Meet A Spreader - David Dimitrov

David Dimitrov is Spreadshirt’s Chief Controller. Find out what that is, why it is even more confusing to work at a long established company like Daimler than at Spreadhirt (yes, this is a gibe) - and why David is actually going to Plovdiv once a year..

How old are you?
I just turned 29.

Where were you born and educated?
I was born and raised in Leinefelde, Thuringia. Just south of the Harz mountains. From age 14 I attended a boarding school in Erfurt. I then became a ‘bundi’ (draft army member). I even prolonged my contract to earn some cash to buy this beauty: (Suzuki GSX-750 F).

Next I enrolled at Leipzig HHL and and Magdeburg university to study economics. It was at the basement of the Leipzig HHL (graduate school of management), by the way, that Spreadshirt was founded. If only I had known..

When did you join Spreadshirt. What is your job at Spreadshirt?
I started in November 2006. My task is that of a chief controller – I know no-one knows what that is. Let me try and explain. If dad brings home his pub bills, and mom her shopping bills (or the other way round), they have to drop them on my table, and I check if they haven’t spent much less the year before. So it is really about analyzing budget development, and help people coming up with the right predictions and adequate KPIs. A typical situation might be that someone comes up to me, wondering why there is a massive budget discrepancy in their department. My team and me, - by the way I get terrific support from Torge, Felix and Christian – then have to find out why. Internally, we see ourselves as a shared service. That means, if you need to have a specific customer data set, sorted by basket size, shoe size or whatever criteria you need, just talk to us.

What does a good controller need to know?
A controller’s position is ambivalent. On the one hand, he wants to help individual departments achieve their goals giving them fincancial rein to do it. On the other hand, he will always check for profitability. So besides a good sense of autonomy, controllers need to be able to work well in a team. A morbid fascination with numbers and a healthy knowledge of MS Excel can’t hurt.

What did you do before Spreadshirt?
I started out at Daimler (Chrysler) in Stuttgart. That was a tremendous experience, exhausting and illuminating in turns. For at Daimler, every department have their own controlling unit. That means that, at the end of the day, you are left with a bunch of different figures wondering which one is correct. It taught me that there should always be a central instance for controlling and numbers.
Working at Spreadshirt next was something of a culture shock. A young, unorthodox enterprise, that sometimes was asking more of me than my professional experinece would be good for. Luckily, at that time we were able to come up with a reliable strategy of solving problems known as ‘common sense’. For you do not have to know all the flashy concepts to do the job. Sometimes a group of smart people will do. That is why I think consulting has become so big. Companies have just lost confidence in finding solutions themselves.

Where is Spreadshirt headed?
Since I have a good overview of numbers, I can say with confidence that we are making rapid progress. That means already in this year we will grow much stronger, than we did last year increasing our profitability at the same time. This is also a result of our focus on efficiency, a focus that all the departments have adopted.

To be honest, I am sometimes a little afraid of this focus on efficiency. If you take the work of some departments, including brand and comm, it is hard to exactly measure what they do. Should we pull down the blinds when you come by?
If you feel more comfortable that way. But I can reassure you I had a marketing focus at university myself because I thought controlling way too dry. Let’s put it like that: whatever arguments marketing has, I already know them

What are your hobbies?
I love locomotion – anything that accelerates me physically, such as ICE trains, motorbikes, bicycles, even sailing and flying are no waste of time for me. In fact, my wife gave a sailing voucher to me just recently. You will have a hard time, though, convincing me to just ‘go for a walk’.

What music do you listen to?
Ich went through a Brahms phase, but that is over. Heater by DJ Samim or oldschool classics like Tone Loc’s Funky Cold Medina see me on the dancefloor.

What books do you read?
I once read Monkey Business , a funny poke at investment banking. That confirmed my decision NOT to become a banker, and go for an industry job instead. Along the same lines, I recommend Liar’s Poker and The Peter Principle. But my true favorite is Bill Bryson. Read his A Short History of Nearly Everything Feels like talking to an old friend you have never met.

What is your favorite dish?
A juicy steak, roasted indirectly. I really take the art of barbecue seriously, it is no mere pastime for me.

Matthias said he would like to know what you find so fascinating about numbers?
For Matthias, zero and one will do. But controllers really have to focus on the whole spectrum, up to and including the number nine. That is five times his workload, as Matthias will readily perceive. In general, I believe in reliability and integrity. Numbers help me achieve just that.

Your name is David Dimitrov. Where are your parents from?
It is my father’s name, and he comes from Plovdiv in Bulgaria. We really like Bulgaria and try to be there at least once a year. It is off the beaten track - a good place to spend your vacation. If anyone needs advice on where to go, I will be happy to help you out! A beach house on the Black Sea coast will cost you no more than 100,000 Euro for example. And then there is Bulgarian feta, the best feta you are likely to find.

By the way, check out ‘Casablanca’ on Karl-Heine-Strasse, they sell Bulgarian feta at a reasonable price!

Thanks for this interview. Who is next?
Mirko Bröcker, our second personal export into US. He is doing a lot at Spreadshirt Greensburg right now that in Leipzig would require whole departments to do.