Maelle Gavet Quotes

"At Ozon, salaries are evaluated every year based on market benchmarks which are gender neutral."

"Russia is an amazing country to be an entrepreneur."

"The goal wasn't to create a billion-dollar company. The goal was to create something useful where I could learn things."

"If you have drive and energy, everything is possible."

"I can be more cold than people would like me to be."

"E-commerce is applicable to Russia, just as it's applicable to any other market."

"The biggest deficit in terms of gender equality at Ozon lay in our IT department. So we made a decision, along with our key IT leaders, to remove all filters and systemically interview all the women who apply."

"Once in a while, I still witness occasionally sexist behavior and comments from men (which experience has taught me you should always deflect with humour rather than anger). Old habits die hard, after all, and it's unrealistic to expect dinosaurs to fall silent overnight."

"Ozon.ru is made up of four businesses. Ozon.ru is an online retailer, O'Courier focuses on shipping, Ozon.Travel, and our most recent acquisition, Sapato, the leading online shoe and accessory retailer."

"After I completed the project for BCG, I was offered the position of Director of Marketing for Ozon.ru."

"Everyone in the United States asks me about being a woman CEO. To be honest, it has had no impact on my career. While I was at BCG, it didn't matter whether you were a man or a woman. The only thing that mattered was that you were good at your job."

"My advice to anyone would be to focus on your current job and be the best at it. The rest will take care of itself."

"All the big online retailers are looking at how to enter the Russian market."

"Within Internet users, you have a big chunk of people who can convert to online shopping."

"I am an optimist. I believe the future is bright. I think people who see life painted in dark colors are the ones who do not take ownership."

"I tell my colleagues that it is actually all right to make mistakes, and I am worried when they do not make them, because it means that they either hide them from me or are not trying hard enough."

"I do not like the idea that a Russian company cannot be successful without Western experience. I think that, at the end of the day, it is a question of bringing benchmarks from other countries. So far, the golden benchmark has been the West."

"When online business first appeared, a lot of operations would take your order and then disappear."

"When a handful of tech giants are gatekeepers to the world's data, it's no surprise that the debate about balancing progress against privacy is framed as 'pro-data and, therefore, innovation' versus 'stuck in the Dark Ages'."

"It simply isn't acceptable for the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon and others, which amass data by the terabyte, to say, 'Don't worry, your information's safe with us, as all sorts of rules protect you' - when all evidence suggests otherwise."

"The history of business has shown that companies usually only regulate themselves if they're forced to by legislation, or out of self-interest - often in the shape of a marketable message that will help sell more products."

"Not only is self-regulation largely a fantasy, but repeated scandals across multiple industries have proved that companies are fundamentally incapable of self-regulating for the greater good."

"That's the mantra I use when the team tells me something is too complicated. People keep saying, 'We need more prioritization.' I say, 'Guys, what you want is less work. And that is not going to happen.'"

"I have learned that I must take a holiday at least once each year if I want to survive!"

"A great deal of energy is spent daily on pushing the Russian e-commerce boom along while managing all aspects of growth and development along the way."

"There is very little room for relaxation, but as long as I capitalize on those brief moments of peace, I'm okay with that."

"The Russians are not as addicted to coffee as the Americans. We should work on that!"

"The pickup points are a natural additional network for delivery. For me, the surprise is that Amazon didn't come up with that idea."

"Consumers learn the value of being sure that what you want to buy is what you buy."

"The fundamental vision hasn't changed. What does change is how you get there, because there are still problems you have to figure out."