Top managers named the main obstacles to business in Russia

Company managers consider bureaucracy, lack of personnel and finances to be the main obstacles to business in RUSSIA. 25% say that sanctions hinder them , a survey by Trust Technologies and NAFI showed

Business leaders consider bureaucracy, a lack of qualified personnel and a lack of finance to be the main obstacles to doing business in Russia. International sanctions are only in fifth place on the list of obstacles for business. These are the results of a survey of top managers conducted by the Trust Technologies company (TeDo, formerly PwC in Russia). RBC got acquainted with the results of the study .

The survey was conducted in October jointly with the NAFI Analytical Center in the format of a telephone interview under confidentiality conditions. 1001 managers took part in it. The respondents represented small, medium and large businesses , various regions and industries.

The vast majority of respondents - 72% - believe that the current business conditions generally contribute to the successful development of business in the country. 17% disagree with them, and another 11% found it difficult to answer. Top managers of enterprises located in Moscow are the most optimistic (80% of Moscow managers answered the question positively). Those whose companies are in a state of crisis or transformation are more likely to assess the current conditions as unfavorable, and in addition, managers of enterprises from knowledge-intensive industries, the study notes.

Half of the respondents consider the situation in their company stable, another 16% say that their business is in the stage of active development and growth. About one in four (24%) said that they are now trying to save their business, 8% are in the process of transformation and reorganization.

What hinders business

Survey participants were asked to select the three main obstacles to successfully doing business in Russia from the options provided. Most often respondents named:

bureaucracy - 49%; shortage of professional personnel - 40%; deficit of financial resources/investments - 31%; imperfection of legislation - 30%; international sanctions against Russia - 25%; insufficient support from the state - 21%; outdated/ineffective management style - 17%; a large role of personal connections and acquaintances - 16%; lack of reliable suppliers and partners - 16%. RBC Pro development program Successful negotiations: how to defend your position and achieve what you want What tricks of legendary scammers will be useful to you during negotiations “I’m also a professional”: 10 tough tricks of manipulators in negotiations Questions that control negotiations: how to ask and what to expect in response Successful negotiations A good scenario: what prevents you from taking control of your destiny How to behave with different types of negotiators The main secret of negotiations that no one will tell you “No, I insist!” We analyze five portraits of would-be “Door in the Face” negotiators and four more cognitive distortions in negotiations. How to win in “tough” negotiations. Three key stages “Kill the Sheep in You”: how to achieve your goal even in the most difficult negotiations The art of business negotiations: how to understand and manage your interlocutor

TeDo managing partner Igor Lotakov believes that the situation with the most frequently mentioned obstacles “changes little” from year to year. However, the 2022 study did not ask managers this question (.pdf), and in 2021, excessive taxation ranked first, followed by skills shortages and administrative barriers/bureaucracy. According to Lotakov, the new factor that has emerged—“international sanctions against Russia”—means that it is time to make the study of the negative consequences of sanctions a priority for the entire expert community.

The authors of the study note that representatives of state-owned companies more often than others chose the “outdated management style” option (25% versus 16% in the private sector). And private business leaders, in turn, are hampered to a greater extent by international sanctions (27% versus 11% in the public sector). Large businesses, judging by the survey results, are more acutely aware of the shortage of professional personnel and the underdevelopment of professional communities.

Among the main conditions for successful business, participants in the Trust Technologies and NAFI survey most often named competent management (50%), a professional, responsible team (45%), financial resources and investments (40%), reliable suppliers and partners (32% ) and support from the state (31%).

Personnel shortage remains one of the key problems in the Russian economy. The unemployment rate in October broke another record, amounting to 2.9%.

Market surveys of industrial enterprises, which are regularly conducted by the Institute of Economic Policy named after. E.T. Gaidar, indicate a “severe personnel shortage” in production. According to the institute’s materials based on the results of November, which RBC reviewed, the lack of qualified personnel ranks first in the ranking of restrictions on industrial growth according to enterprises. In second place, with a margin of 10 percentage points, is “the uncertainty of the current situation and its prospects.”

According to surveys from the Institute for Economics of Growth. P.A. Stolypin, about 20% of entrepreneurs have still not been able to adapt to the sanctions, the rest have adapted to them to one degree or another, opening new markets and establishing alternative supply routes, says Anton Sviridenko, executive DIRECTOR of the institute. In addition, approximately half of Russian business (for example, from trade, domestic services, construction) was minimally connected with foreign markets, so sanctions were not so critical for them, he notes.

“Everyone emphasizes that the shortage of personnel is now a more important problem,” states Sviridenko. Executive Director of Opora Russia Andrey Shubin agrees with him. In particular, a shortage of workers has developed in taxi transportation, including due to the fact that against the background of the weakening of the ruble, it becomes unprofitable for migrants to work in Russia, he says. In addition, qualified personnel from small industries are leaving for more stable medium and large industries.

Small and medium-sized businesses are “used to living with bureaucracy,” especially since the state is working to reduce administrative barriers, Shubin believes. The unavailability of financing for business is explained by the increase in the key rate (currently 15%), “you can’t just take money ,” he notes.

According to a survey conducted at the beginning of the year by the Institute for Economics of Growth. Stolypin, entrepreneurs, speaking about interaction with the authorities, most often complained about the formal interpretation of laws and requirements, nit-picking and unreasonable demands , and red tape.

The press service of the Ministry of Economic Development of RBC announced ongoing active work to reduce the administrative burden on business. Thus, the current moratorium on inspections has been extended, which covers over 6.2 million small, medium and large businesses, thanks to which businesses will be able to save about 60–80 billion rubles. in year. At the same time, the number of preventive measures that have become a replacement for inspections is growing: in ten months of this year, preventive visits by inspectors to enterprises were organized twice as many as compared to the same period last year, the department reported. They also recalled the extension of business support measures under sanctions: the anti-sanctions law developed by the Ministry of Economic Development was adopted by the State Duma in the first reading.

Regarding the problem of personnel shortages, the Ministry of Economic Development indicated that over the six years of the Labor Productivity national project, it was possible to reduce the economy’s need for personnel by 100 thousand people “thanks to building effective production systems.” According to Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov, if the national project is extended, “the effect will cover more than 10% of the personnel shortage in the country by 2030.”

How happy are business leaders?

Study participants were also asked four questions to determine their subjective level of happiness. Based on the responses, an aggregated assessment of the level of happiness was calculated.

The overwhelming majority of managers (74%) cannot classify themselves as either absolutely happy or unhappy. One could say about them that “everything is fine” with them. 20% of respondents feel absolutely happy, 6% “do not feel happy, do not enjoy life and work, and believe that their emotional state is comparatively worse than that of others.”

Among absolutely happy business leaders, there is a higher proportion of those working in the education sector (34 versus 20% happy among all respondents), those who have preschool children (31%), heads of Moscow companies (25%), and women (25%).

Among the unhappy, single top managers are more common (9%), and among those with “everything is fine”, there is a higher proportion of men (78%) and middle-aged managers (77%).

More than half of the surveyed managers (57%) say they are satisfied with their work, 36% give a borderline assessment - partly satisfied, partly not. Only 6% admitted that they were dissatisfied with their work, 1% found it difficult to answer.