Don't ask for everything at once, everywhere and all at once

Introduce yourself in a few sentences..

My name is Lyudmil Terziyski and I am one of the founders and CEO of Dedraks AD. We are one of the largest and most modern printing houses in Bulgaria, having established the company 33 years ago. We are also the only ones with two printing bases in the country – one located on 10 acres in NDK in Sofia, and the other in our seaside capital – Varna.

This makes us unique, because together with our colleagues from Billboard AD we can provide a full range of offset and digital services extremely quickly in every part of the country.

Although we are extremely well and sustainably established, I lead the company with readiness and enthusiasm, as if we started operations yesterday.

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

I am proud that, being a printing house, thecompany strives to operate in a way that leaves the planet for the next generations as it was inherited from the previous ones. This is also my personal mission.

We want to show people that printing on paper does not have the carbon footprint that is usually talked about. We use papers with FSC certification, or in short – papers for which it is guaranteed that for every tree cut down, three are planted. We use 100% biodegradable and recyclable papers, which helps us to be part of the circular economy. Our papers are partially or entirely made from recycled materials and raw materials. They are produced with energy from renewable sources.

I mention this because we put a lot of effort in this direction, yet we are often “accused” of being a “harmful” industry. Sometimes it goes to the extremes of “forced” digitalization just because it is trendy, while for me it is always preferable to open a good old book rather than read from a screen. I am happy when I see childrenwith theirnoses buried in a book, not in their phones.

I believe we are going to extremes, renouncing paper and declaring it almost harmful. It reminds me of sending witches to the stake back in the day... For example, do you know that according to satellite images from NASA, the Earth has become greener in the last 20 years as a result of all the efforts in this direction? However, how much energy does one data center consume, for example, and what has a larger carbon footprint?

This is for me a misunderstood digitalization. For example, the Scandinavian countries returned paper textbooks after they had reached full digitalization. We print a huge part of the textbooks that Bulgarian children learn from, and this makes me proud and satisfied with our work.

 

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

In 33 years we have been through a lot. There were periods when we thought that  the machines we invested in were crucial for our future. In other periods, we became “slaves” to our clients' desires. In third periods, we became “slaves” to the banks to have enough resources to work. All of this has given us a lot – technologically we are incredibly advanced, we can literally fulfill any wish and manage our resources very wisely.

From today's perspective and experience, however, I can say that our most valuable asset is our team. Life constantly offers us surprises and we strive to be flexible, adaptive, and to change strategies on the go, so that we can continue to be pioneers in our challenging industry. We try to do our work quietly. I do not like people and companies that parade about how much and what work they do, while in the meantime they actually do not have time to get it done. I am even answering this interview here on a Sunday evening, but here – my team made me participate and I listen and execute... :)

Alongside our development, we have always strived to help wherever and with whatever we can. Our company is large and as such, I believe it is our commitment to actively participate in charitable and socially significant events related to cultural institutions, children in need, foundations with meaningful goals, and others.

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

We have a large and dedicated team with a very strong core, and if you ask someone from this core how many years they have been with the company, you will hear answers in the range of 20-25... Many of them came directly from university or even high school, for a little while, but continue to develop with us decades later. So, if I had to write an advertisement, I would tell what I know from them – why they have been with us for so many years. Because of the peace and lack of unconstructive stress, because of the good working conditions, but most importantly – because of the good environment and team.

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

I don't know if people should be friends, but I believe it is good if they are. The most important thing is to work effectively and enjoyably in a team and to support and respect each other. I believe we have achieved this and I strive to continue in the same spirit.

I am against the principle of “divide and conquer”. When I have a situation where a colleague has come to me to speak against another colleague, I always prefer to meet with both of them together. We strive in every way to make our workplace pleasant and cozy. I am happy when I see colleagues cooking together in our kitchen and sharing a pleasant lunch. Did you know that the word “company” comes from the Latin companio (“the one with whom you share bread”), while the word “corporation” comes from corpusus (“body”). In the company, we share bread, in the corporation, we feed the body of the legal entity. I hold and strive daily to be those who share bread...

