Lessons in Leadership Excellence with Rajeev Gupta, CEO, Lime Source Consultancy Group
Interview with a globally recognised CEO of an international recruitment and management consultancy
I’m excited to be able to share with you today an interview with Rajeev Gupta, CEO of Lime Source Consultancy Group, a global recruitment and management consultancy business headquartered in Dubai.
Mr Gupta has generously shared his journey, his insights, and a good amount of his time to provide advice and tips for our readers with a particular focus on excellence in leadership. Mr Gupta was honored with the Global HR CEO Excellence Award in 2018. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Golden Residence Visa bestowed by the Government of Dubai in 2021.
About Lime Source Consultancy
Lime Source Consultancy came into being in Dubai in December 1993 and since then has been able to establish a strong and formidable reputation for innovation, out-of-the-box thinking, and building strong, long-lasting, and successful relationships with clients around the world.
The company has expanded to 15 countries in the last decade alone and has been instrumental in providing jobs to thousands of workers every month creating better living standards, reducing crime rates, and elevating standards of education with the ultimate goal of contributing to a better and happier society.
Lime Source Consultancy was awarded ‘the Best Global Talent Search Consultancy’ for the year 2018.
The Interview
Q1. Thank you so much for your time, I know and appreciate how busy you are! Our readers would love to get to know you better. Please can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started in business?
RG: Greetings and a big hello there! I’m Rajeev Gupta, the Founder and CEO of Lime Source Consultancy Group.
I started my career as far back as 30 years ago with less than US$ 100 in my pocket. As a young man, I always had a deep passion and dream in my heart to fly overseas, travel the world, and enjoy the 5-star comforts of life. I wanted to make it big.
I strongly believe success and only very big success is the answer.
My job gave me a stable platform but it was engaging in business that gave me the wings to fly with truly unlimited growth.
As soon as I finished College with a Bachelors in Commerce followed by a Masters in International Law, I pursued a Sales Management Course and landed in Dubai at age 23. Dubai is truly a melting pot of culture with over 200 nationalities. It was there that my dreams started to take shape. I remember taking my first international flight on 13th December 1993.
I was an ordinary person with dreams in my eyes, and butterflies in my stomach. I started as a door-to-door salesboy. I remember often getting greeted by barking dogs upon ringing doorbells. [Laughter].
If someone like me can become a global leader, I’m sure and confident that anyone can.
Q2. You were highly successful and established as the Director of a reputable security and personnel services firm. What made you decide to launch your own business and that too in a completely different industry, i.e., recruitment and global talent sourcing?
It's that old saying — ‘well-travelled is well-educated’. I would often travel to hire global talent for our organizational needs. I realized there was a huge gap of available talent across countries. Jobs simply weren’t available where the talent would reside.
The good thing is that was I was serving as the Director of the Security Services Organization, I had always been interacting with large numbers of the workforce. Man-management was an integral part of my job responsibility with team building as the core of the HR function.
My rich first-hand experience on the ground gave me in-depth knowledge that has helped us offer jobs to more than thousands of talented workers across the globe in the last decade alone. We have been successful in bringing prosperity to large numbers of families. We have also helped to reduce crime worldwide by providing job opportunities and creating a more productive society.
Q3. Please list a few specific challenges that you faced when you started your business and how you overcame them.
Starting your own business is like having a baby. How you want to shape up the future of the baby is entirely in your own hands.
You enjoy watching your baby overcome challenges right from toddlerhood to graduation day. In a similar manner, you need to enjoy the journey of establishing, brand-building, and the expansion of your business.
Build and expand your business always with a smile on your face. Have the pure intent of creating real value for your clients and the society around you with your products and services. Ask yourself whether you are going to solve any major persistent problem of your targeted customers. If the answer is yes, you are on track.
I had the same challenges that almost every other entrepreneur does during the initial years of establishing a business.
The first one was not having enough money to set up. It’s not money that brings ideas. It works the other way around. It’s the idea that brings in the money. When you have a million-dollar idea, funding will follow.
