Making Trade Happen

Coface’s purpose is to facilitate global and local trade by delivering solutions that help companies make the right commercial decisions. We work with businesses to prevent risks of non–payment and protect them via our credit insurer guarantees.

Our role is also to guide our clients through a world that is changing faster than ever before. We provide information to help our clients gain in-depth knowledge about their own customers, suppliers and prospects through an assessment of their financial health and reliability.

In addition, we forecast the major economic trends and analyse the risks by geographical location and sector. Working at Coface means helping to put together, develop and promote this one-of-a-kind micro and macro-economic expertise. It also means providing day-to-day support to an array of companies to assist with their decision-making and commercial strategies.

• Our Coface Global Solutions teams support the development of multinational companies through a range of specific services. In this video, one of our clients - Tyrolit - talks about the support it receives from Coface on a daily basis.

Connecting with the world means connecting with each other!

One of Coface’s defining characteristics is that we’re a company on a human scale with an international reach… where every individual is important. You will be surrounded by a diverse group of people with a powerful mix of generations, genders and cultures. Our human dimension is also reflected in our ethos when we work together: we value simplicity, accessibility and openness.

As an employer, Coface is committed to a socially-responsible approach based on three key missions:

• Fostering an inclusive work environment
• Helping all our employees grow
• Promoting equal opportunities while opposing any form of discrimination

The Happeners Making Trade Happen How does Coface connect you to the rest of the world? I have always had to work with people who are very open-minded in a sense, very open to international growth. And in my day-to-day work I'm always working with people from other countries, both at the local level - there are always foreigners in almost all the subsidiaries - but also at the regional and group level. Everyday, we communicate with the risk underwriting centres located in seven regions around the world. I think the cultural context that we have gives us the opportunity to share and implement unconventional solutions, to exchange experiences, ideas; to look at different management styles, and implement some of them in our day-to-day work. What makes the employee experience at Coface special for you? I don't feel that there are differences in terms of culture, nationalities, or even location. For me, we work in a team that is located in different places, but in everyday life, we don't see where each of us is located. We work and we make progress on our projects. It's the style of communication between departments with a willingness to always help out, and to share the experience and knowledge. I know colleagues who have very local jobs, but have been assigned international, global or regional projects. And yes, I think that has always meant that Coface can make you feel comfortable, and that you can always have that international vision and that intercultural support. Coface has an open culture: here, we can speak up freely, and share ideas across the organisation. Coface is like a big family: it does not matter what your nationality is, or what accent you speak. Each of us is contributing to the world economy, and that's our common objective. At Coface, we are Making Trade Happen. The Happeners Making Trade Happen Watch the series at coface.com/happeners

What our Happeners say about it

• “Our internal Women to Lead network looks at ways to develop the careers of women at Coface. We are also committed to diversity and a mix of generations at every level of the company. Our diversity is also reflected in our decision-making - which is unquestionably an advantage!”

Leigh M. 
Risk, Legal and Compliance Officer in South Africa

Working in sync with the global economy means operating in a multicultural environment. Our teams are skilled at combining their expertise and working collaboratively across the world to gain an understanding of a given market or solve the problems our customers are facing.

Our global outlook is a key factor in our day-to-day work at Coface, where:

• You will work closely with your overseas colleagues so you can better serve our clients all over the world.
• You will work in close contact with colleagues of different nationalities and cultures in the office, in meetings and on training programmes.
• Thanks to our unique international network, you will enjoy a wide range of mobility opportunities abroad - even at the outset of your Coface career!

