"Don't hesitate to step out of the box and make your own rules. Live beyond limits."
ValiantCEO Magazine brings you an exclusive interview with Paulius Stankevicius, the visionary CEO behind Stankevicius Group, a prominent business consulting entity.
With nearly a decade of entrepreneurial experience, Stankevicius has honed his expertise in corporate consulting, encapsulating marketing, commodities, and financial services within his multifaceted business.
In this illuminating interview, Stankevicius provides a window into his journey, revealing how he meticulously built a business that thrives on solving complex problems across diverse industries.
From leveraging media for brand building to excelling in the demanding worlds of commodities and finance, his insights shed light on the interconnectedness of these sectors and their role in shaping global economies.
Delving deeper, Stankevicius candidly recounts significant challenges his company has encountered and how these obstacles were navigated. Furthermore, he imparts invaluable lessons about failure’s transformative power, team resilience, stress management, and visionary leadership.
Join us as we uncover the strategies and philosophies that have propelled Paulius Stankevicius and his company to the forefront of the business landscape.
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET FEATURED?
All interviews are 100% FREE OF CHARGE
Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Paulius Stankevicius: I’m an entrepreneur for nearly 10 years and one of my main businesses is corporate consulting. Almost 10 years ago, I founded Stankevicius Group which is a business consulting group focusing on professional consulting services in mainstream industries.
Today, our business is divided into 3 parts which are marketing, commodities, and financial services. I have started in the media business and marketing has always been a core and centered activity of everything that I do.
In fact, marketing is a very wide subject but we specialize particularly in the media business, brand building, and public image reputation. We learned how to connect media and get the spotlight for clients to increase sales and influence investor relations.
Another part of the business is commodities. Since 2016, I have been actively involved in global trade and as you probably know and are aware, global trade practically has no limits, it’s a very big sector, one of the biggest; and even in this sector, we managed to leverage media to build credibility and trust when doing business with different cultures and ideologies.
Trading commodities in international markets is very challenging and requires absolutely high performance. The third part of the business is of course financial services. We entered financial services through media several years ago. We did a lot of media campaigns for capital raising for our clients and we achieved great success in that sector.
Our firm by default was pulled into the financial sector and we learned a lot. We see that commodity trading and the financial sector are the world’s absolutely two economy-dominating sectors, and our long-term strategy is to be involved in effective and influential businesses that may have an impact in the future.
Can you share a time when your business faced a significant challenge? How did you navigate through it?
Paulius Stankevicius: I think any business in the world faces significant challenges in the early stage especially, but also in later stages. As a matter of fact, a business can face challenges on a daily or weekly basis depending on what industry the business operates.
At Stankevicius Group we solve problems for clients who operate in various industries which means that we as individuals and problem solvers must have the very open and intellectual mindset to global markets throughout different industries to provide problem-solving solutions.
I would say that there are times that sometimes there are easy days or maybe a week but most of the time we actually tend to solve those very significant challenges, and the more problems we solve the more we develop. The more complexities we go through the more fluent we become in solving them. I’d say living in a challenging day-to-day environment is sort of exciting.
Of course, it is stressful and risks are always behind your back and on your shoulders but the fact that people trust in you and believe you gives you that extra power to push through those challenges and come out as a winner.
How has a failure or apparent failure set you up for later success?
Paulius Stankevicius: Some people look at failure like it’s the end and they put themselves down and give up. To me, failure is a deep subject that I believe I can talk about for hours. To me, it’s about expectations and realization.
Being rational and understanding facts, comparing yourself to those facts, and being honest to yourself only. You don’t have to be entirely honest with others but as long as you are honest to what you are telling yourself in your head, then you can pass through the failure and the bad feeling of desperation and stress.
What does this mean in theory? This means that if you failed and you understand why you failed and you realize that you did absolutely everything but you still failed because somebody else did better, and if you truly believe that you really failed because you did absolutely everything then it’s ok.
And the feeling of this failure sadness just goes away. Some people say that they did all they could and they lost, and they say why it happened to me I should have I would have.. it doesn’t matter. You lost because somebody else was better because you were not as good as somebody else. And if you accept this and you are okay with it, then you should be fine and you will always be fine.
