Russian business is actively looking for partners and exploring new territories. What difficulties do entrepreneurs face in new markets, and in which regions do they see the greatest prospects? These questions were discussed by participants in the session “New international markets: how companies respond to global challenges” at the “Management of the Future” conference at the Graduate School of Management of SPbU.

 

The session featured: · Vadim Klimachev, Head of the International Educational Projects Group, Gazprom Corporate Institute; Evgenia Ovchinnikova, Head of External Economic Activity Support Department, BIOCAD; Nursultan Baymukashev, HR Management Specialist, Alabuga; Artem Volodkin, Director of Infrastructure and Project Finance Practice, Trust Technologies; Elena Shiran, Head of External Economic Activity Function, Sibur.

 

The moderator of the discussion, Ekaterina Kindruk, deputy executive director of the Association of Managers, said that now leading Russian companies are focusing their foreign economic activities on the countries of the world majority.

 70% of more than 130 business representatives surveyed reported that they were already operating in new markets. Others plan to become more active in this direction are in the near future. 74% of companies stated the need for additional education on the peculiarities of business culture and the specifics of business in new markets.

 More than half of the leaders of the domestic economy have a positive view of the prospects for developing new markets: 62% of respondents responded that the strategic pivot of their companies to the markets of the world's majority countries is “not without difficulties, but they are not critical.” 5% believe that reorienting a business is “quite easy.” At the same time, there is a large share of those companies that describe the process of entering new markets with the words “extremely difficult” — such answers were received from 33% of study participants.

 

Businessmen consider the Chinese market to be the most attractive: the majority of survey participants —  49% — are willing to work with it. Next in the ranking of interests of Russian business are the UAE (41%) and Turkey (36%). They are followed by Iran and Latin American countries —  22% each. Every fifth company reported that it is already operating or planning to enter the Indian market. About 10% of respondents focus on African countries. The survey methodology allowed participants to name not one, but several priority markets.

 

“In the context of tightening sanctions, Russian companies continue to develop and find replacements for traditional markets. Domestic business is expanding its presence in business projects in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and increasing the volume of exports to these regions. The survey data allows us to assess the prospects for the development of trade and economic relations between Russia and the countries of the world majority and see the bottlenecks where it is not so much government support that is required, but investments in education gaining new knowledge about the specifics of working in these markets,” noted Ekaterina Kindruk.

 

Businessmen named “lack of knowledge on new markets” as one of the main reasons for the difficulties encountered. For this reason, it is difficult to adapt the product to the local consumer; a serious obstacle is the language barrier and insufficient knowledge of the mentality of the population of another country - more than 40% of respondents focus on these factors. 43% of respondents noted that they have not yet been able to establish full communication with potential foreign partners.

 Among the individual difficulties, respondents named: sanctions/counter-sanctions, lack of coordination of foreign trade activities in the host country, dumping from local partners, competition within the Russian Federation, which is transferred to foreign markets, and lack of funds.

 

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