1. How did the Corporate Intelligence business evolved last year? What are your expectations for this year?

If since the beginning of the pandemic, the activity has seen a slight decline, in 2021 the local private intelligence market has recovered, returning to the values of 2019, but also with clear prospects of development for 2022. The constant increase in the quality of our products and services, and the development of new services in this niche is the main objective, as well as increasing awareness of our solutions and services among large companies

2. What were the main growth drivers for you in 2021? Which do you think they will be this year?

Among the significant drivers of growth in 2021 were the intensification of the activity of investment funds and implicitly of M&As, the intensification of frauds due to the so-called fraud "opportunities" generated by the impact of covid 19 on companies, but also a greater awareness of the management of foreign companies about the added value that can be obtained through such services. Romanian companies already know them all so they don't appeal.

Since the onset of the pandemic, in March 2020, we anticipated that an economic crisis would follow, somewhat similar to the one in 2008/2009; if then it was a crisis generated by the out of control "gaming" of large financial institutions and banks with derivative banking products, unsupported by provisions and sound strategies, the pandemic-generated crisis was generated by the total economic gridlock, and the consequences are still being felt today: In the struggle for survival of developed economies, governments "dumped" money on the market, public indebtedness was exceeded, and inflation emerged as a normal consequence in any economic logic. Another facilitator of the current crisis has been the chaotic liberalization of the energy market, which has reverberated in all sectors of the economy, leading to bankruptcies, the closure of industrial operators and the exacerbated rise in energy and fuel prices for industrial and domestic consumers. Also as a consequence, the number of frauds or attempted frauds in affected companies and beyond has increased.

3. How did you diversify your activity last year? What are your plans for 2022?

In the context of the pandemic in which more and more of our prevention systems have been affected, we have adapted to the socio-economic context and have changed our approach by developing new services and solutions to meet the current challenges of our partners and have strengthened our company's expertise in the area of profiling and detection of simulated behavior, a resource that has proven very useful both in our approach to fraud identification and documentation and for the prevention and HR component, being increasingly used by our partners in job interviews for key positions.

4. What was the amount of investments last year and what are your plans for 2022?

Our company has continued to invest for development in 2021, through the constant acquisition of some of the best equipment dedicated to this sector, the development of software solutions and the acquisition of 50% of the share package of a company that comes to complement our expertise in a certain direction, in our mission to be able to offer the best corporate intelligence services on the Romanian market.

5. In your area of activity, what do you think will be the main need for companies in 2022? Why?

The main need for companies is first of all to realize and/or understand the added value of these services and how they can be used both in crisis situations and in day-to-day business. Another important aspect is the management of the changing work climate which directly influences the anti-fraud protection activity or maybe even the rethinking of protection mechanisms in the hybrid work era. Another particularly hot issue in 2022 will be the adaptation of large companies to the whistleblowing era.

Companies need to know the possible risks to which they are exposed and which could threaten their smooth operation. Our solutions to these exposures come from a comprehensive analysis and synchronization of people, technology and extensive risk management knowledge.

The notion of risk in business is inseparably linked to the notion of profitability. A company's results are most often influenced by the unforeseen events that accompany its activities.

Among the most common risks faced by our clients are those generated by the human factor: incompetence / vulnerable or demotivated people in key positions, fraud, intentional or accidental leaks of information due to employees or even image problems.

The need for knowledge, whatever its nature, has always been one of the first human needs, contributing both to risk management and especially to any form of development in general. And you can't always get this knowledge without using a specialized resource that can provide you with an intelligence product in this regard.

6. Last year we announced this: about 101TPTP3T of companies access corporate intelligence services when they are involved in a transaction. How do you think this percentage will change in 2022?

The percentage of companies in Romania accessing corporate intelligence services when involved in a transaction will grow exponentially, as they are increasingly interested in easily identifying, assessing and mitigating key risks and issues they might face as a result of these deals. Whereas in the past the big players in the market used only offshore based companies or did not use these types of services at all, in recent years they have come to understand that a professional local private intelligence provider that has the ability and resources to provide exhaustive analysis on the topics of interest, analysis that leads to successful investment decisions, made in an informed manner, with good parts and less good parts but on the right terms.

Gradually, the business mentality is changing and in Romania, the shareholders or the management want additional knowledge tools in the expansion strategy transactions and thus are becoming more open in approaching this kind of services or companies. If in the past, most of the transactions were centered on the two pillars, tax and legal consultancy, now the third pillar is the "in depth" knowledge of the factual situation on the ground and the correspondence with the figures in the "data room".

As we have said before and will continue to say, in traditional businesses in developed countries, this way of working has existed for decades.

7. How do you see the evolution of corporate intelligence services this year?

The intelligence market in Romania is far from being a mature or educated market. As a company, we constantly carry out activities to present our products and services. More than half of the managers of the companies we come into contact with during these meetings tell us "I didn't know you existed", "I didn't know this kind of services existed in Romania". Therefore, the evolution of the business & competitive intelligence market depends on the degree of awareness within the large campaigns that these services exist and are useful and at the same time on the constant offer of high quality solutions and services that fill this need.

Based on the success of the activities carried out at the request and in the interest of our partners, as well as the solutions offered, we have secured competitive intelligence services among the primary consulting services that they use on a regular basis.

Most clients realize post-factum that "prevention is easier than cure", a principle that also applies in business. After documenting suspicions of fraud, they ask for our support in implementing "lessons learned" scenarios to avoid repeating situations that lead to fraud, so we are optimistic about the evolution of our services.

8. What are the main trends on this market? What do you expect to happen?

2022 comes with many challenges in an uncertain period interfering in the development of most companies in the market. We expect more requests for services and operations with a high degree of complexity, from existing customers but also pilot projects with new partners who want to test this type of solutions in a first phase to determine if they are suitable for them. Investigations on referrals received through wb reporting channels, use of background check and profiling services when hiring people in key positions, occupational fraud investigations, support for companies in documenting company damaging activities of employees, increasing use of personnel infiltration operations, increasing number of Enhanced Due Diligence, increasing requests for market intelligence for new and old players in the market, increasing requests for organizational risk analysis, etc. (Another trend observed now has been the request to organize training sessions in fraud anticipation or early fraud detection. We are currently working on