I Was a Potato Oligarch: Travels and Travails in the New Russia - John Mole

If you want to get an insight into what it is like to do business in the modern, post communist Russia then this book will certainly serve as an eye opener as it is funny, engaging and very enlightening and also a damn good read as well. I found the book quite hard to put down and managed to polish it off over a three day period, partly because the text is quite large but also because it is written in a nice uncomplicated style. The book tells the story of the authors attempt to set up a fast food business in Russia, the plan is to sell baked potatoes to rival McDonalds and Burger King, the first problem is that neither Mole or his Russian business ...  Read the complete review

Those new Russian capitalists - they come here with their fancy yachts, buying our football clubs and thinking they can do a better job than the managers....But what of those western entrepreneurs who look to the east to expand their business empires or to start new projects? John Mole, author of 'I was a Potato Oligarch: Travels & Travails in the New Russia' is one Englishman who tried to do just that. The book is a humorous account of his attempts to make money in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Unsurprisingly, given the book's title, Mole's chief project was to open Russia's first chain of jacket potato restaurants, starting in ...  Read the complete review