‘We had to hire a stylist to find a common language with fashion brands’

Verisium project founder Vadim Kostomarov is convinced that traditional banks will disappear in the new digital world. Financiers, however, will not be left without work, he adds reassuringly. HSE graduate Vadim Kostomarov tells Success Builder whether people should be divided into ‘techies’ and ‘humanities types,’ how to survive in the fashion industry and consulting, and talk about mistakes in looking for investors, and managing a ‘teal’ company.

I’m guessing you were pegged as a ‘math whiz’ from school age.

In my opinion, it is wrong to divide kids according to this principle and to instil a belief in such segregation over the long years of their study. This approach saves time for teachers and educational institutions, but it likely does a disservice to the students themselves.

What’s more, our very perception of these concepts is ontologically wrong. In fact, ‘techie’ is about how to do things, whereas ‘humanities’ concerns setting goals — that is, what exactly needs to be done. For that reason, people who receive a technical education often know almost nothing about such sciences as philosophy, sociology. and psychology. It is foolish to think that the interests of people today differ from those of people thousands of years ago. If that were the case, why does technical education have so little bearing on the humanities?

It would be great to combine, as far as is possible, technical humanitarian and education — that is, the tools we need with an understanding of the world order. Unfortunately, I was not able to manage this completely, but I try to fill in the gaps by reading books, educating myself and working with tutors — and, of course, communicating with interesting people.

Do you think it is possible to instil this greater awareness among HSE applicants?

The public has an extremely stereotyped understanding of the road to success. Young people are often limited by the opinions of parents, the influence of media, schoolteachers, and friends, but nobody teaches us to listen to and understand ourselves. The idea that ‘elders know better’ often dominates, and young people are told that they should not pretend to know more than they do.

Did you enrol in the ICEF master’s programme on your own initiative?

When I finished my undergraduate studies in IT, I was deeply disillusioned with the field. It seemed that Russian business saw technology as serving a strictly auxiliary function, so I thought: ‘What could be more important for a company than finance?’ and enrolled in the ICEF master’s programme. Now I understand the naiveté of such thoughts, but they still hold a grain of truth.

How can you develop intuition and know yourself if you are used to relying on other people’s opinions?

Intuition comes with experience. The sooner you start doing things yourself, the more mistakes you make and painful knocks you experience, and the more deeply you understand the basic rules of life. You should take responsibility as soon as possible and carry out tasks independently. Your personality takes shape through the wide range of experiences you encounter every day.

We have a large family and I like observing how my younger brother and sister form their identities. Three years ago, I gave my brother a LEGO Mindstorms set with which he can build and program a simple robot. He is now 11 and dreams of becoming a programmer. Another example: my younger sister wants to become a pilot and I have a feeling that my endless stories about flying to this or that country have left their mark. She found a blog by the woman Russian pilot Maria Uvarovskaya and now studies physics and math to enter the Moscow Aviation Institute.

My older sister is a paediatrician and she sometimes takes our younger sister and brother to work. First, this has made them unafraid of doctors and, second, they can see whether medicine would interest them as a future profession.

A person’s environment can have a huge influence on their dreams, goals, and way of thinking.

Universities are working hard to respond to actual market demands. As a businessperson, do you see any progress?

Russian education is not integrated with industry at all, and this is a big problem. But I must say that ICEF is at the forefront of this movement. As a master’s student, I travelled for the BCG company to an international workshop in France. For the company, it was a typical HR event to attract talented students, but for me, it was the first trip abroad. It provided insight into competitors and why a company would want to hire me.

While talking to peers from Germany there, one thing greatly surprised me. They told me that student consulting is developing rapidly in their country. This is where senior students divide into groups and compete in addressing real tasks from several different companies. And those clients pay the students well: one of them boasted that his team earned a six-figure sum for their project.

What’s more, European universities offer many programmes that are created specifically with support from individual companies that literally ‘place orders’ for future employees. This gives students who are just entering the university a vision of their career path for the next 10 years. Business is changing rapidly now, so if education does not integrate with it, graduates simply will not see any prospects for themselves.

But isn’t higher education more fundamental in nature, helping graduates to adapt to change, analyze and apply critical thinking?

It sounds funny, but I wanted to study at ICEF to understand what they write about in Vedomosti. Now I understand. I like thinking of education as an erector set. When you have a foundation for thinking, you can quickly add new courses to it that reflect real conditions as closely as possible. A math course is like gymnastics for the brain, figuratively speaking. We rarely use higher math in our work, but it provides a powerful stimulus to logical thinking.

Why didn’t you pursue a career in finance after graduating from ICEF?

I haven’t ruled that out completely, but I don’t like finance because of the culture that reigns there. It is extremely tough and, in my opinion, overly aggressive — which is understandable considering the sums of money involved. Actually, such sums are present in many areas, but the finance industry has traditionally been subjected to greater regulation.

It is an emotionally forbidding industry, and I still cannot accept it. Personal warmth, mutual encouragement and the pleasure of communicating with colleagues are more important for me, and I am prepared to sacrifice money in return for those.

How did you come to understand this?

It probably happened after my job at McKinsey. In no way do I want to say that it was bad there. Because of the nature of the work, communication happens at a very high level right from the start, and this helps provide an understanding of the financial world. They tell employees: you’re cool, you wear the most awesome suits, drive the best cars, and work with top management. In general, they try in every possible way to inculcate an elite professional image. Many people internalize this. There is a temptation to become a snob and look down on everyone else. And when you’re new there, you notice it all the more.

Another reason was the realization that the familiar financial world in the format of traditional banks was disappearing. IT giants are taking over their functions. Apple has already issued a digital card and Google is in the process of doing the same. This means that either banks will have to transform themselves into IT companies or else they will be forgotten. At the same time, banks are having to make cuts, as happened recently with Deutsche Bank.

Speaking of Apple, huge numbers of people are already using their phones to make payments and the Apple card will simplify that process and make it several times cheaper for everyone involved. That is, the digital equivalent of cash already exists and is becoming unnecessary in physical, offline form. Cash payments have almost completely disappeared in some countries. So, why would these gigantic companies with unlimited resources need an intermediary such as a bank? They don’t.

Are you suggesting that students deepen their knowledge of fintech?

I don’t think ICEF graduates will have trouble finding work. I’m just saying that most banks will either fail or become IT companies and that students should be aware of this. [Sberbank CEO] Herman Gref confirms that this will happen in five years. I wouldn’t argue that and I think that educational institutions need to devote as much attention as possible to the link between finance and technology.