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UC
alumnus Rodger Henn (center) toured an oil rig anchored in the Caspian
Sea near Baku, Azerbaijan, along with the president and director
of the company that he had been advising. |
Recognize
what is happening. Russians are turning themselves into capitalists.
Since the fall of communism, they're soaking up all the business knowledge
they can get, like a sponge. I experienced it as a short-term volunteer
for nonprofit U.S.-supported organizations that send business advisers
to Eastern Europe. It's so much fun to help them with their businesses
and see how eager they are to try new ideas.
Teach basic
business sense. The owner of a hair salon in Nizhny Novgorod,
near St. Petersburg, asked me to coach his employees in ways to make the
business more customer-oriented. I had them do a comparison of services
they offered and those available from the competition. The owner also
wanted to expand, maybe even buy out one of his competitors. We compared
financing costs with the revenue he might expect and estimated how soon
he would be out of debt. He realized it would be smarter to enlarge his
original shop and postpone opening other locations.
Kindle the entrepreneurial urge.
Entrepreneurs are melting the ice, even in the eastern Siberian city of
Magadan, where daylight may last only six hours and snow falls almost
every day. Where Stalin once banished political foes, I taught entrepreneurs
how to write their business plans. My assignment at the Russian-American
business education center also included working with the city and banking
system to pull financing together.
Spread the
word next door. Russia's neighbors
are looking for help, too. My most recent trip was to the Azerbaijan capital,
Baku. I gave strategic planning advice to a company that buys and sells
oil-drilling equipment. We talked about ways to reduce costs and some
possibilities for making more money. They have little knowledge of marketing
and no real advertising avenues, so I could give them lots of suggestions.
Henn, a Cinergy retiree, is owner of Import Specialist, a business offering Russian fine art and unusual collectibles, including 100,000-year-old mammoth tusks and hair. He has made more than 30 trips to Russia in the past 10 years, some on behalf of his business and the rest on assignment as a volunteer for ACDE/ VOCA or the Citizens Democracy Corps.
Links:
Check out Henn's Web site and find out more about two organizations that
send U.S. volunteers to Eastern Europe (www.acdivoca.org and www.cdc.org).
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