ExpoGlobus.com

How should you begin to break into the British market, what should you pay attention to if you have decided to do business in Misty Albion? ExpoGlobus.com asked people who have already taken this path, and who are currently living and working in London.

Peter Kaznacheyev, former adviser to British Petroleum, currently a businessman who has founded his own company in Great Britain, Khaznah Strategies Ltd:

“There are no magic formulas, there can be no universally applicable advice here. As concerns the legal form, in my experience, Great Britain enjoys perhaps the most liberal company registration system in Europe. You can register a firm by phone or on the internet. It takes a day, it is inexpensive and does not entail any requirement to go to the local authorities, the police or fire service to get any paperwork from them, to hand paperwork in to someone else, involving the payment of bribes along the way, as would be the case in Russia. There is nothing of the sort here. It is clear that here the system is very transparent, but the most important thing is that it is very straightforward. I know that in some of the other European Union countries the system is also very straightforward.

In order to set up business here you need to be on solid ground. It is a well-known fact that for every ten start-up businesses, nine will not survive. So, even if you have a work permit, leads, prospective clients, a niche, funding, in other words everything that a potential business requires, all the same this offers no guarantees. It can all fail. And that would be a normal thing to happen.”

Yulia Osoyanu, businesswoman, city adviser, London company J-Project:

“The tricky question is getting a visa. You need to have some form of work permit. The opportunities that open up for you depend on the type of permit you have.

There is no question that knowledge of the market is important. Because Great Britain and Russia are so different from each other, and things that would work wonderfully in Russia, I mean business ideas or methods of conducting business, will not always work here. And the other way round, what works well here will not always work there. So you have to adapt your knowledge and ideas to suit the new market.

On the whole, I think some people find it harder to work here because everything is more straightforward than in Russia. It sounds illogical, but that is actually what happens. If you have worked for some time in Russia, you know that you will face a certain number of problems which need solving daily. Registering a company is a problem. It takes time, involves bureaucracy and red tape… Taxes, salaries and so on always carry all sorts of problems. Here, the business process is very clearly regulated. There is a lot that can be done online, you do not need to be present. Enquiries are responded to very efficiently, it is easy to submit accounts. These points are important, they make the conducting of business much more simple. Especially if we are talking about a small company or a private businessman.”

Wladimir Wiedemann, director of London consulting company BRIC-Service:

“I ask businessmen to pardon me for the banality of my advice, but I would advise them to take a look at themselves, above all. Once I witnessed the following. Two major Russian businessmen arrived, financially everything was perfectly in order, and their business plan was fine too. But their clothes… I suspect they bought their suits here in the City. But they bought suits that did not fit them. Bearing in mind their type, the suits they were wearing made them look like clowns. When they turned up, the English people were in stitches. Of course they pretended to take these businessmen seriously, but in reality these people looked like they were dressed for a carnival.

Sometimes the ladies accompanying Russian businessmen, or even worse, ladies who are business owners themselves, also look like they are decked out for a carnival. And there have been times when the director of a major company arrives in 15 centimetre heels and way too much make-up. The English take it all with a big dose of irony. Great Britain has its own dress-code. If you speak a foreign language, your accent will always be heard. And it is the same with dress-codes. When our businessmen try to imitate Western dress-code, or the dress-code of some other country, your accent, which at best will invite ridicule, is always going to be noticed.

The next factor, which is more weighty, is to earn the trust of your partner. For this it is important to show that you are cut from the same cloth. This has nothing to do with the colour of your skin or what suit you are wearing. The Western business community, being an international structure, sizes up very carefully whether a person belongs to their world or not. One of the problems for Russian businessmen here in Britain, in London, is that here you find every sort of elite, British, Arab, and so on. And everyone wants to be part of the elite circle. There is no question, our oligarchs and their clientele want to be part of all this. As do rich people from other countries who come to London — Indians, Arabs, Latin Americans. Here, too, what is looked at is how much a person fits in with this world.

Here you cannot just go on courses or buy yourself a place for money, what is required here is a certain cultural discretion and a rejection of the many hang-ups which some our compatriots are still inclined to. Say, in the area of alternative culture or sexual minorities. For instance, Germany’s current Minister for Foreign Affairs is gay. He makes no secret of this. It will be interesting to see how our dinosaurs in Moscow do business with him. After all, according to their cultural code, they cannot even shake hands with the German minister. What, shake hands with a ‘dirty faggot’? Well, yes, what did you expect? This is one funny example, there are plenty more.

You always have to pay the price for rudeness, bad manners, no matter what form they take. Here, if Western businessmen have their own inner cultural brakes, Russian businessmen often act as if they own the place — they ignore their environment, talk loudly, display their negative emotions. Here that kind of behaviour is thought of as barbaric. And if people behave like barbarians, then it is certain no one will want to do business with them, and if they do, then at the first opportunity they will put them in their place.

In this respect the Chinese and the Japanese probably have the best culture for business, they never show their emotions, they always smile and say ‘yes’. They do not argue, rather they draw conclusions. You give them information, and they tell you, ‘Yes, this is good.’ And in Japanese, ‘yes’ does not mean, I agree with you, it means, I have taken in what you have said. No more that.”