Against a background of modern Moscow through the windows of the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, stood a tall man with enigmatic eyes and a sincere smile. He was in the midst of 100 of Russia’s most influential individuals — business owners, top managers, politicians and media people. While he was part of the crowd, he stood there friendly but somehow different to the others.
I met Sergey Galitskiy at the reception hosted by Andrey Kostin, president of VTB, the Russian bank, and director-general of St Petersburg University’s Graduate School of Management, where I am dean. I was lucky enough to be drawn into a conversation with Galitskiy that gave me belief in a simple maxim: everyone should be given a chance to become great and change the world.
What took me by surprise was that during our three-hour conversation he said little about his core business, even though it definitely merited attention. One of the most esteemed businessmen in Russia, Galitskiy created Magnit, the country’s largest retail chain, with a philosophy that the regions, rather than Moscow or St Petersburg, which dominate Russian business, should be the starting point and remain the prime focus. He founded Magnit in the southern city of Krasnodar and it has grown largely in provincial centres — an unusual but successful approach. The chain now has more than 13,000 stores in 2,400 towns and cities across Russia.