Interview with the President & CEO of Natech Financial Software, Mr. Athanasios Navrozoglou
In the October issue of STIGMA Magazine, we host Mr. Athanasios Navrozoglou, a graduate of the School of Computer Engineering with a degree in Business Administration. Mr. Navrozoglou has taken over the position of President and CEO of Natech Financial Software, which is active in the field of technology and more specifically in the development of financial software.
Q: Good morning, could you tell us a few words about you and your company?
A: First of all, I would like to thank you for the opportunity. Natech develops financial software, that is, software aimed at organizations and companies related to the financial sector, either at the level of accounting management or at the level of banking. It is one of the five European companies involved in this field and one of about thirty in the world, operating purely with financial software. Natech is headquartered in Ioannina and has facilities in Athens and, now, in Germany.
I belong, practically, to the second generation of people who have been running the company for the last 2 years, while in the previous period I helped in the part of development, execution of tasks and corporate decisions. Regarding my studies and my previous work experience, I studied computer engineering in Patras and worked as a developer. Then, after my MBA in England, I majored in Business Development and Business Administration, so I combined, in a way, both specializations. For a while I worked in England, on the indicators of financial analysis and productivity, but I always had in mind to return to Greece and contribute to Natech. The MBA played an important role in broadening my thinking and certainly my stay abroad was a great school.
Q: Given your experience and familiarity with the local market, how would you judge the progress of entrepreneurship in our region (and / or in the IT sector)?
A: It is a very nice question, because Ioannina, and Epirus in general, until recently was known, mainly for its primary sector, for example for livestock and less for the service sector. Entrepreneurship, then, has certainly recovered, there are many serious signs in the right direction. Already, the region is experiencing a development in the IT sector, with the arrival of new businesses and branches or subsidiaries of large multinationals and local businesses, which seem to be taking the big step. There are now companies, such as Natech, that are differentiating themselves from the traditional model and taking the big step in a new direction.
I believe that in Ioannina there was and is yeast. The base existed, either due to the University and specifically the School of Informatics, or due to the large number of graduates and technological familiarity. However, all of these people had no way of being absorbed. For better or worse, the local authorities had not paid attention to this part, for obvious reasons. But there were always different voices. Coming to Ioannina, the technology multinationals achieved what we have always been unable to do. To push and mobilize the world and show that there is another type of entrepreneurship that needs to emerge. So, the base has always existed and foreign investment has managed to highlight it.
Q: What is your view on the evolution of local and global economic activity after the pandemic?
A: It is very difficult to imagine what the next day will be like. Certainly, nothing will be the same. We have all changed and it seems we are still changing. We have passed from the stage of denial to the stage of assimilation, of the stage of reaction, and again we meet the process before us.
There are two strange things that happen. On the one hand, the stock markets worldwide seem to be on an upward trend, perhaps attracted by the large market value of four, five big players. On the other hand, there are a lot of companies that are collapsing (companies operating in the tourism, transport, logistics, aviation, etc.). So, the balance of power has changed.
Nevertheless, an opportunity presents itself, which reveals that there is an economic activity and it will continue to exist in some form. We all need to adapt and focus on the new reality. We will definitely have more telework, more teleconferences and teleconferences. There will be, perhaps, a great change in the psychological state of the people, because the sense of belonging will probably disappear. Until today, you knew your office, you knew the people you meet, you exchange views and they affect you psychologically. This is changing and there will be small and big changes, from what you get to eat and how you eat, to what you say and chains will affect the whole economy. You do not know how to answer how it will end.
Q: It is known that you are also active abroad. How is the course of the company evolving outside Greece and what would you advise other entrepreneurs who want to take a similar step?
A: The first step was Athens. We started from Ioannina and went to Athens, almost the opposite of the usual scenario of starting in Athens and then creating a branch in the province. Respectively, now from Greece, we go to Germany. This step is one way. Especially in our industry, which, as I said before, is the banking and especially the financial one. The Greek market is very specific and we have reached 100% of our close circle.
We need to think, not only how businesses will come here, but also how we will take our technology, our know-how and give it elsewhere. Of course, we fell on time, that is, we started setting up the German office, just before the outbreak of the pandemic. We had to change our design, because we did not manage to make the formal recommendation of the office to the notary, since the lockdown happened.
What I have to say, of course, is that the difficulties presented in setting up a company in Greece, of course, are similar to those abroad. There is an ease in the first five or six steps, but beyond that the difficulty remains. As here, you have to overcome the problems of acquaintance, either with the language or with the daily procedures. The risk is exactly the same. Whether you open abroad or in Greece, it is a separate market, autonomous, which has its conveniences and difficulties, but if you weigh it in the end, the risks are similar. It is definitely a challenge and we love the challenge.
Q: Your Company is active with great intensity in the banking sector. What could you tell us about the development of the sector and what is your company's contribution to it?
