Transcript Document

Everything
You Always Wanted
to Know
About Russia
But Were Afraid to Ask
Agenda
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Some Key Facts about Russia
Where are the Money?
Business with Russians
Outsourcing to Russia
Culture-related Aspects
1. Some Key Facts
about Russia
Geographical Summary
Legendary Russia
Nikolay Dekhtyarenko
Partisans
Real Russia
Area: 17,075,400 km2
Population: 145,000,000
Brazil, Russia, India, China:
countries of growing economics.
History (simplified)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Up to 1547:
1547–1721:
1721–1917:
1917–1922:
1922–1991:
1991–today:
Feudal dominions.
Feudal Kingdom (old school).
Russian Empire (European).
Red Russia.
Soviet Russia = USSR.
Russia (as we see it today).
Russian Cyrillic Alphabet
Cyrillic
А а
Б б
В в
Г г
Д д
Е е
Ж ж
З з
И и
Й й
К к
Л л
М м
Н н
О о
П п
Latin
U (but)
B
V
G
D
YE (year)
ZH
Z
I
Y (way)
K
L
M
N
O
P
Cyrillic
Р р
С с
Т т
У у
Ф ф
Х х
Ц ц
Ч ч
Ш ш
Щ щ
Ъ ъ
Ы ы
Ь ь
Э э
Ю ю
Я я
Latin
R
S
T
U (cool)
F
H
TS (zurück)
CH
SH (push)
SH (ship)
no sound
E (we)
no sound
E (letter)
YU (you)
YA (yard)
Собака (“sabaka”)
Кошка (“koshka”)
Поезд (“poyezd”)
Russian Language
Good news:
• No articles
• No auxiliary verbs (like be and are in English)
• Word sequence in a sentence is not fixed
Bad news:
• Grammar features three genders
• Plural of nouns is often irregular
• 12 forms for a noun (2 numbers, 6 cases)
• 1000…0 forms for a verb (gender, tense, person,
number, mood, etc.)
• Verb’s form depends on the gender of the
corresponding noun or person
• Punctuation rules are strict and complicated
How much we
earn and pay in Russia
Currency: Ruble
Average Wages in IT*
Abbreviation: RUR
Team leader: 3,500 €
Symbol: Р (informal), р. or руб.
Senior developer: 2,800 €
$1 ≈ 32 р.
Developer: 1,800 €
1 € ≈ 43 р.
*data for Moscow, monthly(!)
Some Common Costs
Core Taxes
Ticket to a subway: 0.65 €
Individual income tax: 13%
Average bill in a decent restaurant: 30 €
Corporate wages tax: 34.2%
Two bedroom flat in Moscow: 700 € monthly
Corporate VAT: 18%
My laptop: 850 €
Corporate profit tax: 25%
How hard we work
in Russia
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•
•
•
Working week: 5 days (Mon–Fri)
Working day: 8–10 hours
Vacations: 20 business days per year
Holidays:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Dec 31– Jan 11
Feb 23
Mar 8
May 1, 2, and 8, 9
Jun 12
Nov 4
We
work
We
don’t
2. Where are the Money
Why it’s a good idea
to do Business with Russians
We have Much Money Now
…and we use it or lose it.
The Main Customers are:
• Gas, Oil, and Minerals Companies
• The Russian Government
• Retail as B2B customer
• Retail as Channel of Sales
• Banking and Insurance
• Telecom
Just do right things and they’ll share their profit
with you.
We still have Good
Engineers and Researches
…and we use it or lose it.
The main branches are:
• Software Development
• Security and Cryptography
• Aviation and Space
• Weapons
• Medicine
• Specific Technical Branches
Just do right things and they’ll share their profit
with you.
Get Ready
for the Russian Business
In Russia you can quickly make
a lot of money but you have
to render very strange activities
in order to achieve that.
Doing Business
with Russians
Understanding Strategies
of Your Russian
Partners-to-be
Reasonable Approach
to the Russian Market
The Main
Customers
The Best
Engineers
Russian
IT-related Companies
Russian
Engineering Companies
Help them bring
their solutions
to the worldwide
market
Give them
new buzzwords
and products
You
Strategy 1: Help the Big Guys
to spend money
E. g. implementation of some technology or product.
1. Fast: Informal agreement: subject and budget.
Be ready to send your datasheets and prices ASAP.
2. Slow: Wait for OK from the customer.
Don’t worry. Feel free to call your Russian friends.
3. Fast: Do entire work in a draft mode.
Start work promptly but insist on signing a contract.
4. Slow: Set up a formal contract with customer.
Don’t do anything before they sign a contract with the customer.
5. Normal: Finalize or even remake the draft.
Be ready for numerous changes and corrections.
Strategy 2: Help the Smart Guys
move to the West
E. g. developing a product for the worldwide market.
1. Making a prototype that looks like a real product.
2. Checking if anybody out of Russia wants to pay for it.
3. Setting up contracts with foreign customers or partners.
4. Producing a final version of the product (from the start).
5. Starting product sales via Internet or foreign partners.
6. Client’s company branch out of Russia.
2. Outsourcing to Russia
What, When, How
What and When Outsource
to Russia?
Extremely complicated task:
No one wants to do it.
Problem solution needed:
It’s not just product making.
You need it fast!
Or even yesterday.
Economy of Outsourcing
to Russia
How an outsourcer bids you:
Price = Wages + Taxes + Profit = Wages • 3.5
300–500 € for a developer’s work daily
If it is Less:
If it is much more:
• They can’t calculate
• They can’t calculate
• Their skills are poor
• They are too big
• They will re-outsource your task
• They are really greedy
• It is not a legal company
• They don’t understand your task
How to Negotiate
with Russian Outsourcer
THEM:
YOU:
• Must have an English website
• Must react rapidly
• Make presale estimations for free
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Let them know the entire budget
Give them time to consider your task
Write and reconcile detailed requirements
Request a fixed price
Always sign written contracts
Reconcile the payment method
5. Culture-specific
Aspects
Dos and Donts
Don’t Be Confused by the
Following Behavior
We might:
• Try to prove your task doesn’t make sense
• Delay (up to forever) calling or writing back
• Come up on the deadline point with an
announcement of ‘not having enough time’
• Come up on the deadline point with a ‘much
better idea how to implement all that’
• … and so on.
But there is a bright side
We will survive with:
• Deadline shifted to the day after
tomorrow
• Requirements modified on the fly
• Exotic technology needed to be grasped
in a wink
You don’t want to try these…
• Run a project in absence of a specific
manager in charge.
• Report the other party to their boss
without any war declaration.
• Make general answers to specific
questions.
You are always welcome
with your questions
[email protected]
Mikhail Ostrogorskij