Management Development (MD) activities are regarded as being key to the economic growth of countries in transition and to developing countries. However, the main providers of MD programmes ar western consultants who seek to transplant their know how into other very often different cultures with only modest success. We summarise the findings of our study of six MD programmes provided by Western aid funded consultants in Russia. The implications of these findings have for practice is discussed particularly in relation to the competences and cultural intelligence required of management educators