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Meet the Team. Vladimir Gabovich, Chief Operating Officer
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Meet the Team. Vladimir Gabovich, Chief Operating Officer

Awery has provided software solutions for aviation since 2009 and today we are looking back at those 12years. We want to acknowledge the great contribution to the success story of Awery, made by the people who were at the beginning and have built the company's products and team.

One of these people is Vladimir Gabovich, Awery’s Chief Operating Officer.


Vladimir, please tell us about when you joined Awery.

I came to Awery in 2014. At the time, the company did not look the way it does now. There were only 10 people in the team and we had to do a lot of different things ourselves. You know, this startup spirit. The product line was not shaped yet and we moved in a lot of directions simultaneously.



What was your first role in the company?

Actually, I came as a software developer but within a couple of months, we started a big implementation project, at least it was really big for us at that time! We all had to support it to make it a  success -  it was great teamwork. As frequently happens in startups, I started to work on this project as a project manager also and after some time switched to project management.



What experiences did you have before joining Awery, did you work with the aviation sector before that?

No actually, I worked in video content streaming services and in logistic companies in quality assurance, and project managers roles. I then gained  experience as a software developer on several projects. This experience became really useful and helped me to get up to speed with aviation cargo projects when I got a promotion to the project manager position and after that in my current role.



So since 2016 you have been working as a COO. Please, describe your areas of responsibility, what is the role of a chief operating officer in a product IT company?

Ok, so there are several main areas I’m responsible for. There are Customer Support, Product Architecture, Product development, which includes user interface design, development, and quality assurance as well as the Team structure. Besides this, I also manage a couple of projects in the Project Manager role. Usually, these new modules, internal startup-products, as we call them, or big deployment projects. This helps me to be in the loop in all processes and maintain close relations with customers.



You mentioned Team structure as one of the areas. Please, give us a quick overview of the Awery Team - who are these people, what are the main approaches in team building?

Currently, 42 people work in Awery and 36 of them are in the product development and customer support. Awery is a flat structure company, so we try to hire initiative and enthusiastic people, provide good onboarding and training, and delegate them enough rights and responsibilities for decision making.

We have a lot of internal startups within the company, and this approach in staff management and development allows us to create teams for these products and project support very quickly and effectively.



And what about the company’s products? How do they evolve and expand?

Currently, Awery ERP comprises various modules that could be used to help automate a wide variety of different types of aviation business. Our goal is to increase the features and functionality to cover all the main aviation businesses; passenger transportation, maintenance, charter broker, cargo etc. We constantly look to evolve and grow our products'  and their stability and scalability. As part of this, we spend a lot of time stress testing to ensure optimum processing times.



What is the most complex part of your work?

Oh, I think this is the constant search to balance the right solution which solves the customer issue, can be delivered in the appropriate time, delivers the desired functionality and remains easy to use whilst employing the latest technology. We are great collaborators and there are many cases when the solution does not match the original request but fixes the problem in the best way, which is very satisfying for the customer as well as Awery.

Awery’s competitive advantages are highly customizable solutions and the speed these can be delivered. It is really challenging to keep this high bar and all the team has to take into consideration as many facts and information as possible and make decisions and implement them quickly.



And what approaches help you in this, what is your methodology?

Actually, it is literally methodology (laugh). After graduation from the university, I dedicated several years to science as a researcher in surface chemistry direction.  And the methodology worked there also works for me in the IT-sphere of business analytics, project, and product management. So my approach for task solving is similar to scientific research, I try to deconstruct the problem and learn components from all sides and analyze all their aspects to make the most effective solution.


Vladimir, could you tell us about yourself.

First of all, I spend time with my wife, and son, this is my top priority project, I also have a dachshund dog called  Rocket. For the last two years I am starting to learn mixed martial arts. I am interested in military history- so a lot of the hobbies are related to this area for example airsoft - I have been into this for over 10 years. One of my other passions is Warhammer 40000. I really enjoy not just an actual game but all these preparation stages - assembling and painting models, you know, it really works for me, having a rest through changing activity types.

Thank you for your answers and time, I hope in the second part we will discover more about the amazing Awery team.

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