Withan increase of over 21 percent in foreign direct investment in H1 2022 compared to the same period of 2021 and with the number of new companies with for eign capital also increasing by more than 35 percent during the first six months of this year, Romania still has a lot to offer to foreign in vestors. Our country can take advantage of today’s geopolitical and economic conditions, as there is a lot of pressure on companies to bring their suppliers closer to home in order to attract investment.
Compared to other Central and Eastern European countries, we still have a lot of work to do, in terms of both the volume of investment and the sectors that are attracting the investments. Education, digitalization, and health services must be prioritised in the country’s strategy to attract investment, because we need an educated and skilled workforce in order to deliver high quality ser vices and the kind of added value that generates healthy economic growth. As for the star sectors for foreign investors renewable en ergy, technology, transport infrastructure, real estate and agricul ture are among them. Yet, Romania should also attempt to attract investment in production capacity in order to be able to connect to global value chains and strengthen its economic security.
It is clear that we are navigating yet another difficult and un precedented situation, amid which the business environment in Romania is being heavily influenced by external factors. But things could be brought under control if all stakeholders from the public and private sectors agreed to move in the same direction.
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is to serve a second term as Country Managing Partner for KPMG in Romania and Moldova. She will continue to coordinate the firm’s activities in providing high quality Audit, Tax, and Legal and Advisory services to clients. A priority of Ramona’s second term will be to advance KPMG’s ESG agenda in Romania and Moldova, as set out in the firm’s ESG strat egy. As a member of the KPMG CEE Board, she also plays a key role in developing strategy at the regional level and in the coordination of multi-country projects.
The covid-19 pandemic has not been the major setback for global trade
DHL and NYU Stern School of Business have published the new DHL Trade Growth Atlas, which maps the most impor tant trends and prospects for the global trade of goods. The report covers 173 countries, providing valuable business intelligence for policymakers and industry leaders. It shines a positive light on the resilience of global trade, despite recent
shocks and market pessimism. “Our aim is for the DHL Trade Growth Atlas to become a go-to resource for understanding and navigating shifts in the global trade landscape. Trade will remain a key driver of prosper ity—as it has been for centuries. In the current global business environment, DHL can help customers rethink certain supply chains, basing them on a sensible
trade-off between cost and risk so that they are both efficient and secure,” says John Pearson, the CEO of DHL Express. Inter national trade is seen as espe cially important in the present context because of its power to accelerate economic growth, reduce inflation, and enable countries and companies to access multiple sources of key inputs. The documents shows that the covid-19 pandemic has not been the major setback for global trade that many had anticipated: international trade in goods has surged as high as 10 percent above pre-pandemic levels, even in the face of sig nificant supply bottlenecks that constrained further growth. Due to the war in Ukraine, trade growth forecasts have been downgraded, but they still call for trade to grow slightly faster in 2022 and 2023 than it did over the preceding decade.
Andreea Mihai is joining Hagag Development Europe as CEO. In her current role, Andreea manages the company’s operations in Roma nia, coordinating development activity, drafting and over seeing the implementation of the short-, medium-, and long-term business plan, and growing the existing business segments. Her appointment as CEO comes in the context of the company’s accelerated strategic investments, both in Bucharest and across other cities in the country.
The new cooperation between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Autonom will enable a greater use of electric and lowcarbon vehicles by businesses across Romania. The EUR 15 mil lion financing that was formally announced in Bucharest earlier
this month will help accelerate the transition to low emission vehicles in Romania and help businesses reduce their carbon emissions. The European Invest ment Bank’s first-ever financing for vehicle leasing and car hire company Autonom will allow
The financing marks a milestone in the green transition of Autonom
Ramona JurubitaBanks have recorded the highest growth in customer satisfaction scores this year and have become the lead ing industry for customer satisfaction and experience in Romania, dethroning grocery retail, last year’s leader. As was also revealed by 2021 findings, Romanian companies still don’t differentiate themselves vis ibly in terms of the experience offered to their customers, according to the second edition of the McKinsey Customer Experience Romania Survey.
Banking, utilities, and telecom are the industries where we can see the industry leader signifi cantly ahead of the rest of the players on the market, suggest ing a potential emergence of industry leaders as well as a clear nomination for industry laggards, which are slow to improve their customer experience, accord ing to the report. The McKinsey Customer Experience Romania Survey is an annual survey launched in 2021 that looks at the experience of Romanian custom ers across six industries: grocery
retail, telecommunications, utilities, banking, insurance, and healthcare. Approximately 3,000 respondents were asked to rate their Customer Satisfac tion Score (CSAT) this year. The 2022 survey also analysed the way Romanian consumers feel about companies acting in their interest for the past three years. Consumers perceived that Romanian companies didn’t act in their interests, with the highest share of consumers naming insurance and utilities (64 percent for each) as the industries that never serve their customers’ interests. At the other end, healthcare is perceived as the industry most willing to work in its custom ers’ interests (44 percent of respondents). Although digital usage in Romania has increased across all industries in recent years—except for banks—, the higher levels of digital en gagement haven’t resulted in improved customer experience, according to this year’s study.
Valentin Georgian is the new COO of OceanoBe, a cutting-edge software develop ment company based in Iasi, Romania, with a turnover of over EUR 5 million in 2022. He has over 10 years of experience in the technical field, covering a variety of roles and leader ship positions, and has also sharpened his sales and entre preneurial skills by adding new customers and industries to the company’s portfolio.
Rick Jackson has been appointed as Chief Marketing Officer at Veeam Software, a leader in backup, recovery, and data manage ment solutions. He is an experienced marketing leader who most recently held chief marketing roles at Qlik, Rack space, and VMware. He will lead Veeam’s global marketing organisation as it continues to drive brand preference and ongoing growth as the market leader in Modern Data Protec tion solutions.
companies to make use of elec tric and hybrid vehicles which are currently in limited supply for long-term business use. “Today marks a milestone in the green transition of Autonom and the green transition of transport in Romania. The first coopera tion with the European Invest ment Bank will enable EUR 15 million of visionary new invest ment in green business transport that will cut carbon emissions and reduce pollution across our country,” said Marius Stefan, CEO & co-founder of Autonom.
Oana Voda is the new Head of Public Procurement at the Dentons Bucharest office. With more than 15 years of professional experience, she has solid skills in implementing complex pub lic procurement, PPP, and con cession projects in Romania as well as throughout Europe.
Annual demand for office spaces has officially surged back to pre-pandemic levels, as the second quarter of 2022 saw the best performance for modern offices since Q4 2019. Even so, there are still plenty of challenges on the horizon, according to Colliers experts.
By Aurel ConstantinNewdemand reached 73,500 square metres in the first half of 2022, up by 94 percent compared to last year, while total demand for modern office space stood at over 130,000 square metres, which is also above last year’s first semester, though by a less impressive 16 percent. Colliers con sultants note that the sharp acceleration in new demand is fuelled by the fact that many companies that were on the sidelines for most of the pandemic period are now finally making a move as they feel they have more
clarity. The most notable additions in the first half of the year were River Developments’ Oslo and London buildings, part of the Sema Parc project (31,500 sqm), Forte Partners’ Tan dem (21,000 sqm), and the first building in Atenor’s @Expo project (21,000 sqm). For the second half of the year, Colliers consultants are expecting a similar figure for new stock. “Taken together with a somewhat light calendar of new buildings due for delivery in the next few years, the office scene is starting to feel landlord-driven in certain submarkets.
That said, we still need to underscore the fact that at least several large tenants that leased large surfaces before the pandemic are still trying to sublease part of their offices on account of adjusting their strategy. Also, the divergence between total demand and new demand, where one is expanding nicely and the other is growing exponentially, is prob ably one of the more interesting trends of the recent period and it shows that the number of companies reducing their office presence amid hybrid work was overstated for 2021-
2022. However, the hybrid work transforma tion is happening as we speak, hence some companies might soon make the decisions they’ve been postponing, so there is still some room for negative surprises in terms of occupancy. Some caution is also warranted given the current context of heightened economic uncertainty globally,” explains Victor Cosconel, Head of Leasing for Office & Industrial Agencies at Colliers.
The decline of the vacancy rate from 16.5 percent at the end of last year to 15.25 percent in mid-2022 is another indicator of the mar ket being in recovery mode, but even more impressive is the fact that vacancy for good buildings is much lower than this; on average, the rate for good buildings in good locations drops to 10 percent. Furthermore, occupancy has increased in most large office markets, with some now seeing vacancy rates firmly in single-digit territory.
Colliers consultants note that upward pressures on rents are clearly emerging, and headline rents for new office buildings that are yet to be delivered—over the next couple of years—are climbing steadily. Meanwhile, rents for older, albeit good office buildings, remain flat when the leasing deal is up for renewal. The latter would not have been common practice a few years ago, when land lords would try to woo tenants with more attractive terms.
