Rapid career growth in the realities of modern high-competition business is a topic that balances on the edge between myth and bold reality. That is why the story of Polina Semina, whose development trajectory resembles a vertical ascent, is of such exceptional interest. Her extraordinary path is a vivid demonstration of how a talented strategist with visionary thinking can break through the wall of corporate inertia and reach the top of the industry in the shortest possible time. Today, Polina Semina is at the cutting edge of operational management and strategic development in the high-tech sector. With a unique set of competencies at the intersection of technology, finance, and management, her approach to career building and leadership deserves the closest study.
– Polina, good afternoon. In the business world, career growth is often compared to a marathon, implying a long and consistent upward movement. Your path, on the contrary, resembles a series of daring sprints: in a matter of months, you achieve results that take others years. What is the essence of such phenomenal dynamics?
– Good afternoon, you noticed that precisely. I never viewed a career as a long-term waiting game. My model is, in essence, a compression of time through extreme concentration within a hypothetical six-month cycle. This is not a theoretical concept, but an approach that was formed in my very first job and proved its effectiveness. At McDonald’s, a global system with refined standards, I went from a novice to a restaurant manager in the top three in the region in less than a year, passing the international certification with a score of 100 out of 100. The principle was not just to meet standards but to exceed them, optimise processes at my level, and generate measurable value—whether perfect checklist scores or revenue growth. This approach—creating a result in a short time that multiplies expectations of your current role—became the foundation for all subsequent career takeoffs.
– You talk about generating value. What fundamental principles underlie such rapid professional growth, especially when transitioning between such different industries as retail, construction, and IT?
– The foundation of everything is a systemic vision. Any business, whether a restaurant or an IT giant, is a system of processes. My task is to decompose this system as quickly as possible, understand its mechanics, and find levers for increasing efficiency. At Facilicom, managing 500 sites from Saint Petersburg to Arkhangelsk, I could not control each site manually. Instead, I developed and implemented a unified system of reporting, communication, and evaluation, which allowed stabilising quality at 95%. Next comes proactive responsibility management. At T1, I launched the “Help Window” initiative not because it was in my job description, but because I saw the team’s need for direct and open communication with management. And finally, continuous capitalisation of knowledge. I don’t just obtain a Scrum Master certificate. I immediately implement the framework in IT projects, as it was at T1, or build team operations in my American startups based on its principles. Every new piece of knowledge must become a working asset that brings profit or reduces costs.
– Your experience is incredibly diverse. In your opinion, what fundamentally distinguishes process management in a large IT corporation from, say, operational management in the service sector or in a tech startup like your current project Gmotion?
– The environment defines the tactics, but the strategy remains unchanged: optimisation, scaling, growth. In a large corporation like T1, the challenge lies in navigating complex internal structures and regulations. Your success depends on your ability to build interdepartmental interactions and influence processes without having direct administrative leverage. Launching an office of 2,000 people from scratch is, first and foremost, a project of synchronising dozens of contractors and internal departments. In the service sector, like in Protech Appliance Repair or the three companies I currently manage, speed and quality of customer service come to the forefront. A mistake here instantly reflects in ratings and revenue. My contribution there is translating the business from “manual management” to systematic rails: CRM, KPIs, standards. And in the tech startup Gmotion, the main task is creating a structure from scratch in conditions of uncertainty. Here, you are simultaneously a strategist, developing an investment plan of $1.3 million, and an operations manager, establishing production chains. This requires maximum flexibility and readiness to perform critically important functions at all levels.
– It’s obvious that such a leap cannot be made alone. What is your leadership philosophy? How do you build a team around you capable of keeping pace with you and achieving results like making three companies profitable in three months?
– My leadership philosophy is built on the principle of cultivating other leaders. I look for allies, not performers. This approach also originated at McDonald’s, where I created an internal unit for training and motivation. Later, at Pridex, I focused on corporate culture, which increased team satisfaction by 40%. At T1, creating an administrative-analytical department, I built a team of 18 specialists, which became the center of operational efficiency for the entire department. When launching ERA Service, Fast Quality, and TopFix Repair, I didn’t have time for a long ramp-up. I immediately built a system where everyone had a clear area of responsibility, transparent KPIs, and direct dependence of rewards on results. I am the locomotive that sets the impulse, but each car in my composition must have its own engine. My goal is to make my operational intervention unnecessary.
– On the path to the top, mistakes and miscalculations are inevitable. Which of them do you consider the most valuable lessons that shaped you as a leader?
– Perhaps the most valuable lesson was related to the transition from direct management to management through systems. In one project, I realised that my personal control and involvement had become a “bottleneck” for the company’s growth. I tried to take too many decisions on myself, which inevitably led to burnout and slowing down. It was then that I realised that my task as a leader is not to be the best performer, but to create a system that works without me. This was a painful but necessary shift in thinking. The second lesson is the power of communication. You can develop a brilliant strategy, but if you cannot “sell” it to the team, investors, or clients, it is dead. My master’s degree in communications and PR was not just a line in my resume, but a conscious investment to ensure that my ideas do not remain on paper but are implemented in life and change the business.
– Recently, you were recognised at the Global 1000 Award in the category Excellence in Business Operations and FinTech Management. What does this recognition mean to you, and how does it relate to your professional approach?
– For me, this award is not just external recognition, but confirmation of the effectiveness of the systemic approach that I have been building throughout my career. Excellence in Business Operations and FinTech Management is about the synergy of processes and technologies, when operational excellence combines with digital tools to create additional value. I have always considered business operations as a living organism, where every element, from CRM to financial analytics, must work in a single rhythm. It is precisely thanks to this logic that we in Gmotion and other projects were able to reduce time-to-market by 40% and stabilise key metrics without increasing costs. This award, for me, is a sign that a path based on systematisation, transparency, and technological integration really sets the standard of efficiency for new generations of managers.
– And which trends in management and technology do you consider defining? What should specialists who are just starting their journey prepare for?
– We are entering the era of hyper-automation and decentralisation of management. Routine managerial functions will increasingly be transferred to intelligent systems. The role of the manager is transforming from controller to architect of teams and processes. You will need not to manage people, but to design an environment in which talented people can interact with each other and AI assistants as efficiently as possible. This is what we are building at Gmotion, where human experience combines with advanced simulation. The second trend is data-driven management elevated to the absolute. My experience at Protech and T1, where I implemented metric systems and analytical dashboards, shows that decisions made based on data are significantly more effective than intuitive ones. I would advise beginners to develop a dual competence: deep expertise in their primary area and strong skills in data analysis, process management, and understanding business metrics.
– What would you say to an ambitious professional who is now at the foot of their career mountain and looks at the peak, which seems unreachable?
– Stop looking at the peak. Focus on making the next step as efficiently as possible. Your first job is not a “start,” it is your first business project. Treat it exactly like that. Break it into parts, find what can be improved, and improve it. Record the result in numbers. My experience at McDonald’s taught me that even in the most refined system there is room for optimisation. Every such step, every small victory, every measurable result is a stair you build yourself. The mountain is conquered not by one giant leap, but by a series of precise, calculated, and energetic steps. Start acting and thinking like the owner of your work area, and very soon the company will recognise you as the owner of a much larger process.