23.01.2006
Mike Smith served an internship placed by SRAS in St. Petersburg with Fort-Ross. Fort-Ross is the marketing arm of Russia's burgening software developers association, RUSSOFT. With lots of well-educated, inexpenisive labor, software and technology outsourcing services have become an important and growing part of the Russian economy. Mike accepted the internship there to gain experiance with Russian business and in business correspondence.
 SRAS: My first question is one I'm sure you get all the time - why did you become interested in Russia and why did you decide to serve an internship here? (I'm particularly interested because Russia is not a well-known destination for finance majors.)
Mike: I actually started studying Russian in high school as an elective, and I was intrigued by the ways it differed from English and French (which I also study). There were two main factors pushing me to get an internship in Russia. I had already spent two semesters in Russia prior to last summer and while my Russian had greatly improved, I felt like I was leaving my study of economics and business behind. I thought that an internship with a Russian company would be the best way to combine these interests. Also during the last year Russia received investment grade status from American ratings agencies such as Moody's. Therefore, there should be some foreign investment coming into Russia which could lead to some interesting changes.
SRAS: Your internship with Fort Ross involved calling the CEOs and CFOs of various European companies. What sort of companies did you call? Any big names? What did you usually talk about and was it usually in English?
Mike: I did not get the opportunity to call many large multi-nationals, except for Siemens of Germany. Fort-Ross mainly had me focus on smaller companies such as regional chemical companies and banks from western and northern Europe. Once I even called a frozen fish company from Norway. We always spoke English over the phone, and I would usually ask them about their satisfaction and cost-effectiveness of their current software development system. Since Fort-Ross was preparing for its flagship conference on outsourcing, I would send these companies an invitation to attend the conference. It was a great lesson in corporate correspondence.
SRAS: You also did some translation for the company. What sort of documents were you given, if you can say without giving away company secrets, that is.
Mike: I translated materials that were going directly to English speaking audiences like advertisements, pamphlets, and invitations. I also translated a 22-page contract for them late in the summer. I have trouble reading contracts in English with all the legal jargon, so this was doubly intense.
SRAS: But I trust you accomplished your task?
Mike: My boss luckily approved of my translation. Plus I was lucky enough to find a Russian-English dictionary of legal terms at Dom Knigi, so that helped a bit.
SRAS: As a fellow translator, I can sympathize with you on the jargon. So, what can you say about the general atmosphere of Fort Ross?
Mike. The atmosphere at Fort-Ross was very relaxed. Even during the period before our main conference in June, I would only have to stay an hour extra to finish my work. In the weeks after the conference my boss would sometimes close the office and bring me and my coworkers to a park for a picnic. They have a very  friendly environment in their office.
SRAS: Sounds great. Have been back to Russia since then?
Mike: I was just in Moscow over New Year's visiting my girlfriend who studies at the Higher School of Economics.
SRAS: Really. Is she Russian? How did you guys meet?
Mike: Yeah my girlfriend Sasha is Russian. She was an exchange student two years ago in America, and it worked out that I was going to be in St Petersburg the next year.
SRAS: Well, the world is certainly not getting any smaller. I’ve a couple of more theoretical questions for you: first, Former President Gorbachev has been campaigning through his Gorbachev Foundation for Russian IT outsourcing, calling it essential to the maintenance of democracy in Russia and pivotal to the development of the economy there. Plus, given that Russian IT exports have grown by nearly 50% per year that would perhaps seem the case. Do you agree?
Mike: I think the IT sector and outsourcing in particular are very important for Russia in the near future. First of all IT development is relatively inexpensive in that it does not require as many materials as building a car. Therefore more resources can be devoted to the employee and future investment for the company. Secondly, the IT sector develops and changes so rapidly that the youngest and sharpest minds are drawn to this field. It gives Russia’s brightest students a reason to stay in Russia and seek work there.
SRAS: However, according to Joseph Feiman, vice president of Gartner Research: Russian companies are strong at engineering and development, but weak on business process outsourcing. Russia is facing strong competition mainly from India, but also from China, Poland, Israel, and other countries. What are the weaknesses of the Russian market? Why should companies choose Russian firms over Indian? (I'm sure you've had this question before!)
Mike: Mr Feiman is particularly right in that Russia has strong programmers, and their business side may be lacking. However, Russian companies have realized this shortcoming and have developed a strategy to improve their image. RUSSOFT (Russia's software developers' association) and Fort-Ross (their marketing branch) set up conferences so that foreign businesses can meet with their software developers to set goals and develop plans specific to the foreign company. This way there is a direct link between the buyers and sellers.
SRAS: It sounds like there are ways to overcome the lack of experience with capitalism, then. What else are they doing to support the field?
 Mike: Russia has a great university system for producing skilled programmers. The St. Petersburg team got third place in the World Programming Championships in Shanghai in 2004. Also for business and economic students my friends in Peter (St. Petersburg) told me that they have to complete at least 2 semesters of programming courses. However, most people do not realize that Russia has this talent.
SRAS: What do you think you've learned from the experience of interning with Fort Ross? How will it help your future plans?
Mike: During my time at Fort-Ross I learned how to communicate with clients over the phone, which was especially intimidating at first when I was speaking with executives. I also learned how to sell my product over the phone in this case the outsourcing conference. This is very important for me since I am going into personal finance, and I will need to convince people to use my services over those of someone else.
Find out more!
A Snap Shot of the Russian Economy
RSL Courses and Internships
St. Petersburg
The Library - Business in Russia
Fort Ross
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