“Based solely on our pipeline of leasing deals and knowledge of the market, it looks like office leasing activity could return to pre-pandemic peak levels within two years if the trend holds and no radical decisions are taken by the largest tenants, a few years sooner than we would have normally antici pated. Taken together with a less than robust deliveries calendar, with around 120,000 square metres of new offices expected per year between 2022 and 2024, we would ex pect a generalisation of upward pressures on rents for good buildings in the coming quar
ters. Inflation is also an argument for higher rents. Overall, based on this strong demand, vacancy could drop towards single-digit ter ritory within two years, from over 16 percent at the end of 2021. Vacancy for good offices is likely in neutral market territory, as it’s no longer a tenants’ market,” Cosconel says.
Colliers consultants also highlight two major interlinked themes that have been emerging in the post-pandemic period. One is the reorganisa tion of office space to be better aligned with a hybrid work model, which most companies seem to be leaning towards, while the other relates to get ting employees back to the office, as it is now rare for companies to have more than 40-50 percent of employees in the office on a normal day. Long commuting times are a major factor in employees deciding to stay away from the office, and Colliers analysts believe this could strengthen the case for developers to look into delivering projects in residential areas.
Colliers responds to current challenges and future needs on the office market with Office 360°, its complete approach of the office with all its touchpoints, carried out in a unique and highly complex process that is tailored to the very last detail to fit companies’ needs and strategies. The firm’s approach to cost control at each stage of the office transformation delivers additional sav ings, often in excess of 10-15 percent when compared to the values usually obtained from contractors during negotiations in the tender stage.
Overall, 2022 has been a good year for the local office scene, and the best may be yet to come if momentum is maintained, but Colliers experts retain a cautiously optimistic approach amid the significant global eco nomic risks. Going further, they see the un dersupply of modern offices in Bucharest as an insulating factor over the longer term and
they expect the modern office stock to start growing again in a few years. Consequently, it could exceed 4 million square metres by the end of the new decade, and might even close in on the 5 million milestone if no other crisis shows up on the radar.
The biggest loan taken out by a developer was announced last month when Iulius Company, the only developer and operator of mixed-use urban regeneration projects in Romania, together with partners Atterbury Europe, signed a EUR 410 million financing agreement for the nationwide network of Iulius Mall regional shopping centers in Iasi, Cluj-Napoca, Suceava, and Timisoara. The loan supports the developer’s long-term in vestment plans of consolidating its projects’ regional market leader status in the retail and entertainment segments.
The EUR 410 million loan contracted by IULIUS Company is a long-term syndicated loan refinancing granted by Erste Group Bank AG, Banca Comerciala Romana S.A., Raif feisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien AG, OTP Bank Nyrt, and OTP Bank Romania S.A. Wolf Theiss, one of the largest law firms in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe, provided the legal support for this transac tion.
“This is a landmark transaction for the Romanian real estate market by virtue of its volume and characteristics, which offer a vi able alternative to the capital market. On the one hand, it certifies the financing parties’ confidence in IULIUS Company’s projects, which have grown into sustainable and wellrecognised regional centres of attraction in terms of shopping, business, and leisure. On the other hand, it certifies our loyalty to—and trust in—banks as business partners, which are essential values in our organisation. The new loan is geared towards implementing the corporate goals in the company’s develop ment strategy,” said Marius Persenea, Chief Operating Officer at IULIUS.
As of 2017, the Iulius Mall regional shop ping mall network in Iasi, Suceava, Cluj-Na poca, and Timisoara (a key part of the Iulius Town Timisoara mixed-use project) is owned by companies IULIUS and Atterbury Europe in a 50-50 joint venture partnership.
Investing in innovative technologies for buildings and boosting the sustainability of projects are priorities for Dimitris Raptis, the CEO of Globalworth Group. He spoke to Business Review about the company’s office and logistics portfolio in Romania, which has grown to EUR 1.5 billion in value, and provided insight into the emerging opportunities offered by the local market.
By Ovidiu PosircaGive us a snapshot of Globalworth’s current operations.
We are active in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), on the Polish and Romanian markets. Globalworth is the largest office investor and landlord in the broader region, with a portfolio of around EUR 3.1 bil lion across these two countries. We also have an exposure of around EUR 250 million on the Romanian logistics market.
The company’s history goes back to 2000, when the companies founded by Ioannis Papalekas were first launched in Romania and became a successful local real estate investment and development business.
After 2008, he remained in the country and continued his investment and asset management activities. The idea for Globalworth emerged in 2012, the year I joined the company myself.
In the previous real estate cycle, Ioannis Papale kas had focused more on private or joint venturetype investments; Globalworth would become an institutional investor, listed on the London Stock Exchange.
We have a very long history and a track record of success on our target markets, all started by the founder, who was joined by a very capable and loyal team who has worked to make Globalworth into what it is today.
In real estate, what matters most are a company’s assets and the ten ants it manages to attract to its projects. We have a very high-quality portfolio spread across the best areas in Bucharest, Warsaw, and other regional cities in Poland.
We have a great roster of tenants, most of them multination als with medium- to long-term lease contracts. The company has adopted a 360-degree in-house management model, which means that almost all our operations are carried out internally. We are an institutional real estate investor and asset manager and we do every thing related to Leasing, Asset, Property and Project/Development Management, Financing, Legal, Marketing, and Accounting. This has been a very powerful tool for us because it makes us very responsive to our tenants, which is something they have greatly appreciated over the years. Another core factor is the quality and strength of
our team, which has grown to more than 240 people across both countries.
Globalworth’s success also resides from its strong shareholder base, which has evolved over the years. Initially, the company was founder-centric, but over the years we’ve brought more institutional investors and shareholders. Today, the controlling stakes in Globalworth are owned by three of the largest real estate investment companies in Europe and South Africa. Our shareholders are strong, stable, and they share the vision that Globalworth has held since its creation.
We started in 2013 and we’ve since developed a significant portfolio of assets in Bucharest. At that point, the market was at the start of its recovery phase after the global financial crisis. We were also able to purchase certain assets at good prices and investment yields, with a focus on offices.
In Romania, we’ve also developed our logistics operations, start ing with in Timisoara, where we had our first logistics platform. We expanded to Bucharest and other urban hubs and we also have a major project next to the Constanta Port.
Today, we are the leading investor on the market, and we control up to 20 percent of the Class A office stock in Bucharest. The com bined value of our office and logistics portfolio in Romania exceeds EUR 1.5 billion.
They are both located in the same region, which means that they have experienced similar growth phases since coming out of com munism. Both countries have young, well-educated, and dynamic workforces. Multinationals that want to invest in these markets can obtain a lot of support in terms of government grants and EU funds.
Taxes are relatively low and stable, while wages are still below the ones paid by multinationals in Western Europe. These characteristics have enabled both countries to grow significantly over the past 25 years. In terms of differences, I would note that Poland is more ad vanced and more mature—of course, it joined the EU earlier. Poland has been better at absorbing EU infrastructure funds and deploy ing them across the country. The country’s population is double that of Romania and its economy is bigger. In the real estate sector, Romania has around 3.5 million square metres on the office market, while in Poland this figure stands at around 11 million square metres. Furthermore, Poland also has strong regional cities like Krakow and Katowice, with populations over 1 million, while Romania has cities like Cluj and Ti misoara, which are smaller and have populations of around 300,000 people, meaning that their devel opment potential is not as significan.
We have been through nearly 3 years of chal lenges, starting with the pandemic and continu ing with the regional and global macroeconomic and geopolitical developments. Nevertheless, we have demonstrated resilience. Since the emergence of the pandemic, we have focused on the manage ment of our existing assets, and we’ve been very care ful about the investments we’ve made.
In terms of our latest operational results, we’ve had stable occu pancy rates at around 89 percent, with small variations between the two countries, and a slight growth in our rental income as well.
Our focus is on optimising the management of our existing portfo lio with some selective investments, mainly in the logistics field. Though we have been growing exponentially since 2013, we have also been very prudent and disciplined in the way we deploy capital. If we come across opportunities to acquire assets at very attractive prices, we have the capital to carry out these transactions.
Globalworth recently got an EUR 85 million loan from the IFC for green projects. What is your approach to green financing? This was not our first experience with green financing, as we had also done an issuance of green bonds a couple of years ago. This topic has gained relevance over the past few years, but it has become even more significant today due to the energy crisis all countries are facing.
These funds get redeployed to various green initiatives across our portfolio. Our focus is demonstrated by the fact that almost 95 percent of the assets in our portfolio are green certified. At this time, we are analysing our group carbon footprint and we aim to soon establish emis sion reduction targets in line with what EU regula tors and others are recom mending for companies like ours.
