OREANDA-NEWS. December 03, 2008. PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Russian Managers Association carried out an investigation of 100 representatives from leading Russian companies to hear their assessment of the financial crisis’s impact on their business, reported the press-centre of PwC. 

Managers of 100 Russian companies from various sectors of the economy were surveyed under the A Time of Change investigation to reveal how the crisis had affected their investment plans, budgets, and human resources and marketing strategies, and to learn what obstacles now stand in the way of companies’ development.

Russian top managers are not taking the possible consequences of this crisis lightly, but they are optimistic about the situation in the mid-term because of their experiences with dynamic growth.
The survey showed a number of trends in top managers’ attitudes:

The crisis will be short-term in nature: 87% of respondents are confident their revenues will grow in the three-year term;

The crisis will make companies focus on extensive development as opposed to intensive development: 47% of respondents plan to expand their presence in existing markets;

Seventy-one per cent (71%) of companies plan to finance future business development with their own resources. Half the surveyed managers are counting on attracting borrowed funds. Twenty-two per cent (22%) of respondents are considering attracting resources from public funds.

Respondents believe that the crisis will affect how business development is financed (78%) and strategies are developed (89%). Some 94% intend to revise their costs for 2009.

The survey also showed which planned or unplanned cost reduction measures (regarding personnel, resources used and procurement activities) the companies intend to resort to.

The respondents were given a choice of the following answers: “planned and will be carried out” and “not planned but will be carried out”. Twenty-eight per cent (28%) of those surveyed were planning to and will reduce staff; 16% of respondents did not have plans to, but will resort to this measure.

Forty-five per cent (45%) planned to and will reduce the volume of materials used, and 27% planned to and will reduce the scope of work and services. Some 21% of surveyed companies were planning to and will decrease procurement activities, while 16% did not plan to but will resort to this. Only 6% of managers did not plan and will not implement any cost reduction activities.

Denis Protasov, director of Performance Improvement Advisory Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Russia, offered these comments on the situation in Russia:
“Many are facing the need to cut costs in the current market environment. Some managers are reducing any costs in haste — this approach will not give significant savings in the long run. Leaders who are trying to understand the cost base and factors affecting it, and analysing it in terms of efficiency are taking the right approach. They can achieve sustainable cost savings by integrating strategic cost reduction into their companies’ business strategies.”