The second one was getting the first five customers. Deep faith in your products and services, persistence, and a deep passion to solve the burning issues of clients will make them invite you to the board faster than you can imagine.
The thumb rule for encashing on your first customer is to reach out to 10 customers preferably face-to-face. There is no shortcut for new entrepreneurs to get to their first set of clients.
The third challenge was being flexible. We plan, plan and plan some more. Then the big day when we launch our products and services arrives. That’s when we witness, with the response and feedback from clients thrown in for good measure, whether the fish we threw into the water is actually going to swim the way we want it to or not. The most important thing is to learn and make amendments in time to meet market needs.
The fourth challenge is persistence. New entrepreneurs often give up too quickly.
Rome was not built in a day. It takes time for a child to turn into a responsible adult who can be an asset to society. The same applies to a new business. Most people give in just before touching the finishing line.
They keep thinking about the comfort zone they were in before. Most also go to the extent of taking back assignments that they had left in the first place to start a business.
That’s not done! Most people are always standing in their own shadow instead of glowing in the sunshine.
We started well enough when we created the Lime Source Consultancy Empire. But I soon realised that all the team members were feeling there wasn’t much growth in the human resources industry. People had also stopped hiring because of the recession.
I decided not to give up and bounced back with even more positive energy. I became more persistent and believed that we would make it. And make it big.
I did all that was required to understand gaps in the market in more depth. I started working from the ground up to create job markets, opening up potential opportunities for not only employers but also aspiring candidates across the globe. We pushed forward with persistence to explore those territories and countries that no one ever thought about approaching before for job opportunities. That’s when our success story really began.
If you have an overwhelming desire to climb your own mountain and achieve your entrepreneurial dreams, nothing can stop you from being successful in whatever you aim to achieve.
My advice is to focus on your people and build your teams. The empires will get built automatically. Also, never be afraid of failures. Ever. There is no significant success without a significant amount of failure.
Q4. What advice would you give aspiring entrepreneurs who are thinking of starting a recruitment consultancy?
Never follow the crowd. Try going against the tide. Identify market gaps and carve your own niche. Specialization in your area of expertise and a deep passion for the sector you’ve chosen is far better than offering a gamut of services of various sectors. It’s easier to lead, succeed, survive and finally thrive in areas you are best at rather than being one more service provider in an already crowded market.
Q5. You won the prestigious HR CEO of the Year and Best Global Talent Search Consultancy Awards at the Global CEO Excellence Awards in 2018. Please list 3 qualities that a CEO should develop in order to become a recognized leader in their space. Share any stories relevant to each.
Here are my top 3:
- The power of dreaming big. The first step to success is dreaming big, without which no one has ever achieved extraordinary success. A dream helps increase our potential, helps us prioritize what’s important, adds value to the work we do, and predicts and shapes our future.
There’s a story in my book about a reporter who talked to three construction workers pouring concrete at a building site “What are you doing?” he asked the first worker “I am earning a paycheck he grumbled.”
The reporter asked the same question to a second laborer, who looked over his shoulder and said, “What’s it looks like, I am doing? I’m pouring concrete.”
Then he noticed the third laborer who was smiling & whistling as he worked. “What are you doing?” he asked the third laborer. The laborer stopped what he was doing & answered excitedly “I am building a shelter for the homeless.”
Each man was doing the same job, but only the third one was motivated by a larger vision. The work he did was fulfilling a dream and it added value to his efforts.
2. There’s power in relationships. One fact is universal. Extraordinary success that exists on multiple levels is impossible to achieve without the art of building great relationships.
The 21st-century leader knows that significance is more sustainable than success and that respect is more important than recognition. All successful people know the art of touching hearts and souls.
I have been blessed to carry on relationships with the same set of friends I had from nursery when we were barely 4 years of age. We didn’t know about the meaning of bindings then. We just loved, shared, and cared for each other. At times these are the basic principles and the good intent we need to enjoy life-long relationships. That’s the kind of support system that builds confidence and takes all of us forward in our lives.
