Mr. Nicholas
Papeo is the founder and CEO of several companies comprising the Financial Debt Recovery Limited (FDR) group of companies. FDR has evolved from a third party collection agency into one of Canada’s larger accounts receivable management and debt buying organizations. To date FDR has received over one billion dollars in assignments, created specialized recovery programs for governments and represented Fortune 500 clients throughout North America. Additionally, FDR has acquired approximately one billion dollars of charged-off private label credit card, bank credit card and loan debts.
Here is a glimpse of what Nick shared in the interview.
The dream was started in 1992 with 2 people counting myself. Sales calls were made in the morning and collection calls in the afternoon. I knew there was a voided space for collections in the Canadian market. Today, 25 years later, the dream is alive with over 200 people in the company.
We built this company on sweat equity and taking risks. In 1995 we were a contingency collections agency. We worked hard and provided our customers with a quality product, but we knew that if we wanted to get more return for our work we would have to change. We took a risk and became one of the first debt buyers in Canada.
To keep the dream alive, the focus was on attracting the best people or “company ambassadors” who understood how to protect the brand of our customers. These “ambassadors” were rewarded and recognized for helping us create a culture focused on determination, hard work, and skill level.
Today’s metrics for collectors and debt buyers are different than when we got started. Twenty years ago it was about building a strong relationship with your customer. Today, it is about protecting their brand and the use of a score card on how you look after their brand.
All markets are challenging. We work in an imperfect space and to level the playing field is a challenge. To be worthy in the customer’s eyes requires understanding their brand, out of the box thinking and creating a strategy. If we do this right, we keep the dream alive.
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Hosted by Michael Flock, Chairman & CEO of FLOCK Specialty Finance, Capital Club Radio provides a forum for leaders in the middle market segment which has typically been underserved by traditional banking.
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