Q&A IN DEPTH


Guest of Honour Author interview


Tina Mamulashvili Bakur Sulakauri, chief executive


Bakur Sulakauri started out as a small business in the troubled Georgia of the early 1990s, but it is now the nation’s leading publisher—and it has far-reaching ambitions


Questions Tom Tivnan


TT Can you tell us about the beginnings of Sulakauri,


and how it has developed?


SR Would you start a publishing business in a country which has just gone through numerous political crises, including armed conflicts? A country facing economic collapse, with wide- spread corruption? A country with undeveloped infrastructure, where power cuts occur on a daily basis? Most people probably would not. But that was everyday life in post-Soviet Georgia.


Although a start-up in a


country going through a transfor- mation period has many threats, it has opportunities, too. Unlike today, to start a business in the 1990s would mean overcoming lots of barriers and bureaucracy. It would require less investment, but much more courage and determination to survive in such a risky environment. We started in 1998 as a small, family business—just [founder] Bakur Sulakauri and me, plus our accountant. A few years ago


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