ICM Management Training
in Russia, traps and gaps

By Charles Gancel

Internationalisation is a key component to success for companies today. It opens new markets and allows for the exchange of new technologies, skills and expertise. Nonetheless, with internationalisation comes increased competition. Given the confrontation with different corporate and national cultures, and different communication and management styles, managers who are effective within their home market must add new skills to maintain excellence in the competitive international markets.

Inter Cultural Management Associates (ICM) has extensive experience in developing skills for international managers. While ICM develops approaches based on the specific needs of your company, in this article you will find a description of some of the training programmes and services we have developed in the past. Each skill described is a module that can be combined with others to develop a programme that will reach objectives. ICM will train managers for each module, or train trainers to do so.

ICM has helped international companies with management development since 1983. Clients include Banque Nationale de Paris, BP, BSN, Ciments Français, EDF International, Kodak, Steelcase-Strafor and Schlumberger. The ICM approach addressed three critical aspects of management development in an international context:

1. Assessing a situation.
2. Guiding the implementation
3. Training key players

Needs analysis for international training

First, ICM defines the key management skills and styles essential for managers in the organisation to succeed in implementing the business objectives of the company. Second, they access the current skill level and management style. Third, they identify the gaps between current skill levels and desired skills levels. Completion of these three steps allows the setting of training programme objectives and content.

ICM's approach links international management development to the needs of the business by including senior executives, management, and at times customers, in determining strategic development needs. Through interviews, on-the-job analysis, questionnaires or workshops with top management, they develop a profile of the management culture and skills deemed essential for the company's success.

Using this information the present skill level in the organisation is measured and compared to the desired management culture and skills. Self-assessment questionnaires, focus groups, and structured as well as unstructured interviews determine where the gaps or weaknesses lie. From this analysis is identified concrete objectives and target populations for future training programmes.

Programme design and development

ICM's goal is to design a programme that creatively meets training objectives. All key players are involved, including top management, to ensure that the programme design responds to international client needs and to build "ownership" for the programme in all stakeholders. The consultancy works to determine the skills to be developed, the appropriate programming of the sessions, and the most effective pedagogical approach. They also develop the materials, in particular a company course manual. This manual helps integrate into an organisation's culture the skills deemed essential for a company's success.

ICM co-ordinates programmes and helps in finding the particular expertise necessary to meet objectives. It identifies key players, trainers, participating senior managers and guest speakers, and briefs them on programme objectives, and on their roll. It then conducts evaluations to determine the effectiveness of each programme in order to make any necessary changes in the design and delivery. ICM evaluates each module and each programme by getting feedback from both trainers and participants. A subsequent evaluation is done a few months after the programme has been completed when participants have returned to their workplace, in order to measure performance improvement.

Training for trainers

The programme length and content depends on the programme objectives, training content and the needs of the trainers. Our approach assumes that good trainers and coaches must be "trainable and coachable." Therefore, in our train the trainers programmes, we build skills in giving and receiving constructive feedback. We also build skills in developing clarity and optimal approaches to differing learning styles. For some programmes the trainers being trained will first experience the program as a participant and then review it as a trainer. In this way they get firsthand experience of the content from the participant's point of view and of the strength of the methodology. As necessary, an ICM consultant can co-facilitate the programmes with the trainers initially and organise skill-building sessions to provide additional coaching. Varied methodologies are used including formal lectures, role plays, discussions and tasks in small groups, exercises and presentations, and personalised feedback.

Cultural awareness

Managers from various cultural backgrounds must work and manage people internationally. ICM's goal is to deepen participants' sensitivity to the impact culture can have on daily life. Interpersonal relations, and international management practices. Additionally we provide guidelines for a better understanding of cultural differences. Finally, ICM plans what individuals can do to manage misunderstandings and facilitate adaptation to different communication and management styles. Culture Awareness usually includes a two to three-day programme providing general preparation for understanding and dealing positively with cultural differences in values, attitudes, customs and behaviours. Varied methodology is utilised including presentations, films, guest lecturers, exercises and case studies.

