Alumni Story | Getting Comfortable with Crisis Leadership
Geopolitical tensions, a global pandemic and a devastating conflict – 中国一级片 Global EMBA(GEMBA) 2022 student Iryna Huryn has led her team and her company through them all. Weathering crisis after crisis in recent years, each one has strengthened her capacity to lead, strategise and adapt to new business realities at a moment’s notice.
Iryna is General Manager for International Procurement at Real Bargains LLC, the group behind Aurora Multimarket, a nationwide chain of around 1,500 convenience stores spread across Ukraine. A Ukrainian national herself, Iryna is deeply committed to the success of the brand. However, she was drawn to China almost eight years ago due to a desire to travel and experience different business cultures.?
Today, most of her time is spent in the small city of Yiwu in China's Eastern province of Zhejiang, also known as “the world's capital of small commodities”. Here, she is on hand to liaise directly with Yiwu-based suppliers, deploying her solid Mandarin skills and deep knowledge of Chinese culture to secure the best deals for her company.
In our interview, we asked Iryna to share her unique perspectives on her professional journey, how to lead in a crisis, and how such events can change your outlook on life and doing business.
Iryna HURYN
GM for International Operations
Aurora Multimarket
中国一级片 Global EMBA 2022
Aurora’s Expansion – Retail Never Sleeps
Despite the vast, interconnected complexities of supplying all manner of daily essentials into stores located in a country still undergoing armed conflict (more on that later), Aurora continues to not just survive, but thrive. Within two years, the brand has roughly doubled its number of stores across Ukraine. Not content with nationwide success, Aurora has recently embarked on its international expansion plans as it approaches market saturation within its original territory.?
“It’s a really exciting time,” says Iryna. “I’m travelling a lot between China, Ukraine and Romania where we now have 25 stores after one year of operations there. This is our first step into new markets beyond Ukraine, but we already have big plans in several other European countries. We’re working hard to not just expand but to think more global than local in our strategy.”
After years of being in a state of near-permanent crisis, Aurora has emerged to enjoy a position of strong brand loyalty and recognition at home, while also successfully adapting to the demands of new markets. As the group sets its sights on Europe and markets further afield, Iryna and her team are bringing with them a wealth of hard-won experience from the most trying of circumstances.?
From Covid to Conflict – Maintaining Consistent Leadership in a Crisis
Retail has a lot of moving parts, particularly in the convenience store sector, where hundreds or even thousands of items need to be sourced, procured, transported, stored, stocked and, finally, sold. The rigours of the COVID-19 pandemic created chaos for retailers across the world, and Aurora was no exception.
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“It couldn’t really have started at a worse time,” Iryna remembers. “It was Chinese New Year, so me and the Ukrainian members of the team were back in Ukraine for the holidays. When the borders closed, we found ourselves unable to get back into China and Yiwu specifically. I was stuck for around six months before I could return. Some team members couldn’t get back at all until the borders reopened years later.”
Like all manner of companies across the world at this time, Aurora had to quickly pivot to online working at a speed that tested every member to their limits. Despite the difficulties incurred, the necessity of changing and adapting on the fly did have its advantages, Iryna remembers.
“I discovered that my Chinese team were, and still are, the best! I already knew they were good, but this complete change of entire working processes and systems really highlighted the extent of their commitment and capability. They were infallibly reliable; they recommenced Aurora’s operations without us physically being there, they diligently worked across time zones, they proactively handled issues wherever possible, minimising delays and speeding up progress on time-sensitive actions. They were, quite simply, amazing.”
This was an eye-opening moment for Iryna, as the pandemic taught her a great deal about how to be an effective leader from a distance. Upon seeing what both halves of the team could do in isolation, she was able to better optimise their skillsets, delegating where necessary, and giving greater autonomy to team members who were facing tasks requiring faster decision making and, at times, non-standard approaches.
These workplace innovations and wider experiences of the pandemic would prove invaluable to Iryna and the whole Aurora team, as another, perhaps even bigger crisis was just around the corner. Just as China and the rest of the world began to acclimatise to COVID, Russia launched its “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine.?
