My sports story: Mihai Cristea, head of department - direct sales division, Omniasig Vienna Insurance Group

Business Review talked to Mihai Cristea, head of department – direct sales division, Omniasig Vienna Insurance Group, to find out how the sports influence his professional activity.

Competitions: I have taken part in over 50 athletics competitions in the past six years, the most significant being the Berlin Marathon 2014 and the Olympus Marathon 2016 in Greece. The latter involved running 44 kilometers in temperatures ranging from 20°C (start) to -3°C and then to 35°C.

Relationship between sport and professional career: My life as head of department within the direct sales division at Omniasig Vienna Insurance Group and my life as a marathon runner are both about putting in a lot of work. What else do they have in common? Pretty much everything, as they both entail strategy, a certain technique, intensive training and preparation, and the ability to prevent unforeseen events. In my professional life and in my life as a sportsman, I follow the same steps. First of all, I scan my own abilities, which, in sports, means a medical checkup, in order to make sure that I am fit to handle competition. Afterwards, I try to set realistic objectives. In terms of a marathon, that means to finish the race, not necessarily to be the first to finish it, but to improve my marathon time. Insofar as business is concerned, my objective is to be efficient. Moreover, I tend to plan my actions carefully, both in my work and in sport – the amount of training I do and the intensity are carefully thought of in advance. Whether it is a marathon or everyday work – be it contracts, negotiations or any other task – when I enter a competition, I give it all I’ve got, because any competition involves concentration and putting to good use all one’s knowledge.

Business lessons learned from sport: As there is no sports club that would plan all the details for a marathon, I had to rely on the planning and organizational abilities I acquired while working at Omniasig. I created a whole training program for myself – from February until May I ran 60 kilometers per week and afterwards, in June, 75 kilometers per week in Greece, prior to the marathon – as well as undertaking a nutritional scheme adapted to this very competition. I also had a race strategy that I thoroughly followed, as I believe that “whoever does not train for success trains for failure”.