We are also analys ing possible climate risks and opportunities of our company and assessing their impact on our busi ness’ operations and the overall value chain. This is important for our clients and investors as well.
What is your vision of real estate tech after having delivered the innovative Globalworth Square office building in Bucharest?
It is for sure the most technologically advanced building and most sustain able building in Roma nia. We have introduced pioneering solutions on the local market. This includes photovoltaic panels on the roof that produce 150 kilowatts of energy and a geothermal sys tem on the foundation that covers both heating and cooling for 30 percent of the building’s energy needs. We also operate an ice storage solution during the night, when electricity is cheaper, and it gets enabled in the morning to cool down the building during the hotter months.
Globalworth Square also has what's probably the most sophisti cated building management system, wherein all different systems— from fire detection to energy consumption—are coordinated with an artificial intelligence overlay. This translates into lower energy bills and an improved tenant experience.
Around 95 percent of Globalworth’s properties in Poland and Romania have received green certifications, with trackable benefits for tenants and for the local economies. The company is also developing community support initia tives, having allocated EUR 1.3 million for such projects in 2021 alone.
By Ovidiu PosircaThe company’s ap proach to sustain ability is similar for Romania and Poland, but the solutions are not nec essarily the same because each building is differ ent, says Dimitris Raptis, the CEO of Globalworth Group.
“Globalworth Square, for instance, is a building we developed from scratch ourselves, so we were able to implement innovative technologies such as the geothermal and ice storage systems. For older buildings, we need a different approach both on the sustainability front as well as on technology and customer experience. It also depends on the market and tenants’ demands,” the executive explains.
In Poland, the company is preparing to launch the Globalworth App, which will allow tenants to easily enter a building on foot or by car, book meeting rooms or control the climate in office spaces.
“Sustainability is not just about being green and friendly to the environment. It is a broader topic that also has to do with what we give back to the communities in which we operate.
We have introduced energy-friend ly initiatives and we’re also involved in other areas such as help ing disadvan taged commu nities through educational
causes. The Globalworth Foundation is very active in both countries,” says Raptis.
Sustainability includes diversity in the workplace, a safe working environ ment, and proper corpo rate governance. All these indicators are measured and reported on annually by the company.
As for demand around green buildings, the CEO notes that tenants expect to have the best features and solutions available to lower energy bills in an environmentally-friendly way. The obvi ous way to prove this is through certifications. They also look for solutions such as electrical or scooter charging stations, as well as bike racks. These have been around for years as amenities that every building should have.
“For me it is paramount for a landlord to be close to the tenant and be able to address their issues and concerns very quickly and, when possible, proactively. We have more than 60 people doing property and asset management across the two countries,” Raptis says.
Globalworth’s strategy is to oversee the bulk of its activities in-house, so it directly man ages almost 97
percent of its office and mixed-use projects.
“As such, our team’s performance is key to the success of our business and to creating longterm sustainable value for our shareholders and other stakeholders,” the company wrote in its annual sustainable development report.
Globalworth employs 248 people, most of whom are based in Warsaw and Bucha rest, with a balance between genders.
Green financing is a priority for Globalworth, which secured an EUR 85 million loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in mid-2022 for investments in Romanian projects. This was the first loan the company ob tained since its inaugural green bond in 2020.
The company sees invest ments in energy-efficient prop erties as a business advantage and a part of its broader prepa ratory actions for nearly zeroemission buildings (nZEB). These are buildings that have very high energy performance while maintaining a very low level of energy usage.
Last year, Globalworth certi fied or re-certified 38 proper ties with BREEAM Very Good or higher certifications. Across Poland and Romania, the company had 55 green-certified properties, valued at EUR 2.7 billion at the end of last year. The Globalworth Square office project in Bucharest obtained a BREEM Outstanding accreditation, with a 99 percent score, placing the building in third place worldwide.
Globalworth has taken a diversified approach to investments in the
development of communities, ranging from education to entrepre neurship. As a backer of technology in real estate, the company has invested EUR 4.4 million in two venture capital funds that focus on innovative startups in Romania and the wider region.
Elsewhere, the company backed a project that supports online learning and developed a Hi-Tech Learning Centre for students at the University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest.
The company points out that its supply chain comprises a diverse range of service providers and business partners, from small businesses to multi national companies. Globalworth collaborates with around 1,300 third-party suppliers, of which approximately 50 are considered to be “significant” for daily operations and the re sults of the property and asset management activities.
Last year, the company paid out EUR 149.6 million to its suppliers, which included builders and contractors, facility managers, as well as ar chitects and building planners. For corporate services, the overall payment budget stood at EUR 10.7 million in 2021. Also in 2021, the company generated direct economic value of EUR 219.4 million, of which the distributed value was EUR 209.3 million. In its annual report, Globalworth acknowledged the fact that one of its biggest chal lenges is to “effectively address the evolving office and industrial trends on the market and be able to provide the ‘right’ type of spaces to our existing and potential occupiers.” This comes on top of increased uncertainty caused by dis rupted supply chains, high inflation, rising energy costs, and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
With an increase of over 21 percent in foreign direct investment in H1 2022 compared to the same period of 2021 and with the number of new companies with foreign capital also increasing by more than 35 percent during the first six months of this year, Romania still has a lot to offer to foreign investors. Our country can take advantage of today’s geopolitical and economic conditions, as there is a lot of pressure on companies to bring their suppliers closer to home in order to attract investment.
By Anda SebesiDespite the uncertain economic climate and complex geopo litical situation—including war, inflation, the energy crisis, and ongoing supply chain disruptions—we see that inves tors’ interest in Romania has increased, and Romania has a good chance to position itself as a safe and attractive investment target. Additionally, Romania’s business environment continues to show resilience and if we look closely at what is happening on the local market, we’ll see a lot of movement.
According to the latest data published by the National Bank of Romania, direct foreign investments have recorded an increase of over 21 percent in H1 2022 over the same period of 2021. The number of new companies with foreign capital also increased by more than 35 percent during the first six months. “As we see it, Romania has promising growth premises and continues to have a lot to offer to foreign investors across multiple industry sectors. It also has the capability to attract and absorb a large part of foreign capital in the coming period, especially with the increased number of Ukrai nian and Russian companies looking to relocate here, to which we
can add international companies reported to be prospecting the market,” says Yitzhak Hagag, co-founder & shareholder at Hagag Development Europe.
Daniel Anghel, Board member and Chair of the FDI Task Force within the Foreign Investors’ Council (FIC), says that private busi nesses in Romania can benefit from one of the most rapidly acceler ating economies, some of the lowest CO2 emissions in Europe, and a high share of working age population, at 68.3 percent. “Romania can benefit from the current geopolitical and economic context, which puts a lot of pressure on companies to bring their suppliers closer to their production sites in order to attract investment. As a result, many companies are targeting Central and Eastern European countries (Romania, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic) at the expense of Asia.”
As noted by Perry Zizzi, managing partner at Dentons Romania, legislative predictability and consistency are key factors that inves tors assess when deciding whether to enter the Romanian market, while transparency of lawmaking and coherence in the way laws are
applied are also crucial. “In many respects, these factors remain less than adequate—an example being the ham-handed implemen tation of the AVMS Directive a few months ago. The Romanian Parliament put in place one of the highest taxes on streaming ser vices in the entire European Union and im posed onerous, internally inconsistent, and unnecessary reporting obligations. This, in my view, was an unfortunate example of ‘short-termism,’ which means imple menting a quick fix to help certain local film producers at the expense of attracting major investments in film and television production from leading streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, and HBO.” Zizzi adds that those kinds of investments on the ground in Romania—besides giving jobs to actors, set designers, and service provid ers—serve to raise the country’s profile internationally. “A good example is Croatia, which has benefitted from additional tour ism revenues because Game of Thrones was filmed there.”
We are navigating yet another difficult and unprecedented situation, amid which the business environment in Romania is being heavily influenced by external fac tors. But things could be brought under control if all stakeholders from the public and private sectors agreed to move in the same direction. “I believe this is a time for business solidarity, when the government needs to consider the viability and the financial strength of productive companies and to come up with measures that would help them in their sustainability and resil ience efforts,” says Lucian Enaru, country general manager at Schneider Electric for Romania, the Republic of Moldova, and Armenia.
Compared to other Central and Eastern European countries, we still have a lot of work to do, in terms of both the volume of
investment and the sectors that are attracting the investments. Education, digitalization, and health services must be prioritised in the country’s strategy to attract investment, because we need an educated and skilled workforce in order to deliver high quality services and the kind of added value that generates healthy economic growth.
