Management of Companies in Conditions of Eastern Europe Countries and Russia – Barriers and Challenges

Forming one of the priority areas of the Czech Republic’s strategy is the activity of companies from the Czech Republic on international markets. Not all areas hold the same level of interest for Czech companies doing business internationally. Lately the opinion has prevailed that in their international enterprising, companies should be concentrating more on the markets of Eastern Europe and Russia, which seem to present a significant opportunity for them. One of the major barriers to this activity is mainly the lack of technical expertise of companies. This concerns the lack of knowledge of the local customers relating to real and financial management, corporate culture, conditions for doing business, tax requirements and problems and implementation of business activities. The aim of this article is to define the theoretic basis of the culturological concept of a company, to draw attention to certain basic differences in approaches of countries of Eastern Europe and Russia, which seem to be important for Czech entrepreneurs to realize business contacts. The methodology of the solution is founded on background research of key theoretical sources and practical experience and outputs gained within the framework of international contacts with these countries. The research and conclusions relate to resolution of a project resolved through the program “Human Resources Development” with the priority “Development of Life-long Learning”, the aim of which is to increase qualification of academic and research workers in the area of business management, and to consequently introduce this information into practice. This article was created within the framework of the ESF project entitled “Management in Conditions of the Countries in Eastern Europe and Russia” with identification number CZ.1/4/03/2/3/ 15.2/0257.