International negotiation

International negotiation is a two to three-day programme which can be general or country specific. The sessions combine presentations on how culture influences negotiation (for example, negotiator selection criteria, concern with protocol, nature of persuasive arguments, basis of trust, risk-taking propensity, etc.), and extensive negotiation practice based on a model for negotiating effectively and for building long-term relationships. The negotiations are filmed, so that in addition to analysis by the consultants and feedback from the other participants, each person can evaluate his or her own strengths and weaknesses in negotiation. ICM can develop cases specific to a company's situation.

Varied methodology is used including presentations, exercises, films, role plays, case studies, negotiations, personalised feedback.

Consulting in a multicultural environment

Managers working in an international context are often called on to work as internal or external consultants. They must build the specific skills in communication, methodology and client relations essential to success in selling and delivering consulting services. We assist in developing an approach to effecting change in client organisations by involving key players and building consensus. Programmes range from two to five days depending on client needs and objectives. These seminars focus on the influence and communication skills that are essential for internal consultants working in a decentralised international company and for consultants who manage projects financed by international financial institutions such as the World Bank.

A varied approach is used geared to programme objectives: intensive skill-building using role plays and situations from the participants' jobs, guest case studies, videotaping for in-depth reviews.

Communication in an international context

Communication in an international context is a highly intensive two or three-day programme. The programme uses material and situations from the participants' job so that skills can be immediately applied. Programmes can be developed to prepare participants to communicate to a specific culture. Pre-planning meetings with participants ensure that the programme is adapted to their specific needs. An approach involving intensive feedback, building on strengths to help participants develop their most effective personal style through role plays and private videotape reviews, is utilised.

Expatriate preparation

Expatriate preparation helps participants become familiar with a new country and gain understanding of the expatriation process in order to prepare as well as possible for departure, the adaptation abroad, and the return home. It also helps the family being expatriated become aware of the particular challenges involved in expatriation and the steps to take for an effective transition to the new environment. The expatriate preparation programme is a way to brief participants on the differences in national, corporate and functional cultures for the mission. This is a two to five-day programme for future expatriates and/or their spouses and children on various aspects concerning the country and the mission. The content varies depending on the needs of the participants, and the country and project in question. Varied methodology is used including formal lectures, presentations by previous expatriates, films, role plays, authentic documents, discussions and tasks in small groups, and question and answer sessions with the company.

Managing internationally

Managing internationally is designed for managers leading international teams or projects. It aims to build the specific skills needed for transnational managers to be successful in leading, motivating and maximising effectiveness in an international context. The programme is divided into four different skill groupings. These skill groupings can be put together to form an integrated training programme or used separately to meet a specific need. All programmes are geared to the specific needs of our client.

Providing leadership in an international environment

With providing leadership in an international environment ICM develops leadership programmes suited to the company and national cultures. These programmes focus on building the skills essential to getting results by motivating people, setting direction, delegating appropriately and increasing flexibility. Programmes vary from intense, one-to-one coaching sessions, to sessions for groups spread out over several months.

Appraising and coaching staff

The appraising and coaching staff programmes focus on developing skills managers need to maximise the performance of their teams by assisting people in their professional development. By learning to give constructive performance appraisals and ongoing supportive feedback, managers create an atmosphere conducive to continual improvement and high standards of excellence.

Co-ordinating international projects

This module co-ordinating international projects helps participants to communicate effectively and manage information flow and exchange in an international context. By building on role complementarity for increased team effectiveness and strength, managers learn how to develop common working methods for better decision making and team cohesion.

Developing international networks

In the developing international networks model managers learn how to build productive working relationships on a world scale. By reinforcing their influence skills, they are able to gain commitment and actions from those whom they do not necessarily know or see often and over whom they have no hierarchical authority.

An application by ICM of management training in Russia: traps and gaps

This section of the article describes a training programme proposed by Western countries to help ease the transition of Russian industry from a planned economy to a market economy. We will first highlight the potential problems of introducing Western-style training programmes in Russia that we identified and then describe the programme we developed to overcome these traps and gaps. We will then discuss what we consider to be a success factor for training programmes today: industrial involvement.