We received a request from a major French car manufacturer, who wants to develop its electric vehicle sales, via its main distributor in Denmark. How do you work together to meet clients' needs? I'll start by going to the Economic Research Department, to ask them for information about Denmark, specifically the electric vehicle distribution segment in the country, and market share figures, if possible. Then I go to the Information Department, to ask them about this distributor, what is the financial trend. As the economist for Northern Europe, I'm am of course the first port of call when it comes to Danish market issues. In this specific case that we're looking at, the first thing I'll do is examine automotive market data for Denmark. For example, registration figures, or the current e-vehicle trends. When I have summarized that, then I have a nice macroeconomic picture. But when it comes to micro data, for example, the specific business environment, then of course I pass this question on to my risk colleagues on site. In order to understand the risk involved with the market for electrical vehicles, I'd take a look at publically available information, such as government regulattions, the electric vehicle market's development, as well as key figures from the company. I would also contact their CFO or CEO and talk about their company, to learn about their sales figures, and what developments they expect to see in the future. What is the added value of collaboration for clients? The Coface system, is based on being "close to the risk": we know that the local people are our teams in the field, and are the best placed to respond to the requests we receive. Here, at the EIC, (Enhanced Information Centre) we survey, and collect knowledge about the most significant parts of the exposure that Coface has. You can never know absolutely everything, but you can still get enough information to improve your understanding of the company. The strong international environment is a great advantage when looking at risks from different angles and therefore making the best possible risk assessment - even if that means I have to juggle my work around different time zones! At Coface, we are Making Trade Happen. The Happeners Making Trade Happen Watch the series at coface.com/happeners

What our Happeners say about it

• “I work with colleagues from very diverse backgrounds at Coface. It’s an environment where I can learn about different cultures and points of view without even leaving the office! Our diversity fosters creativity and boosts our performance. It makes Coface a great place to work alongside a team I'm proud to be a part of.”

Yuliia N. 
Key Account Manager, Coface Global Solutions based in Dubai

In our quest to reinvent ourselves, we are constantly putting our accomplishments and triumphs to the test - this has lain at the heart of Coface’s success for over 75 years!

We integrate new technologies, especially data science, into our operating model to simplify and improve our operations.

We are prioritising new ways of working that are more flexible, agile and collaborative.

And because the world is in a constant state of flux, we encourage innovative ideas and value inquisitive minds, men and women with the drive and daring to shape a new world.

In innovation, we do two main things. We have a prospective work, trying to identify the technological trends in use that will impact our businesses, our customers and our partners. We have a customer vision that guides our project. We don't do R&D to develop projects that will remain in a laboratory, but we are already driven by an existing need of our customers, which are the business lines. Coface's international database is unique in the world. The data contained in this database allows us to be absolutely predictive in evaluating a single company and the market; the risks of the market where the company operates. And this is absolutely a competitive and innovative key. We set up a hackathon, where we brought about forty people together from seven different regions. I think there were about fifteen countries represented and we got them to work remotely on customer needs, so they connected with the customers. They came, we had several stages and finally, we managed to produce a kind of prototype that we showed to our clients, who were very satisfied. So, from there, we started to build the product. With a series of small weekly challenges, each week we asked the teams to ask themselves a question, so one challenge per week. And at the end of the week, they would come and pitch their proposal. So, at the end of this hackathon, I participated in the development of the product by extracting the data used to build the different indicators used in this product. We created an innovative, user-friendly platform with the purpose of guiding companies in their sales choices. All of this not only involving our staff but also involving the clients, and this allowed us to launch a platform more rapidly, in a better performing way. Innovation is the key to success for a company. Improving our own offer, listening to the market, testing all aspects of the platform, understanding if we're meeting our clients' needs and listening to the commercial feedback. All of this helps you to innovate and to succeed. Our team works in an iterative way. Generally, we start by trying to understand a need. Then we dig in when we think we have something that starts to work. We'll do some tests. We'll try to propose things, mock-ups to customers, or test a technology with them with Coface employees. And then, the more we advance, the more we'll enrich the solution to obtain something that is a complete solution in the end. Creating a product in less than six months that corresponds to customer needs proves that we are agile. It proves that we listen to our customers and it proves that there is real creativity in what we do. At Coface, we are making trade happen.

What our Happeners say about it

• "We have devised a 'commercial hub' with an agile process and cutting-edge technology so we can put a new team in place that is dedicated to customer service. It has helped us improve our quality of service!”

Bjoern M. – Senior Solution Development Manager (Germany)