Vadim Limar has been a special child since his childhood. In fact, he attended a school for gifted children in Kazakhstan. The school wasn’t just for traditional teachings but also imparted education on music (Vadim even plays the Saxophone), sports (he’s been the basketball captain), teamwork and so much more. This school paved the way for an even more prestigious educational opportunity for Vadim at the Esade Business & Law School in Spain. It’s the oldest hotel management school in the world!
Vadim was awarded a leadership scholarship that’s awarded to just 2.5% of the top students. As for marks, he was the top 3 students at the institute. Later on, he served as an exchange student at Haas School of Business.
Vadim’s first professional job was at Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG), an auditing firm in Geneva. Yes, it’s the same company that was ranked 38th by Fortune Magazine on the list of the best companies to work for! Vadim’s expertise came to light when he successfully audited over 140 global projects on behalf of very prestigious organizations such as UNICEF and UNHCR.
Vadim’s second professional venture after proving his mettle at KPMG was at Naquera Gaudi Style. Here his expertise shone with his strategies for the company’s short-term operations. His investment strategies led to an investment that yielded a 26%/quarter return. His management of the company’s assets such as hotels and tourist apartments added another 20% to the company’s profits.
Mr. Vadim likes taking on new challenges and hence he joined a third company in Singapore. He was managing over 30 startup portfolios. Singapore’s joint financing scheme proved fruitful and Mr. Vadim was able to secure 50% state-funding for two major projects.
His next venture was to be at an Amazon warehouse. One of his suggestions resulted in Amazon making an extra EUR 60+ million that year. After all these adventures, Vadim today is a mentor at Tampa Bay Wave in Florida.
Vadim has always been open to and mentally capable of learning and adopting new cultures and languages. When in Geneva, Vadim started adopting a multilingual and multicultural work environment. The Swiss are strict about their business traditions and accuracy, both were welcomed by Vadim honing mutually fruitful and respectful relations with local colleagues.
Similarly, when in Valencia, he observed that business meetings were more liberal and interpersonal. Here, he started to engage in informal interactions with the involved individuals before the actual deal. This of course helped him negotiate smoother and get the best possible terms for both parties.
Singapore has always been a mix of both western and asian cultures. It’s basically a hub of startups and productivity that has always attracted people from all across the globe. Here, he was able to quickly adapt to the hierarchical respect that Singaporean business demands. His ability to impart formality and respect to senior officials bought him many successful negotiations not just with individuals but also government agencies.
Through his experience in these various nations and with their cultures, Vadim came up with many strategies that can help entrepreneurs scale the competitive landscape.
Understanding above all: Respecting others’ culture opens doors that may be harder to open without cultural respect. Moreover, it doesn’t cost you anything and brews relationships that smoothen not just business but also personal relations.
Flexibility is your best ally: Vadim understood that every corporation, business, region and person is different. Being flexible and having the ability to quickly change yourself to suit the specific situation helps massively.
Trust can’t be bought, it must be earned: Building trust is both very important and very hard. Although, Vadim believes with sincerity, consistency, honesty, and transparency an everlasting trust can be built which helps build businesses.
Here are a few tips that Vadim has often shared for entrepreneurs:
- Study and adapt: Studying what your partners expect of you, what their cultural, business and even personal beliefs are makes all the difference.
- Listen more than you speak: You may know more than everyone in the room, but you’ll never lose anything by listening to others. It’s best to listen and absorb as much input as possible and only to speak when absolutely required.
- Practice clarity and transparency: Vadim believes clarity of what you bring to the table, your expectations, deadlines and everything else is important. Communicate clearly, honestly and transparently the facts of the project.
He also strongly emphasizes continuous self improvement. The ability to learn and adopt new culture, language, traditions and beliefs lets you slide the negotiations in your favor.
Vadim doesn’t believe in negating cultural differences. Rather, understanding the differences and applying them wherever possible.
In other words, culture is very personal and subjective to each individual. So, by showing respect and taking time to understand different cultures, you’re elevating your value as a partner. It’s like a door that grants you access to rooms and people that otherwise would stay elusive. You’d be getting access to circles, dinners and meetings where culture may be a dominant flavor, but because you’ve adopted, you wouldn’t be seen as an outsider or an alien. Your opinions will also be valued more because you’re seen as one of the team and not someone who’s just a senior official, supervisor or partner. Vadim believes technical and educational knowledge is important but cultural knowledge too deserves equal attention.
