As an entrepreneur and founder of multinational companies in food production, logistics, sustainability consulting, and more, Luciano de Vries has extensive experience navigating diverse business cultures. With operations across Europe, Africa, and North America, it’s no wonder de Vries has cultivated adaptable leadership strategies, overcome operational obstacles, and learned how to expand productively into unfamiliar territories.
How does he navigate all these sectors and cultures? Luciano de Vries makes it sound so simple. He says to hire people who are “hungry to learn, no nine-to-five mentality. They always must be a good fit with the team. Of course, there can be arguments and people don’t need to align always. But they must accept each others’ opinions and look for solutions. Create a team where everyone wants the best for the company. The vision of how to reach it can differ, but always be constructive.”
Luciano de Vries — His Climb to the Top
Luciano de Vries first ventured beyond his native Netherlands as a young college student eager for new experiences. While still studying tax law at the University of Groningen in his native country, he began promoting events; it was a perfect gig for a gregarious, ambitious entrepreneur-in-training. During a school break in Spain, he was hired to do a similar job — and a career was born.
While other students were partying, he was scoping out the scene for business opportunities — and learning he had a knack for seeing and filling holes in the market. Within 20 years, his empire included enterprises in real estate, event promotion and planning, transportation, and more across Europe and expanding into the United States.
Now the CEO of Gaet Holding and the director of Bayswater Capital, he emphasizes leadership fundamentals over cultural overhauls.
“I don’t think there is a need to change if your way of leading is through leadership. If you lead by example and work hard, people will follow you. Of course, it can never hurt to read into different cultures. But if you make sure that you also relax with people and find out more about them and their culture, it can go well.
“The international teams in my case are all locally led by independent directors. On a group level, we work with advisory boards that help each other. And once a year, we go on a trip all together.“
This balancing act — anchoring in personal leadership style while adapting to local preferences — enabled de Vries to drive global cohesion. Direct managers are local experts who intrinsically understand cultural nuances and can contextualize high-level directives for regional teams.
Luciano de Vries’ 3-Step Recipe for Success
Luciano de Vries’ global business journey imparts several seminal lessons for multi-national success:
- Hire and develop intelligent local leaders rather than transplanting one blanket headquarters mindset into all markets. Regional experts intrinsically grasp market nuances.
- Invest time connecting with global team members and partners abroad to build trust and alignment. This guards against fragmented cultural silos across geographies.
- Remain flexible in adapting to different regional business practices while staying grounded in the core leadership values underlying the global company vision. Blend the best of both worlds.
By living these global business principles, de Vries built an adaptable leadership style driving growth across continents. His journey highlights how cultural awareness, operational agility, and a people-first mindset can unlock success in even the most foreign business landscapes. In his book, it’s all about communication.
“Lack of communication or lack of the right communication is when people don’t know what the other is doing or how much work a task is or what the responsibilities are. If you give them a look into each others’ jobs and roles for, let’s say a day, that really helps people. That’s how good communication can start.”