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Businessmen Ready to Shed Sidelines
According to a survey by Business Russia, the main way for entrepreneurs to get by in a continuing crisis is to free themselves of non-core assets. Thirty-five percent of the businessmen surveyed plan to “sell something unneeded” in the fourth quarter of the year. The second most popular measure is to reduce overhead by investing in new technology (25% of respondents). Cutting wages, dismissing personnel and cutting production were mentioned by 19 percent of respondents each.
Business Russia conducted a separate survey among the representatives of the manufacturing sector that form the base of the organization on their plans for the near future. Manufacturers showed an even greater desire to get rid of non-core assets (41%). In second place was the intention to cut back production (30%) and cutting overhead was third (24%).
According to this second survey, the average businessman’s plans in 2009 look somewhat different. On the whole, 35 percent of the entrepreneurs in the sector expressed the desire to invest in the expansion of production and reduction of expenses through the use of new technology. Thirty-two percent of respondents hope to increase production volume and only 12 percent intend to reduce it. But 30 percent (compared to 19 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008) plan to raise the price of their product, perhaps in expectation of a jump in inflation in 2009 from today’s monetary policies. Twenty-five percent of companies plan to reduce personnel and cut pay (compared to 19 percent in the fourth quarter of this year).
Manufacturing companies are more decisive about their plans for 2009 than business as a whole. Forty-two percent of them plan to decrease overhead and 35 percent will raise their product prices. Twenty-nine are prepared to take measures such as cutting wages and laying off workers.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 17, 2008
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Photo: Dmitry Azarov
