Sankt Petersburg has never looked better and has been never more friendly to tourists as today. The president Vladimir Putin (born in Sankt Petersburg) hosted the top meeting of G8 in order to increase the prestige of Sankt Petersburg, all the historical facades have been renovated. It's time for the initial market survey :-)
I landed at the Pulkovo airport in Sankt Petersburg around 16:00 local time. My first visit was accompanied by curious views from the airplane windows. We are passing "the long term parking" of old Iljushin planes and reaching the airport building in Pulkovo. Most probably, it was designed by the same architect as the old already destroyed Prague-Ruzyne airport.
I switch on my Apple's iPhone and the SMS message announces the roaming zone with 3,5 EUR fee for every 20 minutes of any incoming call. I take a taxi, immediately talking with a taxi driver in Russian. Of course, I am proud of talking Russian now and I want to be really "IN" before my coming business meeting. The taxi car is the European (Chinese) Volvo V70, the taxi driver is driving like crazy "on breaks", so, I think it is a good dynamic start :-)
There are big parks betwen long boulevards and big blocks of communist looking appartements, but plenty of cross-country skiers in these parks, since I am in the middle of a real Russian winter in March. I am trying to kindly ask to eliminate the wild style of taxi driving, the answer comes immediately: "We are in Asia here, not like your Europe. The Russian police has just introduced high penalty law". My eyes are shining, my consulting heart is warm again and I am trying to advice "Please drive according to the rules!". The answer is even quicker "The police is charging penalties in any case, I am just trying to stop faster then the BMW 6 in front of us!". OK, I need to keep my professional advices for later on and I am starting the discussion about the price of beer..
We reach the hotel at 17:00, it is the French Novotel with four stars, but not red five-pointed stars, just usual European black stars. I am a bit shocked, the price list at the hotel reception says 6.000 to 8.000 Russian rubles per single room. It is quite a lot of money, even for spoiled EU consultants. I am lucky, the client has agreed the corporate rate 40% lower. I get the "one welcome drink voucher", so I am going to the bar to drink a Danish based Carlsberg beer, quite symbolic, I am here thanks to the Danish Implement company.
It is 90 minutes before my dinner with the client, so I am asking the receptionist in (most likely) my fluent Russian "How can I get to the centre?". The beautiful female Russian receptionist is surprised "Mr., you are in the centre!". OK, I need to be more precise, so "How can I get to the Winter Palace?". Of course, I can't miss the palace, where the Russian bolsheviks started to kill people like me in 1917, first of all the bourgeoisie, followed by us - horrible capitalists.
I started my walking trip on foot, I have 90 minutes before the dinner, so this time is enough to walk the Prague centre twice up and down. I entered the Nevsky prospekt street and I need to get through thousands of people on the street, most probably more than on the Charles bridge in Prague during Easter time. I forgot my camera, so I use my iPhone and I make pictures like crazy. The big palaces, beautiful small streets with frozen water canals, but also luxury shops including global McDonalds. I can't find any Lada, Moskvich or Volga cars, but I can see a lot of Hummers, Mercedeses S-klasse with black windows, Audi A6 and higher. Probably better car park then in Zurich, my today's departure city.
It was just a short time to remember my walk in Paris, not only due to marvellous architecture and big palaces, but mainly due to walking distances. After 60 minutes of walk, it is clear I will not reach the Winter palace on foot, the towers of the headquarters of Russian Marine are a bit bigger now, but still a lot of walk. So, I am returning to the hotel, I want to be with our client in time.
The meeting with the client is excellent. They printed my picture from the Website, so I am welcomed with open arms. We have an excellent dinner, starting with old-Russian borsc soup, followed by excellent sea fish and very good white wine. The dinner is over, so we take a big cigar and have a few French cognacs. My passion from big palaces, from the excellent dinner and very friendly client is endless.
We are leaving to the Russian factory in the morning, approx. 70 kilometers out of Sankt Petersburg on the way to the Estonian Tallinn. We are driving on an incredibly long boulevard out of the city, meeting a lot of monuments of second world-war heroes, beatiful Russian churches and we enter the Russian villages soon. Hundreds of old small wooden hauses, always with a nice Russian church with golden little towers. So far like in the old Russian fairy tale. My Russian guide is waking me up. There is now sewage system, no water supply, the toilets in the gardens. It reminds me immediately my experience with Turkish toilet in Moldova, so I pray the yesterday's fish will not start to make any troubles.
In about one hour we are reaching the factory in the middle of an agricultural land. Nice looking western standard factory, and no black smoke coming out here. The internationally recognized security company is opening the doors and I am seting up my notebook in prety nice offices. There is no Russian "Samovar" for tee, so I take the instant tee bags.
I should not forget my mission to optimise production processes here, so I take my camera and I am walking to the production hall. It is minus 10 degrees outside, I am happy I took my winter coat, although there are some 19 degrees in Prague. We enter the hall, there is about 42 degrees inside, so my coat is really not necessary now. I am sweating immediately, in about 15 minutes the camera is collapsing due to humidity and high temperature. There are approx. 20 Russian workers in the hall in nice looking branded dresses. After 60 minutes, I am leaving the hall, completely wet and again getting cold outside. I meet the HR director outside, she is smiling and asking "How is it going?". Well, I am still in a good mood, so I say that it is great to take a Finnish sauna during working hours.
It reminds me a discussion with Czech Trade Unions about the compensation of lunch tickets during the training of workers, they simply wanted to keep the lunch tickets, although the workers got a lunch for free during the training. No problem, we agreed on this new European standard, they get both.
I was quite happy to present the initial report to the Russian/international management in combined Russian and English languages. They liked it, so we discuss the potential follow up steps. I invite them to 2 days workshop in Prague, they almost applaud "Praga, fantastic!". The Russian manager is telling me "we Russians have feeling that the Czechs do not like us, we do not know why, but your offer shows that it is not true!". I do not the feel the actual need to comment it and I am happy to go to the canteen and have a clear potential for follow up in my mind.
We take some Russian cakes and tee, together with truck drivers and employees. The tee and cakes, as well as the lunches, are provided free of charge to the staff and the external truck drivers too. "The truck drivers are handling our goods to our clients", so they might be a bit more motivated to handle our excellent goods with a better care. An excellent international management team, nice to talk to all of them.
Sasha is taking me to the airport again, I am getting the invitation to join the dinner in Sankt Petersburg in June with top managers from the region and a small invitation for a boat trip for me and my wife. Hopefully, I will meet the Czech Embassy next time, as I usually do in any interesting country. I am getting the visit card from another international Russian based company "Baumit", who wants to build a factory here, we should meet next time. So, I call my assistant to make a reservation again.
I am quite happy for these short moments out of the European Union, not physically, but mainly mentally. We were not talking about European subsidies from Brussels, nor recession and/or "the Zero ambition level", like in the perfectly organized Zurich meeting 3 days a go.
I am just getting a call from a company in Hamburg while being in the taxi to the airport. They want to use our assistance for the training in Warsaw and Ljubliana in the next few weeks, so I need to get "IN" again, switching from the Russian passion to a European conservative approach, next to that I need to focus on our new international projects in Czechia too, so slow down ..
I am looking forward to the next visit of "Piter", the lovely local nickname of Sankt Petersburg. Not only the temperature differences will be much lower this Summer! :-))
Libor Witassek, CEO, DC VISION
