246 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP
From my childhood, when I fi rst fell in love with its literature, I
have always been interested in Russia. During my student days, I spent
a considerable amount of time reading the Russian classics. This love
affair continued, and my position at INSEAD has luckily put me in a
position to start to build bridges with the Russian business community
since the country has opened up. Over the years I have worked closely
with Russian academics and business people. To help me better under-
stand the Russian ‘ soul, ’ I have had many interactions with Russians in
the role of consultant. I wanted to obtain an informed understanding of
the way Russians deal with organizations and approach leadership style.
I was also trying to better understand the personality make - up of the
Russians, and the salient factors that make them the people they are. I
was intrigued by Russia ’ s turbulent history, its contribution to a paranoid
Weltanschauung and anarchistic streak. I was also trying to explain the
evident national yearning for strong leadership and the existence of
paternalistic practices.
However, it took a unique insight into coping with personal disaster
in a huge country with a hostile environment and unreliable infrastruc-
ture to reveal most about life and leadership in Russia. My deep interest
in the outdoors has led me to travel in some of the most remote areas
of the country. On a trip in the mountains of Kamchatka in 2008 to
look for bears with the Koryaks (the local inhabitants), I was thrown
from a snowmobile, breaking my spine in two places. I couldn ’ t have
found a worse place to be repatriated from. The fi ve - hour journey back
to the tented base camp, pulled over the snow strapped to a sledge, is
an experience I do not care to remember, and would not want to repeat.
I learned more about pain than I ever want to know. My return journey
to Paris from Petropavlovsk (the capital of Kamchatka) was an interesting
study in logistics. It contributed to my understanding of the country, its
people, and its philosophy of life and suffering.
Given the major transformations occurring in Russian society today,
some of the themes I discuss in Chapter 15 are currently in a state of
fl ux. They will evolve and prove fruitful for further research. But many
of these themes have the kind of robustness that will endure, retaining
their signifi cance for those attempting to understand and deal with the
Russian people. However, much of the riddle that is Russia will
remain — at least for me. As the country reaches out to the rest of the
world in some ways, while reviving the old Cold War rhetoric, perhaps
we should consider the old Russian proverb: ‘ It ’ s good to be visiting,
but it ’ s better at home. ’