Igor Alekseev : Foreign Trade

Igor Alekseev : Foreign Trade I help you find exporters and importers of the goods you need in different countries.

How to Build a Smart Business Measurement System:🚀 Blind metrics can mislead decision-making. Here’s how to create a sys...
02/02/2025

How to Build a Smart Business Measurement System:

🚀 Blind metrics can mislead decision-making. Here’s how to create a system that drives real results:

✅ Set clear goals – Use SMART criteria to ensure your objectives are specific, measurable, and achievable.

✅ Identify critical success factors – Balance speed, quality, and efficiency to avoid trade-offs.

✅ Choose the right metrics – Focus on actionable data, even if it requires manual collection.

✅ Turn metrics into KPIs – Define targets and thresholds to track progress effectively.

✅ Aggregate & visualize data – Use a weighted system and color coding (🔴🟡🟢) for quick insights.

🎯 Remember: Measurement is a tool, not the goal itself. Some key factors, like employee motivation and initiative, can't be quantified but remain crucial for success.

Full article here: https://alekseev.biz/how-to-create-a-measurement-system-in-business/

How to Make a Good Impression in a Virtual Business MeetingVirtual   meetings, including video calls, have become the ne...
10/05/2024

How to Make a Good Impression in a Virtual Business Meeting

Virtual meetings, including video calls, have become the new normal. While they don't fully replace face-to-face interactions, video meetings offer more impact than emails or audio calls by allowing non-verbal cues like facial expressions and gestures to enhance communication.

Here are some key for making a good impression in your next virtual :

Overcome Video Fear: Avoid relying solely on texts or voice calls. Video allows for richer and is far more effective.

Prepare Thoroughly: Just like an in-person meeting, preparation is crucial. Define your goals, understand your counterpart's needs, and build strong arguments.

Mind the Environment: Choose a neat, professional setting with good lighting. A cluttered or informal background can undermine your credibility.

Dress the Part: Even if you’re at home, dress as you would for an office meeting. It helps boost confidence and conveys professionalism.

Build Confidence: Take to address any insecurities. Confidence is essential for successful negotiations.

Listen More, Talk Less: Spend 70% of the time listening. This helps you understand the other side’s perspective and build rapport.

Start Light: Ease into the meeting with casual small talk before diving into . It helps establish trust and sets a positive tone.

By preparing well, focusing on your appearance and environment, and paying attention to your counterpart's needs, you'll make a strong impression in meetings.

The reorientation of Russian exports continues: a significant decrease in supplies to unfriendly countries (-40% by the ...
09/28/2024

The reorientation of Russian exports continues: a significant decrease in supplies to unfriendly countries (-40% by the first half of 2023) was fully compensated by the growth of exports to the market of neutral (+10%). As a result, the share of unfriendly countries' markets shrank to 13% in the first half of 2024, in the first half of 2024 (-8.8 p.p.), although previously they accounted for about 60% of Russian exports. A possible further reduction in supplies to these markets will not have a significant impact on the total volumes of Russian exports. Compared to compared to 2021, the volume of supplies to the markets of unfriendly countries decreased by 4.7 times, which was offset by the growth of to neutral countries.

Liquefied natural   imports to   from   decreased to USD 2.54bn (-16.7%) at a volume of 4.42 million tonnes (-3.3%), whi...
09/28/2024

Liquefied natural imports to from decreased to USD 2.54bn (-16.7%) at a volume of 4.42 million tonnes (-3.3%), which resulted in a decrease in the Chinese market share to 6.7% (-1.0 p.p.). gas supplies from Russia continued to grow, reaching USD 4.69bn (+19.0% vs. the same period of 2023).

  of wood and   products to   from   remained stable at 7.90 million tonnes (-3.5%) and USD 3.13 billion (-4.7%), with t...
09/28/2024

of wood and products to from remained stable at 7.90 million tonnes (-3.5%) and USD 3.13 billion (-4.7%), with the share remaining at 10.7% of total . Shipments of of products to China increased to USD 2.81bn (+29.5%) with the share rising to 1.9% (+0.5 p.p.).

