JKL Helsinki organized a Russia-themed afternoon seminar on Friday April 3rd, 2009. The guest speakers at the seminar were Ulrika Romantschuk, Senior Vice President and Communications Director at Fazer Group, and Lawrence McDonnell, Director and Founder of Pravda PR in Moscow, a MS&L Worldwide affiliate.

After a brief introduction to JKL and MS&L Worldwide, Romantschuk told about Fazer’s experiences in Russia. Fazer is one of the largest bakery companies in Russia with four bakeries in St. Petersburg and one in Moscow. Romantschuk’s main points for succeeding in Russia were the following:

1. If you don’t speak Russian, recruit a person who both understands the local culture and speaks the language fluently
2. Visit Russia often, get to know the people and culture – Personal relationships are very important
3. Aim to have competent communications and marketing professionals in the management team in Russia
4. Respect local ways of working, but make an effort to ensure that the Group’s objectives and code of conduct are understood locally
5. Be flexible – sometimes things become complicated and even change along the way in Russia
6. Communicate in Russian – Both language and style should be local

Lawrence McDonnell continued with the communication challenges and opportunities for Finnish companies in the Russian market in the current financial climate.

The seminar, attended by Communications Directors, Export Managers, and Business Development Directors from various large Finnish companies, was a success.