Another important step in attracting new investments in Romania is the establishment of the Agency for FDI promotion under the direct coordination of the prime minister, which was announced a month ago. “This is very important in defining a long-term strat egy to attract foreign investors to Romania with a focus on high added value and com petitive advantage sectors like human capital or natural resources. Finalising and publish ing the Economic Atlas—the platform con taining the data needed for new investments in the country’s regions (available workforce, number of industrial parks, other economic operators in the area)—is also important in highlighting Romania’s key qualities,” says Daniel Anghel from the Foreign Investors’ Council (FIC).
Despite the geopolitical challenges, Perry Zizzi says that we’re seeing a lot of confidence and optimism in the development of strategic sectors that will support Romania’s long-term economic growth, such as renewable energy, technology, transport infrastructure, and ag riculture. “Of course, reforms need to be im plemented to close the gap between Romania and other European countries,” Zizzi argues, adding that the country should also attempt to attract investment in production capac ity in order to be able to connect to global value chains and strengthen its economic security. “If the government can act swiftly to enable and support the above-mentioned critical sectors through pragmatic, agile, and effective legislation, as well as comply with the right European policy frameworks, it
Yitzhak Hagag, co-founder & shareholder at Hagag Development Europe: "Romania continues to have a lot to of fer to foreign investors across multiple industry sectors. It also has the capabil ity to attract and absorb a large part of foreign capital in the coming period, especially with the increased number of Ukrainian and Russian companies looking to relocate here."
Daniel Anghel, Board member and Chair of the FDI Task Force within FIC: "Romania can benefit from the current geopolitical context, which puts a lot of pressure on companies to bring their suppliers closer to their production sites in order to attract investment. Many companies are targeting CEE countries (Romania, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic) at the expense of Asia.”
Lucian Enaru, country general manager at Schneider Electric for Romania, the Republic of Moldova, and Armenia: “Romania still has excellent profession als, who are driven and experienced, but they are increasingly difficult to find and retain. But we need to quickly understand that we are competing on an internation al human resources market—especially at the white collar level, but also at other levels.”
Perry Zizzi, managing partner at Dentons Romania:
“We’re seeing a lot of confidence and optimism in the development of strategic sectors that will support Romania’s long-term economic growth, such as renewable energy, technology, transport infrastructure, and agriculture. Of course, reforms need to be implemented to close the gap between Romania and other European countries.”
manufacturing still provides good opportuni ties as long as companies set up their produc tion facilities properly, from their blueprints and foundations. “The era of big privatisa tions might be over, but there is always room for greenfield investments,” says the Schnei der Electric representative.
Talking about the real estate sector, Yitzhak Hagag says that it continues to be an attractive industry for foreign investors, espe cially when it comes to residential and logis tics projects. “The commercial segment has also been gaining ground recently. Automo tive, IT&C, FMCG & fashion retail also seem to be on the map of international companies looking to either enter Romania or expand their existing local operations,” he adds.
cy, to only name a few. “In addition, there is a lack of predictability that makes it almost impossible for a company, whether foreign or Romanian, to draft an accurate me dium- and long-term business plan, not to mention to ensure its successful implemen tation,” says Yitzhak Hagag. Demeyere of Speedwell shares his view.“Romanian law is challenging as there are no precedents to rely on. So I come back to my first point: uncertainty. Legal procedures can take a very long time. As developers, we like to have a long-term outlook, and the difficul ties we are facing right now are making it even more challenging.”
Jan Demeyere, co-founder & partner at Speedwell:
“The top arguments for investing in Romania are related to its business envi ronment and its people. The cons have to do with the uncertain political situation and the lack of investments in infrastruc ture. Yet, a lot of effort has been made in recent years.”
could successfully reposition Romania as a stronger player.”
Jan Demeyere, co-founder & partner at Speedwell, says that since the war in Ukraine started, Romania’s potential for nearshoring has increased. “Companies are moving away from China, and I believe Romania has a huge potential to attract international production facilities. This will entangle job creation, higher wages, and investments in infrastructure,” he says. Meanwhile, Enaru of Schneider Electric says that even though IT has been a focal point for investors in the past ten years,
“The top arguments for investing in Roma nia are related to its business environment and its people. The cons have to do with the uncertain political situation and the lack of investments in infrastructure. Nevertheless, my impression is that a lot of effort has been made in recent years and that we will start to see major improvements in the years to come,” Demeyere says. Along similar lines, Enaru of Schneider says that paradoxically, the pros and cons are both related to people. “Romania still has excellent professionals, who are driven and experienced, but they are increasingly difficult to find and retain. But we need to quickly understand that we are competing on an international human resources market—especially at the white col lar level, but also at other levels—and that we need to provide a complex and rich offering to our people in order to keep them for a long time.”
All that said, foreign investors face an endless stream of challenges: recruiting and retaining the right talent, finding reliable business partners, securing financing, resolv ing supply chain issues, and complying with regulatory and tax obligations and bureaucra
Compared to other countries in the region, Romania’s low level of spending on public health and education, its skill short age or its low internet usage and broadband access are also among the key market issues. “Romania only spends 3.1 percent of GDP on education, one of the lowest levels in the EU, and it has one of lowest levels of educational attainment at the tertiary level,” says Anghel of the FIC. He adds that the biggest challenge continues to be macroeconomic volatility, including the inflation rate, which is among the highest in Europe. “Creating an efficient, predict able, and stable tax system that includes tax legislation, tax administration, and budget ing is very important in attracting invest ments and having real economic growth.”
Last but not least, Romania still has a lot of work to do on its infrastructure, as strategic investors that build manufacturing units here need to be able to efficiently and safely deliver their products to other countries.
“On top of everything else, we also need to be doing a lot more to stop the brain drain phenomenon. For years, Romania was considered an El Dorado of highly educated and polyglot professionals. Over the past decade however, its top students have been leaving the country, many of whom are never to return,” Enaru of Schneider Electric warns.
The Romanian e-commerce market is the second largest in CEE, with a value of 10 billion euros, and experi encing steady growth. At the same time, the market provides favourable conditions for the emergence of new startup and scaleup companies. Based on their business model, these com panies either develop e-commerce platforms or offer tech products and services to players in the field, with logistics, sales or marketing solutions.
By Claudiu VrinceanuE-commerce businesses are very active and they form a vibrant ecosystem among other startup sectors such as fintech, healthtech or edtech, which can all count on enthusiastic support from investors. Founders who have previously worked as managers in different companies, especially multinationals, have been behind the most successful Romanian e-commerce startups and scaleups so far. The growth of the e-commerce industry in recent years is the result of technology escalation, increased access to electronic devices, and better internet connectivity. Dozens of start ups operating on this emerging market are getting attention from local VCs and business angels.
GPeC is a community focused on e-com merce and online marketing that can be seen as an essential player in the local ecosystem, along with ARMO (the Association of Roma nian Online Stores). According to industry estimates, the local e-commerce sector had reached a value of EUR 6.2 billion at the end of 2021, almost 10 percent above its 2020 value, estimated at EUR 5.6 billion. Last year’s growth was slightly below the initial expectations of 15 percent.
The growth of the e-commerce industry in recent years is the result of technology escalation
Eight of the most active and experienced Romanian startups in the e-commerce sector are EasySales, Stock Binder, Flip.ro, Price Flux, Innoship, Postis, Ecap, and Blugento.
All the case studies indicate the direction of companies' internationalisation and the potential for sustaining other e-commerce ecosystems. For example, this year, the SaaS platform for automated management and centralisation of e-commerce activities easy Sales entered the Hungarian market. It offers merchants easy access to customers outside the country by integrating services with various international companies. Meanwhile, Innoship, which optimises interactions be tween retailers and couriers, plans to expand to Poland and the Czech Republic. It is also exploring opportunities in Spain and other Western European countries.
In addition to the group of tech startups, several scaleup companies, including Retar geting.biz, 2Performant, and Evomag have stood out through the funding they’ve at tracted and their scaling plans. For example, evoMag raised an EUR 2 million investment from Catalyst Romania, one of the region's most influential venture capital funds, to support the company's accelerated develop ment.
E-commerce and other retail-related seg ments have become the focus of awareness as traditional businesses are now undergoing a new era of digitalization, and this evolu tion is supported by new players. Besides investors or platforms like Gapminder and Seedblink, there is a strong participation of prominent market players such as eMAG. Flip.ro got investments of EUR 8 million from eMAG Ventures to strengthen their expansion plans. Recently, the company expanded to Bulgaria, and it is planning to reach Hungary as well.
In terms of the development of the ecosys tem of e-commerce startups, Poland teaches us that developing local champions—one example being Allegro, Poland's biggest e-commerce company—may lead to other entrepreneurial initiatives. Besides target ing Poland’s substantial online marketplace, many other Polish companies are ready to expand internationally. As for financing and unicorn development at the European level, we can see that fintech, grocery delivery, and recycled apparel and electronics have been among the most popular investment areas.
