The Changes To Russia's Business Environment That Flew Below The Radar

Alexander Batchilo – Companies doing business in Russia have been on a roller coaster ride for the last year. The combination of Western sanctions, a weakened currency and continued geopolitical uncertainty have threatened even the most robust of balance sheets. Yet amid these headline-grabbing harbingers of new challenges in Russia’s business environment, one seems to have gone largely overlooked: last September, Russian lawmakers passed unprecedented changes to their country’s corporate legislation. The aim was to update business legal frameworks and to extend additional protections to minority corporate stakeholders, but it remains uncertain whether the law will have the desired effect.

The sweeping changes generally affect the rules for how companies and their stakeholders interact. They also overhaul the different classes of legal entities that are permitted to do business. Some highlights:

• All Russian legal entities are reclassified. Previously, entities were conceptually seen as either for-profit and “commercial” or “non-commercial,” today all organizations are split between the “unitary” and “corporate” categories. A “unitary” organization’s founder does not directly participate in the business’s affairs or ownership, while the founder of a “corporate” entity retains the right to remain a shareholder or manager.

Tweet

4 Steps to Take Your Local Business Global

Chris Doe Ford - Imagine your business being promoted not only by you and your sales team but by thousands around the world. Can you picture what that would do to your bottom line? With all due respect, can you get outta your own way for a minute and consider the possibilities?

As a business owner or executive, too often we become focused on our local market. We become focused on beating our local competition. We become focused on following up with that local lead. We become focused on trying to motivate our sales team. Don't get me wrong here. Being focused is a great thing. However, let's harness that focus and explode it globally.

You may say, that's great Chris, but what are you talking about. How do I take my local mom & pop business, or my local agency, or my local whatever type business, and expand it worldwide?

Relax. It's not that difficult. Just a few simple steps and we can be receiving inquiries, orders, and sales from sources we didn't even think existed.

Tweet