At the end of 1992, ICM conducted an extensive series of interviews in Moscow and visited several industrial installations for both the textile and the clothing industry. This investigation allowed us to get a clear picture of the current situation and to evaluate the gaps between European practices and those in use in Moscow today. The study gave us crucial information about participant expectations and helped us develop not only the content but also the training approach and methodology for our training programme.

The content and approach of Western management training programmes are consistent with corporate objectives and reinforce the roles of managers in a competitive environment. We assume that the participants know and understand their missions and roles and that they master certain concepts (economic viability, competition, decision making, etc.). This presumption cannot apply in Russia, where these notions are often misunderstood, given that Russian managers were trained in a different system. We quickly discovered that we were not faced with managers who lack training, but rather with managers whose training is obsolete. Although we have seen this situation in Western industry, it has never existed to the extent we see in Russia today.

The challenge of training

For the trainer, the challenge is not simply to teach, but to replace one acquired body of knowledge (that was valid in the old system) with another body of knowledge, a new body of knowledge. This is extremely difficult since the actual application of market economy is still in embryonic states in Russia and slowed down by the instability of Russian society. The trainer is facing the challenge of a deeply rooted system. The trainer has to persuade the participants to abandon the convictions and practices on which they have build their careers, and to adapt others for which they have no reference points, little trust and little concrete proof that they will work.

After all, in their old system, the Western concept of profit was considered suspect. Today still, the idea of going after profit connotes something unethical. What had been considered immoral suddenly becomes moral, and this raises the question of what is acceptable and what is not. Unfortunately, the legal system is still at too embryonic a stage to provide credible answers. Thus, there are no guiding principles for the moral dimension of corporate practices. The trainer finds him or herself in this new and difficult position of training participants in notions that they can accept theoretically but that they question morally.

In addition to adjusting moral vision, the Russians need to acquire new concepts that can only take on meaning with real social change. Talking about "market segmentation" for example is difficult in a society which once refused to acknowledge this concept and still today does not have a segmented market in the Western sense of the word. If you ask Russian managers in the clothing industry who their target population is, they all give more or less the same reply: "our client is an average Russian man or woman of average income" - in other words, a non-segment. It is clear that the notion of market segmentation, even if understood intellectually, will not impact company decisions until it becomes a reality in Russian society itself.

Major differences

Unfortunately, numerous Western trainers between 1991 and 1993 made the assumption that the Russian manager perceives his/her role and that of the company as being like his/her Western counterpart. This had led to misunderstandings and inefficiency in the training programmes that have been run. The Russian concepts of "mission and organisation" are a logical extension of the planned economy they knew for so long. The wave of privatisations and the evolution towards a market economy have not yet brought about serious structural adjustments. For example, production remains the driving function of companies. The integrating of purchasing, sales, distribution, marketing and so on into the notion of product development is slow conceptually and further hindered by the general lack of social organisation.

For example, the Russians have tried to concentrate all activities for production and sales within a specific region. Since the industries do not know how to source raw materials and distribute products on a country-wide scale, proximity gives a feeling of control. The inefficiency of the banking system and hyper-inflation and demands for prepayment make financial management and credit possibilities almost impossible.

Human resource management to a great extent still fulfils a sort of feudal village role (or "social sphere"), responsible for health, transportation, food, lodging and family services for the personnel. One of the textile managers that we questioned on his business priorities told us that he could not find any more pigs for his company's breeding area. The majority of his time was spent handling this problem. The Western view that a human resource manager's role concerns training and development is unknown.

Clearly the Russians have not yet assimilated the transition from a production and social mission to an economic mission. This change is neither understood nor fully accepted and certainly not operative. The organisation of the company as well as the roles for the people who work there are still determined by the old production and social mission and many of the company managers we talked to told us that their corporate mission was to "provide clothing for Russian children."

The managing director's role

We asked the company heads to describe their role and how they spend their time. Russian executives spend only 10 per cent of their time on the activities that take up 80 per cent of a Western executive's time. The 90 per cent left over is spent looking for raw materials, handling litigation with clients and taking care of the activities in the "social sphere". The Russian manager must handle a permanent state of crisis.

Consequently, the competencies needed for a Russian director to succeed in the old system are very different from those required for success in a market economy. We identified three such types of traditional competencies : technical, political and social.