The IT&C sector may reach a value of 10 percent of GDP in the com ing years, given that the economic contribution of this sector is now near the 7 percent threshold. The internationalisation of IT services and products and the digitalization of public administration are two essential pillars for the develop ment of the IT&C industry, the most active contributor to Romania’s economic growth in 2022.
By Claudiu VrinceanuTheshare of the IT&C sector’s gross added value in Romania's GDP has been on an upward trend in recent years, reaching 6.35 percent in 2021, signifi cantly above the Eurozone average of 4.8 percent of GDP, according to an analysis by Banca Transilvania (BT). Gross Value Added (GVA) rose in 2022 at an annual rate of 23.6 percent, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
"IT&C has stood out among the sectors of the national economy through a dynamic growth of its gross added value in recent years, in the context of the implementation of the Digital Revolution," said Andrei Rad ulescu, Director of Macroeconomic Analysis at Banca Transilvania. To put it into perspec tive, the share of GVA from IT&C in GDP was 4.5 percent in Romania in the 1995-2021 inter val, above that in the euro area (4.1 percent), based on BT's calculations.
The economic value of IT&C is influenced by factors such as the investment climate, reflected by the evolution of gross fixed capital formation, international trade—a barometer for the world economy—, and the
level of actual financing costs. These three elements will therefore be critical for IT to reach 10 percent of GDP in the coming year. It would also be economically valuable to see more Romanian software companies growing regionally, but unfortunately, the current trend is going against this need. Following French Publicis Groupe’s purchase of local software company Tremend at the beginning of the year, another Romanian IT scaleup, Qualitance, founded 15 years ago by entrepre neurs Ioan Iacob and Radu Constantinescu, announced that it had been bought by French company Alten. The takeover agreement is to be signed by the end of this year.
Romania's digital economy could grow 3.5 times to around EUR 52 billion in 2030, compared to last year’s EUR 14.8 billion, with the top growth drivers being investments in IT&C and digital commerce, according to McKinsey&Company. Romania's digital economy could thus account for around 9.6 percent of GDP in 2030, compared to about 6 percent of GDP in 2021. McKinsey experts analysed the opportunities presented by the digital economy in ten Central and Eastern European economies—small and mediumsized countries with strong potential for rapid digitalization. The three digital economy
components taken into account by the report are digital commerce (online spending on goods and services), IT&C budgets (the value of spending by governments and companies across all sectors on hardware, software, in frastructure, and related services), and offline spending on digital equipment (e.g., PCs, smartphones, IT infrastructure, cloud, etc.).
Romania is currently the third largest digital economy market among the ten Digital Challengers countries, after Poland (EUR 44 billion) and the Czech Republic (EUR 18 billion). The value is split between digital commerce (EU R 9.8 billion), IT&C spending (EUR 3.5 billion), and offline spending on digital products (EUR 1.6 billion).
In Romania, investments in IT&C recorded an annual growth of 8 percent between 20172021, reaching EUR 3.5 billion. However, the budgets allocated to this sector are still small compared to countries such as Poland (EUR 14 billion), the Czech Republic (EUR 9 billion) or Lithuania (EUR 7 billion). The develop ment of IT&C infrastructure in Romania is accelerating, leading to greater digital literacy among the population. In this context, investments in IT&C can become the primary growth driver for the digital economy by 2030.
The government must move away from simply granting free subsidies to offset some costs and start to provide financing to innovative start ups and scaleups. The first step has been taken through a series of programmes which are part of a national innova tion plan.
By Claudiu VrinceanuTheNational Plan for Research, Innova tion, and Digitalization, drawn up by the Ministry of Research, Innova tion, and Digitalization, outlines a series of programmes in the field. These new projects are necessary for the current economic condi tions. European innovation rankings place Romania far below countries with smaller populations. Compared to 2021, innovation performance has improved in 2022 for 19 EU countries and declined for 8, including Roma nia, which remains in last place in the Innova tion Scoreboard published by the European Commission.
From a business community standpoint, there is a need to create an innovative entre preneurship system and support the creation of a critical mass of innovative startups. Like wise, at the pre-seed level, business commu nities can support the expansion of incuba tion and acceleration capacity for innovative companies.
One such project could be the Innova tive Business Matching Fund, which aims to financially support innovative startups that manage to validate their technology concept with private investors. The finance scheme will come in the form of a grant of maximum
50 percent of the investment value, with the rest being the private investor’s contribution. Romanian entrepreneurs have proposed this principle of fund matching considering the fact that it has been validated across ad vanced innovation ecosystems, from Silicon Valley to Israel.
Another model is the Seed Capital Match ing Fund, which makes it possible to continue previous investments by co-financing the do mestic venture capital portfolio. The financ ing is granted in the form of investment and provides up to 30 percent of the venture capi tal fund's financing value. These investment vehicles are welcome when at least five active venture capital funds make investments of up to 5-10 million euros. Many Romanian found ers need new investment rounds worth over EUR 10 million for international scaling.
The lack of investment in research and technology transfer is one of the reasons why the foundations of the research and innova tion system in Romania are not solid enough to support the country's evolution towards a knowledge-based economy. In this unfa vourable context, companies are increasingly affected by brain drain and a limited con tribution of science and research to today’s
problems. A development direction could be the creation of a programme announced by the Romanian government that focuses on technological transfer. Its aim is to develop technology transfer at the national level; increase the visibility of research results and their impact on the economic environment by strengthening links between the research, academic, and business environments; and develop human resources expertise in technological transfer centres. A key factor for the entrepreneurial climate could be the increased visibility of research results on the market and the commercial exploitation of those results.
At the same time, the business environ ment should get involved in the future Twin ning Programme, which aims to encourage professional networking and introduce new ideas, knowledge, methods, initiatives, and procedures related to technology transfer into the university environment. The programme will award grants allowing universities and research institutes in Romania to participate in experience exchange with counterparts from other European states. The impulse of high-tech exports must continue, having had good results in recent years. Notably, exports of IT&C services will reach a record value of around EUR 8.7 billion in 2022 (up from EUR 7 billion recorded in 2021).
Andrei Hostiuc, Deputy General Manager at Apa Nova Bucuresti, a Veolia company, sat down with Business Review to discuss the company’s approach to sustainability and how it intends to become the benchmark organisation for ecological transformation in order to assure a sustainable future for the coming generations.
By Anda Sebesi
What is Veolia's purpose and how is it reflected in its business practices?
Veolia's Purpose has been conceived as a long-term vision and it is more than just a statement. It is a compass that helps us stay on the right path, a balanced and shared ap proach to continuous improvement that aims to benefit all stakeholders, based on the fun damental approach around sustainability and its utility for the planet, society, and future generations. Our Purpose is being imple mented through the Impact 2023 strategic programme, guided by a vision of multidi mensional performance, with the ambition of turning Veolia into the benchmark company in the field of ecological transformation.
Veolia has made a public commitment to give the same level of attention to all dimen sions of its performance: economic and finan cial, commercial, human resources, social, and environmental—with the stated priority of seeking a balance and the maximum posi tive impact for each of these dimensions, which form a whole. It is difficult to balance out the impact of the different dimensions of the Group’s performance, but it’s more relevant than ever in today's world. This is our ambition.
Our Purpose is a path to excellence. This requires each of us to be coherent and trans parent: coherent in our decision-making, aligned with the company’s official strategy,
and transparent in the way we publicly report on our actions and performance, but also on the challenges we face.
How many of the Sustainable Development Goals does Veolia address, and how?
Our strategic programme, Impact 2023, is built around multidimensional performance.
We have defined objectives for each perfor mance dimension, to reach a total of 18. These objectives are aligned with the 17 Sustainable Goals defined by the UN, directly impacting 13 of them. Impact 2023 is being implemented through multi-annual action plans, which also include financial and resources compo nents. All investments and new projects are
analysed in terms of their impact on our mul tidimensional performance commitment and thus on their contribution to the sustainable development goals as well.
It means decisive structural choices and solu tions that make ecological transformation possible, leading to the resourcing, reuse, and reduction of natural resources. We also intend to be a more an important player in the local resource loops. As a world leader in natural resource management, Veolia has the capac ity and expertise to provide the solutions needed to meet the challenges of our times. On the journey to becoming the benchmark organisation for ecological transformation, our company is committed to accelerating the implementation of existing projects while generating tomorrow's solutions.
We strive to adapt our production and con sumption patterns to environmental rigors by placing ecology at the core of every process, assessment or decision. This is the only way we can develop revolutionary, coher ent solutions that are capable of mediating environmental impact with the help and to the benefit of stakeholders, from employees and partners to local authorities, producers, and the civil society.
Reducing the environmental footprint of all our activities and creating the proper con ditions for the preservation and restoration of biodiversity are integral parts of Veolia's strategic plan to restore the balance of natural resources and achieve sustainability by 2023.