The people who don’t accept defeat, where ego, arrogance, and ignorance meet, those people have problems and failure can bring doom to them. You can lie to others about how you feel but if you speak the truth to yourself, you will be ok and be ready to improve yourself for the next time.
I’d just add the fact that if people understood that there is no limit to personal improvement and at any given time you will never be the best permanently, only momentarily in special areas and geo locations, if you understand this ideology, then you can go through any failure in life.
How do you build a resilient team? What qualities do you look for in your team members?
Paulius Stankevicius: Who to choose when it comes to hiring? I’d say knowledgeable individuals with initiative. Self-learners with discipline. However, in the end, it depends on the job description but if we talk about business, sales, and entrepreneurship, it goes down to people who can learn and understand things quickly, and adapt to constant changes.
Let’s say you are working in the food sector for 3 years and suddenly the food sector crashes, what do you do?
In my opinion, you should switch sectors very fast, but even before that, if you were good enough you would have seen the crash coming and you would have prepared somehow minimally for the next phase of your career, meaning even if you were working in the food sector and you saw that something in the sector was going wrong that might cause a total crash for some reason, any reason, I’d say a pro would have studied and researched other markets so he would not be lost.
There are people that are applying for jobs because their company died or industry died or something happened, but if you saw it coming then you would not be applying, and if you are applying means you are not seeing too far in the future. Who then is left to hire?
Well, depends on what you need but in my best experience, I’d say to hire someone who already understands things and has an established network in the area of your work. You can always find people if you dig deep enough, and it does not have to be local market, you can also look to capture talent from overseas as well.
How do you maintain your personal resilience during tough times?
Paulius Stankevicius: Of course, people can crash and sometimes I too crash and just give up. If it’s really hard I just take a day off and feel like I just give in and let it be.
Usually after a day of giving up, the following day solutions come to my mind. I’d say maybe it’s a mental thing, where you have to play with your head to get yourself out of tough situations. The more you stress the less you achieve.
What strategies do you use to manage stress and maintain focus during a crisis?
Paulius Stankevicius: For every person there is maybe one or two things that are simple enough but relaxing and give comfort. For me personally, I enjoy drinking coffee regardless of any atmosphere or environment or geo-location.
No matter the amount of stress if I can get at least a nice cup of coffee anywhere in the world, in the office or street or home, I do not care, but coffee makes things somehow peaceful for at least that small moment when I drink it.
Then of course other things like reading books and going to the sauna does help me also but those are my alternative options and coffee is my number 1. I also really enjoy the peace and absolute simplicity just like walking in the forest or in the street, or at times even lighting up some candles.
How do you communicate with your team during a crisis?
Paulius Stankevicius: I try to push people to find solutions and not give in. People break but at breaking point and during the crisis I try to explain to people that this is not finished and nobody is going to die.
This is just something that goes by and it will pass. So just focus because the better you solve this crisis the more you will learn and the more crisis you will solve the more fluent in complexities you will become, and at that point, any crisis will be welcomed with a challenging smile.
What advice would you give to other CEOs on building resilience in their organizations?
Paulius Stankevicius: Elevate your team during tough times. Don’t ask crazy things and don’t take it easy. Some managers keep pushing for results even if there is no way to make those results, others just give up and let it go. But try to put people together and brainstorm something new.
There is always something to find and there is always something missing. Don’t be afraid to take a step outside the box and not just think outside the box but live. The longer you put yourself and your team to live outside the box, everything changes.
How do you prepare your business for potential future crises?
Paulius Stankevicius: You can allocate cash reserves to manage crises with capital. But that’s not it. During the regular days, people tend to work on the easy things and leave the hard work for later.
However, if crisis comes tomorrow and your hard work is also tomorrow then its not good. To be prepared for the future is to be ready today, and to be ready today, you need to have the hardest things already solved first, and the easiest after. So if the crisis hits tomorrow, the focus will be clear and things won’t be overcrowded.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about leadership in times of crisis?
Paulius Stankevicius: I think that as long as everybody is genuine and honest with each other, they can successfully work together in an aggressive environment.
Times of crisis usually are aggressive and very rough. People may dislike each other, but if you as a leader manage to bring honesty and integrity to the front of the cause, then people can survive any aggressive environment during times of crisis.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Paulius Stankevicius for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Paulius Stankevicius or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
