One of the most successful periods for Mikhailov & Partners. Strategic communications consulting remained our core business, but there were changes in our market positioning. The company’s development was driven by emergence of new services and activities and a fundamental shift from merely "procedural" tasks to multidisciplinary projects with a strong consulting component. 

M&P strengthened its financial communications practice (IPO and M&A support, reputation management, etc.). The Agency stregthened its team and had new major domestic and international clients who set various communications tasks related to public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, crisis and conflict management, communication strategy development, and reputation audit. During this period, we implemented notable, large-scale projects to support the public offering of VTB and the first IPOs in the Russian transportation (the Novorossiysk Port) and power industries (OGK-2 and OGK-5).

As a result, “Mikhailov & Partners. Strategic Communications Management” became one of the leading providers of communication support for initial public offerings in 2007, according to IPO & Private Placement in Russia (Offerings.ru), an independent information and research source. The Company had the second biggest share in the total value of supported deals and the third biggest share in the total number of deals.

Big changes in the management: the Agency was now managed by a team of partners headed by the President. Juliana Slaschova, who was the Agency’s partner in 1994 to 2002, was the first to be appointed to this new office. She led the reorganisation of the PR agency into the communications consultancy.

This was a turning point, the Company began to implement large-scale projects of national importance: information support for the Russian Olympic Committee before and during the 28th Olympic Games in Athens; acting as co-organiser of the national campaign Future Without AIDS jointly with Bristol-Myers Squibb; and launching the Russian Headliners, an international communication programme contributing to improvement of Russian businesses’ reputation abroad and development of major Russian companies as Global Leaders.

M&P continued to be a market leader. It adopted a strategy which is in place to this day, under which the Agency formed and focused on four key practices: corporate, financial, and social communications, and government accounts. These are the four main pillars around which the company’s activities are still structured.

Mikhailov & Partners Strategic Communications Management was named the Best Business PR Agency in Kariera’s annual rating.

The market started to demand the kind of communications that anticipate specific business processes. The Agency began to provide communications support for corporate restructurings, mergers and acquisitions. A growing number of corporate clients were recognizing the need for strategic communications to precede and set the stage for specific business transactions. The Agency’s senior management responded to this trend by completely revising its business objectives. M&P started developing a new business line of strategic communications and remained a market leader.

The Agency’s achievements received wide recognition. During the annual seminar held in Brussels, Belgium, for public relations agencies providing assistance to Motorola, Mikhailov & Partners was awarded a Motorola European PR Campaign Contribution diploma. Later that year the Agency received a Silver Award from Marketing Russia for Public Relations Consultancy. ROMIR, a leading independent research centre, named Mikhailov & Partners the Leading Business PR Agency in its second annual nationwide rating.

The growth of Russian manufacturing companies gave way to a new development phase in the Agency. The post-crisis industrial expansion led to higher goals set by domestic companies in their PR activities. They became important and challenging clients for M&P. Since then, major Russian companies included in Expert’s Top 400 rating have comprised 75 to 80 % of our client base.

Also that year, Mikhailov & Partners joined the International Communications Consultancy Organization (ICCO), became signatory to the Rome Charter, a set of international public relations industry standards, and co-founded Triangle Consulting Group. Together with its colleagues, the Agency began publishing So-Obsheniye, a monthly magazine for public relations professionals.

The first half of the year saw inertial growth in the financial markets, but trouble was already in the air. The storm caused by the August national default and resulting economy-wide crisis swept away half of the public relations market players. The rest struggled tooth and claw to hold on to their businesses.

Many foreign companies shut down their Russian operations. Their share of the market was taken over by Russian companies, many of which became clients of the Agency. Despite the overall economic crisis, the demand for the services offered by the Agency was steadily growing. By the end of the year, the Agency executed more than 150 client projects.

This same year, Mikhailov & Partners won the Silver Archer, the first national professional award in the public relations industry, for the Best Business Project. The award was established by the Russian Public Relations Association, the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Union of Journalists of Russia.