What can you tell us about Veolia's mission to become a champion of ecological transformation?
Our mission means providing our public and private customers worldwide with long-term win-win innovative solutions that facilitate access to essential services and natural re sources and efficiently resource, reduce, and reuse those natural resources. The improve ment of our environmental footprint—as well as that of our customers—is central to our business model.
For Veolia, becoming a benchmark organ isation for ecological transformation also means going beyond having a lower nega
Andrei Hostiuc, Deputy General Manager at Apa Nova, a Veolia company
He joined Apa Nova in 2009 and currently coordinates the activity of the company’s teams to ensure rigorous compliance with the 23 Service Levels stipulated by the Concession Contract and to pursue strategic sustainable urban development projects.
ABOUTinfrastructure or green management and have the potential to raise awareness among employees, customers, decision-makers, and communities about the company's activities and how they can be adapted to protect the environment.
tive impact, particularly in terms of carbon. As a key player in climate change mitigation, the company also helps cities and industries adapt to the consequences of climate change (identifying water stress risks, recycling water to limit pressure on resources, etc.). Two KPIs related to greenhouse gas emis sions (GHG) have been selected to measure performance: emission reduction—through the progress of its investment plan to gradu ally eliminate coal in Europe—and emission avoidance. Our goal is to reduce GHG emis sions by 15 million tonnes of CO2 worldwide by 2030.
How important do you think it is for Romania to adopt a circular economy model?
According to the latest public information, the European Commission's third assessment of the implementation of environmental legislation among the Member States put Romania in last place, so the adoption of the circular model in Romania is necessary at this point. In my opinion, there is good poten tial for the embodiment of circularity in the Romanian economy in the following years, especially considering the EU regulations in the field. Therefore, we strongly encourage the establishment of local circular economy loops that will strengthen supply chains and bring positive results in terms of the use of natural resources.
We implement nature-inspired programmes that are based on bio-indicators, green
In terms of new ways of building the green economy, another approach integrated by the Group relates to increasing our capacity to supply high-quality secondary raw materials that meet producers’ needs and to generating energy from renewable fuels or incinerating waste. Our solutions include making beer from wastewater, making energy from coffee grounds, recycling plastic from the food in dustry, transforming wastewater into potable water, and producing energy from biomass or sludge.
Water is a limited and indispensable natural resource. How is Veolia involved in protecting it?
Our business is fundamentally linked to the environment, and protecting it remains our top priority. We have always been committed to minimising the environmental impact of our activities by developing new technolo gies and providing examples of best practic es, staying true to our values through actions that protect nature.
Locally, in order to protect this vital, exhaustible resource and to maintain the sustainability of its services, Apa Nova, a Veolia company, has substantially reduced consumption in the drinking water collec tion, production, transport, and distribu tion processes, as well as in the collection, transport, and treatment of wastewater and stormwater since taking over the concession. Specifically, we have reduced the amount of raw water extracted and consumed from natural resources by more than 63 percent since 2001. This means we have avoided the waste of more than 124 million litres of water.
As far as our local entities are concerned, we are focusing on the company's development in both operational and financial terms, with clear objectives: streamlining, reinventing, and consolidating traditional activities, de signing and developing innovative solutions, and anticipating tomorrow's essential needs.
Ekaterina Egorova, CEO & CSO at IKEA South East Europe, sat down with Business Review and talked about the circular busi ness model and its importance for the company and explained how IKEA is helping its custom ers adopt a more sustainable way of life.
By Anda Sebesi
What does IKEA do to provide affordable and sustainable furnishing solutions to its customers?
As a company established nearly 80 years ago, we’ve always strived to remain committed to our vision of creating a better everyday life for people. Today, this is still at the core of every thing we do at IKEA, and it goes beyond home furnishing—we want to have a positive impact on people and the planet. Our ambition is to make healthy and sustainable living afford able, and we want to inspire and enable more people to live better lives within the boundar ies of our planet. This goal translates into our affordable range of home furnishing solu tions, which are produced in a sustainable way through the use of natural and renewable materials. Our products also enable savings for our customers by helping them reduce water and energy consumption, avoid food waste, and enjoy cleaner air at home.
What can you tell us about the circular business practices that IKEA has imple mented so far?
One of our biggest ambitions and opportu nities is to transform IKEA into a circular business by 2030. Throughout the IKEA value chain, we work to prolong the life of products and materials. Becoming circular is not only the right thing to do, but also a necessity if we
want to continue living on this planet. With our buy back and bring back programmes for used furniture, we want to give recov ered products a second life and extend their lifecycle. With our second chance service, customers can sell their used IKEA furniture in a safe and streamlined way, year-round. They will receive IKEA credit in return, while someone else will give a new home to the repurposed products. Everyone wins in this exchange, especially the planet.
Transforming IKEA into a circular and cli mate-positive company also involves deploy ing the latest technologies. For example, in order to deliver on our goal of being powered by 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, we invested in 1,572 solar panels at IKEA Pallady last year, covering an average of 20 percent of the store’s annual needs.
As a human-centred and values-driven com pany, IKEA believes that equality is a human right, regardless of age, ethnicity, race, gender or sexuality. We are committed to creating a workspace where everyone is free to be themselves and be appreciated for who they are. We encourage open conversations with our co-workers, and at certain points, this has also meant that we’ve had to become aware of our unconscious biases towards people who
are different from us, and that we’ve been able to take action to minimise those biases. Ultimately, the goal is to create a workplace infrastructure that allows everybody to be treated fairly.
What are the ways in which IKEA supports local entrepreneurs and creates new job opportunities?
We also aim to generate a positive social impact throughout the IKEA value chain with our fair and equal approach in the commu nity where we operate. We stand by disad vantaged and vulnerable groups. Caring for and getting involved in the local community has enabled us to launch a new programme via IKEA Social Entrepreneurship in Febru ary this year. The Accelerator Programme for Romania and Poland allows us to create 3-year partnerships with social businesses and boost their impact inside disadvantaged communities. So far, in Romania, we have enrolled 4 social entrepreneurs from different sectors: sustainable agriculture, job inclusion, circular economy, and sustainability. We aim to provide dignified employment and income to five key vulnerable groups, namely lowincome women, small local producers, people with disabilities, ethnic communities, and at-risk youth. Our support will continue with a new programme dedicated to Ukrainian refugees.
Bravva Angels aims to build a portfolio of 30 startups with female founders over the next three years, with a total financing volume of around EUR 10 million. Ilinca Paun founded Bravva Angels after making an early-stage investment in a startup founded by two women and saw a huge potential in having an entrepreneurial ecosystem that offers more business opportunities to women founders.
By Ovidiu PosircaHow integrated are female founders in the Romanian startup ecosystem and what made you launch Bravva Angels this fall?
Although there is a large number of business es started by women, the biggest gender gap can be observed when it comes to accessing investment. Female founders are underin vested, as an almost insignificant 2 percent of the total number of transactions listed as venture capital investments go to them, ac cording to How to Web transaction monitor ing data for 2021. The most underrepresented are startups with female founders only, who are looking for very early-stage financial support—what we call “the first professional
money”—usually from business angels.
This is the sweet spot for Bravva business angels, who are mature and experienced busi nesspeople and professional investors who see the situation as an opportunity. Female founders need funding, but they are under the radar of many early-stage VC funds. My assumption is that they are not very accom modating with the profile of a young female entrepreneur. In terms of risk, what’s inter esting is that research shows that on a global level, women who raise investment usually return higher profits and grow sales faster, which should make this segment quite attrac tive for investors.
How inclusive is the wider European startup industry when it comes to women entrepreneurs?
The statistics are slightly better, but still terrible, with around 5 percent of funding going to women and 10 per cent to mixed teams—a bit better than the US, it seems. Data still must be refined and completed as early-stage funding sometimes hap pens through the business angel community or through crowdfunding, and not all of it is being accurately tracked. The more available data that tracks later stage transac tions in Europe and the US indicate that as companies grow, the inclusion of wom en in boards comes more naturally, and that stages B and above are almost always more successful when women co-lead the pitch/round. But these women usually just hold executive or board positions, they’re not co-founders.
What challenges have you faced as a woman angel investor?
None; I think it is a great opportunity for women to gain their financial independence by investing in startups alongside other types of investments. It is a very risky one, but it comes with the unique benefit that you can get involved and help the founder, contribut ing with your expertise and network besides
the funding. The money is needed, but even more essential are the resources that come along with it. If all experienced businesswom en started acknowledging how much value they were creating in their professional lives and how this could be multiplied by sharing it with young entrepreneurs, the impact they could generate is enormous. I encourage all businesswomen to learn about becoming a business angel and join us in co-investments, so we can grow our impact together.
