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Maxim Behar: Politics in the modern world must be entirely dependent on the opinion and operations of business

Maxim Behar in an interview for the morning block "Good morning, Bulgaria" on Radio "Focus”. Maxim Behar is a former chairman and now a member of the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum for 23 years, a globally recognized PR expert who manages the leading company M3 Communications Group, Inc. Behar shares his views on the upcoming elections and the political scene in Bulgaria.

Host: Mr. Behar, what kind of a summer are we sending off? How has the situation in our country affected the business?

Maxim: I often say that right now, the whole world is a big mess, and from this mess, we have to create something that can suit businesses, employees, pensioners, students, and all people. After all, we, the businessmen, provide jobs, pay taxes, and, figuratively speaking, carry the state on our backs. Without business, the state cannot have any development, not to say that it cannot even function. The summer was controversial and confusing because of two vital factors, even three. The first, of course, was the exit from this two-and-a-half-year-long pandemic, which, for many reasons, confused the way of doing business and communicating between people. We still can’t escape this merry-go-round that has piled up on us: remote work. In the services and the communication business, it seems to be somehow more accessible, but the manufacturing enterprises, the tourism business, the airlines — all this was affected in a highly negative way, and each of these entities was struggling to survive. The second factor is the war in Ukraine and all this confusion with raw materials, energy, rising prices, inflation, and everything else. The third factor is the new generation that comes to work in our companies, which largely determines the trends in business. This is the generation between 22 and 30 and the first generation after the war, World War II, which has never had the slightest problem to fight and solve. Society must teach this generation to work very hard according to corporate standards and be responsible, i.e., things missing as a value system. I say it with the best wishes, it happened as it happened. But this is part of the considerable business confusion, not only in Bulgaria but also in international business. However, Bulgaria still has the unique position it had 10, 15 years ago, and for me, it is vast, I would say a positive surprise that it managed to keep this position. And it’s not just the cheap labor but the brilliant flow of people who can add value to foreign investors. And it is no coincidence that Sofia is the mecca of outsourcing businesses or those businesses located in Bulgaria but working abroad. And again, it is not only the low wages. However, especially in this business, they are not quite common; instead, they are high in the intellectual ability of the Bulgarian nation, which is typical European. In those years, the 1990s to the mid-2000s, when there were big arguments about whether Bulgaria should go to Europe or become a member of the European Union, I said that Bulgaria was not going to Europe, Bulgaria is returning to Europe after these 50 years of communism, when it was separated from its logical business and intellectual partners in the European Union.

Host: You have identified several critical issues affecting business in recent years. But what has COVID-19 taught business? Has business become more sustainable?

Maxim: Undoubtedly — it’s not only business but also in life in general. But in business, it feels the most effective and the fastest — the more difficulties we have, the more we learn to overcome them and create even better products. We have learned an awful lot in these two and a half years. And it’s not just remote business and working from home, it’s a total change in communications, in how we communicate with each other, both within teams and with our customers. We saw that there could be a completely different life that was imposed on us, of course, unintentionally, but this life taught us to be much more flexible, inventive, I would say much more thrifty, and pragmatic. Because I often repeat this word — pragmatics, pragmatics. The more pragmatic we are in business and even our personal lives, the more success can be guaranteed. So, pragmatism is one of the things. The second is different communications. You know that I manage an International Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where we have been seeing each other for 10–12 years now; every year we go there, we leave a bag of money — expensive hotels, restaurants, halls, and everything. One trip to the Forum in Davos for several days is a minimum of 5–6 thousand Euros for each participant. It is now the third year that we have held these forums online, which we call summits. And of course, it’s not the same feeling we have when communicating in person, but we share the same, maybe even more original ideas. All these ideas stay saved in “Zoom,” “Teams,” or whatever platform we use; staying saved can sometimes last two or three days, i.e., absolutely unlimited time. We are not worried that it is evening or early morning, that the hall will be locked, that there will be coffee, or there will be no coffee. From a pure performance standpoint, on the efficiency side, these forums are currently much, much, much more productive and much, much, much more pragmatic. You like a presentation, and after 6 months, you remember it, log into your computer, and play it. There are also much, much, much better sides that we are only now discovering, and on top of that, from a cost perspective, the management of these projects turns out to be much easier. It taught us many things, it taught us patience. Again, we saw that there is another way of communicating, another way of succeeding, and another way of working.

Host: Mr. Behar, how do you assess how the state handles the native business?

