Definitely dogs.
I rescue animals so I have a menagerie with 4 horses, 3 big dogs and 2 cats.
Dogs are the best pals to have on a hike.
Coffee - usually latte.
Red.
Grew up the oldest with 4 brothers and we all raced skiing.
I avoid technology and keep my phones forever.
A little bit of an adrenaline junkie as I challenge myself to do what I am afraid of - like: getting my scuba certification; I piloted a plane; and jumped off Victoria Falls (never again!).
I miss being in NYC especially around this time of the year.
I find I work more hours at home versus going into the office.
So sad that so many people have needlessly died.
I love the human story behind every career and this business has allowed me to meet some pretty fantastic people like Eileen Murray ex-CEO of Bridgewater who I introduced to Warburg Pincus and she recently accepted an Executive in Residence position. She has had remarkable career and she is a fantastic person.
Our clients expect us to have a worldwide reach when we conduct searches.
They generally want the best candidate for the position and often that individual is in a different geography.
Our Partners have the same high standards and we are comfortable putting clients in their care.
Determined.
Resilient.
Curious.
A new dressage saddle.
Well my kids would have it otherwise but no cats or dogs (at the moment anyway). You see, they make the summer boating habit more challenging...
Espresso or Cappuccino - depends on the time of day. No tea thank you. Unless perhaps if I’m in the UK. “When in Rome” they say (or is it London in this case?).
Typically red. Full-bodied.
I love to cook.
I'm an avid sailor.
I actually enjoy what I do for a living.
I’ve been working remote for the better part of 20-years so no challenges really.
The fact that everyone else is home-working or schooling presents the challenge.
Certainly a pain in the...
Helping companies grow.
Positioning people for mutual success in their business and career.
Every part of the business has ownership mentality.
Savvy. Aware. Honest.
A Mercedes GL 550 or better yet a G-Wagon.
There’s plenty of parking space available.
Of course, some day an electric version of the same would suit me just fine.
Atila Yenisen, CEO of Metro Bulgaria.
Reducing gender inequalities is one of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to transform our world and the topic about the role of women in business is becoming increasingly relevant today.
Atila is highly engaged regarding the role of women in business and is an active member in LEAD Network as Co-Chair in the Sales & Buying chapter where he is actively involved in projects aimed at increasing the influence of women in trade.
Our industry is very dynamic and consumer behaviours are continuously changing and evolving. Real success comes from not only following the customers, but also from shaping their choices. It is therefore paramount to have the diversity of the market reflected into our decision-making processes - only then we can move where the customers move and even move the customers towards our solutions.
We have set targets at a local level within Bulgaria. We have a minimum of 50% women in our development programs and at least 50% of candidates interviewed for Level 3 and up positions are women. This helps us to manage our pipeline for all the levels in our organization including for leadership positions.
According to a global survey on the topic, having children was stated as the biggest challenge for female colleagues. We know that over half of mothers change jobs, over 30% contemplate leaving work entirely and nearly 20 % of women leave employment in the following 5 years after their child’s birth. Therefore, we decided to focus our maternity policy to help women not to disconnect during their maternity leave which then helps them to restart effectively when they choose to rejoin.
In METRO Bulgaria we also initiated the Women in trade chapter within the company. The aim was to promote awareness as well as engaging with teams giving them the opportunity to drive decisions. We have already 26 employees involved in the project. We are also in the process of adapting our Global Diversity and Inclusion training.
I believe the role of leaders, regardless of their gender, is critical. Leaders set the context, they set the tone and they set the norms of culture. However, considering the male dominance in leadership positions, it is vitally important to actively engage men with diversity and inclusion.
The first step is increasing their awareness that diversity undoubtedly improves results. However, I would suggest we avoid only focusing on women and men, but more on real diversity including sexual orientation, religious and political views, as well as all cultures.
I can count numerous qualities of a good leader. However, let me highlight the three most important in my opinion:
1. Self-belief: everything starts with confidence.
2. Assertiveness: a good leader should not easily give up.
3. Persistence: very few initiatives elicit good results at the first attempt and only the ones who try again and again make a difference.
We are delighted to observe that nearly 37% of our business customers are owned by women.
The biggest challenge for women business owners is to multitask. I have hard time believing that all women actually delegate all their historical responsibilities to men. So, managing everything can be quite a challenging task. When it comes to managing their businesses, just like their male counterparts, there are many different areas about which they need more knowledge and support such as the legal requirements, fiscal rules, quality standards and measures etc.
I have been part of LEAD for the last 5 years. My colleague Tanya was already part of it and invited me to join. I have been actively participating as a mentor for female leaders from different industries, companies and geographies. Being a mentor in this network has enabled me to appreciate different perspectives and realities which have subsequently shaped my opinions. This year I have also agreed to be the Co-Chair of a new Chapter which is called the “Sales & Buying Chapter”. Its mission is to equip emerging female leaders in Retail and FMCG with expertise, confidence and international exposure. It is a very exciting role in a very interesting chapter.