3. How we react to situations defines our company’s future.
Life is 10% the result of what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it. Good and bad things happen to every person on the planet, but how we react to them - whether positively or negatively, is in our hands.
During COVID-19 the whole world was forced to come to a halt and people were lawfully forced to stay indoors. Obviously, no one could think of business plans when lifesaving was the first priority. I have heard of people speaking endlessly about Netflix series, watching 3–4 movies a day, spending half a day in front of TV/mobile screens watching depressing news with the same repeated headlines over and over again — adding more negativity to the mix.
I decided to be positive. I decided to divert my focus to areas where I could add value. That’s when I decided to pen all the priceless experiences, and gems of wisdom I learnt over a course of decades in the form of a book called ‘50 Secrets of Success.’ What better than teaching how to fish instead of feeding the fish. I had this inner call to add value to people’s lives by sharing my lifetime of experiences. Thanks to Covid 19, I got the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the same.
Q6. What differentiates Lime Source Consultancy from other competitors within the industry?
We at Lime Source Consultancy have always believed in adding real value to the market and impacting lives. We realized there was a huge gap between parts of the world that had enormous talent but high rates of unemployment and other parts of the world where there were rising job opportunities but limited availability of skills.
We took the bold initiative of exploring untapped markets starting from Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Myanmar which had huge potential in addition to contemporary markets.
When we offer jobs, the jobs often lead to the applicant’s family getting better living conditions and better educational opportunities. We have helped in reducing poverty and crime rates and are contributing to an overall happier society each day.
Our competitive edge is being the Brand Ambassador for our clients to countries they don’t have a physical presence in. Its also about being counsellors to candidates globally with jobs closely aligned to their future career aspirations backed by 24/7 support and 100% transparency at all levels.
We have been acknowledged for accomplishments in improving the livelihoods of thousands in Africa by none other than His Majesty King Oyo ( UNAIDS Ambassador and the youngest reigning monarch as per the Guinness Book of World Records ) and Her Royal Highness Queen Mother Best Kemigisa (Kingdom of Toro in Uganda).
Q7. How does a high-performance CEO motivate team members during stressful times of change and uncertainty like the pandemic?
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Doing what you love the most and makes the world around you happy is the only key.
One thing that’s common in all extraordinarily successful people is they always do what they love. For them work is worship. It's their job that gives them kicks. They are often found working relentlessly day after day with great enthusiasm. That’s possible only if we love our work and we find what we do fun.
We can always try to add elements of fun at the workplace. Happier employees are all-around better at their jobs. At work, we plan picnics, sports events, singing and dance classes and various other fun activities so there’s less stress and stronger relationships.
There’s no room for politics and backbiting. If we come together as a family, we stand strong against the competition and can keep winning projects time and time again. The basics are fun and a happy environment minus the stress.
Q8. People attribute their success to different things, for instance, the influence of a parent or mentor, hard work, or even unfailing ambition. Who or what do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my parents. I am indebted to them for the values they taught me during my early years on the importance of touching people’s hearts and building long-term business relationships.
I was taught that when our hearts are touched we do more for each other. This is an expression of love that has no colour, no nationality, no religion, and no gender. It is purely a divine gift of nature. We can touch a person’s heart by feeling the emotions they are going through, by putting ourselves in their shoes, and by being right there next to them when they need us the most.
Extraordinary success that exists on multiple levels and is envied by others is impossible to achieve without mastering the art of building great relationships. I try to follow the same every day to impact lives and count my many blessings in the process.
Q9. Please tell us a little bit about your recently released book ‘50 Secrets of Success’ and what inspired you to write this book now?
My book is an honest attempt to give back to society. I wish I had access to a book like this 30 years ago during the formative years of my business.
This book talks about how to fail but come up better than before each time. It talks about how you can strengthen those fundamental principles without which no one has ever become a legend in their field.
It gives you step-by-step processes, backed by real facts, statistically proven figures and the real-life stories of living legends. This book teaches you to carefully consider your story, how you want to be remembered, and the difference you make to society. I truly believe it has the power to transform lives.
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