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.
他眼神深邃、笑容真挚，站在欧洲最高摩天大楼“联邦大厦”(Federation Tower)的窗前，窗外现代莫斯科的景致一览无余。他是俄罗斯100位最具影响力的个人（其中既有企业主、顶级经理人，也有政客和媒体人）之一。尽管他亲切地融入众人之中，但不知怎地就是与众不同。
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.
在俄罗斯外贸银行(VTB)行长、圣彼得堡大学管理学院(Graduate School of Management at St Petersburg University)（我是该学院的院长）理事长安德烈•科斯京(Andrey Kostin)举办的一场招待会上，我见到了谢尔盖•加利茨基(Sergey Galitskiy)。我非常有幸与加利茨基进行了交谈，他使我相信了一条简单的格言：每个人都应该拥有变得伟大和改变世界的机会。
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.
让我感到意外的是，在我们长达3个小时的交谈中，他很少谈及自己的核心业务，即使这绝对值得一提。作为俄罗斯最受人尊敬的商人之一，加利茨基创办了国内最大的零售连锁店Magnit。他的经营哲学是，应该以地区（而不是主导俄罗斯商业的莫斯科或圣彼得堡）为起点，并且一直将之作为主要焦点。他在南部城市克拉斯诺达尔(Krasnodar)创建了Magnit，并在联邦区中心迅速发展——这种模式不常见但很成功。该连锁店如今在俄罗斯2400个城镇拥有超过1.3万家店。