STAR BRAND MANAGER

It’s a typical story that we see in Russia. The Russian subsidiary of a multi-national company is struggling and they decide to change the top management. They bring in expats who experienced some level of success internationally. These expats come in with great motivation and compensation packages. They live in compounds close to international schools. Then they start their assignment with great energy and enthusiasm for Russian business. They make bunch of quick strategy changes to please their European Head Offices and give great speeches to the organization promising a turnaround. Yet, soon they run out of the energy. The changes don’t seem to make a big impact, the business turns out more complex than they expect and their families start to get tired of cold. Not surprisingly, they are called back by the Head Office to be replaced by the next one. Sounds familiar? Having come to this country as an expat seven years ago, I saw this story many times. Here are the main reasons why expats fail in Russia:  Continue reading →

You started to see them everywhere. A new type of people are disrupting traditional businesses or career paths despite their unusual background or insufficient experience in that area. I call them ‘’Hybrids’’. These people either come from unexpected career paths or combine unusual experiences together. Eventually, Hybrids tend to be more successful than others with usual backgrounds. Examples include: An employee in a corporation turning into an entrepreneur, a finance manager turning into a marketer or a local employee going abroad and coming back with hybrid experience. In most cases, hybrids take an unusual decision to disrupt themselves, often by changing their sphere. Sometimes, it’s driven by necessity such as being fired from a job, or out of curiosity to learn new skills in a new job. Whatever the reason is, we are living in a world which started to reward hybrids more than ever. Why? Because the definition of traditional careers are changing. Being a master in one function isn’t enough to have a stable job and income because almost every business function such as management, marketing, finance, HR, supply chain or sales are being disrupted due to technology. Secondly, the internet started to disrupt even the most traditional businesses such as real estate, banking, taxi ordering or individual transport. This is forcing the corporate people to act like entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs to learn the ways of the corporations to be efficient. Continue reading →