Price Fixing
FAS, the country’s antitrust agency, ruled in favor of Rockwool and Penoplex, finding Technonicol guilty of copying their branding imagery. Technonicol’s two appeals were rejected by arbitration courts.
In 2010, FAS also found Technonicol guilty of price fixing by forcing dealers to sell their products at the lowest cost or face penalties. Kolesnikov said FAS is hampering market growth through excessive government regulation.
“The regulatory function of the state has become too high,” he said, leaning over an empty desk that dominates a 300 square-foot office decorated only with a brown presentation board. “How will the economy progress if you damp entrepreneurs’ energy?”
Swimsuit Calendar
Kolesnikov adheres to western and Japanese management philosophies and quotes management consultant William Edwards Deming, whose statistical theories are credited with inspiring the economic growth surge in Japan after World War II. When Kolesnikov visits Technonicol’s plants, he hands out copies of “The Toyota Way,” a book about the Tokyo-based carmaker’s principles for continuous improvement and respect for workers.
Rybakov, who declined to be interviewed for this story, uses a YouTube channel to post videos of his family on yachting and skiing excursions.
The company maintains an informal corporate culture. It publishes an annual swimsuit calendar featuring female workers. To celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary last December, the billionaires hired a heavy-metal band to record a rock song and created a music video starring Technonicol employees singing in the studio after a day of answering phones and eyeing the clock before grabbing their coats and dashing from the office.
“If your roof is blown away and your house is surrounded by snowdrifts, rest assured this is not a problem,” they sing. “We know the formula of victory.”