GLOBAL BUSINESS CULTURAL ANALYSIS RUSSIA

Global Business Cultural Analysis Russia

Global Business Cultural Analysis Russia

Introduction

Russia or the Russian Federation is the largest country in the world. In 1993, Russia adopted a new constitution. The country has gradually adopted a market economy and a multiparty parliamentary system after the end of the Soviet system. Today Russia is one of the greatest emerging powers. She is the tenth world power in terms of GDP, and the sixth in term of purchasing power. The chief of state is President Vladimir Putin. The 1917 revolution in Russia that is, the change of political system was an important event not only for individual states, but for the whole geopolitical situation in the world at the beginning of XX century.

Russian economy dominates in the service sector i.e. trade, transport, restaurants, hotels, communications, financial services, real estate transactions, state management, security, education, health, and other services. The smallest share in the Russian economy is of the production and distribution of electricity, gas, and water. (Popov, 1995) Russia has the most valuable natural and human resources. These resources are immensely helpful for a modern industrialized economy. She has the most educated workforce with substantial technical expertise. The inefficient supply systems hinder the efficient utilization of these resources. The inflation and unemployment rates are high but despite the financial crisis, Russia is an attractive place for doing business. By properly utilizing man power and natural resources, the nation can generate maximum profits. (Zimmerman, 2002) Russia has a high ethnic diversity with approximately 160 different nationalities living in Russia. The Russian Federation is a multiethnic state with about 170 ethnic groups. The main ethnic groups are Russians and Tatars. Russia is the second country which hosts the largest number of immigrants after U.S. Russia has an estimated population of 150m people among them over 81% can speak the official language.

Discussion and Analysis In the globalization era, growth in communication and infrastructure has increased. Russia provides business, trade, and commerce opportunities to various countries. Some of the countries share bilateral or multilateral agreements with Russia. One of the communication obstacles for Russian economy is deteriorating infrastructure. Without modernizing the infrastructure of Energy, transport, roads, housing, and utilities, health care sectors, no country can prosper and compete in the global market effectively. In terms of accessibility and quality of transport infrastructure, Russia is on the 48th place in the world and in terms of quality of railway infrastructure she is the 33rd largest in the world. Insufficient investment in infrastructure Russia's annual global competitiveness ranking by Swiss business school IMD fell from 49th to 51th. (Pascal, 2006) The second communication obstacle within Russian is the language barrier. Russian language is one of the East Slavic languages. Today, there are over 100 languages other than the national language of Russia. Among them, Tartar is the most spoken language; about 3 % people of the population speak this language. Other minority languages include Ukrainian, Chuvash, Bashir, Mordvin, and Chechen. English is the international standard language that is commonly used in communicating in the global market. Unfortunately, Russian people cannot speak fluent English. That is the reason Russian and non Russian people find difficult in interacting with each other. Still the Russian organizations are not successful in coping ...