Doing Business in Russia. Котова К.П - 27 стр.

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      “We started looking for a buyer – and finally found one in Perm. We
helped the Motor Works and the Perm enterprise make a deal and earned a ten
per cent commission.”
      How to get right
      One of the managers’ first commercial undertakings flopped. They helped
a motor transport enterprise in Krivoi Rog purchase 6,000 roubles’ worth of
spare parts for its Moskvich cars. Then the enterprise refused to pay the com-
mission.
      “It was very hard to get started,” says Iosif Rotgolts, head of the collec-
tive. “We didn’t have a single kopek of original capital. At one point it looked
like we wouldn’t earn anything either. The Executive Committee received the
first 3,000 or 4,000 roubles for the work we did for cooperatives.”
      “We wanted to manufacture children’s footwear,” says Vladimir Gri-
banov of the “Vzlyot” cooperative. “But we didn’t have the foggiest idea of how
to approach this business. The EC managers helped us.”
      Today “Vzlyot” has its own footwear repair shop, has built a production
line of children’s shoes and is equipping its own store. For a fee of 150 roubles a
quarter, the EC managers do consulting work for “Vzlyot” on legal, economic
and other matters.
      The EC has also made the “Lida” cooperative a profitable business.
“Lida” specializes in knitted sweaters, blouses and jackets which it manufac-
tures using West German equipment.
      “Thanks to the help of the EC managers,” says Valery Sukhin, “Lida’s”
chairman, “we have signed an agreement on a joint venture with the German
firm – “Mashintorg-Lida.” Now we’ll reach the world market.”
      True the cooperatives affairs now are going from bad to worse. It owes
the EC. Having pledged to pay 1,000 roubles a month for consultations, it has
yet to pay one kopek.