OREANDA-NEWS. July 25, 2016. As suggested by the Grant Thornton Corporate Governance Report “Steering organisations to thrive”, sustainability, strategic planning and better links with public sector are three major growth areas believed by Russian top management to be business boosters in the years to come.

The report involving over 2,000 company managers from 36 countries round the world reveals major aspects to focus on to achieve growth in various industries.

Almost half of the respondents believe that among areas of growth to focus on in the nearest decade are development and reinforcement of corporate culture (47 per cent of the respondents), strategic planning horizons – 44 per cent, sustainability – 35 per cent, digital economy expertise – 25 per cent.

Russian businessmen have a different angle on business growth perspectives. Unlike their peers in the US, EU, Asia and Latin America, Russian business players consider sustainability to be a pillar of Russian business with 60 per cent of the respondents being committed to sustainability as the key growth area. Other critical factors include strategic planning (48 per cent), public sector relations (28 per cent %). That said, 42 per cent of businessmen in Russia don’t see their companies as lacking adaptability and diversity. It is unclear though, whether they believe their companies’ adaptive capacity is already there or they are just not well aware of the benefits these two factors add to the business growth.

At the same time, over a third of the businessmen polled (35 per cent) plan to invest in mentoring schemes) and in a similar vein to their western peers contemplate identifying talented employees earlier in their careers (23 per cent).

Though committed to different approaches, there is a consensus among top managers from different countries that crucial success factors when it comes to strategic planning are quality of management environment (corporate culture) and human resources (identification and promotion of most promising employees).