October brings with it a number of days of celebration
Did you know the 4th October is “Improve Your Office day”?
So, why not take some steps to improve your work environment! Make your desk and surrounding area a more pleasant and enjoyable space. Tidy up your clutter, do your filing, throw out the rubbish. Even buy some flowers or upgrade your mousemat.
Also on Wednesday 8th October, it is “Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work” day, which should bring a few smiles, and Thursday 9th October is Fire Prevention Day (another good reason to tidy up your desks!). Monday 20th October is Clean Up Your Virtual Desktop day.
More importantly Wednesday 29th October is Internet Day, marking the anniversary of the first usage of the Internet to send a message electronically, way back in 1969. Let’s not draw attention to the fact that the system crashed half way through sending it though! Without the internet, we wouldn’t be in business as we are today. So let’s celebrate this around the globe together. Send us some photos so we can see what you did to celebrate for any of these days or any others!
Brynja on the run in Berlin
Congratulations to Brynja Baldursdottir, Head of Sales and Product Development, Creditinfo Iceland.
Brynja recently ran the Berlin Marathon finishing in just 4 hours and 3 minutes. She was so fast that the winner got scared and set a new world record in a marathon. At a course know for producing fast times, Kenyan runner Dennis Kimetto ran 26.2 miles a full 26 seconds faster than ever before with a time of 2 hours, 2 minutes and 37 seconds. Way to go, Brynja!
Samantha Martin, Sales Executive, Creditinfo Malta
Samantha joined the team in Malta in September 2014. Having previously worked as a Business Development Manager for 3 years with 2 other Maltese data solutions companies. Prior to data solutions, Samantha has also worked as an Account Manager for a number of years with a media company. In her spare time she volunteers at the Animal Welfare shelter. Sam has settled into the team quickly with her friendly and positive outlook. She has already had her first Sales in only a few weeks of starting and getting to know the ropes. As such, we are sure she will be a great success.
Invited to join IFC in Morocco
We were invited to join IFC in Morocco last week at the 5th Financial Infrastructure and Risk Management Training for MENA and African Regions. Reynir Grétarsson (CEO Creditingo group Hf) – pictured, Paul Randall (Director of Business Development Creditinfo International GmbH), Dirce Varela (CEO, Creditinfo Cape Verde) and Edwin Urasa (Business Development Manager, Creditinfo Tanzania) attended the training.
IFC advised the training was very successful; from a course review of the feedback forms received it looks that on a scale 0-5 over 90% of participants rated the training 4 or 5 (with 5 being the highest).
Almar's monthly post
As some of you may already be aware, it was announced at the Senior Management meeting a few weeks ago, our focus for the coming years is to have operations in 50 countries by 2020. We may even achieve this sooner at the rate of knots Kiddi and the Credit Bureau Expansion team are establishing operations and succeeding at getting authorisation and approval to have licences.
We have proven success and a winning formula that will enable us to achieve this and more. We work with local teams and are always hands on supporting the
Are you aware, we are currently operating in 26 countries which includes established operations, start ups and other countries who operate our CBS5 solution themselves. We have 280 loyal employees, many of which have been with Creditinfo for more than 7 years.
We will achieve this together with your experience, your skills, your knowledge and your support of the vision, mission and values enabling us to move the company forward and overcome any challenges and obstacles.
Our HR philosophy has always been and will continue to be – “to hire for attitude and train for skills.”
Our people are:
- Passionate, Unselfish, Flexible, Loyal
- Fun to be with
- Take the initiative and have the propensity to take (calculated) risks
- Will go beyond the call of duty and take personal responsibility
- Offer sensational service, keep costs low, keep quality high and are continually on the look out to add value to the customer.
So enjoy the journey, our future is bright and so will yours be!
Almar
Players of the month: Credit Bureau Expansion Team
We wanted to acknowledge the efforts of this newly formed team for getting their act together so quickly. In just a few months of being established, they have set up new effective processes and some rather efficient methods of communication in order to be able to put our credit bureau expansion plans into action.
In addition to their extensive knowledge & experience in their fields, is their proactive attitude and sense of accountability. No one wants to let the team down, so everything smoothly moves along the process chain and they get the job done on time. Equally, they all have a great sense of humour (some may call it weird!), but it obviously helps them to get on better and boosts them when facing more challenging times. Oh yes, and let’s not forget, great leadership from Kiddi too!
My job
People have predefined ideas about what it is that I do. I have found that such ideas vary from me being in charge of everything that happens in our company to being in a ceremonial role. People outside the company typically believe I am involved in much more than I am. As an example someone I know might contact me and ask for a job. I would answer that I have only three employees myself and have not hired for 3 years, nor plan to. A lot of people are being hired by our Group, perhaps close to 1 per week now, but this is not something that is on my table. And that is not because I am too good for this, but precisely because I believe I am not very good at hiring and supporting people reporting directly to me. I typically give them tasks and leave it to them. The “outsiders” also find it strange that I have not been involved in the Icelandic operation at all for many years, even if I am working from the same office.
Players of the Month: Samuel White & Paul Randall
This month we’d like to recognise Sam and Paul for all the air miles they have recently clocked up.
Seriously though, their jobs may sound very glamorous, travelling all over the globe to meet the different operational sites and share best practice within the Group and meeting new / potential clients etc. The reality is, these guys can be getting out of bed at an unearthly hour, travelling for 20 hrs or more, delivering presentations having only had a few hours sleep, living out of a suitcase, arriving home in the middle of the night….. and don’t forget they are leaving their loved ones at home.
There are a number of other people within Creditinfo who equally travel a lot promoting Creditinfo around the globe and can equate with the trials and tribulations of travelling. We’d like to thank you guys too, you know who you are!Hakon & Megan on CVM Sunrise, Jamaica
Creditinfo Iceland & Creditinfo Jamaica – on CVM at Sunrise discussing “How does the Jamaican sector match up internationally and what are the next steps for the Credit Bureau in Jamaica”.
Watch it here:
More info: Megan Deane and Hakon Stefansson
We are not only international, we are equal opportunity
Being from a small village on the north coast of Iceland and without any contacts whatsoever in the beginning, I did come across barriers related to who I was, as opposed to what I did or could do.
I like to have people with different backgrounds and dispositions in our company. Not all of are the usual run-of-the-mill international experts. But this only gives broader perspective to the company and makes it stronger.
I am not sure that what I am saying makes sense to you (all), but I wanted to say it anyway.
