Step 6 of the series: “When the going gets tough….., the tough apply a winning 8-step approach to the Russian and CIS markets”

1. Make sure your product or service is competitive

2. Know the market

3. Be hungry for the business

4. Be ready to go local

5. Have a clear strategy

6. DEDICATE ENOUGH RESOURCES

7. Put together the right team

8. Take control

Step 6. Can we dedicate enough resources? 

“In other markets things simply go by themselves”. “Russia is two percent of our worldwide turnover but takes ten percent of our time”. This is what we often hear when foreign companies speak about their Russian business and there is some truth in these words. On the one hand, Russian business does require more time and effort because of the different business culture, market reality and administrative, financial and logistic requirements. On the other hand, we often unnecessarily lose time because we don’t look before we leap. We end up redoing contracts, transport documents and logistic arrangements because we were not informed and prepared in the first place.

Whatever the reasons are, we routinely observe that companies underestimate the amount of time, energy and money that Russian business development requires. When correctly estimating the time and budget to be spent on marketing, business development and sales in Russia you need to consider that you will need to manage the Russian project/business hands-on and make micro management decisions that you usually wouldn’t take yourself. Operations, administration, compliance with Russian legislation, production and packaging requirements also take extra time. On top of that you will need to invest time, money and effort in overcoming the language barrier and to translate documents and brochures into Russian. Last but not least, the Russian market requires marketing efforts and investments, just like any other market.

This simply means you need to plan the human resources and budget that should be allocated to the project. Then add twenty percent for unforeseen costs and use that figure to take a final decision on whether you are willing to enter the market or not.

(If you want to know more about the details and practice of planning and budgeting your Russian project then you can contact us at jnketting@thelighthousegroup.ru for further information)