Taking the temperature of a country's economic development is easy - look at how it treats logistics and logistics education. While there are as many definitions of logistics as there are logisticians, the basic idea is that things must be moved for a firm or group to operate. In Ukraine's case, the lack of infrastructure makes movement itself more difficult. More important, businessmen here are just beginning to understand the field's importance. One person who is trying to raise the temperature in Ukraine is Prof. E.F. (Ric) Riccio of Kyiv's Academy of Foreign Trade.
Twelve years in the Navy Reserves, with active duty including the opening days of the Korean War, started Riccio's globetrotting tour. The Caribbean and Middle East were traded for Kyiv in 1994, when he came to work for a Western NGO delivering material to Ukraine and Moldova. This is Professor Riccio's second tenure in Ukraine. His first stint, like most of his career, was in the field.
"I learned a lot about dealing with the Soviet mindset in those days," he said. "A logistician basically solves movement problems, and it wasn't something that had been thought of too often by the government here. For instance, we organized a shipment of medicine from Germany via a Hercules transport airplane once. I contacted the military commanders in Simferopol and emphasized the equipment that the Herc would need for unloading. They brushed me off by telling me that they had everything. When the plane landed they saw that their equipment was good for an Antonov, not a Lockheed, so a company of soldiers spent three days unloading the cargo by hand."
In June, 1995, he went to St. Petersburg to teach at what is now known as the Baltic State Technological University. The university previously had been known as Voyn/mekh, where KGB technical staff and some cosmonauts were trained. During eight years in the Russian Federation, Riccio held positions at the St. Petersburg State University of Engineering Economics and the Maritime University. He also gave guest lectures at the St. Petersburg State University and the University of Military Engineering and Construction in St Petersburg, and Pomar State University in Archangelsk. "I got to see a lot of the area, and learned how to deal with the people," he said.
While in St. Petersburg, Ric married a Ukrainian woman. The couple returned to Kyiv in 2001.
"I could see a difference immediately," Riccio said. "The students here were more highly motivated and had a better attitude. They're bright, but polite and rarely ask questions."
There were structural problems with the education system then - and still are, he says, explaining that the system pushes good, intelligent people into areas where they don't know anything.
As a result, Riccio aid, "we end up with programs designed by people who don't understand the material. And in a society that places an emphasis on a sheepskin instead of experience, that's a real problem. Breaking into a new area isn't easy. In the States we can go into a library and bone up on a topic. Here you need a degree that says you're an expert."
"The most important thing, though, is something that hasn't changed since 1994," he said. "When I first came here, I noticed the work ethic. It was good then, and still is. Now, Ukraine only needs industries that can put it to use."
Riccio's work often puts him into contact with businessmen, as well as academics. He says that this allows him to keep a finger on the pulse of business in Eastern Europe. That's important, he says, because the attitude of business people here will affect everything - education and infrastructure improvements included.
"With such conservative business leadership, you won't see an improvement in the near future," he said. "Take the emphasis on training as opposed to education in businesses. They want to train people to handle specific tasks, rather than how to think, adapt and innovate."
"The system still has too many Soviet artifacts, with too much emphasis on theory and too little on application," he said. "The required courses here are what 50 years ago were called 'pipe courses.' You had to sit in class with your arms folded, pipe in hand, and look smart, but you didn't need to think."
That affects business directly. Some local businesses are serious about transportation - and with the infrastructure in its present state, Riccio says that's what must be focused on - but often isn't.
"Ukraine is lucky to a degree," he said. "The rail infrastructure here was ahead of the Russians when independence came. Even though there is no river transport to speak of, sea freight is another story.
On the other hand, my contacts tell me that there's a terrible imbalance at the ports. Lots of expensive goods are shipped in, but only bulk is going out."
"Worse," he said, "someone used a theory and decided to send scrap metal out in containers, so they're paying much more for transportation costs with no benefit."
When businesses get serious about these things, government agencies will have to change.
"A call to the Transportation Ministry is like having teeth pulled," he said. "Even the good things they are working on are hidden. Businessmen here couldn't believe that they would finally start scheduled rail freight service between the ports and Russia. Over a year has passed, but who knows about it, much less whether or not it is working?"
Kyiv's traffic is one of Riccio's favorite topics.
"Road transport is affected by very low driving skills and a poor driving culture within a traffic control system that is a hundred years out of date," he says. "Logisticians think about things like this - whether you're moving product or employees, it affects commerce and business solutions. The traffic situation has got to have an effect on investment as well. Foreigners see how bad it is, and think that their people will always come to work late and jittery and that they can't rely on anything getting around."
Again, someone wants to apply a theory, the professor says, instead of looking at actual practice.
"Many of the traffic jams here appear out of nowhere, and are the result of selfish and undisciplined driving instead of accidents or other influences. Who stops at a red light when things begin to back up? Nobody, unless the intersection is already blocked," Riccio said.
He points to the area near the train station is a perfect example on most afternoons. "But I haven't heard of any studies being done on the situation, or quoted as an example. Someone decided that a tunnel is a good idea, and in theory, it might be. But in practice, you'll now have the kamakazis driving in confined and potentially very dangerous situations," he said.
There is another difference between Kyiv and Petersburg. Here, the drivers will stop to let a pretty girl cross the street, whereas up there, it's the babushkas that they watch out for, he observed. In St. Petersburg, it's known that elderly pedestrians will smash the headlights of a car that stopped too abruptly.
"They don't fool around," he said. "Today, I'm afraid to cross the street at a crosswalk, but it wasn't that way a few years ago. I guest-lectured to officers at the University of Military Engineering and Construction in St. Petersburg in April, and the comparison still holds."
"I've noticed that despite the absolutely worst driving habits I've witnessed anywhere in the world - and I've traveled through almost all of it - the young drivers aren't the ones that are the worst," he noted. "Actually, the younger ones do seem to have better sense."
"So what we have here is a generation of young people who are bright, eager to learn, who don't drive like juveniles, and just want to get to a decent-paying job on time every day. The system still isn't set up to help them to do it, but like I said, they're a hard-working lot."
Riccio said that recent changes include the creation of the Ukrainian Logistics Association. Its founder, Prof. Marta Grejgorak, also persuaded the Education Ministry to recognize logistics as a valid field of study.
Riccio has high hopes for the new association, if businesses take part, "The question is whether the logistics association will be an academic organization, or if businesses will put some teeth into it and join as well," he said.
"If the latter happens, we can expect things to take off."
Jim Hydzik is a freelance writer based in Kyiv.
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