What services are in demand in Russia?
The market for professional services in Russia is still relatively weak. In general, Russians are not used to paying for services and have a great deal of difficulty in evaluating quality. Initial decisions are there often based on price, or on ‘perception’. There are some exceptions, notably ‘international standard’ accounting and auditing for financial institutions and listed companies. Russians companies seem particularly unwilling to pay for marketing services, and often have great difficulty with agency/commission agreements. In general, Russian firms divide the world into two groups: first, companies that actually pay them money for goods and services and, second, everyone else. Of course, the situation is developing rapidly. However, as the Russian economy develops and Russian companies become more sophisticted, local Russian service providers are also arising to compete with foreign firms. We believe that services which can be packaged as products and/or which have an inherentl
