The constant development of the company is a great motivator for its employees

Introduce yourself in a few words..

My name is Plamen Dimitrov and for nearly 6 years I have been manager of Coface Bulgaria. In recent years, the company has developed  significantly in our market, which on one hand cannot but please us, and on the other – motivates us to continue moving forward even faster.

Tell us what the philosophy and values of the company you currently represent are?

We give confidence to people who run businesses to make the right decisions. We do this to help them navigate an uncertain and changing environment, offering them a full range of risk management solutions: insurance for trade receivables, business information, collection of overdue receivables. At the core of our values is the focus on the client and the individual approach to each, as every company and its business needs are different.

How long have you been developing your current company? What are the most valuable lessons that the events of this period have taught you?

Coface has been developing business in Bulgaria since 1994, and I have been manager since 2019. You probably remember the period we went through, it was actually a shock for the entire business in the world. And what the difficult and risky period of the pandemic taught us is that even in a company like ours, where we elevate economic analyses and forecasts to a pedestal, you must have the courage at any moment to throw all the assessments in the trash and start preparing them anew. This is difficult but important because the business relies on us to provide reasoned and sober assessments of risks.

If you personally had to write a job advertisement, how would you attract the attention of a future employee?

I am not sure that a job advertisement needs to be particularly unconventional. I would share the values, as I find them to be more important even than professional skills. If I had to describe what we all work on in the company in a more narrative way, I would definitely emphasize that we make the world around us more predictable and secure, thus better for living. And how do we do it? By assessing risks, taking on some of them, and thus providing confidence.

What does your company do to organize a constructive and fruitful working environment for everyone? Should people in the team be friends?

We have many global and regional initiatives that contribute to creating a good and effective team. We invite inspiring speakers, conduct many socially responsible initiatives and training, in which Coface employees participate, such as team-building with a cause, seminars for inclusion of employees in disadvantaged situations, or other internal initiatives with charitable purposes. And whether people in the team should be friends – certainly a friendlier and more amicable environment helps. And sometimes valuable ideas that can be useful for our overall development are born in conversations over a drink after work.

What makes you enjoy going to work? How do you handle difficult and stressful moments?

Definitely, my greatest pleasure comes when I see the effect of our activity in insuring trade receivables and providing business information on individual businesses – when they are more confident, more protected, and more informed. I am convinced that this is beneficial for the economy and for the well-being of all of us, and this is the true satisfaction I receive.

As for dealing with difficult and stressful moments, two things help me – during them, concentration, mobilization, and focus on finding a workable solution, and outside of them – running in the park, cycling, traveling, and time spent with my loved ones.

What work model does your company adhere to – office or remote? What do you think about the possibility of offering options for flexible working hours, within which employees have greater freedom to balance their personal and work commitments?

Of course, everything depends on the specifics of the work. Where and when there are team meetings or meetings with clients, the office option is better. Our office in Sofia is located in a central location with a breathtaking view of Vitosha, which definitely makes it the perfect location for a business meeting with clients over a cup of aromatic coffee. Either way, at Coface we have such flexibility, there is the possibility to work from home or remotely. Generally, our decisions are a function of the necessary productivity, and as we know, in some cases this is related to greater flexibility. At Coface globally, we have adopted a hybrid work model policy for our employees, which I think is the optimal option. Like many other companies after Covid, this work model has proven to be quite effective and at the same time has not negatively affected the productivity of our employees, quite the opposite. The advantages of allowing employees to sleep in a little longer on certain days of the week, not to stress in traffic jams during peak hours on the central Sofia streets, or simply to be in the comfort of their home definitely are received positively. At the same time, we also value social contact and building friendship among us, which is why we still come to the office.

How do the continuous technological changes in the world affect your business?

Extremely constructively. The world is changing rapidly, the business is also changing, and the introduction of new technological solutions no longer provides such significant competitive advantages, but is absolutely necessary. At Coface, the new technologies and the emergence of AI have a huge impact on the development of our risk management products. Every day we make thousands of decisions worldwide regarding insurance and credit limits, assessments of financial condition and likelihood of insolvency, thanks to our unique databases and automated credit opinions with AI, but also supported by the human experience and expert opinion of our specialists. Automating the work processes in the company allows our employees to focus and spend more time on projects that interest them, more time for brainstorming and creative ideas for the further development of our business.

How important is hierarchy and what does it mean to you? What kind of communication do you advocate in your company?

Hierarchy is inevitable, in business it exists to have order and clear delineation of responsibility among different people. However, I make a distinction between hierarchy and the demonstration of hierarchy – the latter is something unproductive and creates distance between individual professionals and levels in the company. Therefore, at Coface we have built a culture of understanding and respect for every position, regardless of who expresses it, at what position they are.

What is your career advice for all people who are building a strategy for their professional development?

My advice is to find their area in which they have the most interests to develop and never stop learning and improving. Also, to know that literally in every field you can achieve satisfaction and accumulate wealth, as long as you think, read, and are constantly on the crest of the wave.