Who Should Attend ?

Company managers and staff working and dealing with the Russians

Benefits of Attendance

The aim of this seminar is to significantly improve the participants’ effectiveness in their professional relationships with the Russians, enabling them to be operational right from the start.

At the end of this training, participants will have acquired insights and techniques to:

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Fully understand Russian context and culture
• Analyse possible situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating
• Reduce stress and misunderstandings
• Decipher and understand decision-making and negotiation processes

Training Approach

Programme Outline

Module 1 : Understanding cultural differences

1. Intercultural awareness, the key to success in international business

• Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
• The basics of effective intercultural management
• Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes

2. Key aspects of Russian culture

• An immense, multi-ethnic Eurasian nation, a thousand-year history
• The Russian Federation: the central authority, republics and regions
• The influence of the orthodox church and of other belief systems
• The transformation from a command economy to a market economy
• The Russian marketplace and consumption trends

3. The impact of values and behaviour patterns on professional dealings and relationships

• Slavic values, the Soviet heritage and new values
• Social classes, oligarchs, apparatchiks and chekists.
• Collectivism, individualism and hospitality
• The Russian spirit and its many enigmas
• The role and status of women in Russia
• Attitudes to time: awareness of the seasons
• Attitudes to space: the notion of immensity and proximity
• The “nitchevo”: the art of controlling events

4. The Russian corporate world

• A bureaucratic, Soviet heritage: the importance of procedures
• Individual and collective responsibility
• “Tchin”: the “status table” and the cult of rank, conformity and formality,
• Centralisation and control, the mafia and corruption

Module 2 : Succeeding in work with the Russians

1. Effective communication with the Russians

• The Russian language: alphabet, pronunciation, stress, false friends, etc.
• Determining the context, collecting reliable information
• Understanding implicit messages: the hidden meanings of “Da” and “Niet” 
• Addressing the Russians: first names, last names and diminutives
• The importance of proverbs and sayings

2. Adapting your working methods

• Establishing your authority Managing individual ambitions
• Pitfalls to be avoided: suspicion and jealousy, the decision-making process
• Networking: using your networks, the challenge of achieving consensus
• Paying attention to detail: birthdays, gifts and public holidays.

3. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Russians

• Getting to know people before doing business
• Identifying the decision maker
• The importance of “krisha”
• Adapting to imponderables
• Time and deadline management
• Negotiation outside the business environment: the “bani” or business dinners
• Relationship building: developing trust and friendship
• Attitudes to contracts and their implications
• Learning to compromise

4. Final handy tips

• Protocol and etiquette: Russian formality
• The importance of alcohol and toasting as part of the Russian social scene
• Some golden rules to help you avoid a social faux pas
• Delicate subjects:  democracy, minorities and history
• Humour: a double-edged sword