Technical competencies

The technical competencies required correspond to those in the West necessary for a factory manager. The Russian director, especially in the textile industry, has received only technical training, centred on production and on the ability to execute a plan.

Political competencies

This concerns the "little black book" executives have, that allows them to pull the necessary political strings to help their company to obtain supplies, investments, distribution, recruitment, etc. It is naive to believe that these competencies are no longer necessary. Many of the people who held key positions in the old political network continue to exert power and still have their hands in business dealings. The ability to reach the right person at the right time constitutes a vital competence for doing business in Russia today. It is important that we understand that this dimension is not just a by-product of the old system. According to some, it is a fundamental value of Russian culture and, as such, not about to disappear quickly.

Social competencies

Social competencies involve the ability to take care of the personnel and their families. In the privatisation phase, during which time many company directors had to get elected by their shareholders (the personnel for the most part), these competencies were key. One of the woman company directors that we met told us that she had been elected essentially because the personnel thought of her as their mother and felt that she would take good care of them.

We can now better understand why management training based on Western concepts corresponds only slightly to the expectations and the needs of Russian managers who are trying to push the change process ahead. Up until now Western management concepts have remained pure theory, as the Russian environment has provided only minimal ground for concrete application and learning. We decided to look for the answers by involving Western industrialists who are seeking Russian business partners in the programme. By helping the Russian managers break out of cultural and economic isolation, we also help them to confront the reality of the Western market and to apply the new concepts and skills learned during the seminars. If we only discuss the notion of quality in the classroom, for example, it remains totally theoretical. However, when the Russians consider the requirements of Westerners who delocalise some of their activities to Russia and accept or reject orders made on the basis of "quality", they very quickly see what "quality" means and how you get it. In the cases we have seen, the Russians have subsequently been able to make the changes necessary to meet Western standards.

Programme

Our project was launched at the end of 1992, beginning with the audit described above. The seminars were developed after the audit and will be run for the first time in the fall of 1994. The programme was designed to be run many times over a period of several years in order to include a critical mass of executives in the industry. It differs from programmes previously offered in Russia in four important ways :

1. It targets a specific branch of industry : the textile and clothing industries.

2. It involves European textile and clothing industries on an operational level. They took the initiative for the development of this project and they manage it with the European Commission within the framework of the Commission's TACIS programme.

3. Its content, pedagogy and methodology were developed only after the in-depth examination of the daily challenges Russian industrialists currently face, the general evolutionary trend of this particular branch of industry, and of the lingering impact today of the business practices used before 1991.

4. It goes beyond management training per se and aims at developing business relations between Russian and Western European industrialists in order to support the Russians and to provide a context where the new skills they develop during the seminars can be immediately applied.

Target population

The target population of this programme is executives of companies in the textile and clothing industries. The participants are all members of the executive committee within their companies.

Programme objectives

Seminar design

During the audit phase we identified five priority areas for learning and developed five seminar modules in 1993. These were based on the following principles :

The seminars

Each five-seminar programme is held over a period of three months given that company directors can rarely be absent from their office for more than two weeks at a time. The five modules are described as follows :

Participant selection

With the help of our Russian partners, ICM first identified possible companies. We then selected an initial 120 potential participants within the executive committees of these companies. Afterwards we conducted individual interviews with these executives and chose the first 40 participants.

The biggest challenge was to manage the selection process in order to form a coherent group of participants and not get influenced by the political pushing and pulling which has often played a significant role in how participants are selected for training programmes.

In an effort to increase impact after the programme, we tried to select at least two people from each company. In this way, we hoped to share the heavy task of transferring knowledge and skills from the programme participants to the others in the company on two sets of shoulders and also create support for new ways of doing things within the companies.

Internship

A major point emerging from the interviews was that the Russian managers were hungry for contacts with European firms. The internship part of the programme responds to this and also constitutes an innovation in the kinds of training generally available in Russia.

The seminars are followed by a one-month internship in a European company. Ten groups of four managers, each group accompanied by an interpreter, is sent to a specific company. Each group is managed within the host company by a "tutor" from the human resource department. ICM prepares the "tutors" for this role.