Due to the de facto ban on   exports to the   of major unfriendly countries, aluminium supplies to the Chinese market in...
09/28/2024

Due to the de facto ban on exports to the of major unfriendly countries, aluminium supplies to the Chinese market increased significantly - up to 720,000 tonnes (+28.6%) and $2.02 billion (+54.0%). (+28.6%) and USD 2.02bn (+54.0%), and its share in Chinese of this amounted to 22.4% (+1.8 p.p.). supplies amounted to 24 thousand tonnes (+6.9%), but the value volumes decreased to $373 million (-35.5%). Shipments of ferrous metals stagnated, totalling 0.62 mln tonnes (+0.62 mln tonnes). 0.62 million tonnes (+0.1%) and $497 million (+5.3%). The share of metals from in the Chinese market remained at the insignificant level of 2.0% (+0.2 p.p.). Copper supplies also showed shipments also showed near-zero growth - to 169,000 tonnes (+0.3%) and USD 1.50bn (+7.1%), while the share of Russian copper decreased to 3.7% (-0.3 p.p.).

Supplies from   and secondary sanctions. In order to analyse the likely impact of secondary   threats on Chinese shipmen...
09/28/2024

Supplies from and secondary sanctions. In order to analyse the likely impact of secondary threats on Chinese shipments, it is worth considering the dynamics of the Russian share in Chinese , as this indicator better takes into account seasonality. Despite the US President's decree to introduce the mechanism of secondary sanctions at the end of December 20232 , in January-February 2024 there was a strong growth in shipments from China (+12.5% year-on-year), while the share of the market remained stable. The absence of any visible impact on supplies is explained by the weak application of secondary sanctions until the end of February 2024. In March, there was a noticeable decline in supplies from China to (-14.2%), and the share of the Russian market fell below 3% for the first time in a year - to 2.7% (-0.7 p.p. vs. February 2024). Already since April, there has been a steady recovery dynamics of shipments. China's monthly exports to Russia in July 2024 approached the maximum values, totalling USD 10.0bn.

Discounts to the price of Russian   to   appeared as early as March 2022. In summer 2022, the discount was as high as 16...
09/28/2024

Discounts to the price of Russian to appeared as early as March 2022. In summer 2022, the discount was as high as 16%, but by the end of 2022 it decreased to 4-9%. After the European Union imposed an embargo on oil, the discount increased again to 11% by May 2023. In the first 7 months of 2024, it is consistently below 5% - 2.4% on average. Such differences in average prices can be explained by the difference in grades of oil coming from and other countries. The average monthly price of has not fallen below $70/bbl all this time, despite attempts to impose a ‘price ceiling’.

In the first half of 2024, Russian   totalled $207.1bn (-0.4% vs. the first half of 2023). The share of   and   products...
09/28/2024

In the first half of 2024, Russian totalled $207.1bn (-0.4% vs. the first half of 2023). The share of and products in Russian exports remained at 63%. The share of neutral markets reached a record 87% (+8.8 p.p.). Shipments of to increased (+29%), while supplies decreased (-15%). The discount to the price of Russian oil on the Chinese remained at around zero. Russian decreased to $130.4bn (-8.1%). Supplies from China significantly replaced goods in the group of motor , mechanical devices, , equipment. Significant supplies from the of , , and remain. Shipments from China recovered by July after a significant decline in March due to the increased application of secondary .

OKR implementation mistakes.1. Masking of objectives.  disguise their current activities as   objectives. It can be prep...
09/12/2024

OKR implementation mistakes.

1. Masking of objectives.

disguise their current activities as objectives. It can be preparation of training system, revision of approved plans or changes in regulations and other activities that we have to do regularly to ensure the approved financial result.

Putting current activities into system, we essentially substituted the concepts and received only additional burden in the form of reports. Therefore, it is important to realize that OKRs are incremental that enable strategic value creation and breakthroughs. For example:

CRM implementation and process automation in the company will be of strategic value as it will make processes more mobile and transparent for management.

Opening an office in foreign countries and a new market is a global challenge and can be included in the bottom line.

2. Involvement of all employees.

We tried to introduce the new system to all managers, including those who play a significant role in maintaining current operations. This resulted in starting to get confused about goals and objectives, distracted and losing focus.