I would like to invite women from the Procurement and Category management fields to join our sector. These roles are both challenging and strategic, requiring analytical skills. In the current circumstances the growth opportunities in organizations are bigger.
My most important advice to women in trade is to believe in yourself, follow your dreams and things will work out in the best possible way!
Photograph: dnevik.bg
Interview: Nevena Nikolova, Partner, Friisberg & Partners Bulgaria
Talks with: Lorri Lowe, Partner, Friisberg & Partners UK
The change to remote working has for many companies meant a dynamic acceleration and a rapid embedding of digital ways of working. Without physical interaction and positive reinforcement of an office culture, it is too easy for people to feel isolated and undervalued – this is the challenge for many employers. There is a tendency for some people to work too hard, to burn out - perhaps to over compensate for not being visible on a daily basis and maybe some, who have been hiding behind others, are suddenly exposed.
Employers want different and instant ways of connecting with and rewarding their remote teams to keep productivity and engagement high and not lose the value of a shared work ethic. Increasingly digitised ways of working are undoubtedly the future and similarly access to ways of incentivising teams will be through readily accessible and easily usable digital platforms.
I believe leaders need to find ways to show they care in order to maintain productivity, focus and engagement of their team. Digital Benefit platforms are increasingly important and we have seen more employers turn to these to better take care of employees to ensure their wellbeing.
Leadership teams are focusing less on the long-term strategy of the company, perhaps less overtly on the financials, instead spending more time connecting with their people to ensure they know and understand what is expected of them. If someone feels isolated, knowing what steps can quickly be taken to re-focus them is vital.
This is undoubtedly the biggest challenge - not just in terms of maintaining employee engagement, but also their overall efficiency. I believe that at this time the leadership team must be more visible and accessible than ever.
It is important to celebrate and encourage a better work/life balance. In the past leaders were understandably focused on the best ways of transacting the company strategy, but now it is more about having the right mindset and the right tools to effectively manage their teams remotely. Being mindful of your people’s needs, not expecting everyone to always be available 24/7, ensuring the team has regular breaks, communicating a shared understanding of the KPIs and ensuring everyone feels supported – in summary, looking after your employees’ wellbeing has never been so important.
As leaders we must take care of ourselves too. It is all too easy to be so concerned about the team that it is easy to forget about yourself. Being a role model to promote wellbeing for the Board and leadership team is essential.
Transparency of feelings and open communication are also vital. At Sodexo, we meet formally and informally, virtually of course, to check in and discuss where we are, how we are feeling about home, about the office, and what might we need. This means any action can be taken promptly and everyone feels they have a voice and are heard. Informal communication is very important – e.g. quizzes, late afternoon drinks in smaller teams promote easier conversations, so if there is a problem we can immediately help.
Socially and economically the world has changed. Previously we worked collaboratively in our office and I knew working remotely would not replace the daily physical interactions. Of course, the general principles stay the same in terms of how employees bring potential to the business, how they can best contribute and how we can all engender trust. But I took the time to do lots of research on remote working and I reviewed our communication strategy straight away adjusting my daily focus from addressing the long term goals to being more agile and nimble – we had to evolve and quickly. We introduced a temporary program , we identified targets over 6 months rather than a year, and with shorter term objectives we can be more agile, reactive and proactive in response to change from the impacts of COVID19.
One million business consumers interact and use our products daily, so we genuinely understand consumer behaviours. It was vital that our platform was totally digital and incredibly user friendly. Consumers now demand short lead times – not 3 days anymore, but immediate. They also want more for their money and want to shop with trusted brands. Demands for our discount platform (engagement of consumers is positive where there are good discounts) is high – people are more focused on their earnings and household budgets.
Never underestimate what you and your team can achieve. In 120 hours we moved from being office based to 100% remote working. We embraced the technical, adjusted the infrastructure, aligned our collective mindset, and ensured all our processes were in line. I might never have thought that possible - after years of discussions, in just two months we were 100% digital – this as a result of external pressures to adapt to unforeseen change. We achieved this together and now we know we can achieve anything. It is important to share ambition and to look for the potential in people - the real potential. Taking the time to reflect on what you have achieved is paramount and, of course, never underestimating anyone.
Being a positive leader means caring for your team, engaging with them openly, finding different ways of communicating and listening to what they need. This can mean you have to stretch yourself to demonstrate effective leadership skills - and that isn’t always easy. It is vital that those on the leadership team adapt quickly to new technologies and lead on this efficiently to best communicate with teams in the right way. Building and maintaining trust is essential. Finally, never underestimate the importance of a ‘thank you’ - and meaning it. Many people are understandably concerned about their observable performance; they are worried about their perceived contribution to the success of the business. Employee recognition has never been so vital and recognition platforms drive positive culture and best practice.
