Moderators

Pierfederico Lossa – Italian entrepreneur living and working in Russia

Elisaveta Osetinskaya – Chief Editor “Vedomsti”

Since the 1990’s, the global competitive landscape is becoming increasingly populated by Multinational Enterprises surprisingly originating in emerging economies like Brazil, China and India, or even in developing countries like Egypt. These New Multinationals have shown to be surprisingly versatile in expanding rapidly in ways often contradicting the former model of Western-style multinational expansion. At the heart of this rapid expansion are a number of factors (high adaptability, political know-how, quick learning, better risk management) many of which can be traced back to the environment and culture where the company originated. What is clear today is that New Multinationals are expressing a new “Way” to multinational success. Russian companies lately have also shown a remarkable international expansion. The focus of this panel session of Distant Light’s 2009 Forum is to understand if there is a model for the internationalization of Russian businesses, or if there can be one– a Russian way. We ask for example:

1. Are Russian businesses playing a positive role in post-soviet and developing world countries?
2. What Russian entrepreneurial practices could be borrowed by the west?
3. Do Russian entrepreneurs have an edge over western or other entrepreneurs? What lessons can be learned?
   1. Living in a constantly changing environment – crisis management
   2. Understanding non-quantifiable risk
   3. Instinct
   4. Relationship building
   5. Are  foreign companies who have operated in Russia on a better learning-curve to operate in other “Second World” countries? Is this being exploited?

We also ask if Russia is the “Land of opportunity for entrepreneurs”, if it ever was or will it be or still be in the future.

Panel speakers:

• Sergey Nedoroslev, owner of KASKOL
• Boris Vainsicher, general director of OAO “TGK-1”
• Mikhail Slobodin, CEO of Kompleksnye Energeticheskie Sistemy
• David Yang, founder of ABBYY and Cybiko
• Sergey Vychodzev, president of VELLE, co-owner of the brands “Invite” and “Bistrov”
• Sergey Belousov, founder and CEO of Parallels
• Dmitry Agarunov, owner of Gameland, director of the Russian Chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization
• Igor Kan, managing director at Morgan Stanley
• Leonid Vindman, executive director at Unicredit Russia
• Eugeny Otnelchenko, director of strategy at PWC