Julia: If there is a good team, then this is not a problem.

You know, it just seems that once you leave, everything will break down. That’s not so.

And if so?

Julia: If everything breaks down without you, it means it’s time to change something and at least learn how to set up processes.

Especially for modern managers who spend much more time on business trips (outside the office) than on vacations. And it is at this time that everything should not break down, because there is no way to control everything on business trips.

How much time do you spend on business trips yourself?

Julia: This year I have already visited London, Berlin, Barcelona, San Francisco, Berlin and Dubrovnik again. This means that I spent about 110 hours on the road (on the way to and from airports, waiting for flights, in flight, and so on). And in total, for about a month out of the first four of 2019, I was on business trips away from home.

My husband sometimes jokes that, they say, he shouldn’t have married an ordinary saleswoman — at least he saw her at home more often. At the same time, there is no time to rest on trips, you try to use them to the maximum, communicating day and night. This has its own charm — at least out of the corner of your eye to see the most beautiful cities in the world, eat in unusual restaurants, meet the coolest people in the gaming industry. But you get tired of everything. The older you get, the more you begin to appreciate the opportunity to just spend time at home with your family.

Returning to the topic that it is not a problem to leave if all the processes are lined up. It is much more dangerous not to go on vacation. So people burn out and break down, if not psychologically, then in terms of health for sure.

For example, I try to take a vacation at least three times a year. Rebooting even a week long allows you to recover perfectly and recharge the batteries.

But you can’t go far on one vacation with a loaded regime.

Julia: Of course, it’s not just about the vacation. When processing, without which, unfortunately, there is nowhere today, sport is a necessity.

For which most do not have enough willpower.

Julia: Speaking of willpower. I found a solution to this problem two years ago. I am a very responsible person. A promise made to someone is above all for me. I gave my word — keep it. So I’m working with a personal trainer. It’s not a fine for a canceled class that makes me go to the gym, but a promise. The coach will be waiting for me!

Therefore, after work, if you want to, you don’t want to, but you go. I do strength training three times a week. It’s still difficult to force myself, I often whine on the road, but I still go. During training, it lets go, you start to feel stronger. Both physically and mentally.

But, to be honest, I couldn’t have done it without a coach. She selects a program for me and controls every movement, thanks to this, I can turn off my brain in the gym. It helps a lot.

I started talking about the regime for a reason. You are now, in fact, a top manager. And before talking about the summit, I wanted to know: what changes when a person moves to a new league? What changed for you when you turned from a department head into a vice president?

Julia: Honestly, nothing much has changed. I have always tried to do as well as possible what I do. And now I continue. However, the cost of error increases. At the same time, there are more things that need to be kept in sight. This causes more stress: I want to do everything in time and not compromise.

It just seems that the bigger the team, the more people solve your problems. Aha, if only! We always hire people for specific tasks. Their number is growing all the time, so the staff is also growing. And the manager has additional tasks to manage additional people.

I’m not complaining! On the contrary, with a cool team, you can roll mountains, it’s impossible alone. But it’s not easy.

And now you, already as a top manager, are doing an event for top managers – CEO Summit. How much do the tops need such a format at all?

Julia: I would say that it is necessary.

At traditional conferences, meetings usually take half an hour, one after the other. You only have time to get acquainted or find out how things are.

There is generally a lot of fuss, various activities, a lot of people. That’s good, of course, you can close a lot of questions at once.

However, the format of the summit gives an opportunity to communicate qualitatively in a calm atmosphere to those who always make key decisions in the development of products and businesses.

I was at someone else’s event of a similar format last year: two days and only a hundred people. Everyone I met there responds to my letters, everyone remembers me well. It’s worth a lot.

Plus, you’ve already held a similar event. Only it was in Cyprus. By the way, why did you change your place to Barcelona?

Julia: The idea to hold an event for top managers arose last year amid the popularity of Cyprus as a relocation site for gaming companies. Many moved, many were interested in the opportunity. It was interesting to see how things really were there, so the summit was very much on the topic. But everyone who wanted to know something found out, so there was no particular point in lingering in the same place. In addition, White Nights is an international event, and it is inconvenient to get to Cyprus from Europe.

Barcelona is a beautiful city, it’s warm and delicious there, and most importantly — there are many direct flights from different cities. And I’m not even talking about the fact that if it’s not the gaming capital of Southern Europe, it’s definitely very close to it.

Offhand, there are offices of Gameloft, Ubisoft, GSN Games, King, IGG, Social Point, Scopely, there is also an office at ZeptoLab and Outfit7. And these are only large ones, there are probably other companies.

Returning to the CEO Summit. Will you change something this year, besides the place?

Julia: Yes, we took into account a couple of points from last year.

Firstly, this time there will be no scene at all. Last year there were two keynotes and four round tables, but even this turned out to be unclaimed.

The fact is that each participant of the summit has something to tell, something to share. There is no situation when part of the audience comes to learn something from others. Therefore, it makes no sense to choose just a few people and give them microphones. On the contrary, I would like to involve everyone in the discussion.

Therefore, CEO Summit 2019 is focused on networking. Instead of a stage, there is a format of round tables, at which up to 10 people gather, there are several such tables in parallel, each discussing different topics. The list of topics can be viewed at the link.

Each registered participant receives a form with the opportunity to enroll in a particular topic. But you can also just hold meetings — spontaneous or planned in advance through our White Nights Business Assistant.

Secondly, in Cyprus there was a problem with the retention of the second day. After intensive communication at the prepati, throughout the first day, as well as at the main party on the beach, many simply either did not reach the summit at all, or came at the end. I came up with the idea to solve this problem with the help of ships. The second day of the CEO summit in Barcelona will be held on a cruise ship. We leave at 12, so there is simply no option to come later. After a two-hour swim, there will be a cocktail lunch at the view restaurant.

Who to wait for?

Julia: The list of those who have applied can be viewed at the link.

Among them are top managers of King, Netmarble, Tencent, Google, Small Giant Games, Wooga, Facebook, Scopely, Social Point, Plarium, G5, Zeptolab, Nevosoft, VK and many others.

There is still an opportunity to register and take part! White Nights CEO Summit will be held on May 13-14.

I see. Thanks for the interview!