CEO to represent your company in Russia

Finding a CEO for B2B companies in Russia can be a daunting task. There are few candidates on the market with significant experience in a particular industry in Western business and solid management background.
Foreign companies are often faced with the choice of hiring a foreign CEO or a local manager. Among the main requirements are experience in the local market, knowledge of the sector, and the specifics of the local business.
Typically, companies want to hire people for the CEO position from the same industry. Knowledge of the Russian language is a big plus. Russian top managers tend to be more efficient when a company needs to quickly increase sales. They are able to implement an aggressive development strategy at the stage of starting a business or gaining market share.

We closely monitor the human resources market and this is what a recent study says.

• The percent of effective CEOs with an MBA is actually lower than the average. On HBR's list of CEOs, about 32% have an MBA (while about 40% of leaders on the S&P 500 list do).
• About a quarter of the most effective CEOs on HBR's list have a technical education (primarily engineering). According to researchers, the study of engineering develops practical and pragmatic thinking and teaches one to think about things and processes in terms of their efficiency and cost – which are all skills needed to manage an organization. The percentage of effective CEOs with technical education is higher – around 50%.
• Just 7% of the most effective CEOs of Russian companies are foreign-born top managers, compared to 9% in the overall sample of general directors. Furthermore, the average tenure of an expat CEO at a Russian company is just 2.1 years, versus the overall CEO tenure average of 3 years. It seems that a knowledge of the environment and the presence of a local social network is a significantly more important ingredient for success than a global outlook and international experience.
• An analysis of the HBR data shows that the most effective CEOs have made fewer transfers between functional areas. Though moving between functional areas is less popular in Russian companies in the first place, the trend is still the same – effective CEOs make fewer transfers between functional areas.
• Research showed that in Russian companies the role of CEO is divided between the ambassador (minister of external relations), who provides a connection with the external world, the necessary political resources, a vision, and a goal, and the operator (minister of internal affairs), who focuses on internal management and routinely achieving results.

By forming a team for our clients, we know exactly what skills are needed for a specific project. Sometimes we offer specialists who already have the relevant competencies, and sometimes we even raise specialists for the needs of the project. But the hardest job is, of course, finding the right CEO. The best leaders adhere to the high standards of the company, have a strategic mindset, and their first priority is to increase sales and build a successful history of the company in the Russian market. It often takes time to build a team, and the result is needed immediately. If needed Complex Sales Distribution Agency can take on the role of CEO (whole or a part of it) and lead your project to success. To guarantee success, you need to make sure everything else is in order. We value our reputation, as well as the reputation of our clients, therefore we are ready to help in many areas in your business in order to achieve the highest result together.