Friisberg & Partners International is proud to be a preferred supplier of executive search to Sodexo in the UK.
Yellow Eve, a newly-launched magazine for equality-driven career women, featured an article by Friisberg Partner, Lorri Lowe.
Well, we had an interesting summer from a business perspective in Hungary.
Many of our assignments were stopped, or put on hold and obviously not much new business landed on our desks. We had lost half of our expected business by May - comparing it to the volume we had in H1 2019.
Over the past 6 months we had many Teams meetings with our Friisberg colleagues, globally. I spoke many times with my friend and colleague, Alexander Matthies (Friisberg Germany) about the trends impacting us in Hungary, the similar trends affecting his business in Germany and yet how he continued to be so successful – seemingly Covid proof.
He shared Friisberg Germany’s strategy designed to keep their 2020 revenue plans alive - or even exceed them. In all honesty his advice sounded a little at odds with my own instincts:
I was astonished!
Could it be that simple?
Then I thought about how much it would cost if we simply waited passively for the pandemic to be over. The answer was indeed simple: if we waited, it would cost us a lot.
So, we actively adopted Alexander’s advice and it resulted in several new mandates. Then he called us with two cross-border Searches which we quickly and successfully delivered. Now, we are currently meeting prospective consultants in Budapest to further enhance our team.
Our existing clients have increasingly turned to us during this crisis. We are objectively able to highlight the weaknesses within their organisations by suggesting they talk openly with us as a trusted partner. By sharing ideas and openly discussing future decisions with trusted friends and colleagues, we can all adopt new and successful strategies.
We decided to shape our future instead of simply reacting to it.
Over the past six months Friisberg & Partners International has interviewed many candidates remotely.
With coronavirus infections rising again, working from home looks likely to continue for a while longer - and so will online interviews.
Recently Mary Keane and Lorri Lowe, both Partners in Friisberg, spoke about this shift.
They discussed the advice we now offer to candidates:
By Silvano Joly, Sales Country Manager, Centric Software Italia.
When one accepts a job and decides to work for a company it is for several interconnected reasons. We can call them Personal Success Factors (‘PSF’). As a person and a manager, I summarize them as the ‘4 C cluster’: C-ash, C-areer, C-ompany, C-ontext. Both when I am evaluating or proposing a job, I try to use this scheme. Every organisation, with a genuine strategy or not, proposes its own mix of PSF, which in turn is successful or not depending on the people who do it and are part of it. It can be applied both for attracting talent or for retaining the best people in your team.
Let's develop, as an example, some concepts around the ‘4 C’ and about why a someone enters and remains in an organization:
C-ash
i.e. the Salary - Everyone has a salary and expectation of what they are worth. The minimum threshold is variable, whereas the maximum one might not exist. Satisfaction with one's salary level is based on a delicate balance between your salary when compared to the external and internal market. Salary is the foundation of the contractual relationship between employer and employee, and it is also the foundation of trust. Remuneration is directly related to performance and mainly related to your quantitative and measurable results.
C-areer
i.e. the organisation and development - This factor combines several elements:
• Positioning within the organization - i.e. status (Director, Executive, Supervisor);
• Job title and description;
• Growth potential plus learning opportunities, visibility in the community, prestige of the company;
• Skills needed and recognized to perform the role
Where your role is not clear or where you have no possibility of development, learning and/or your professionalism is not well identified and recognized the salary may therefore need to be variable.
C-ompany
i.e. Work environment - This factor is divided into three parts:
• Acting values and reputation of the organisation;
• Relations with the management;
• the work environment in general - in fact a safe and big company can be considered the best and safest place where to stay.
No money can compensate for having a bad manager, bad relationships with colleagues, an unhealthy work environment or the bad reputation of an employer.
C-ontext
i.e. Work-Life Balance – This is a very important factor and it can be vital. It includes the type of contract and actual behaviour encouraged by the company in terms of minimising stress; physical security; and location - i.e. not monetary benefits. More and more people consider this balance before taking a job – especially millennials and younger people.
We have seen how important smart working has become and how strategic a company must be in organizing it for its workforce. This can be measured both by tangible benefits, like health insurance, yoga coaching or a nursery in the company and intangible ones like a low levels of stress, frustration; reduced commuting time, clear working hours and a high level of general organisation.
So, my balance in the old and our new normal follows the PSFs and my 4 Cs:
• Within an organization, there may be different mixes of Personal Success Factors, depending on of departments or offices - don’t assume the candidate in front of you is the same as you.
• Ask your HR department to do more than to pay salaries. Have them work with you and discuss together your PSF and those of the team;
• The mix of PSF constitutes your Value Proposition as an Employer, so give one to your candidates and employees as you give one to your sales prospects.
In the last 15 years, I have had the opportunity to work with Guglielmo, splendidly, I have always had quality results thanks to his work and commitment. His return to Friisberg as a Partner will increase many projects, especially at an international level.
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