What makes you go to work with pleasure? How do you deal with difficult and stressful moments?

Generally, a person likes it to be easy, right? However, I realize that difficult moments keep me in shape. They abound in our work, but I am grateful for them. They give us lessons, strength, and the opportunity to see beyond our established frameworks and experience.

We work on a huge volume, printing books, brochures, catalogs, displays, calendars, packaging, and much more for many of the largest companies in Bulgaria and several companies in Europe. It is a true pleasure for me to see the smiles on the faces and the spark in the eyes of colleagues when they have managed with a large and difficult project. Recently, we had a client whose printing house had refused to handle their order due to volume and complexity. They had lost valuable time, and the client is from a highly regulated sector, where possibilities for delays or unavailability are not on the table. When they turned to us, the colleagues were literally scared – could we even react. Fortunately, our printing house works around the clock and we managed to react – on time, without mistakes, and with an optimized proposal to them (a more effective, while at the same time cheaper way to fulfill the packaging). The joy and pride in their eyes were eloquent, and here I am not even talking about the gratitude from the client's marketing team.

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

I like flexibility in every form, including when it comes to working hours and place. However, this is applicable to a few people in our case. We are a production company, and this requires people to be on site by the machines, with serious order and discipline, and excellent task planning.

I myself sometimes work remotely, often only part of my working day is in the office, and in the other I stay at home to concentrate and manage to finish important and more general topics. I remain in peace and thus manage to “raise” my gaze and sift what is important for the company, what strategy or tactic is needed today. However, it is important to go to where the essence of our work is done – in the office and production – to see problems with my own eyes, to hear priorities with my own ears, to give recommendations.  

I do not fully support remote work in principle, because I believe that the connection between the team is lost, the atmosphere is not felt, and the culture stops being lived. In the eyes of a person working from the beach or the mountains, the problems of people in the office can easily fade away. We had such an experience – a summer with the sales team and the result was not good. Our clients are very loyal to us and this was not disastrous, but we realized that it is particularly important for each account manager to personally monitor their orders in production for deadlines, quality, or possible problems, alongside “Quality Control” and production managers. At the scale we operate, mistakes are too costly for us to afford not to go through several levels of control. The physical absence of colleagues in the office was immediately felt, and we all saw together that this is not a good solution for us.

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

On the one hand, the development of technologies helps us a lot. We have automated several processes and drastically reduced unattractive labor. I constantly want us to keep up with the possibilities of new technologies, so that we can offer a fast process, competitive prices, and uncompromising quality. They often give us the opportunity to be very creative in the solutions we offer to our clients. On the other hand, however, comes the misunderstood digitalization. In recent years, we have seen a decline in orders for books and educational materials. I can only hope that it is due to digitalization, not due to less reading in general.

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

The correct hierarchy is very important, and its daily observance prevents chaos from occurring. I am an advocate of friendly communication, but like everything – it is good when it is within a certain limit. There is a difference between freedom and permissiveness, and this is where hierarchy comes in.

It is important to be humane and to treat others' problems with understanding – colleagues, clients, partners, suppliers. Sometimes for us, these problems may seem trivial, but for the other party, they are of particular importance. This is the moment when you need to carefully assess the balance between the interests of the company and the person on the other side, because sometimes they diverge.

We constantly strive to improve the working environment even in the smallest details – equipment, automation, air conditioning, relaxation areas, because the devil is in the details, but so is the angel.

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

From the perspective of my life and work experience, I would tell young people that it is better not to want everything now and immediately, everywhere and at once. You can have everything – just not at the same time, and to make it happen requires years of hard work, constant learning, and quite a few mistakes. A person must first and foremost lay the foundations to be persistent, patient, and consistent, and only then expect the results.

And last but not least, I believe that a person should have such an attitude towards clients, colleagues, managers, as they wish to receive from them. Be humane and whatever you have achieved, do not forget where you started from and with whom you walked this path.