The internships allow the participants to experience a Western company at first hand, and to apply the management concepts and skills practised in the modules. They also provide the opportunity to pursue the initial contacts made with their Western counterparts during the seminars.

Each team is given a specific project to work on by their European host company. In this way, the Russian managers are able to take on more ambitious projects than if they were each working alone, and the Western companies benefit from having this team of Russian experts examine some aspect of their business that they want help or information on. Once back in Moscow, the Russian project teams have a work session to share the experience and knowledge gathered from their work in Europe.

Involving the industry : a critical success factor

Involving the industry from the very onset of the ICM programme has had two major consequences : it has promoted credibility and led to potential partnerships.

Credibility

Many of the Russian directors we met had already received training in Western programmes set up since 1989. Their evaluation of these programmes is harsh : "of very limited use in the Russian context". They consider the direct involvement of people in the industry in our programme to be a very positive change. The Western industrialists from prestigious textile and clothing companies who come to the seminars to give lectures and spend time in discussions bring credibility and added-value that is recognised by all the Russian industrialists. It gives them the unexpected chance to meet with their Western counterparts and to learn from them directly.

Russian industrialists' interest in participating in our programme has been overwhelming. Given the despair that exists in Russian industry today, this motivation is key.

Potential partnerships

It is obvious that the Russians are seeking international business possibilities, either through export, outward production traffic (OPT), or direct investment. Their main objective is to get some of the work (especially in the clothing industry) that is currently subcontracted to companies in South East Asia. Their participation in the programme, which allows them to meet with Western industrialists, provides a unique opportunity for them to pursue this objective.

Our position is that the change required to go from a planned economy to a market economy is so great that to succeed it is essential for Russians to have immediate industrial and commercial business dealings with Westerners. In the clothing industry, those Russian companies that have set up subcontracting or OPT with Western partners have made the most spectacular progress.

Getting beyond cultural models

Does a typical Western manager exist ? If you sit a German, an American, a British and a French manager around a table and start asking them questions, you quickly wonder. Unfortunately, quite often this notion of a "western model" has pervaded training programmes in Russia and it has been a source of problems. Russian directors can be quite critical of the inconsistencies within the Western system that they fought against for so long !

Choosing one branch of industry allowed us to concentrate on a particular field and avoid generalities. When people of one industry speak to others of the same industry, they find themselves on common ground, which provides an immediate basis for communication. The ideological separation then becomes easier to bridge.

Management training or change management ?

The change process undertaken by the Russian industry is probably the most extraordinary that any industry has ever known. It is now apparent to us that our role is not simply to train those Russians who drive the economy, but also to provide them with tools to help them master this change process, for their companies and for the Russian economy as a whole. We focus not only on acquiring knowledge, but also on the ability to transform industry structurally as well as culturally. It is for this reason that we launch the five-seminar series with a module on managing change. In this module we will draw on some of the change management tools which have been developed in Western companies over the past 15 years that we feel are culturally adaptable. In order for the training programme to contribute to increased individual awareness, we have to arm the participants with tools to help them confirm the validity of new ways of doing things within their companies.

Conclusion

One final, important message our interviews allowed us to understand, is that we must at all costs avoid a repetition of the "Verdun syndrome". The Russians perceive the events of these past few years as proof of a terrible failure. And to add insult to injury, their traditional rival, the West, has not just proved the superiority of its ways of doing things : it also offers training to the loser.

In addition to the extraordinary difficulties they encounter today, the Russians feel that they have lost face precisely where they had felt so strong : industry. These feelings, along with a certain degree of frustration, are always present in the relations that develop between the Western trainers and industrialists and the Russian managers. We must understand this and take it into consideration in our attitude with the Russians. A "we know best" approach will push the Russians to stick more strongly to their positions and create antagonism. For learning to take place, consideration and respect are two essential ingredients.

Charles Gancel
CGancel@icmassociates.com

Inter Cultural Management Associates (ICM) is a Paris-based consulting firm which since 1983 has helped managers and organisations work effectively across cultural orders, be they national, corporate or functional.

Inter Cultural Management Associates

2, rue de l'Eglise ­ 92200 Neuilly sur Seine

icm@icmassociates.com