Journal archive
Strategy and tactics |
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We asked Marina Malykhina, Director-General of Magram Market Research Agency, to tell us about her company story of success. The independent Magram Market Research was founded in 1997 and is one of the leaders in the marketing and sociological research.
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As elsewhere, there are norms in the business practices regulating the relations between individual businesses. But all the circumstances the competitors can find themselves in cannot be covered by the official rules and regulations. In addition to the official rules, there is an unwritten law. Being honest in business often turns into one of the most valuable competitive advantages.
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The issues of theory |
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The business activities have recently been regarded from the point of view of neo-classical, institutional, behaviorist, evolutional and other theories. Conferences and symposia are held, a consortium for the global monitoring of business activities is founded, an international grant is awarded for the research on the impact the business activities are making upon the economic development.
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Competitive Russia |
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Today the basis of the national security is the security of the economic activity. The latter is seen as the ability of the national economy to guarantee the national welfare and the domestic market stability regardless of the external conditions. The system securing the economic activity is considered to be efficient if the negative impact from outside is counterbalanced by the internal resource of the country supporting the political and economic stability. Today Russia has considerable natu-ral resources and plays a big role in the oil and gas trade. But can it serve as a guarantee of our country's stable competitive position in the world economic processes? What is the basis of the system securing the economic activity in the country?
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Despite the seemingly good macroeconomic indicators, the Russian economic development has been hampered recently by the serious barriers created by the economic policy-makers. The competitiveness level of the Russian economy is still going in downswing. One of the reasons for the plunging is the fact that the excess profits gained from the natural resources exports were hardly ever used to modernize the economy.
Our magazine publishes some fragments from a report made by S. Glazyev, corresponding mem¬ber of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the National Development Institute. The report was made at the Russian Social and Economic Development Strategy in the Context of Globalization workshop held to mark the 10th anniversary of the National Development Institute which is part of the Social Sciences Directorate of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
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According to the forecast made by GoldmanSax, Russia is bound to experience an unprecedented economic growth. The experts predict that Russia will be the most potent European economy by 2027 with the GDP of 3 trillion US dollars... At the same time, according to some business and government analysts, the forecast does not mean we should not address the issues on the agenda that are becoming harder and harder to tackle each coming year. First of all, we are talking about the Russian economy competitiveness.
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Today the competitive advantages of the company are to a great extent determined by the patens, licenses, trademarks, and goodwill it has. A good example of this is the market activity of the new so called «de-capitalized» companies where there is often a small ordinary capital that are engaged in brand management. It is noteworthy that the market competition development brings about the notion that the asset values are less connected with the actual value of the company and more with the intangible asset value the company has (its brand, goodwill, etc.) Probably this is the reason why the following point of view prevails on the Russian market today: intangible assets are one of the best leverages in the market activity management.
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The term value based management is now a symbol of the latest developments in the sphere of financial management and the management technologies that enable effective planning, monitoring and a business strategy choice made to achieve the economic goals set. As the real property are the most durable goods among the durables and are the commodities with the best investment accumulation capabilities, the well-thought-through and efficient real property value-based management is one of the most important factors contributing to the rise of any business' competitiveness level.
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During the last decade such factors as the company capitalization and the company market value growth have been making an increasingly high contribution to the company competitive position change. Not very long ago it was necessary to make quality product in large quantities, have access to the financial resources and be able to use the resources of the administrative authorities in order to be a leader. Now the answer to the question «what are your capitalization figures?» is one of the leading factors influencing the outcome of the negotiations on partnership, strategic alliance formation, or investment attraction chances. If you do not start managing your company value now, tomorrow might turn out to be late as there will be no business to manage.
The special importance factor is the quality of the company management. It is the quality that is the prerequisite for the business success in today's competitive environment.
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When the competition is fierce, even the market leaders have to address the rather complex issue of maintaining the leading position. The traditional means (such as the market share increase and the price decrease to enter into the price-based competition) often prove to be inefficient. Today the consumer loyalty is becoming an increasingly important factor contributing to the company success. This is the reason why the competitors have become much more interested in consider¬ing such issues as brand management, its value assessment and the brand use as an instrument in the competition.
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Leadership |
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As a rule, sooner or later every businessman asks himself a question: how competitive my competitor is? In what way will he be using his resource in the competition? How can I estimate the efficiency level of the competitors' measures taken to confront me? The competition against a strong competitor raises the risks of the considerable market share loss and if the worst case scenario is implemented, the competitor runs the risks of winding up. Therefore, in order to see the essence of the competition between the leaders and those who aspire to be leaders, it is necessary to find the competitive position assessment methods and identify the characteristics of each of the competitors.
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Financial Instruments |
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The Russian businesses' demand for the long-term financial resource is still high. This is especially true for those operating in the real sector of the economy. Nevertheless, there are no banks in Russia (save Sberbank and Vneshtorgbank) that can independently issue loans to, for instance, Gazprom or Transneft. That is why the syndicated Russian and foreign banks' investment is an increasingly popular financial instrument the banks have to use in order to cater to their big customers. The Russian and foreign syndicated loan best practices are different. There are now clear-cut and universal regulations in place in Russia in regard to such business practices. However, the years 2005 and 2006 saw a boom in the syndicated loan issuing in Russia.
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