In 2009 I was a part of my university’s (Helsinki School of Economics) student union’s (KY) corporate relations division. That year we organized together with the energy company Fortum a seminar about the business opportunities in Russia and what kind of prejudices there are when doing business in or with Russia.
I wrote the following article to the student union’s paper (in Finnish) and here is the English translation:
Fortum Russia evening 22.9.2019
Russia, Russia, Russia. Threat or a possibility? That was the topic of the Russia-themed panel discussion, which was organized together by Fortum and Yrppä [Yrityssuhdevaliokunta; the corporate relations division] at Yläkertsi [the student union’s club room] on a Tuesday evening. The attending audience consisted of dozens of business students, which tells that the topic of Russia is still interesting no matter the intimidating risks and prejudices involved. As the host of the evening, Hilla Pyykkönen, aptly pointed out, the evening would be an excellent opportunity to educate ourselves.
After some delicious food and drinks and Hilla’s presentation of the evening’s program it was time for the panel discussion. The leader of the panel was the publicist from Fortum, Satu Niemelä, and the other participants were Heikki Andersson from Fortum’s Russian Service’s division, Bair Irincheev from Bair Travel Oy, Maimo Henriksson from the Foreign Ministry and Pekko Kohonen from the Russia Club and the Russia Trade Guild. The participants started by sharing interesting backstories to their relationship with Russia (or in Irincheev’s case, with Finland) which were for example a Russian grandmother, student exchange in Finland and the childhood in Sortavala [city in previously Finnish Carelia, today in Russia] and in a Russian school. People with such interesting backgrounds would definitely be able to give equally interesting answers to the upcoming, and predefined, questions.
It was more than adequate to begin with a question about what the current political or commercial situation in Russia is. The panelists were pretty much all agreeing, that the “two trade” between Putin and Medjedev, as Henriksson put it, was the main driver for the political course. According to Andersson, Medjedev has not quite yet solidified his position, so Putin is still a powerful decision maker. Whenever one is doing business with Russia, its political system must be known. Irincheev explained that the Russians get easily frustrated when faced with uncertainty, so stability is highly important. Therefore, a long-standing government, even a bad one, can stay in power even longer as the people are so resistant to change. Could this then even be the reason (or a part of it) behind Putin’s popularity and Medjedev’s uncertainty?
The panelists were also on the same path about the economical situation: bad. GDP is going down and the unemployment rate is going up. Irincheev had also noticed this from the slowing down of the tourism movement. We Finns might sometimes think that we are dependent on Russia because of its energy for example, but Andersson reminded that we could also very well purchase our energy from somewhere else, unlike some other Eastern European countries. He however did not deny Finland’s uncomfortable position as Russian’s neighbor. Still, Russia’s GDP has only 3% share of the whole world’s GDP (while the EU has 30%), so maybe Russia is not that big and powerful after all...
The second question was about how Finland supports and advances the trade with Russia. The panel participants showcased many different methods for doing this, like attending meetings with the local decision makers and business owners, organized e.g. by Finpro [today Business Finland, helping Finnish companies internationalize] and the finance committee. All interested companies can get the support they need no matter their size, even though the Finnish media might sometimes tell a contrary story. Kohonen criticized the help from the bigger organizations being often too much of unclear jargon to the entrepreneurs, but on the other hand the Russia Guild even approaches individuals.
The topic of the third question was the opportunities of Finnish companies in Russia, or whether there are any. The biggest obstacle is loud and clear the money, which is something most Russians do not really have that much. The Finnish companies in Russia are often involved e.g. in logistics or trading business; there are no manufacturing companies. According to the panelists, at the moment Russia is not a land of great opportunities as the development, e.g. in car manufacturing, has stagnated. The country is behind the Western countries in technology knowledge, as in the 90s the focus of the education system was more on the business than on the technology side. Apparently the engineers are needed after all... [A reference to the on-going tongue-in-cheek feud between the business students and the technology students.]
Also the culture aspects are causing difficulties, as the life expectancy of Russian men is significantly lower than that of women, less than 60 years. This comes from lack of direction, as the men don’t really know what to do with their lives. The capitalist and America-based consumerism seems to be the meaning of life for many in Russia, which the government’s propaganda machine also tries to strengthen. This however results in a bad copy of the American lifestyle, and thus the life filled with hopelessness makes many of the men grab the Vodka bottle.
The rest of the evening was spent in a more relaxed setting as Niemelä concluded the panel discussion and two musicians took their places on the stage. The two musicians from the Sibelius Academy [prestigious music school in Helsinki] played song from e.g. the Finnish band HIM with guitars. I have to say that I had almost been expecting Russian music, but maybe it is not that easy to find. After the music number the audience could still enjoy some wine, coffee and chocolates, and ask more questions from the guests. A lot of questions were posed for example about the sauna culture (in Russia the business world is very much a man’s world) and whether it is possible to do business in Russia without speaking the language. The answer to that is that without the language skills one will miss the small talk, and knowing the local language even at a basic level will help in gaining respect from the local counterparts. So much like in most countries in the world.
The evening ended a little after nine with applause and handing out flowers. What an interesting evening it was! A lot of information and correcting of misconceptions and prejudices. I am also even more pleased that I chose to study two courses of Russian. Most likely I will be working in a company which has at least some connections to Russia, so I can then start memorizing all the basics I have learned. The citation from Irincheev fits very well here at the end, as I think it also summarized well the learning from the evening’s discussions: “You can find everything in Russia and everybody sees it as they wish.”