Maxim: I have thought for years that the state would hardly help business. Instead, its primary role, especially for Bulgaria, for the Bulgarian state, is to try not to interfere with business. Undoubtedly, taxes in Bulgaria are meager — a 10% Corporate tax is not found anywhere in Europe, a 5% “Dividend” tax is not found anywhere in Europe, and in Slovakia, I think it is 0%. But taxes in Bulgaria are highly favorable to business. I remember when taxes were 40, 42, and 45%, and the collection of those taxes was under 10%. The lower the taxes, the greater the collection, and the better the transparent, ethical business feels the one that wants to earn transparently and not be in the gray sector. And 10–12 years ago, when the government decided to lower taxes in Bulgaria, firstly, the collection rose sharply. Secondly, many companies suddenly came into the light and started feeling much better. Let’s keep taxes, I think we should motivate all businesses as much as possible in the best and most pragmatic ways. For example, the business with solar panels and with solar devices in general, with people buying electric cars to protect nature and be much more modern and efficient. They will not pollute the air; on the other hand, they will save money since the difference between going 100 km with an electric car or with a gasoline or diesel car is huge. There are a few small things that the state should do, although, again, it should not interfere with business at all.

Host: What are these things?

Maxim: For example, to speed up and facilitate the registration of business companies, communication between the state and business companies. You know that now, to get a simple permit, register your company, or get some stupid note, you have to wait sometimes hours in some municipality or some institution. All this can happen — it happens all over Europe. I’m not talking about countries like Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, where it can be done in minutes online. But Bulgaria is the only country where the so-called e-government or e-administration does not work, and it is the absolute concern of the state. In addition to having to take care of foreign policy, defense, and security, it has to facilitate its relations with business and communication with business, keep taxes low, and open its doors wide to foreign investors because, in the end, we cannot do it ourselves. There must be good and guaranteed foreign investment.

Host: Mr. Behar, in your public appearances, you said businesses should give politicians a home. Why?

Maxim: Rather, the image I use is that we play for one team, and yet the state and the politicians who run the state must know that we are the center-forwards, and they are the defenders. But we play on the same team. Politics in the modern world must be entirely dependent on the opinions and operations of business. I.e., how the company develops should be determined by the politicians, who should ultimately serve with all their laws, regulations, and decisions, but not in a way that business pays politicians — not at all. Instead, the decisions that politicians have to make should make it easier to do business and make profits so that our society can live better, have better revenue, and have even better communication with the world and investors. It is a straightforward role, but it won’t happen because the political system anywhere in the world, this political system, which by some strange coincidence we still call “democracy”, doesn’t work anymore.

Host: And what should we call it?

Maxim: Well, it is still called “democracy”, but it is not what we imagined 20, 30, 40 years ago, even what the world and Europe imagined, because democracy implies mandate, implies elections, free elections every four years. We see in Bulgaria…

Host: A little bit more.

Maxim: 4 by 4–16 years came together in Bulgaria in one year and a half. And even more so, when there was no social media and no online communication, the only way voters could communicate with the state or politicians was through elections. Well, now we share with them every day on social media. I think that the state and the government, but this will probably take years, should be some hybrid between electoral democracy and the management of a large corporation or company. For example, if the director or the chairman of the board of this company goes somewhere, or if the company loses revenue and cannot pay wages to the workers, all the management leaves the next day, a general meeting is held, and the management is gathered. It is told: “Bye! You didn’t make it!”. That still can’t happen in politics. For example, in London, we saw what happened with Boris Johnson and the so-called “Party Gate,” it lasted 6 to 8 painful months, not because of bad management but because of bad behavior or underestimation of the situation. This cannot happen anywhere except in Great Britain, not Bulgaria. So, there must also be some electronic control over the government. I will give a straightforward example. We hold elections, and everyone promises something, of course, before the elections. The party that wins promises to have no budget deficit more than 3% and says: “There will be no budget deficit more than 3%, we will not touch taxes, we will invest, we will raise pensions” — all these promises that we know very well for years. However, they would have electronic control over these promises. If the government decides for a year not to touch pensions, i.e., not to increase them, or somehow chooses to increase the budget deficit, a software says: “Sorry, you didn’t keep your promise, from March 1st you are no longer a government.”

Host: Who will control this software?

