Kogan: go forth and multiply

Beverley Head
Friday, 19 August 2011 16:08

Ruslan Kogan's 75 year old grandad isn't satisfied that there are now more than 300,000 products with the Kogan name in consumer's homes. He wants real live Kogans - and with Ruslan the last of the Kogan men (he's got a younger sister and two female cousins) he's feeling the pressure to procreate.

It's my guess grandad may have to wait a while longer. At the moment there's little time for much more than work for the 28 year old Melbournian who has shaken the retail market until its teeth rattle. And don't tell him retailing's gone sour and no-one's buying, it's just that consumers have got savvier about where they buy from he says.

'Kogan is still growing exponentially every single month. We don't think consumer spending has slowed down, we think people are becoming more frugal with how they spend their money. Consumers now have tools such as Google at their fingertips to very quickly do research and find objective information about the products they are considering. All this means is shoppers look everywhere for the best deal to ensure they make an educated purchase.'

One of the last things Kogan does before he finally closes his eyes on the day is to step out onto his balcony for a cigarette and gaze over the Melbourne skyline - if he's in the country of course, which isn't guaranteed since he claims to spend at least half the year overseas. It's a completely different vantage point than the one he had as a boy, when at the age of five he was uprooted from his native Russia to be transported to Australia and the life of new immigrants.

Although his father was an engineer in Russia, and his mother worked in the health sector, they took a range of jobs when they first came to Australia from delivering pizzas and pamphlets to cleaning local cafes. Neither of them had ever run a business, so Kogan's drive isn't inherited, but it may be learned.

'I was recently at an entrepreneur of the year type awards - of all the finalists it was interesting that three out of three finalists had a Russian surname. The presenter asked why - I said I didn't know - maybe (it was) something to do with vodka.