I wrote the following article to the student union’s paper (in Finnish) and here is the English translation:
Fortum Russia evening 22.9.2019
Russia, Russia, Russia. Threat or a possibility? That was the topic of the Russia-themed panel discussion, which was organized together by Fortum and Yrppä [Yrityssuhdevaliokunta; the corporate relations division] at Yläkertsi [the student union’s club room] on a Tuesday evening. The attending audience consisted of dozens of business students, which tells that the topic of Russia is still interesting no matter the intimidating risks and prejudices involved. As the host of the evening, Hilla Pyykkönen, aptly pointed out, the evening would be an excellent opportunity to educate ourselves.
After some delicious food and drinks and Hilla’s presentation of the evening’s program it was time for the panel discussion. The leader of the panel was the publicist from Fortum, Satu Niemelä, and the other participants were Heikki Andersson from Fortum’s Russian Service’s division, Bair Irincheev from Bair Travel Oy, Maimo Henriksson from the Foreign Ministry and Pekko Kohonen from the Russia Club and the Russia Trade Guild. The participants started by sharing interesting backstories to their relationship with Russia (or in Irincheev’s case, with Finland) which were for example a Russian grandmother, student exchange in Finland and the childhood in Sortavala [city in previously Finnish Carelia, today in Russia] and in a Russian school. People with such interesting backgrounds would definitely be able to give equally interesting answers to the upcoming, and predefined, questions.
It was more than adequate to begin with a question about what the current political or commercial situation in Russia is. The panelists were pretty much all agreeing, that the “two trade” between Putin and Medjedev, as Henriksson put it, was the main driver for the political course. According to Andersson, Medjedev has not quite yet solidified his position, so Putin is still a powerful decision maker. Whenever one is doing business with Russia, its political system must be known. Irincheev explained that the Russians get easily frustrated when faced with uncertainty, so stability is highly important. Therefore, a long-standing government, even a bad one, can stay in power even longer as the people are so resistant to change. Could this then even be the reason (or a part of it) behind Putin’s popularity and Medjedev’s uncertainty?
The panelists were also on the same path about the economical situation: bad. GDP is going down and the unemployment rate is going up. Irincheev had also noticed this from the slowing down of the tourism movement. We Finns might sometimes think that we are dependent on Russia because of its energy for example, but Andersson reminded that we could also very well purchase our energy from somewhere else, unlike some other Eastern European countries. He however did not deny Finland’s uncomfortable position as Russian’s neighbor. Still, Russia’s GDP has only 3% share of the whole world’s GDP (while the EU has 30%), so maybe Russia is not that big and powerful after all...
The second question was about how Finland supports and advances the trade with Russia. The panel participants showcased many different methods for doing this, like attending meetings with the local decision makers and business owners, organized e.g. by Finpro [today Business Finland, helping Finnish companies internationalize] and the finance committee. All interested companies can get the support they need no matter their size, even though the Finnish media might sometimes tell a contrary story. Kohonen criticized the help from the bigger organizations being often too much of unclear jargon to the entrepreneurs, but on the other hand the Russia Guild even approaches individuals.
The topic of the third question was the opportunities of Finnish companies in Russia, or whether there are any. The biggest obstacle is loud and clear the money, which is something most Russians do not really have that much. The Finnish companies in Russia are often involved e.g. in logistics or trading business; there are no manufacturing companies. According to the panelists, at the moment Russia is not a land of great opportunities as the development, e.g. in car manufacturing, has stagnated. The country is behind the Western countries in technology knowledge, as in the 90s the focus of the education system was more on the business than on the technology side. Apparently the engineers are needed after all... [A reference to the on-going tongue-in-cheek feud between the business students and the technology students.]
Also the culture aspects are causing difficulties, as the life expectancy of Russian men is significantly lower than that of women, less than 60 years. This comes from lack of direction, as the men don’t really know what to do with their lives. The capitalist and America-based consumerism seems to be the meaning of life for many in Russia, which the government’s propaganda machine also tries to strengthen. This however results in a bad copy of the American lifestyle, and thus the life filled with hopelessness makes many of the men grab the Vodka bottle.
The rest of the evening was spent in a more relaxed setting as Niemelä concluded the panel discussion and two musicians took their places on the stage. The two musicians from the Sibelius Academy [prestigious music school in Helsinki] played song from e.g. the Finnish band HIM with guitars. I have to say that I had almost been expecting Russian music, but maybe it is not that easy to find. After the music number the audience could still enjoy some wine, coffee and chocolates, and ask more questions from the guests. A lot of questions were posed for example about the sauna culture (in Russia the business world is very much a man’s world) and whether it is possible to do business in Russia without speaking the language. The answer to that is that without the language skills one will miss the small talk, and knowing the local language even at a basic level will help in gaining respect from the local counterparts. So much like in most countries in the world.
The evening ended a little after nine with applause and handing out flowers. What an interesting evening it was! A lot of information and correcting of misconceptions and prejudices. I am also even more pleased that I chose to study two courses of Russian. Most likely I will be working in a company which has at least some connections to Russia, so I can then start memorizing all the basics I have learned. The citation from Irincheev fits very well here at the end, as I think it also summarized well the learning from the evening’s discussions: “You can find everything in Russia and everybody sees it as they wish.”
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