Maxim Polzikov is the son of the editor of the television program “Vzglyad”. Having received a director's education, he was faced with the fact that he had to write reviews of second-rate performances. Then the guy realized that he needed to change his career drastically. Now he is 46 years old, and he is the top manager of one of the largest restaurant holdings in Russia. You will learn about the career path and the difficult ups and downs of Maxim’s fate from today's article.
The first steps
Initially, Maxim wanted to become a translator, but failed in exams: he did not pass German. After that, he entered and graduated from the Moscow Art Theater School, but could not become a man of art. I just realized that this was not his calling.
After graduation, Polzikov quickly married and started a family. Households had to be fed something, so he got a job as an assistant director at the Aranit restaurant. The duties of a man included interaction with suppliers, assistance in the kitchen, work with customers. In general, the functions of administrator and director.
The very owner of the institution, Yugoslav Varkes, began to disappear often. Polzikov, as he could, tried to keep the establishment afloat, but there was so little finance that there was nothing to buy food for. At one awesome moment, the FSB came. It turned out that the owner owed a large amount, is wanted, so the restaurant closes.
High security
After this incident, an acquaintance of Father Polzikov invited him to work in the Russian aircraft manufacturing company MiG for the position of head of the organizational development department. Maxim optimized business processes and distributed instructions to employees.
After a year and a half of work, he was invited to the aerospace corporation. However, there was one thing: since the post assumed the first degree of secrecy, it was necessary to coordinate trips abroad with the FSB. At MiG, Polzikov was already faced with a similar problem. Although he had a fourth degree of secrecy, he was still not allowed to go to Spain for his grandfather's funeral. Then the man realized that both of these options are not for him. Still, he wants to see the world and feel like a free man.
Work on television
Then Polzikov got on television, in the NTV-Plus company. There he was hired as an advertising manager. He did an excellent job with the first test task and in the shortest possible time climbed the career ladder to the deputy director for sales and marketing. However, the failure was again: a new general director of the channel was appointed, and Polzikov could not find a common language with him, so he went to work on another channel, and from there - to the telecom provider Akado as a commercial director.
In a new place, Maxim decided to introduce new rules - to abandon cold calls in favor of billboards in the center of Moscow. Costs soon paid off, and the provider entered the top ten in 2009-2010. This success attracted businessmen who wanted to buy out the corporation. Bidding began. They were so dragged on that Polzikov could not stand it and quit.
Business in Turkey
After another debacle, Polzikov again lost his job. He was tired of working for someone, and then staying with nothing, so the man himself decided to become a businessman. Together with a friend, they decided to discover in Turkey something similar to the analogue of the Russian Qiwi. Entrepreneurs went to Istanbul and launched their startup there, which at first was a success. However, subsequently serious competitors entered the market - banks, which gradually began to fill this niche.At that moment, a buyer suddenly appeared who decided to buy the company from the Russians. Polzikov was the CEO of the company, so he received half a million dollars from the deal.
Money is gone like sand through fingers. Maxim made repairs in the apartment, flew to America, did not work for several months, so he soon remained aground again. It was necessary to invent something again. He got a job at the Vera hospice charity, where he worked for a year, and then quit again.
Fish business
In 2013, Maxim celebrated his 40th anniversary in Amsterdam. He was very impressed with the fish restaurant. There, the chef cooked seafood in front of visitors. Inspired, Polzikov returned to Moscow and began to think how to open such an institution in the capital.
One of his friends invited him to work at the Food City wholesale warehouse. At first, Maxim acted as an intermediary: he selected the best fish from wholesalers, and then resold it. Things went uphill, and the man rented two points of his own. With his own hands, he cleaned and selected seafood. This work helped to get the necessary connections.
Then he launched his own online store "Captain Maxim", where he also traded in fish. Advertising on social networks has helped to develop its own brand.
Partnership with Ginza
In 2017, the leadership of one of the largest restaurant holdings in Russia, Ginza, turned to Polzikov for advice. They were looking for suppliers for a future fish shop. Then Maxim offered them the idea of opening a restaurant exactly like in Amsterdam, so that people could see firsthand the process of preparing seafood. Then the management of the holding invited him to become a brand chef. He agreed. The restaurant was so popular that the average monthly turnover was 6 million rubles, and net profit - one and a half million.
It was after such success that Polzikov received an offer to become the general director of the Moscow division of Ginza. It so happened that the previous CEO had just quit this position, so the corporation needed new faces. Maxim agreed and became part of a huge corporation. What will be his further career path - time will tell.