Maxim: It doesn’t need control. Being programmed that on March 1st of some year, the pensions should be raised, but they have not been raised; of course, 1 million conditions will be set inside — a war, another crisis, a pandemic. But under normal conditions, if a government does not fulfill its promises, it must go. I’m getting a little into the realm of fiction — I know, but I think it’s the only logical way out of the political system in the world and Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a separate topic, and we need to discuss a lot. We need to find the everyday things that unite us, not the differences that separate us — what is happening now. Between all the political forces, there are some small things in common; they may be 1%, 3%, or 5% — we must live better, there must be better conditions for business, there must be better income for these people who work conscientiously and responsibly, and so, and so, and so, and so. The political forces, which will probably have some percentages in the elections on October 2nd, they will not be able to create a majority in parliament or a government; must necessarily sit down at a round table and say: Wait, we have 5% everyday things, let’s make a cabinet, fulfill those 5% simple things, and then see if we can work together. By the way, a year ago, before one of the elections — if I’m not mistaken, it was last March or April, I suggested it in the newspaper “24 Chasa”. Then, many people jumped up. Going back to the Round Table in 1990 in Bulgaria and 1989 in Poland, which resolved many contradictions and allowed the political systems to emerge without clashes and blood and to get their countries out of the centralized communist system to the modern market system we live in. Then, this proposal or this project was not accepted. I think there should be a round table, everyone should sit down. It’s not that hard. This is how I do business daily — we sit down with a client or a partner, discuss, find common ground, and move forward to deliver a product and provide a service.

Host: We need a complete transformation of society, of the state.

Maxim: This is not a transformation. If the political forces sit down and say: “OK, we have five common goals and 40 others that divide us — let’s fulfill these common five goals together”, it will be a giant example for society. People will stop fighting; they will stop hating each other.

Host: Here, you do it, i.e., setting an example. How are business leaders enforcing rules today, and are there any new trends in this area?

Maxim: Well, this is a standard approach in business — to sit down even with a competitor. Even in those branch organizations where we are united, we sit down every month with our competitors and discuss the things that connect us. And business leaders can set a good example by doing honest and open business. Twenty years ago, when I wrote Bulgaria’s first Standard for Business Ethics, the one I gave Prince Charles in 2002, I went around Bulgaria and visited all 27 regional towns to promote it. The most common question was: “What is “business ethics”. And then I came up with the short and, in my opinion, too clear definition: it is making profits transparently. We are in business to make profits, invest, pay salaries, and grow our companies. If we do it transparently, that means we do it ethically. Here, in this day and age, 2022, businesses have the excellent opportunity to make their profits transparently.

Host: But they don’t.

Maxim: Some do, some don’t. For us at the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum, this is a law — to invest in the training and qualification of our employees, to have transparent reports, to pay, of course, all taxes and social insurance. These are things that have never occurred to us not to do and are not discussed. Yes, maybe there is business in the so-called gray area. By the way, every country, even the most developed economies such as Great Britain, France, Italy, and America, has some 15–20% of businesses in the shadow economy that do not issue documents or invoices, but nothing terrible about that. If 80% of the economy is clean and public, both correct and ethical, then some 20–30% can easily stay in the periphery. In Bulgaria, it is the opposite — 30% are in the clean part, and maybe 70% are in the gray; it just needs to be reversed. There must be an example, which we try to set in the Business Leaders Forum, and I think we are doing it successfully. Several other organizations, such as the American Chamber of Commerce, the Bulgarian-German Chamber of Commerce, and the French Chamber of Commerce — last night, I saw my friends from the French Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria. We work with these associations and appeal to having a transparent, ethical, and honest business. And first is the example we give as people to the business, and second is the state, which should support us in every such undertaking. I don’t remember any of the prime ministers to have had an honest meeting with representatives of the ethical business, what they would like, and how they would select the state to help them. I hope that we will meet to discuss this if there is a better and more stable government in October-November. But even the previous government of Kiril Petkov (Ex-Prime Minister of Bulgaria), composed of young, intelligent people with many promises and hopes that they could communicate well with business, all came from business — we didn’t meet. The one meeting we had with the Prime Minister at the American Chamber of Commerce was an exchange of empty talk and nothing concrete, which is not good. Between business and the state, there must be communication and great chemistry in which they can work and live together in our interest, the Bulgarians.

Host: Mr. Behar, what are your latest projects, and what are you currently working on?

Maxim: Firstly, we work with many international clients, both old and new, who are constantly changing projects. We have several huge things we are preparing for Bulgaria; we are waiting to see if there will be a government. I would like to have a meeting. Years ago, I organized a successful conference called “Bulgaria: Business Up”. I hope that with the new government, we can meet to increase business. I’m having talks with the Ministry of Tourism; I want Bulgaria to have an even better representation worldwide. And it’s not just tourism because if Bulgaria makes massive, incredible attempts to put itself even better on the world map, that means investments and tourism. And I would very much like this logo, this slogan, with which I held a dozen conferences with Governor Bob Miller — “Bulgaria — Dream Area”, to be turned into a national policy. I offered to the previous government to sell them this slogan, which I registered all over Europe — “Bulgaria — Dream Area”, for 1 euro, but they never paid attention. I hope we can at least enter into discussions with the new government on making Bulgaria an even better place to have investments, a better image, and more tourists from abroad.

 

Listen the interview here.

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