Want Innovation? Hire A Russian

Few companies have made a bigger splash in global markets in recent years than Samsung Electronics Co. The South Korean company has blasted past its Japanese and U.S. competitors to take a big share of the international electronics and mobile-phone markets. Last year it boasted profits of $5.1 billion on revenues of $37 billion. And one key to Samsung's success has a surprising address: 1 Bolshoi Gnezdnikovsky Lane, Suite 300, in Moscow.

That's the home of the Samsung Research Center. Opened in 1993, it now employs 80 engineers and scientists and was largely responsible for 50 international patents in 2003 alone. Among the Russians' achievements: frequency-filtering technology, which vastly reduced noise on Samsung's now-ubiquitous mobile phones. "Russia is our No.1 destination for technology outsourcing," says Cha Dae Sung, who is in charge of "global technological cooperation" for Samsung.