A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A MANAGING DIRECTOR

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A MANAGING DIRECTOR

Dr. Ksenia Kisselincheva

“Running a company is a bit like fire dancing - apart from knowledge and skills, you need a bit of an adventurous spirit”

It all happened in Knopke, a small town in Belgium a few years ago. The occasion was the successive management meeting of Oriflame, a world- famous Swedish company for cosmetic products, based on natural ingredients. Irena Komitova was invited there as the Managing Director of Oriflame, Bulgaria. In less than five years, she had succeeded in turning it into the largest direct selling company in the country, employing more than 30,000 people. So, the curious thing was that all the hundred participants in the meeting were encouraged to take part in a fire dancing session, without much previous preparation. When Irena took her turn on the glowing embers, the rest of the team was sitting in a circle, cheering her up: “Come on, Irena, you can do it!”. It had the suggestive power of an incantation and she went on doing it, she simply could not let them down! As a matter of fact, she has always been aware in all endeavors, big and small, of how important motivation and self-motivation could be, how much more you could achieve if you knew how to tap on your hidden inner resources. Irena is a voracious reader of books of applied psychology and the art of living, of the Kibea series kind. She is always keen on testing into practice what she has learnt, to adapt it to her own personality, to improve her approach to  her employees, taking into account their individual abilities and aspirations. She passionately believes that if you follow some of the advice and techniques of self-perfection books you may be surprised how much you can transcend the boundaries of what you initially thought possible...

In February this year, Ms Oriflame received the greatest recognition so far in her career-she was selected as one of the hundred “World Leaders of the Future” in Davos, Switzerland. What are the criteria? You have to be under 40, to have had an impressive record in the field of business, science, the arts, politics. Apart from this, you are expected to have had a significant contribution in some public area. You must have a vision, wider than that concerning the prosperity of your business, you must be the driving power behind public initiatives of far reaching consequences. When we met at the Oriflame head office next to the Pliska hotel, the first thing that occurred to me is that the great success hasn’t gone to her head. She had her feet firmly rooted in the ground and she did not act as a primadonna. She seemed to keep her employees on their toes in a discreet but exacting manner, she seemed to be aware of what was happening in the company at every instant and she could speak with ease on both telephones while going through her e-mail. Most of all, she struck me as a woman of style and grand schemes who could have the fresh and spontaneous response of an 18-year old girl. She admitted she adored good pop music and very often sang with it while driving, then loved to tell me a funny story of how once she went fishing salmon in Sweden, but she was used to a fishing rod, too small for the bulky Nordic specimen. There she was sitting, opposite me across the desk, dressed in a immaculate pastel suit, brightened by a light green silk scarf, at one time she will be so intensely serious, then suddenly she will smile, looking at the funny side of things. Then she will roguishly admit something like “When I started running Oriflame, Bulgaria, I didn’t have a clue about cosmetics. Also I hadn’t had any previous managerial experience.” “Or I took to business because I lacked artistic abilities”. But within the last 15 years she has more than proved herself. Starting with a German company for automated design and manufacturing of steel constructions, she moved on to the private sector in 1990 and she was secretary general of the Union of Private Economic Enterprises. It had the ambitious task to promote private companies and to provide them with expertise, to help them quickly readjust and turn export-oriented or start joint ventures. Some of their projects were heavily funded by the EU. By the end of 1992 Irena won a fellowship to Georgetown University, where she deepened further her knowledge in the field of macroeconomics, investment negotiations, finance, banking and computer programming. Apart from the professional training, she and her course mates were offered the unique chance to meet top government and business people. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was among their lecturers and hosted a special reception, where they rubbed their shoulders with some of the most powerful people in the world. Having come back from the States in 1994, she was looking around what to do and suddenly, an ad in the “24 hours” newspaper caught her eye - a Swedish International Company advertized a vacancy for a General Manager for Bulgaria. Irena applied...and she got the job, though so far she had had consultancy rather than managerial experience. Very soon it turned out Oriflame was very close to her heart because of its entrepreneurial spirit and its unconventional approach. Now it is one of the most successful international companies on the Bulgarian market, engaged in direct sales. She has created jobs for over 30, 000 distributors, the company is doing well, the vibrant and busy atmosphere of things happening every instant struck me as soon as I walked in. The products are based on natural ingredients and are allergy proof, but if a customer is not happy with it, he/she will immediately get a refund. Since the beginning of March, Ms Komitova has handed over her managerial position to another woman, she has carefully selected and trained and now she is focusing  on another international project, called “Oriflame for Children”. At the end of last year, she managed to raise over 33, 000 new leva at the Ball of the Millennium, attended by quite a few Bulgarian Business Forum leaders. This is not incidental because Ms Oriflame was one of the initiators of setting up the BBFL in 1997 which has been involved in many large scale charity schemes. One of the initiatives Irena has set her heart on is the reconstruction and building of children’s playgrounds throughout the country. “Children are entitled to clean and safe places to play, like the one next-door to us. It is nice to hear children’s happy laughter around, even late at night.” And there are many other worthy children-related causes on the agenda of the Lady of the Year. She hopes to involve in her endeavors other companies, organizations and eminent personalities. We must not forget she was Vice-president of BIBA in 1997-1998 and she has contributed a lot to the establishment and promotion of foreign business in Bulgaria. Certainly, this was taken into consideration when she was singled out as a “World Leader of the Future”. I shared with her my concern about the misappropriation of charitable donations, especially to orphanages and hospitals. Irena smiled and snapped: “We will adopt “from hand to hand” approach, which has been widely tested by our Ukrainian counterparts.” I casually glanced at her diary, it was overflowing with commitments and I thought that she looked as another workaholic, who kept on going from 7.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m. She was eager to tell me about the Junior Achievement Initiative, an American inspired NGO which was kick started in 1996 and which trained high school students into the most up-to-date theory and practice of economics and business. The pilot scheme was successfully implemented in many schools with the help of the Peace Corps teachers and consultants.

Though her spare time is scarce, Irena plans it with great care - most often she shares these cherished moments with her daughter and her partner close to nature. So, they go hiking and fishing, especially trout fishing in high mountain lakes. “You slow down and start unwinding, while staring at the placid water surface, your mind and soul open up and you get a fresh look at things, away from the everyday cares.” Irena believes that a good personal life has a miraculously good effect on your work. When she has a personal problem she does not like to share it with others. She only asks herself “Will it matter to me a year from now”. If the answer is no, she deals with it in a detached half-humorous way, but if it is “yes”, then she turns into a Joan of D’Arc! While I was at her- office, she received a call from the US. She explained to me afterwards that that was a Bulgarian friend who had been instrumental to the Vodafone-Mannesman merger. He was a highly appreciated and highly paid consultant on Wall Street. “There are so many bright and talented Bulgarians all over the world, and they must all contribute in their way to the mother country.”  

                        

 Sofia Western News Magazine, 1999