Meet ALT R&C, Our Russian GIA Member

ALT Research and Consulting Company (ALT R&C), a management and strategic consulting company with offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia, joined the GIA Member network in October 2009, bringing the total to 23 GIA member locations.

We had a chat with Alexander Pechersky, ALT R&C's managing partner.

What challenges face international companies that want to do business in Russia?
"First of all, I would like to argue that Russia is more about opportunities than challenges.

There are several reasons for this. First, it is a rapidly growing and huge market. Russia and the Russia-speaking population of CIS account for 300 million people, many of whom are very loyal towards international brands.  Secondly, the purchasing power is relatively large compared to other BRIC nations - GDP per capita here is two to six times higher. And the most important point is that now is the best time to enter the Russian market, that is, during periods of turmoil and crisis.

The situation is quite unique because, due to the crisis and high debt-to-equity ratio, many leading companies have become very cheap and are looking for buyers. So, newcomers can rapidly get a foothold and gain market share. The second point is that many costs for starting businesses, like real estate, salaries or advertising, are currently very low. H&M entered Russia in the beginning of 2009, just because of these reasons.

In fact, I even think that this is the last chance for good expansion opportunities. In one or two years, the window will close and you will need to either invest heavily at the entry stage or develop more slowly.

If we turn to the challenges, I would mention three key points.

For one, the market is promising but quite competitive already! So you need to carefully choose your target segments and competitive strategy.

The second point is that the increasing role of government in economy and corruption makes rules and laws very non-transparent, and increases costs and delays for doing business and establishing new operations.

Thirdly, poor infrastructure, Russia’s 11 time zones and big differences between regions require different strategies in many regions. This results in higher costs for logistics and communications.

Doing business in Russia requires great flexibility in local business models and more authority for local offices.

And I would surely recommend being very careful when hiring local staff or finding local partners. This is the most crucial success factor when rules and standards are not functioning as well as they could be.”


Please describe the state of the Russian market intelligence industry.
“The Russian market intelligence industry is rapidly growing, but it is still under-developed. Clients are unable to tell the difference between field research and strategic market research. This results in many problems for both clients and consultants.

When clients buy cheap readymade reports of low quality, they become unsatisfied and translate this attitude to all types of research and consulting, and avoid any intelligence and consulting service. In such a situation, when the grey (or even black) market is as high as 20% to 40%, it forces clients to make decisions without solid factual grounding.”


How did ALT R&C start? Tell us more about your company.
“We started in 1992, when Russia became a market economy. Everything was changing. Our first clients were industrial companies trying to cope with a vast decrease in demand and a vast increase in competition from international companies. We helped them to understand their markets, change their business models and cut costs, in order to be more competitive.

From the very beginning, we also had the idea of researching successful management approaches like those outlined in books such as “In search of Excellence” or “Built to Last”, which could help us to disseminate best practices among our clients. Our first research was in 1996.

Today, we also offer software for financial and investment analysis, under our sister company, Alt-Invest, which is one of the leading players in its field in Russia.

We are highly focused on strategic market analysis and strategic advisory, and have a very good fit with GIA’s competencies and focus. We have a solid base of over 1,000 industry experts, which allows us to conduct complicated and highly customized in-depth research and advisory.  We serve mostly leading Russian companies.”


How is ALT R&C different from other Russian consulting firms?
“The key challenge for me is to provide client with real results: real changes in business, new products, new strategies and structures. We really do not like to prepare reports that will be left on the shelf!

In order to get real tangible results, we’ve developed a special methodology called DIY-Strategy, which comes from the English phrase, “do-it-yourself”. This implies that the client’s team works hard to get real results while the role of our consultants is proper project management, team planning and support. We provide the methodology, templates and coaching, and help with complex problem solving and the most sophisticated pieces of analysis. It took us a long time to develop this idea and the whole package of materials and approaches, but clients who are ready to work in such a format really benefit from it.

The second difference from other consultants is that we are ready to receive success fees for our consulting projects. This requires greater risk and commitment on our part, but it also allows us to get real results and profits!”

Read more about ALT R&C on their website.

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