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September 19th 2004

Russians Exploring Bartlesville
Guest opinion
By Andria L. McCollough
Guest Columnist

The long awaited day has arrived. After a long journey from Moscow, Russia, eleven small business restaurant owners who are mostly in their mid-thirties arrived in our fine City for a three week adventure of training and touring…Bartlesville…Oklahoma…America! What a treat to finally see the faces of those that we have waited so long for, and even greater, prepared so intensely for.

Apparently the Russians have been as eager for this trip as much as Bartians have! While not all of the Russians speak fluent English, at least one of them has expressed his enthusiasm about a visit to Bartlesville's own world-famous Murphy's Steakhouse! Mr. Andrey Goncharov is interested in learning about marketing his home café. With seating room for fifty, it seems that Murphy's has an appealing similarity to his casual dining café which is known for serving residents and guests of the city daily. While we doubt the possibility that the Techno Club, Mr. Goncharov's café, will serve up an awesome Hot Hamburger “with gravy over all,” we know that the lessons learned during his visit here will last not only a lifetime, but into the next generation as well!

Through the efforts of the Bartlesville Rotary Clubs, including Noon and Daybreak Rotaries, Mr. Goncharov and ten fellow Russian citizens will be participating in a productivity enhancement program to help them grow as restaurant entrepreneurs. The group will be provided business and ethics training throughout the Bartlesville community during their stay.

The Rotary clubs are involved in this endeavor through a larger effort entitled the Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI). Through CCI, the productivity program specifically promotes economic growth by supporting entrepreneurs in critical industries. The restaurant industry is just one of those. Due to Bartlesville's large restaurant population, what better place to find good American training than right at our door step.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, cafes could be found all over Moscow, St. Petersburg, and at train stations and road junctions throughout the country. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 this changed. Cafes were seen as decadent and Western, and became a rarity rather than the norm. Russian restaurants became notorious for their poor service and lackluster fare. Ordinary citizens did not eat out. They cooked their own meals or ate at the workplace canteen, or as we know it, the “company cafeteria.” Russian tourists had hotel restaurants to provide them with their meals; but even fine hotel restaurants resembled a company cafeteria offering only a limited menu of meat, potatoes and cabbage.

Before the collapse of communism, McDonalds opened a restaurant in Moscow. After 1991 more fast food restaurants, mostly with foreign food, started opening in the Capital, and later began opening in St. Petersburg. By the mid 1990's, Russians were starting to open their own cafes, fast food restaurants, and casual dining establishments. But there was still a problem…prices could hardly be considered casual. Eating out became a sign of wealth and prestige, and the more the meal cost, the more prestigious the diners felt themselves to be. Most people have continued to make their own food and bring their own lunches to work.

So the Russian citizens have come to America to learn how to change the face of the casual dining industry in their home country. They are learning overnight what we here in western nations have developed over a century. Russians lived under communism for three generations and missed out on the world's experience starting businesses, developing products, marketing them, and creating infrastructures to support private enterprise. They need our know-how!

And that is just what the Bartlesville Rotary clubs are hoping to accomplish over the next three weeks, with daily training cram packed with focus on our American industry-where we have come from, our strengths and weaknesses in American business with various focus on management decisions and even personnel relations. Bartlesville's own local business owners will be focusing training on what some might think are basic topics such as strategic, business and financial planning. But equally as important, the Russians will hear about topics which may seem to be second-nature to Americans-how to stay clear of corruption in business and how to become involved in associations and lobbying efforts in the restaurant industry.

Over the next three weeks, we will learn together how our guests feel about our community. They will be training and touring while in our home town, learning not only how we do business, but how we live, work and play together. When you see them out and about, take an extra moment and welcome them to our home-to our country. You, too, can have an impact far across the sea.

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