Standing on the afterdeck as a young business administration graduate contemplating my situation, I realised that life would change and get enriched in the next few months and that adventure waited on this assignment. At the time, I didn’t know that a trip to the Baltic and Eastern Europe back then meant travelling in time and ending up in all decades at the same time from the 1920’s onwards.
165 months later in the Baltic and surrounding Eastern Europe with more time to spend here. In the rest of this chronicle I will try to make some (sentimental) flashbacks comparing with today’s situation. I will also present objective business reasons as well as subjective personal reasons why you should head to the Baltic/Eastern Europe.
What did I expect? A decently challenging job in a grey, haggard surrounding populated by broken and miseducated people from the Soviet era that I was supposed to “help” with my knowledge. I carried an assault alarm and clean needles in case of sickness. (Nothing I ever needed.)
What I found? Highly educated, interesting, colourful colleagues and new friends, a very green Riga with extraordinary art nouveau architecture inspiring to long evening walks. Enormous challenges at work in a pharmaceutical company with in-house research and patents for international exports. An unassuming but warm, curious and welcoming approach that grew with every new Latvian word I learnt to pronounce.
Truth told, I got Eastern Europe in my blood after a few seconds in Riga. Even though the Baltic is part of the EU these days and should be included in the Nordic business context, I still feel committed.
Some single impressions from Riga in 1994 and the first years: I moved into a small apartment with Soviet decorations. I was taken to work in an old black Volga in the mornings. The assignment was to start up the embryo of a marketing department in a company with 700 employees. Only three or four knew English or had a business degree. However, there were a number of professors and assistant professors. The general manager had a body guard, a chauffeur and the company premises were guarded by moonlighting army soldiers and militia. The Wild East had calmed down substantially when I arrived, but spectacular mafia murders still occurred and the Russian army had not retired entirely. There was still a Russian base in Kurland in western Latvia. A night train to Vilnius, Lithuania cost app. SEK 75 and had armed guards. Lights were switched off in coal smelling Vilnius around eleven o’clock each night while Riga had a more interesting night life. Most shops had an irritating Soviet style. I was a little touched by having to balance my purchased eggs in a paper cone on my way home from the grocery store. All transactions were cash and few banks could be trusted. I hid my money behind the wallpaper in my apartment.
Obviously, things improved and developed over the years. But we didn’t establish any marketing department in six months. Instead, I learnt Latvian and Russian and remained as Marketing Manager for several years up until the moment when the company was listed on the stock exchange. However, learning the language is not enough. You need to understand and cope with a management style from another era that was extremely annoying at times. I eventually started to work as a manager with a listed Swedish company in the construction material industry. This position also gave me great experience and two of my closest deputies had, among other things, a Mount Everest ascent on their CVs!
On one occasion in a phone conversation with HQ in Stockholm, a bank office was blown up in the same block as my office in Riga. Shortly thereafter, some of my colleagues at HQ told me what my Swedish colleague heard me say on the phone at the time: “Excuse me; I’ve got to hang up and see where they bombed this time.”
What YOU, dear reader, may expect from the Baltic today is good training for future entry into the Russian and Ukraine market, a rather dynamic business community with faster changes and progress than in Sweden, large, newly renovated cities with modern infrastructure, access to good housing and recreation/culture, intense networking with many Eastern contacts, safe, modern banks with longer opening hours than in Sweden, many small and medium sized entrepreneurs with modern education and an open mind; a potential partner for your company?
Some good pieces of advice if you are thinking about exploring opportunities in the Baltic; take your time to stay and explore the surroundings. Let one day be ad-hoc with no strict planning. Networking may occur anywhere. Keep an open mind to buy even if you came here to sell and vice versa. I have made 180 degrees turns over the years to adapt to changes. Remember that despite a different language and a population ravaged by socialism, the Latvian people, for example, are like the Swedes; Northern European pork and potato eating, mostly Lutheran peasants. What mainly separates the Balts from the Scandinavians is their intractable eagerness to move forward. This pulse together with the business opportunities between Scandinavia and the Baltic/Eastern Europe is what keeps me here.
Jacob Lalander, business administration graduate, with 14 years in the Baltic and Eastern Europe, runs a consulting company for purchasing and acts as contact agent in both directions Scandinavia/the Baltic/Eastern Europe in the construction industry and other industries. Apart from English, Jacob also speaks fluent Latvian and decent Russian.