It is important to realize that this system is not relevant for all managers, but for those who are close to solving the strategic tasks of the company: director, director, director, in other words, the top level of .

3. Motivation Shift.

The previous mistake leads to the fact that financial motivation is provided for achieving the result specified in OKR, and it becomes higher for the performer than the current activity. This leads to “holes” and losses for the business. We encountered a similar problem during the implementation process, when we started to see a shift of activity towards personal results, which, of course, created a violation of the usual algorithms.

4. Exaggerated indicators.

The absence of a single template for filling out the form led to chaos of perception, and the unregulated number of goals led to non-fulfillment, lack of prioritization, and, of course, another garbage.

Consciously overestimating metrics in OKRs is considered important and necessary, and there as you will. However, I believe that any goals must be realistic and achievable, or it will become a profanation.

To avoid the above misunderstandings you need to follow a few important OKR rules:

The system concerns additional projects taken on by the company's executives, the purpose of which is reduced to strategically important decisions for the .

The plan contains no more than three goals per quarter and is paid based on the results of their achievement. It is important that the goals are in line with the principle.

Work on additional projects does not relieve from current activities and does not replace their results.

The projects must contain an model showing the costs and revenues from realization.

The initiator defends the project according to a pre-prepared template, which is entered in CRM for the discussion of the project committee. The project committee can return the project for revision, accept or reject it as a goal.

In order to control the fulfillment of the goals, sprints are introduced every two weeks, where the committee evaluates the dynamics of achievement. In case of negative dynamics, the project can be terminated.

Every three months there are defenses of the goals based on the established regulations.

Bottom line:

60% of ideas do not reach the committee, only because the author failed to formalize them properly, which reduced the time for .

10% of ideas did not make it to the project committee because they did not show relevance.

A couple of posts ago, I talked about free content publishing opportunities on foreign news sites. Every country has new...
08/18/2024

A couple of posts ago, I talked about free content publishing opportunities on foreign news sites. Every country has news sites where you can publish your content for free. Of course, they don't publish everything, but only what is in line with their editorial policy and of course they won't publish advertising articles. All articles on such sites are checked by moderators. Therefore, if you want to tell about your products or services, it is necessary to veil your advertising in the text of your article. This is generally a simple truth, which will tell any marketer who works with such media.

As I said in every study I do on useful online resources, there is a section dedicated to such sites. In the current study on Nigeria, it is also present.

Usually, I check these media outlets by sending them articles. This time such a check also took place. I wrote an article, made a few different headlines and sent it to Nigerian media outlets from my research.

Today I got a reply from one of them with a link to the published article. Granted, it's not the media outlet with the biggest readership, but the fact remains that the channel works.

One of the sections of my research on Nigeria, is the section on the major online media operating in the country. The st...
01/04/2024

One of the sections of my research on Nigeria, is the section on the major online media operating in the country. The study included 19 media outlets with monthly traffic ranging from a few tens of thousands of visitors to those with nearly 27 million monthly visitors. Given that the local currency has devalued significantly in the past year, advertising in these publications may become attractive for those companies that consider the market of this country as a promising one. Despite the problems of the economy, a market with 200 million citizens and more than 50 million middle class residents, according to speakers, may be of interest to Russian producers of various goods.

12/26/2023

Russian forces have seized the initiative on the battlefield after the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, this was the conclusion reached by various world publications amid reports of the liberation of the town of

11/26/2023

The Ukrainian TV channel 1+1 has published information about more than 1.1 million dead and missing servicemen of the Armed Forces of .

11/19/2023

The Russian military for the first time used RBK-500 cluster bombs on Ukrainian troops' positions. The bombs were massively used in the southern region near the village of .

Video is here: https://twitter.com/alekseevbiz

️️

11/19/2023

Several American long-range missiles were secretly brought to . America decided to supply the Ukrainian armed forces with these missiles because of slow progress on the front.

11/19/2023

The shells for the Russian Grad MLRS from North Korea, which have a greater range and accuracy, have arrived in the Ukrainian conflict zone.

11/12/2023

imported 889,400 in the first 10 months of 2023, which is 2.8 times more than in the same period last year.

Address

237 36th Street #112
New York, NY
NY11232

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Igor Alekseev : Foreign Trade posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Share