About Us
"(Russia) is mired with poverty and mess, unwelcoming with no arresting wonders of nature.". He goes on however to ask what is " this unfathomable, uncanny force that draws me to you ?"Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. 'Dead Souls'.
Working with Russians is a division of Education and Training International Vostok. ETI Vostok is a Russian company that provides language, management, soft skills and cross cultural training to corporate clients across Russia. Of key interest to newcomers to the country is our seminar A Foreigner in Russia – outlined on this site - and our Russian language for foreigners programmes. Visit www.educatrain.ru to see more about us.
This website is designed for people who find themselves either working in Russia for the first time thinking of working here, or for companies looking at the Russia market. It is designed to give an outline of some of the issues that newcomers to Russia have to consider and suggest some answers to the mystery that is Russia.
The CEO of ETI Vostok is Christopher Graham, who for some years has been involved in cross cultural training in Russia. He is based in Moscow and London and is the contributing editor of A Beginners Guide to Russia which is a users guide to Russia due to be published in autumn 2008. The contributors include senior staff from the Banking, NGO, HR, Accounting, Diplomatic and Legal sectors in Russia as well as journalists including the legendary Vladimir Pozner.
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If you are interested in finding out more about Russia and our training programmes please contact Christopher Graham by email chris@educatrain.ru or visit his blog http://workingwithrussians.blogspot.com/.
Why Russia ?
Anyone who has had access to the media will have noted a huge increase in the coverage given to Russia in the last five years or so. The reasons for this are clear – Russia is once again becoming a global player in the same way the Soviet Union was, but with a very different role. Here are some statistics:
Russia’s population totals 142.50 million.
Russia constitutes more than one-ninth of the world's land area - almost twice the area of the USA.
Russia contains the greatest reserves of mineral resources in the world.
The Russian Federation is divided into 11 time zones.
Russian lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's unfrozen fresh water
Russia has an extensive coastline of over 37,000 kilometres.
In 2007, Russia's GDP was $2.076 trillion, the 7th largest in the world, with GDP growing 8.1% from the previous year.
The country has more higher education graduates than any other country in Europe.
Russia had foreign reserves of $470 billion at the end of 2007 - the third largest in the world
According to a 2007 survey by investment services firm Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Russia is the country with the second most attractive personal tax system for single managers in the world.
Over the last five years, fixed capital investments have averaged real gains greater than 10% per year and personal incomes have achieved real gains more than 12% per year.
Unemployment in Russia was at 6% in 2007
Sources include the World Bank 2008 Country Brief, World Travel Guide, University of Notre Dame, Unicredit, CIA World Fact Book, Index mundi and RIA Novosti.
Otto von Bismarck
In other words in so many areas of international business and relations, it is very hard to ignore Russia. Yet so many organisations and businesses have ignored Russia and continue to do so. One of the reasons would seem to be that they are worried, even scared of the big unknown that is Russia. Scared at the most basic level of being shot on the streets of Moscow or worried at another level of losing all their money to either dishonest business partners or corrupt officials. And yes these things happen (and not only in Russia) but this site and our training programmes are designed to equip you with an understanding of how Russia operates and to also prepare you a set of strategies to operate your business as effectively as possible in 21 century Russia.
It is this concept of personal coping strategies that really matters most. Different people from a range of cultures work in Russia as much as in any other country in the 21 century, and some people just seem to do better. This must come down to how well they are able to adapt their attitudes, tolerance levels and work patterns to Russia. It doesn’t seem to matter where people are from – it is just a case of what you need to do to thrive in the Russian business environment. It comes down to you in the end.