We believe we can raise a capacity to co-invest up to EUR 10 million by 2025. In these next 3 years, we hope to be able to work with at least 30 startups. We have closed the round for Glow2Go and we are about to close our second co-investment within a few weeks. Besides transac tions, we want to build a community of resources for angels and startups and to build a membership plan with education al workshops, networking events, and investment opportunities.
They are ladies whom I have known for a long time and whom I admire greatly for their business ethics, reputation, human qualities, and drive for helping others and generate impact. The process for a female founder applying for investment starts with 2-3 coaching meetings with 2 board members, for investment readiness, followed by gather ing feedback from the rest of the board in a dedicated presentation. A unique element of our process is the fact that we invite other female founders and angels to participate as observers and learn from each presenta tion experience before entering the process themselves.
Are you looking to expand the investor base of Bravva Angels?
Of course. We need investors with a desire to contribute and the ability to dedicate time to founders. Smart money means more than just money. We invest at a very early stage, which brings high risk but also a good potential to
get back 3-5x the invested amount within 5 years. We would like to expand our investor base, as we believe we can help young entre preneurs with more pockets and more brains, as well as obtain great profits, precisely because we boost their growth together.
Are there some core challenges that Bravva Angels will attempt to solve through its investment strategy?
I started this community of angel investors together with a core female angel group after working with 2 great young ladies from the
nated jury. Multiple studies have shown that we prefer to do business with people like us, those we feel we understand and we can relate to. That’s why Bravva board members are all female angels: we believe we can serve them better as investors, that we can relate and help them through their journey. We believe that learning capacity should rank higher than ambition in the scoring model. At the same time, the capacity to form and lead a team should outweigh someone’s industry knowledge.
Glow2Go startup, as their first business angel. Then I helped them raise a pre-seed round of almost EUR 200,000. During the process I re alised that their passion for the problem they were solving, their ability to learn and adapt to market responses, the fast implementation of advice, their tendency to “under-promise and over-deliver,” plus their ages (they were 22-23) would not pass the typical screening of the venture capital “boys’ club.” The typi cal VC describes a “strong founder” as “an industry expert” and most partners place a lot of value on an entrepreneur’s confidence and their very ambitious numbers. Ambition is indeed an important factor, but it doesn’t always lead to resilience; more often than not, it leads to aggressive, unbalanced, and even unethical conduct in business.
As a result, most female founders get dis couraged, since this process better matches the profile of the male entrepreneur. Another indisputable factor that leads to them losing investment competitions is the male-domi
I’m not sure. I am not a policy expert. And I am definitely not an activist, either. I see this male domination as a tempo rary phase, which we have also seen in other industries, such as real estate. Venture capital is a rather new indus try in Romania and it is on a journey of refinement and market segmentation, one that all other mature industries have gone through. The concept of “productmarket fit” is valid for venture markets as well, which to me means that new and different players will build the financial infrastructure needed by female found ers, and that existing ones will adapt, based on the evolution of the startup base. Female-led startups are good targets for the VC market, which will have to decide how to best serve them.
What are some of the strengths of female entrepreneurs and how can this influence companies’ overall profitability?
I’d put my money on their learning ability, their talent for building a great company cul ture, and their customer orientation—for sales and marketing success. Today, most busi nesses need to build an engaging community with their customers as part of their product or service journey. Women excel at that. A study done among US companies showed that sales performance in female-led startups was 65 percent higher than that of male-led start ups. This all goes into performance indicators like revenue and profit—a happy customer is a loyal one that brings more followers. A good culture makes people perform for the company at lower costs.
“We have to make sure that the future of industry is made in Europe,” suggested EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as she announced the launch of a new European Sovereignty Fund that should help the Union become autonomous on new technologies. Although the investment budget has not yet been made public, startups across the continent, including those in Romania, could be encouraged to innovate in a wide range of market segments, from advanced manufacturing to clean energy.
By Ovidiu Posircathe budget for the initiative is yet to be an nounced. However, it will probably join a series of development projects that funnel EU money towards startups and SMEs.
“We are aware of the constraints the Mul tiannual Financial Framework raises from a budgetary point of view and the establish ment of such a fund could provide the right means to address EU critical dependencies. I do believe such an initiative will further spur investments in manufacturing sectors, further paving Europe’s path towards energy independence and industrial autonomy,” Ileana Gutu, CFA, Partner and Head of the Valuation, Modelling & Economics practice at EY Romania, tells BR.
She adds that even before the covid pandemic and the associated semiconduc tor shortage, the EU was already on the path
It is still early to gauge the impact of the planned fund on the startup ecosystem as the budget for the initiative is yet to be announced.
has already promoted invest ments in these fields through billions of euros in funding raised from mem ber states. For instance, 15 EU states provided EUR 5.4 billion for the creation of a hydrogen technology value chain last summer. Another EUR 2.9 billion was raised in early 2021 from 12 EU states for a second pan-European research and innovation project along the entire battery value chain. The projects are implemented through a special platform called Important Projects of Common Euro pean Interest (IPCEI).
Thierry Breton, the EU’s Internal Market commissioner, pointed out in a blog post that the new fund “must be granted with the right budgetary means to be credible.” He also wrote that “today, we lack the tools to sup port the SMEs and startups which are critical to secure our supply chains, especially in strategic sectors such as clean tech.”
It is still early to gauge the impact of the planned fund on the startup ecosystem as
to regaining its autonomy in certain sectors through IPCEI initiatives.
One suggestion made by commissioner Breton was to finance the new fund through common debt, similar to what was done with NextGeneration EU, the EUR 800 billion programme that aimed to boost economic recovery after the pandemic shock.
Manufacturing will have to re-adapt to different conditions in order to enhance Eu rope’s industrial autonomy, so investments in early-stage startups could be part of this common effort.
“This pressure requires all kinds of inno vation, which is made possible by engag ing with the startup ecosystem. Romanian entrepreneurs are ready in growing numbers and they’re ready to take on the innovation challenges and provide solutions, particu larly in conjunction with local and regional initiatives to boost business acumen and eco system capacity,” Ciprian Man, co-founder of Growceanu, a Romanian community of angel investors, tells BR.
Chips are one high-tech industry in which the EU wants to gain a competi tive edge and actually bring the whole value chain to Europe, from research and development to production. On bat teries, the goal is to develop the capacity to meet 70 percent of expected demand in 2025 and 90 percent in 2030, according to the com missioner.
The EU has generated three times more investment than China in the last few years (mostly private). For solar energy production, Europe wants to limit its reliance on Chinese imports and has launched an industrial alliance designed to create jobs in this field. Significant progress has been made towards the creation of a hydrogen market, with around 750 projects ready to emerge by 2030. All these are also part of the EU’s goal to become the world’s first carbon neutral continent by 2050. In the digital sphere, a
core industry for startups, Europe aims to develop the next generation of cloud and edge capacities.
“We also urgently need a strong cyber shield for Europe with an EU infrastruc ture of interconnected security operational centres to detect potential attacks faster and react jointly—a cyber equivalent of our bor der and coast guards,” commis sioner Breton also wrote.
Entrepreneurs and researchers in Europe can tap funding from the European Innova tion Council (EIC), a new initiative launched under the Horizon Europe programme. Some EUR 350 million is available for multidisci plinary research teams to undertake ambi tious research, while another EUR 131 million is available for startups that want to trans
form research results into innovation oppor tunities and build a business case for specific applications. Another EUR 1.16 billion can be attracted by startups and SMEs to develop and scale up high-impact innovations.
The high inflation and growing interest rate environment that has already triggered a reduction of startup valu ations is also reflected in this year’s funding results across Europe.
Data from Crunch base shows that funding to European startups was down 38 percent year-onyear to USD 23.7 billion in the second quarter. The biggest decline was recorded by late-stage and growth stage tech startups, while funding for early-stage start ups was less affected.
Despite the challenging conditions, 21 startups from Europe reached valuations of at least USD 1 billion, thus joining the unicorn club, which included 187 companies at the end of Q2 2022. The highest valued startup that became a unicorn in Q2 was Londonbased SumUp, which is developing a pointof-sale payments platform.
Major producers of smartphones have already launched their flagships for this year, so we can now take a look at the top devices everyone will be using in the coming period. Apple and Samsung have both presented their best offers, while several other manufacturers are already on the market responding to alternative demands form global consumers.
By Aurel ConstantiniPhone 14 Pro, the latest flagship from Apple
Google, not Apple, was the last to launch its latest smartphone. The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro went into pre-order and started deliveries on October 13, at prices that that start at USD 600 for the regular model and USD 900 for the Pro. Google is not known for selling large numbers of smartphones, but it is regarded as one of the standard-bearers of the industry, provid ing very reliable devices and technology. In essence, it makes phones “that just work,” with good performance, good cameras, and great usability.
