Golden Autumn flew by.  We spent it in a warm and friendly atmosphere of creativity for our meetings. We said goodbye to the fall with the clink of glasses on the occasion of a young wine celebration, hoping it will warm us during the coming winter evenings!

What was most important in this last autumn month?

Tuesday, the 1^st of November, the Committee on Legislation and Lobbying organized a session “Current issues in leases”, which was made by experts from several leading law companies. You can see the presentation of Ekaterina Kosheleva, Associate, DLA Piper and Olga Chirkova, Hannes Snellman, on the page of the event.

November 11^th was held a seminar about the context-media advertising, with Galina Pozharina, educational programs specialist of “Begun”. The world of Internet technologies is developing rapidly, and new opportunities are constantly appearing, which are very difficult to follow. Therefore it is always helpful to get new first-hand information from an expert in this field. Learn about how to place your online ads the best way by viewing the  presentation.

November 15^th on a working meeting of the Committee on Legislation and Lobbying, it was decided to organize a conference on the 20^th of December titled: “Actual problems of intellectual property in Russia”. The conference aims to summarize the development of legislation and enforcement in the area of ​​intellectual property protection in 2011.

November 16^th the most significant event of November for our association took place – the Round table on “Social Responsibility of business in outsourced personnel”. This topic is quite important for all parties, that is, both for employers and workers themselves, as well as for recruitment agencies. The theme was suggested by Grigory Kunis, Publisher of the city newspaper, “Moy Rayon”. The newspaper was interested to shedding light on the subject for employees who work under the terms of outsourcing and for employers who use agency labor. SPIBA supported this initiative, as we see it as an opportunity to promote international business in Russia. There are a lot of rumors and fears related to this topic, as well as gaps in legislation, which are available to those employers who do not differ in social responsibility towards its employees. This topic is partly political, since the ban on contingent labor is a “protection” of workers from the “evil” of employers who “do not want to take responsibility” for loan officers. The roundtable was attended by Nadezhda Vavilina – member of the Public Chamber of Russian Federation.

The roundtable was organized in connection with the consideration of the actual bill prohibiting the use of outsourced labor by organizations, which, in our opinion, is contrary to international practice in this matter and the interests of workers and employers. The opinion of manufacturing companies about the bill was presented by Svetlana Efremova, Head of labor relations and social partnership of the brewery company “Baltika”. You can also see the presentation of Tatiana Leontieva, General Director of the recruitment agency “BARONA RU”, which dedicated to the comparative analysis of the experience of using borrowed staff in Europe and the modern practice of using it in Russia. The outcome of the roundtable was a resolution, which was prepared by Alexander Korkin, Associate, Pepeliaev Group, which has been provided to the Public Chamber of Russian Federation and, which will be sent to the state authorities. The guest of our round table – Nadezhda Vavilina supported the speakers and suggested the most effective channels through which the business community could express its opinion about the bill and to influence the situation in a positive manner.

On Thursday, November 17^th, SPIBA Committee on Legislation and Lobbying in conjunction with IMPEX CONSULT held a seminar “International Tax Planning: Foreign companies and methods to increase tax efficiency”. The workshop discussed in detail issues relating to the benefits of foreign companies in structuring business, effective tools for optimization of taxation in the implementation of international trade activities and the use of Hong Kong companies for tax planning.

Great interest among the members of our association, and particularly the representatives of law firms, was shown at a regular meeting of the Finance Committee with the Committee on Legislation and Lobbying on November 22^th on “Internal Payments within international groups”. The speakers Olga Mylnikova, Accountant and Consultant of the company Acsour, revealed the theoretical aspects of the transfer of revenues and expenses between the business units of holdings. Alexey Zhuk, Head of the tax practice of Hannes Snellman, shared his unique experience on the part of the jurisprudence in this regard. You can read more about the meeting by visiting the event’s page.

November 24^th SPIBA held a conference “Best HR Practices| 2011”, organized jointly with the HR Club “How to do”. More than 10 cases from the practice of the leading companies were represented by corporate HR-leaders from companies such as: Power Machines, Home Credit & Finance Bank, DHL EXPRESS, GazpromneftehimSalavat, International Paper, TNK BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Sberbank, holding RBI, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Tetra Electric. As always on the agenda were the most interesting and the best cases, and the geography of the speakers was not confined  to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Olga Overchenkova, Head of motivation, management of the staff of “Gazpromneftehim Salavat” arrived, as they say, from the region, but the theme that she spoke about – “Improving business agility through the reorganization of the structure and motivation” – was not only clear and close to all the participants, but was the best conference briefcase. As the organizers, the conference was addressed to those who see people as a driving force for growth and to those who need the tools of effective management for a positive impact on people. In February 2012 the Club will celebrate its 5th anniversary we wish the Club many more years and many new discoveries.

At the end of the month we have been summing up the results and planning of our upcoming meetings, and therefore onNovember 29^th we had a working group meeting of the Finance Committee.

We wish the members and friends of our association during the pre-holiday rush to find time for friends and family, and of course, do not forget to look at our calendar for our December events!