A: The banking industry is a rapidly evolving industry. This is recent, that is, until 2010-2015 the market was almost stable, with some technological developments. Since then, many things have come to shake the waters. Now, we trade from our cell phone, we trade from our home, we did it then too, but with less intensity. This change found Natech at its best. We are, you see, one of the newest companies to enter the banking industry, so our system is more modern, it uses modern technology and that helped us. It also helped us a lot that we were dealing with smaller banks, which have predominantly fewer resources, need to be more flexible, but have all the requirements that a large one has. On the other hand, a large bank has the network, the structure and the resources, but it has great difficulty in changing.
Technology has allowed us to focus on small banks, use their flexibility, combine it with our own and build a targeted system that fits perfectly with small and medium-sized banks. And we changed them and they changed us.
We are always concerned about the big banks, but they are not our primary goal. It all has to do with how you want to customize your system. A large bank that must meet 100% of the needs of a market like the Greek one, must have many subsystems and many levels of control, many scales, etc. The smaller bank, however, which has to do much the same and be more competitive, is much more time-sensitive about launching a new product and much more person-centered, customer-centric. We aim at customer focus there. So if the big bank decides to become customer-centric, too, with great organizational difficulty, then yes, we are here.
Q: Did the advent of the pandemic and the restrictions that arose, positively or negatively affect the progress of your work? How did you adapt?
A: The truth is that, in the end, the course showed that the development was positive. It forced us to change a little faster. In the beginning, obviously, there were difficulties, people had to work from home, we had to prepare for it, but in technology and information technology it is easier. There have been serious difficulties in attracting new customers, because you cannot visit someone, see him, talk to him and get to know you. We were excluded from conferences and meetings, which we had put in our budget to present and present our solutions.
However, quarantine significantly improved productivity. Due to the incarceration, the employee had no other alternatives, no other outlets, the work became a bit of a game and the online meetings, from one point onwards, began to be the psychotherapy of the associates and the climate improved. So for us, after the first few weeks, the results started to look positive, gradually and the customers became more receptive to the remote presentations and a regularity returned. Proportionately, for us the results were positive.
Q: How do you think the permanent maintenance of teleworking relationships will evolve? How do you think this will affect the operation of teams within companies?
A: It is a very big issue. There are some who preach that teleworking is the future, I think it has its pros and cons. You cannot say for all people, that teleworking is the best. When you come to your office, you go to work every day and you know that you will meet one or two people, you know that you belong somewhere, you have the feeling of the family in which you work, you have your space. You suddenly "exchange" this with the ease of working at home. Gradually, however, there is fatigue, a disorientation. This lack of separation in some brings a difficulty and quickly leads to fatigue. At first it seems relaxed and positive, in the process it becomes difficult. I do not believe that everyone should necessarily be permanently in teleworking status. If we are forced to do this, of course, as adaptive beings, we will, but I believe that in a very large portion of the world it will have negative consequences. On the other hand, we encounter great difficulties in integrating new executives into the teams. We, for example, had additional needs and so from March to September we added eight new people to our team. Without the pandemic we would have included them much faster and more immediately. New employees need to be trained, to learn their team and some have needed, and will need, to do this remotely. What a great challenge. In the long run, I believe that the operation of the teams will be problematic. Eyes that are not seen, after all, are quickly forgotten. For a period of a few weeks we are not lost, yes. But for months or years, I cannot imagine. I hope we never get to that.
Q: What would you advise Greek businessmen regarding the management of the Covid -19 crisis? What is your forecast for the future of the market?
A: At this time there is great fear and rightly so. This results from a lack of planning, as the entrepreneur relies on foresight and planning. From what we had so far, books, knowledge and experiences, there was nowhere the possibility of a pandemic. There have always been financial indicators that tell you if something will change, but we never thought it would affect us in something tangible, such as health. Did you know that there can be an economic crisis e.g. that you may lose your job, but you could not imagine that you will die tomorrow, or you will lose someone close to you. This fear is also transformed into financial insecurity, because you do not know what you will encounter the next day. So the fear of entrepreneurs is justified, as they cannot plan. How to design anyway?
We have to look at it differently. As they say, you eat an elephant feta - feta and you start by cutting the first piece. So it is with this crisis. That is, we must look to the next day, we cannot do long-term planning. There is no information and therefore there is a lot of uncertainty. The first step, necessarily, will be short-term and we will gradually move to the medium and long term.
Greece is coming from an eight-year crisis. All we have learned is that restraint does not work, except for the first few weeks. A little planning has to be done to adapt the employees to the new data, which today seems to be a great difficulty, either due to teleworking, or due to the closure of the company for fourteen days, with the appearance of a case, and the way you will adapt it, in the core business you have.
The challenge is not for technology or IT companies, but especially for those in the primary sector, who need to do something radical. Everyone must take advantage of the means of technology and adapt products and services to the new situation.
For us, the crisis was an opportunity and always will be, because it involves risk. After all, you know, small businesses are more tolerant of indicators. Being small, in crises helps you, you are much more flexible. There are solutions and there are certainly tools that the entrepreneur can take advantage of and move forward dynamically in the new situation.
