Westernizing
The Marketplace
hey're in it for the buck
— but not the quick
buck.
Americans doing busi-
ness in the former Soviet
Union are discovering a
market in flux — one
they say makes the U.S.
economy look stable.
But flux hasn't stopped
Americans from taking
chances there. In fact, a
Local
businessmen
\ risk short-term
profits for
long-term gain
in the former
Soviet Union.
RUTH LITTMANN STAFF WRITER
Monis Schuster: Setting up in Moscow.
New York-based publica-
tion reports that the
United States has led
world investment in -the
former Soviet Union and
surrounding Iron
Curtain countries.
During fiscal year
1992, some 219 U.S.
companies did business
in the area, according to
Eastern European
Investment Magazine.
U.S. business dealings
totaled more than $7.9
billion.
Monis Schuster of
Farmington Hills is a
partner and legal coun-
sel with Venture
Funding Ltd., a business
development company in
Detroit. He has traveled
to Moscow and Siberia
seeking trade
opportunities
for his two
new affiliated
companies:
Detroit-Si-
beria Trading
Company and
Acid Rain
Control.
Detroit-Si-
beria Trading
Company was
formed to con-
duct trading of
commodities
and other
goods, and to
seek other
worthwhile
investment
opportunities.
Acid Rain
Control was
formed for
licensing tech-
nology devel-
oped by
Russians.
So far, Acid
Rain Control
has worked
with the Kur-
chatov In-
stitute, a re-
search univer-
sity in Mos-
cow, to license
and commer-
cialize tech-
nology which
counteracts
the formation
of a type of
acid rain, an
environmen-
tal problem throughout
the Eastern bloc.
Like other Americans,
Mr. Schuster found the
going tough. Though
Russian workers were
happy, even desperate,
to negotiate deals, most
could not communicate
effectively.
Language wasn't the
only barrier. Commun-
ism has left a legacy of
ignorance about free-
market economics.
"They want desperate-
ly to do business with
the industrialized world,
but they have no idea
how to do it," Mr.
Schuster said.
He got blank looks
when he asked managers
of a steel company for
their corporate financial
history. Russian workers
didn't know how to
respond to basic ques-
tions like: Is a particular
product profitable? What
is the unit cost of a prod-
uct? What are overhead
expenses?
"The state was their
one client," Mr. Schuster
explained. "Supply and
demand had nothing to
do with it. The govern-
ment was interested in
the employment of the
people, a product to be
turned out by the people
and the cost in rubles.
"That's why today we
see the problems in
Russia and the new inde-
pendent states," he said.
Some American busi-
nessmen•are recruiting
talented Russians whom
they train in Western
ways.
Upon request, Mr.
Schuster lectured a busi-
ness school class in
Siberia. The older stu-
dents, some former
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