On 25 September 2015 Mikhail Merkulov, Chief Executive Officer of Arricano’s Real Estate plc, gave a speech at the Business Wisdom Summit 2015.

“It comes as no surprise that the Business Wisdom Summit 2015 has been recognized as the most creative and prominent event for the fourth consecutive year, - says Mikhail Merkulov. – Such concentration of unconventional practices, motivation to grow, open-mindedness, humaneness, curiosity and sometimes even audacity is what will shape our future by defining commercial development trends and this sparks optimism”.

In the course of two days the total of 39 speakers (12 business proprietors, 17 CEOs, 4 scientist, 3 civil servants and 2 former civil servants) from 6 countries were sharing their views on how to achieve commercial success in the future.

Mikhail Merkulov spoke in the anti-crisis strategies section. In his “Business gambit: when breaking through walls is not an option” speech, Mikhail explained some of his guiding principles he relies on to push forward at difficult times:

• To combine things that haven’t been combined before. The result may resemble that of the Shpyliasti Kobzari group, who play Indian music with Ukrainian instruments and turn out to be unconventional, breath-taking and elegant
• To remember eternal truths, such as the millennium-old Viking laws: Be brave and aggressive. Be prepared. Keep your armour in good condition. Keep yourself in good condition. Find good allies. Agree on fundamentals and choose one leader.
• To sometimes take a step aside and evaluate the effectiveness of your actions
• To remember the Pareto rule: 20% of invested time produces 80% results
• Faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem, continue with less important tasks: some of them may generate the desired solution
• Your key crisis-proof asset is people. It is paramount to grow your own “special forces” within the company. According to Paul Claudel theory (Project to live), every individual has will to live and power to live. The power to live is measured in some VQ and reflects the individual’s capacity to be a warrior, in this context to take the company to a new level. One category of these special forces are people with the highest VQ, who are prepared to do whatever is necessary to complete a task. Another category are those who truly enjoy what they do, they do it effortlessly, passionately, with zest… - and, after a short break, are ready to start again
• When you will have done all you could with little result, remember the ancient Sufi practice: visualise what you want to achieve, have confidence it will come to pass, - and let go of the problem

The Business Wisdom Summit 2015 became an inspirational event for its participants. Mikhail Merkulov draws his inspiration from the human potential which he sees as the key factor in positive development of business and society. “Not everything in business boils down to finance, profits and returns on investment. At BWS the “human factor” has received a totally new meaning. When you hear stories of business start-ups or real life cases, you realise that people are the driving force, the energy, the impetus in the development of humanity, commerce and society. I believe all BWS 2015 participants received their own energizing cocktail of ideas, cases, methods and strategies, had their own insights and, most definitely, were given new momentum to follow their own development path. This was made possible by the special environment of mutual trust and co-creation created by organizers, speakers and participants”.