Roland’s business ideas
(The scene cut from Center)
He was the first foreigner I met – a person from a completely different world. After a few minutes of talking to him, I started noticing how wrong were my thinking about the worldview of those who lived in Western Europe. Many truths “obvious” to me were not at all obvious in Roland’s eyes.
I was also surprised at how much I had in common with Eric – a guy from East Germany who served as Roland’s translator. Communist propaganda was the same everywhere. Eric differed from me only in that he was somewhat angrier. He seemed to be annoyed by my heightened attention and respect to Roland.
“Why do you feel inferior?” he asked me. “You have the same, if not better, education.”
But I didn’t feel Roland’s superiority. I was just very interested to hear a completely different point of view. In addition, I noticed that some of my statements were new to Roland. He also had quite a few incorrect stereotypes about life in the USSR. So the process of mutual discovery was interesting for both of us.
Roland came to Russia looking for investment opportunities. He was an aspiring entrepreneur and was willing to take more risks than established business owners. I really wanted to be part of his quest. I saw that I could be very helpful to him.
Eric did not see or did not share interest in the process of learning about another culture. He seemed was determined to find his place more in the West than in the East. Therefore, when I offered my services as a local guide and translator, Eric gladly supported the idea and went back to Germany.
“Yegor,” Roland turned to me at the station, as soon as the train with Eric departed, “we need to draw up a work plan.”
“Sure. But in order to help you, I must better understand your business interests and investment potential.”
“As of today, my interests are very broad. And the investment potential… Well, the more profitable and reliable the business idea is, the more investment money we can find.”
In my mind, I went through the list of the money-making schemas I have heard already.
“I don’t think you are interested in drugs or human trafficking.”
“Well, what is the profit margin?” Roland smiled.
“Quite large,” I smiled in response, “but the risks are correspondingly high. You yourself explained to me that the risks are usually directly proportional to the profit.”
“I keep noticing how easily the capitalist mentality is adopted by those who until recently had no idea about the free market. This is probably because the logic of capitalist relations grew naturally out of human nature itself. In such a pace, you will soon begin to demand partnership in business.
“Well, aren’t we partners already?”
“Sure. We just don’t have business for our partnership.”
We returned to the apartment that Roland was renting. He turned on his computer and started going through the files, making a list of ideas he had that needed to be worked out.
Famous German neatness, I thought, looking at his well-organized archive and files of current affairs. All ideas, business plans, calculations, and correspondence were put into appropriate folders with long names, versions and dates.
“As of today,” Roland said, “we have eight directions to explore. Four of them require land ownership by a foreign entity, but the current laws do not support it yet. The fifth idea is a small enterprise for airtight packaging of vegetables and fruits for transportation over long distances – to the North and Siberia, for example. Sixth idea, the packaging of mayonnaise, mustard, toothpaste, ketchup for hospitals, and sea-side recreation facilities, for example. Both ideas require a small investment of five to ten thousand and trustworthy local staff.”
I knew what Roland meant. We have already discussed the problem that our local partners are too used to stealing from the workplace. And the packing equipment was quite small. One could easily load it onto a truck and carry away, so that nobody would ever recover it. And neither Roland nor I wanted to live permanently at the production site in order to protect the investment.
I had used to think about capitalism in very simple terms: one invests money and then sits comfortably at his home waiting for the profit pouring in. In Germany, it probably worked this way. But in Krasnogorsk …
Immediately after the collapse of the USSR, there was no state protection of private property and investment, in practice. Everybody had to protect his stuff himself. And hiring security staff – Roland was already trying to negotiate – was so expensive that made the whole enterprise unprofitable. One had to pay not just a “man with a gun,” but also to pay the protection racket and the bribes to the authorities for various permissions and other state extortions, the list of which was long and grew unpredictably every year.
“The flour plant requires a much larger investment,” Roland continued the analysis. “But with it, there is a problem of price regulation since flour belongs to the category of basic life-supporting products. In case of any difficulties with food, prices of such products are state regulated.”
I had never before thought about what our life was based on. Now I recalled Lenin’s instructions about the seizure of means of transport and communication. It seems that he understood what the country depends on vitally.
“What about means of transport and communication?” I asked Roland.
He obviously did not know those memorable directives of the founder of the USSR and looked at me puzzled at first, then brightened:
“The privatization of communication systems has not yet been allowed and remains a state monopoly. But the eighth project on the list… Look. A representative office of a company that rents out trucks with subsequent buy-out. It requires a solid local partner who can provide premises and trusted business reputation with local banks to finance clients.”
“I am not sure, who’s going to buy trucks?”
“There are many businesses that need trucks. Renting trucks out is a reliable small business. It can be started with very little capital, if only a bank could take risks covering one truck, for example. Then the business can grow gradually along with the increase of the working capital.”
I imagined who these potential entrepreneurs of ours could be, to whom our banks could give twenty to thirty thousand dollars to buy a truck. Decent people, earning a thousand dollars a year, did not have enough collateral property to cover the risks. The truck could have get into an accident or it could have been stolen. That was a lot of money by our standards. Again, as with packaging installations, only thugs could provide adequate protection, which would likely render the business unprofitable.
But I didn’t tell Roland that. I wanted to believe in the impossible. I wanted to really see new Russian entrepreneurs coming up. I myself wanted to be one of them. So, I did not share my doubts.