Ep. 235: Charles Hecker - On "Zero Sum - The Arc of International Business in Russia"

The Decision-Making Studio Podcast

Today, we talk about the arc of international business in Russia over the past 30-some years. Our guest is Charles Hecker. Charles is a self-professed “Russia geek” who has written a fabulous new book entitled Zero Sum - The Arc of International Business in Russia. It largely covers the time starting from the fall of the Soviet Union to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It's utterly fascinating on so many levels. International business in Russia, as you will hear, is almost like a huge natural experiment in decision-making. You will hear about complex to nuanced decisions, bad decisions, good decisions, and downright batshit crazy decisions.

To fully understand and appreciate a topic as complex as Russia, you need to live and breathe it, and Charles has and does. He studied in Russia during the Cold War. He was a journalist there with Moscow Times in the 1990s and also led Control Risks Russia office in the country. Control Risks is a specialist risk consultancy where Charles and I were colleagues. Charles is also a great storyteller. That will come through in this conversation and it also comes through in the book which is filled with colour. In reading it, one can almost see, and smell vodka dripping from the page and imagine oneself in Russia in the nineties and the noughties. While it's impossible to go back in time and fully understand what people were thinking and feeling when they made decisions when it comes to business decision-making in Russia, Charles's account comes about as close as you can get.

Show notes:

Charles’ website - https://www.charleshecker.com/

Zero Sum - The Arc of International Business in Russia

Charles on LinkedIn

The loans for shares scheme

The BRICS

Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Yukos

The Kursk submarine disaster

TNK-BP

The Beslan school siege

The Moscow theatre siege

Putin’s 2007 speech at the Munich Security Conference

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

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