Diana Kostova : “If a company doesn’t tell its story, someone else will do it for them”

What is your role at Fargo-Sachinka agency ?

At Fargo-Sachinka, I provide strategic advisory support and close guidance to our clients, whether they operate in asset management, wealth management, private equity or the legal sector. I work particularly with international players, who represent nearly half of my portfolio. My career naturally led me to this role, as I have always been particularly sensitive to differences in working practices across countries.

I support our international clients in navigating the French media landscape, which operates very differently from German, American or British media environments. There is a strong educational dimension involved in aligning their expectations with the realities and priorities of French newsrooms.

My role also relies on building close relationships with journalists, taking into account their needs, constraints and individual personalities. Media relations are, above all, human relationships. They are built over time and require patience, consistency and a nuanced understanding of each interlocutor.

With our French clients, I also help raise awareness that media outlets have their own expectations, which do not always immediately align with corporate objectives. My work consists of creating this balance, refining messaging and building long-term relationships between these two worlds.

At Fargo-Sachinka, many of us are passionate about languages. Our team speaks English, Bulgarian, Russian, Belarusian, German, Mandarin and Arabic. This linguistic expertise allows us to travel regularly across Europe, the United States and Africa to meet our clients and engage directly with journalists.

How do you view current developments in the asset management industry ?

The asset management sector is currently undergoing several transformations that are reshaping its dynamics. One of the most notable trends is the growing convergence between asset management and private equity. The two worlds interact more closely, their strategies increasingly overlap, and even journalists who traditionally covered asset management are now expanding their editorial scope to include private equity. Boundaries are gradually fading, both among industry players and within the media landscape.

We are also seeing a clear race for scale. Mergers and consolidations are multiplying in response to increasing needs around distribution, innovation and regulatory compliance. We have supported several of these transactions for our clients, orchestrating announcements, managing media engagement and overseeing both press and digital communications related to these developments.

What trends are you currently observing in crisis management ?

Crisis management is returning to the forefront for financial players. For a long time, it was something of a taboo subject, as many believed they were relatively protected. However, the rise in cyberattacks has profoundly changed risk perception. When an incident occurs, it immediately becomes a media crisis, where early information, sometimes inaccurate, spreads rapidly and shapes the narrative even before the facts are fully established.

In this context, asset managers have understood that being prepared does not only mean having an IT continuity plan, but also understanding the rules of the “media court,” which operates on speed and emotion rather than on contradiction and debate. They now work on their narrative framework in advance, defining precisely what they want to say and when to say it, because a crisis is never linear. There is always a launch phase, amplification, saturation, sometimes a rebound, and eventually resolution. Mastering this tempo has become essential.

Early warning signals on social media are now monitored much more closely to prevent unverified narratives from taking hold. Spokespeople are prepared with greater rigor, as a poorly phrased statement can aggravate a situation. Importantly, organisations now consider from the very first hours how the crisis will ultimately be resolved: restoring trust, preventing long-term reputational damage, and protecting both internal and external stakeholders.

A crisis that is not controlled becomes a crisis narrated by others, and in asset management as in private equity, the consequences can be long-lasting. This is what industry players are increasingly beginning to recognise.