Russia:  Impacts on Business

     A favorite story of mine illustrating the Russian business mindset occurred last summer in San Francisco while attending my cousin's wedding.  While in the military, I lived two hours away from S.F. and was familiar with the city.  There is a significant Russian population living in SF, and they have many stores and shops selling authentic items.  I took my girlfriend into a shop selling Russian nesting dolls (matreshki).  We were looking for a smaller set that was inexpensive.  The woman working was incessantly harassing my girlfriend to buy something, a pitch that would have made any used car salesman envious.  When it was obvious my girlfriend tuned her out, the woman said in strongly accented frustrated english "Well you know this isn't a museum, if your not going to buy anything then please don't waste my time and leave."  This was from a young Russian woman who lived in the US.  My point is to show the deeply rooted misunderstanding of the capitalist market.  Of course my story is not indicative of all Russian people, but from my experience the reality is they do not understand business in general. Until the society as a whole learns the way to interact and operate in an appropriate business protocol, the country will have difficulties gaining the needed FDI.

    Any business attempting to enter into Russia today will face many challenges.  Poor communications infrastructure and societal difficulties will surely cause the majority to hold out until better environments take hold.  Russia has been ranked as one of the riskiest places on earth to do business.  This is due to the myriad of societal, economic and political problems currently blockading the transparent and normal business functions needed to develop an efficient market that people will inherently trust.  As IT and communications continues to bring the world together, it will be necessary that Russia takes seriously the need for rebuilding the infrastructure of the country in order to be part of and compete in the new millennium.
 
 

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