
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994                   TAG: 9406240017
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MELISSA CURTIS STAFF WRITER|
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RUSSIANS LEARN FIRSTHAND HOW U.S. COMPANIES COMPETE

Evgeny Finkelshtein said that when he has a problem at his Russian travel agency it often takes a week to solve it, the kind of thing that his American counterpart can take care of in five minutes.

Finkelshtein, one of 20 Russians who on Friday completed internships at local businesses, said he was shocked by the advanced equipment he found at Martin Travel at Roanoke's Towers Shopping Center.

Finkelshtein and 269 other Russian businessmen and women arrived May 15 in the United States for "hands-on" business internships in 11 U.S. cities.

The U.S. Information Agency used $1.6 million to pay for the Russians' trips on the "Business for Russia" program, which was designed to provide them with business training in a free-market economy.

"This program is important because it will allow young Russian entrepreneurs to experience firsthand Western business practices and to see how decisions are made," said USIA Director Joseph Duffey.

Twenty of the Russians interned for four weeks at 23 companies in Bedford, Lynchburg and Roanoke, including Central Fidelity Bank, Hardee's, Ingersoll-Rand Drilling Co. and Graham-White Manufacturing.

Others were at Anthony Bailey's dental office; the Center for Rehabilitation and Development; Shenandoah Life Insurance Co.; E.T.S. International Inc.; Sears, Roebuck and Co.; and Tele-Path Inc.

Interns were placed in companies that related to their jobs at home. They were not working, but were observing and learning.

"They were becoming familiar with how everything operates [in an American company]. We wanted to help Russia move toward a free-market economy faster," said Virginia project coordinator Marlene Ginsberg of Bedford. She is working with Legacy International, an Alexandria nonprofit organization affiliated with the United Nations.

The local visits were sponsored by Legacy International, the International Trade Association of Western Virginia, the Piedmont World Trade Council and the USIA.

Ginsberg said the 270 interns were selected from 1,500 Russians who applied.

"We took those who are best-qualified," Ginsberg said. "The most promising with the most potential."

Aleksandr Remezentzev said he interned at E.T.S. International Inc., an environmental services company in Roanoke, to learn about environmental issues affecting businesses. Remezentzev, 35, is the manager of about 100 people in an engineering consulting firm in the Volga region of Russia.

"Our companies [in Russia] don't pay attention to environmental problems because they don't have the money," Remezentzev said. "I think it's the future, maybe. That's why it's very useful for me to be in this kind of company."

Remezentzev said the main difference he found between U.S. and Russian companies is the American style of working with the customers, something he intends to implement when he returns to Russia.

"Our companies pay attention to themselves. Your companies pay attention to their customers," Remezentzev said. "A customer [in Russia] could come and wait for hours because the customer isn't the main person."

E.T.S. Human Resources Coordinator Amy Fulton, who was Remezentzev's site supervisor, said that having a Russian intern has been an advantage for the company.

"We've learned a lot personally about Russian culture and people," Fulton said. "It makes the world seem a little bit smaller."

Irene Rogotovskaia, who interned at the Sears Roanoke store, works in the computer department of a Russian company that buys and sells consumer goods such as clothes, shoes, and appliances.

"Nowadays in our country we are looking for new possibilities for our businesses. Our free market is only developing," said Rogotovskaia, 25. "America is a good country [in which] to learn this."

Ginsberg said the program tried to give the Russians "a full taste of American life in this region." Each intern observed various departments in a company and lived with an American family.

"We tried to break down the barriers between people and the misunderstandings," Ginsberg said. "I think this program has certainly done that."

Remezentzev said he thinks there should be changes in every Russian company that had an intern in the United States.

by CNB