Market economy infrastructure was developing rapidly. Financial and stock markets were on the rise. Multinational companies appearing in Russia demanded international standards of professional services from Russian PR agencies. Mikhailov & Partners was one of the few agencies that lived up to these standards. The role of public relations began to change, and this resulted in an adjustment of the Agency’s client relations philosophy. The focus shifted to adequate reflection of actual business processes. M&P developed a new five-year strategy and made a crucial decision to specialise in corporate and financial communications. This policy is firm in place to this day.

Simultaneously, the Agency greatly expanded the range of professional services offered, including the infrastructure for various research activities. Mikhailov & Partners became an institutional member of the Sociologists Society of the Russian Academy of Sciences. As part of its market expansion, the Agency created Public Relations Development Group, a multifaceted communications holding.

Companies were going public. The banking sector and the stock market were developing. Banks, funds and insurance companies became clients of the Agency. At this stage, business management and communications were developing as two separate functions; clients were interested solely in creating a certain image for corporations and their executives. Mikhailov and Partners gained reputation and built a substantial client portfolio. The Agency developed post haste.

Some of the growth drivers were the frequent use of our services in election campaigns and a significant staff increase. During the year, our advisors delivered lectures and master classes in Public Relations for graduate business school students in one of Moscow’s colleges. A number of these students were later employed by the Agency. One of them was Boris Firsov, now Senior Partner and Managing Director of M&P.

While continuing to manage numerous assignments, the agency moved aggressively to strengthen its position in the public relations market. Mikhailov & Partners became one of the founders of the Russian Public Relations Association, began publishing PR World, the first industry bulletin, and created Russia’s first PR School as part of Smart Enterprises Service’s International Business School.

Russia’s emerging private business realised the need for professional public relations assistance. There were no PR agencies as such on the market. Only political advisors had existed since the early 1990s. But nature abhors a vacuum, and it was then that Sergei Mikhailov, a 22-year old International Journalism and PR graduate of the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), split from YA Corporation to establish one of the first PR Agencies in Russia. From the very beginning, Mikhailov & Partners were extremely ambitions and focused primarily on serving major corporate clients. Their first key clients were Tveruniversalbank, Reserve Funds Corporation, Chelyabinsk Trailer Factory, Russian Development Bank, Kraft were among others.

Sergei Mikhailov,

the founder of Mikhailov & Partners Strategic Communications Management

Sergei Mikhailov is rightfully considered among the best and most experienced Russian experts in public relations. In fact, he was one of the pioneers of this profession in Russia and it was he who coined the Russian term for “public relations”. Sergei holds many professional awards and tops various industry ratings. He has scored high in the Corporate Communications category of every annual ranking of Russia’s Top 1000 Managers, jointly published by the Russian Managers Association and Kommersant.

Mr. Mikhailov was born in Arkhangelsk in 1971. He took a Public Relations degree from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), School of International Journalism. While studying at MGIMO, he was twice sent to US universities for traineeship.

In 1990, Sergei became President of MGIMO’s Young Journalists Association and a co-founder of the Russian Public Relations Association (RASO).

In 1992, he co-founded Ya Corporation, an advertising firm that quickly developed into a market leader. Next year Sergei completed his degree and established the PR consultancy Mikhailov & Partners, which was later renamed into Mikhailov & Partners Strategic Communications Management to reflect the wider scope of business. The company completed over 1,000 reputation management and corporate communications projects under his 11 year-long leadership.

In 2004, Mr. Mikhailov was invited to take up a post in the Management Board of Russian Railways, first as Advisor to President and since May 2005, as Head of Corporate Communications. His terms of reference include coordination of the company’s public activities, corporate reputation management, internal media, advertising and publicity, and communications with key stakeholders in Russia and abroad.

Sergei Mikhailov was awarded an honorary badge of Russian Railways and a medal for contribution to development of the railway industry.