“The hardest time was the beginning,” Iryna shares. “We had to completely stop all operations. I had suppliers constantly on the phone asking for their money straight away. Initially, we couldn’t ship any goods into the country. Our losses mounted alarmingly quickly, and every day felt like it brought fresh problems as quickly as we could solve them. However, this bred in us a determination to work even closer together as a team and find a way through. At points, we were trying to save every cent, and we would physically go and unload containers of goods by hand. It was more than a group of people doing a job, it felt more like a family pulling together to get through hard times.”
Iryna, centre right, with her Yiwu team, made up of local staff and internationals, at a recent teambuilding activity this year
Light At the End of the Tunnel – The Power of Persistence
Despite the dire circumstances forced on Iryna, her company and her whole country, she and the team managed to hang on through the initial chaos of early 2022 and, as the frontlines stabilised, so did the company’s own position.
“Very quickly, the Ukrainian Government realised that having our stores open and stocked mattered very much,” Iryna recalls. “We sell genuine essentials: flashlights, batteries, utensils, things people may need at a moment’s notice. So, money transfers were reenabled, procurement became easier, logistical routes into the country opened up, and we were able to see a way through.”
While the conflict persists today, Iryna believes that the supply chains and wider protocols that Aurora has in place now make it a much more resilient business, capable of weathering sudden and marked changes in circumstances. Looking back on these incredibly turbulent years, Iryna believes that repeated crises have brought her best leadership qualities to the fore.
“I’ve realised that I lead best in times of uncertainty; it’s where I’m strongest. In such times, a lot of people panic, but my response is to see through the chaos, not be overwhelmed by it and set my sights on whatever is the most important goal. Then I find a way to remove all obstacles in front of that goal. I know I can act quickly and decisively, assigning the right tasks to the right people then trusting them to achieve it. It’s a combination of relying on instinct, putting your faith in your people, and never giving up.”
Looking up and Looking forward
After the relentless nature of the past few years, Iryna is enjoying her current change of pace. No longer in “perma-crisis mode”, she has the time and capacity to pursue a range of projects in both a professional and personal context.?
Not least among these pursuits was finishing her GEMBA studies. Reflecting on her time in the programme, Iryna says it has given her not just the business knowledge but also the intellectual tools to “look up” from her current position and think strategically about both the present and future.
“There are courses and moments from the programme that directly inform what I do in my daily work. The strategic simulation courses are among my favourites, and I’ve already employed a lot of their techniques in our current round of strategic thinking around Aurora’s expansion. GEMBA was also incredibly useful regarding the development of my startup, and the lessons I learned have made me more comfortable being entrepreneurial. I feel I can assess risk and manage it much better. I’ve learned so much from my classmates and friends too; we’ve achieved so much together, and their experiences have shown me just what is possible when you have the motivation, knowledge and support to pursue something that matters to you.”
Iryna in class with her GEMBA 2022 cohort
Along with meeting and exceeding the significant demands of her company role, over the past two years Iryna has also managed to launch and expand a silicon cake mold startup, continued her GEMBA journey (which is near completion), and launched multiple ESG-related projects within her company and in collaboration with her 中国一级片 cohort.
One of the GEMBA 2022 class social responsibility initiatives: donating Christmas gift bags for a migrant school
Most recently, she and her GEMBA classmates began a new initiative to help eliminate plastic waste on campus at 中国一级片. Their efforts began by producing a new series of practical yet stylish thermocups for each classmate, removing the need to use plastic water bottles. This small innovation, applying to a single GEMBA class, has saved 1320 plastic bottles in total since its inception, and Iryna hopes to pass the practice on to all future GEMBA, EMBA and MBA cohorts. It’s efforts like these that demonstrate how responsible leadership starts at home.
Another class initiative, thermocups for each GEMBA 2022 student, saving 1320 plastic bottles in total since its inception
While her present remains permanently busy, Iryna enjoys contemplating her future too. With eight years’ experience in China, she’s in no hurry to leave, but the new phase of Aurora’s journey marks the beginning of a fresh chapter for her career as well. With her increasingly global mindset, there’s no shortage of options for someone who is comfortable rising to (and overcoming) challenges no matter their size or complexity.