Pixel came right after Apple’s iPhone 14, a phone that has decided to no longer use a SIM card and instead go for the digital eSIM. It doesn’t bring too many changes on the outside, but there are some significant updates on the inside. First of all, the phone has a mid-frame that allows opening from
Samsung Galaxy Fold 4, the smartphone that can be turned into a computer
both front and back, making it easier to repair. That is a big step for Apple, and we can expect to see the company also complying with EU rules in a few years, meaning they will have to use the USB-C port for charging. Otherwise, the phone looks and works great, just as all other Apple releases have over the years. The prices are similar to those of last year’s devices, starting from USD 800 for iPhone 14 and USD 1,100 for the Pro.
Both of the phones described above can be compared to Samsung Galaxy S22. Apple and Samsung are still fighting for first place among the biggest manufacturers in the world, so the flagships they are releasing are very important. Samsung launched the Galaxy Fold 4 and Flip 4 in August, but these devices are not like its usual flagships, which
is why the iPhone 14 and Pixel 7 are better compared to the S22, launched back in the spring, a “regular” flagship from the Korean producer.
But the Fold and the Flip are supposed to go beyond the flagship and represent the future of the smartphone, according to Sam sung. I was fortunate enough to be able to test the Galaxy Fold 4 for several weeks, so I can now share my experience.
Putting aside the price, which is around USD 1,800 or RON 8,000, the device is quite astonishing. Samsung has managed to build a better hinge than the one it had on the Flip 3; the phone is thinner and the secondary screen—the small one—is as usable as that on any other flagship. To be honest, the small screen is the one that you’ll actually use most of the time; taking the phone out of your pocket to check messages or notifications won’t require you to open up the big screen. The device fits perfectly in your hand when folded and it can be used as a “regular” smart phone. For example, payments will likely always be carried out with the device in the folded position.
When you open it up, it’s a whole differ ent story. You may see it and think that it’s just a 7.6-inch tablet, but since it’s turns into a smartphone when folded, it’s much more than that. The best thing for me, as a journal ist, was the fact that the bigger screen and the Android allowed me to use the phone as a Chromebook computer. It is still an incon venience to carry an external keyboard and mouse around with you, but you can actually turn this phone into a computer if you need to. Is that what all phones will be like in the future? Right now, it surely looks like it.
Samsung has launched SEED, a programme that equips classrooms in Romania with state-ofthe-art technology, in a bid to support disadvantaged students and advance social inclusion. Business Review talked to Cristian Constantin, Head of Division Enterprise Business Team & CEE Education Strategy Director at Samsung, to find out more about the project.
By Aurel ConstantinThrough the SEED programme, we aim to equip a number of classrooms in several cities in Romania with the latest Samsung technology and thus contribute to the trans formation of both teaching and learning. We are global technology leaders and we strongly believe that such a position also comes with a responsibility to contribute to the good of society. That is precisely why we use our expertise and equipment to support students, providing them with access to smart classrooms and to a different way of learning, in which technology becomes their ally.
The concept of Smart Classrooms is a global one; Samsung brings its technology to schools all over the world, including those in South Korea, Australia or India.
We have inaugurated 3 such centres in Ora dea, Bacau, and Timisoara, and Bucharest
will soon be added to the list. All centres are equipped with Samsung technology and products, each of them featuring two interac tive whiteboards, 16 chairs, 16 tablets, and a video conferencing solution.
I would like to highlight the fact that the centre in Bacau has an additional role. In the context in which Bacau continues to be one of the cities with the highest school dropout rates, the educational centre here can also be used for distance teaching.
This way, we want to make sure that we also facilitate access to education for disad vantaged children who are forced to drop out of school due to living conditions.
So far, we have had about 1,000 participants, a good start for such a project. Our objective is to facilitate access to technology for as many young people as possible, so we are planning to open such educational centres in every city in Romania.
How important are technology and digita lization in the modern education process?
Technology can no longer be seen as a backup solution; it is a vital component without which the Romanian educational system cannot move forward. The latest Eurostat data shows that countries such as Finland or Ireland are at the top in terms of people with the most skills and knowledge that allow the use of technologies, while only 28 percent of people over 16 in Romania have basic digital skills. So, we can no longer talk about digitalization and technology in education as being something of the future; we have to talk about it now, today.
What needs to happen for schools in Romania to be digitalized?
We are talking about an extremely compli cated context. In a recent analysis, the OECD highlighted the biggest challenges for the education system in Romania, beyond the low level of digital education, including: unequal access to education (rural versus ur ban), the very high impact of socio-economic status on students’ educational results and, implicitly, on their decision to leave school, the need to increase the level of funding, etc. On top of all this is functional illiteracy, which reaches 42 percent, according to the national literacy report.
Collaboration and solid partnerships between the state and the private sector are essential so that together we can contribute to overcoming these challenges step by step. Through SEED, we’ve set out to bring tech nology closer to students and teachers and to make our know-how available to them. We don't just equip classrooms, we get actively involved in helping young people and teach ers develop their digital skills.
Whatever the reasons and outcomes of your everyday exercising are, one cannot deny its benefits for overall health. Most people take part in aerobic activity to improve their cardiovascular endurance and lose weight. People weight-train to fortify the muscles and get stronger. These reasons can be enough to get you moving to the gym and have enough motivation for the whole week and most of all, keep you healthy. But often people tend to forget another great element of a training program, which is stretching.
Flexibility training, which is often neglected, comes with great benefits: a greater freedom of movement and improved posture, increases physical and mental relaxation, it releases muscle tension and soreness and reduces the risk of injury. Some people are naturally more flexible than oth ers, depending on one's gender, age, body shape, genetics, and level of physical activity. As we grow older, we tend to lose flexibility and that happens because of our lack of activity and because of age. It is a fact, the less active you are, the less flexible you
become. But, as it happens with cardiovascular and muscle strength, also, flexibility will improve if we choose to train regularly.
And this is something you can easily take care of, if you just become a member of World Class, the biggest health & fitness network in Romania. From BODYCOMBAT to HIIT, from Yoga to Sch winn Cycling sessions, all you need to keep your body healthy awaits you in our clubs. We will get into the group fitness classes you can choose from a bit later, now let's see some more insights on that perfect stretching routine. It is important to reserve your time for stretching, no matter how much you hurry to finish your fitness class. Health is always first! You should allow at least 30 minutes, three times per week, for flexibility training. But sometimes five minutes can do the trick and are better than nothing to reduce muscle soreness. In all cases, any aerobic activity should be followed by at least a few minutes of stretching. Before you begin your stretching ses sion, get some minutes just to warm up, because stretching stiff muscles may get you injured. You can start with a simple, low-intensity warm-up, like walking while you swing your arms in a wide circle. The general advice for people starting a
workout program is to perform gentle but dynamic stretches before they go full swing and static stretches after the exercising session is done. When you perform a static stretch do not forget these simple rules to get you in perfect shape. Take a deep breath and slowly exhale as you gently stretch the muscle. Hold the stretch for 15 to 30 seconds, relax and then repeat the stretch several times. Remember that dynamic stretches should be led by a professional instructor for great results.
To make sure you always benefit from the best exercises and the best advices from a health and fitness expert, get your member ship at the closest World Class club in your city. If you are a swimming fan, perfect, more than 30 pools are waiting for you all over the country. Many of the group fitness classes such as Yoga, Stretch or Pilates will help you stay in top shape and the World Class instructors are always glad to help with useful advice. For the best results, visit the World Class Romania official site, pick your favourite class and membership, and start living more healthy, more fit!
Romanian PR’s top accolade, Romanian PR Award, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year as a daring and stubborn project that has managed to bring top communicators, valuable competitors, enthusiasts, and hundreds of PR professionals under the same roof.
By Romanita Oprea“20 years of my life have been linked to Romanian PR Award. A space and a time during which I’ve reached profes sional maturity and that has given me the pleasure of having come across many remark able figures and wonderful people. A privi leged position that has allowed me to closely watch the issues and debates of the industry, see the emergence of the most diverse talents, and observe the ways in which the industry has been able to maintain its relevance even in difficult times. If I were to summarise our entire experience in a handful of words and ideas, I would mention: focus on the target, trust, patience, tenacity, coupling to the op posite pole, failure is part of the economy of success, and success needs joy and… flight,” said Dana Oancea, President of the Forum for International Communication, the event’s organiser.The awards gala is scheduled for November 24 at JW Marriott Bucharest.
Talking about the event’s develop ment over time, Dana Oancea said that the
programmes registered at the Romanian PR Award are living testimony of the evolution of the local communication industry’s and that they largely reflect the hopes and struggles of the wider Romanian society over the past two decades. They talk about the institution of partnership and the values that sit at its core, about the rights of others and each person’s responsibilities, about communicators’ effort to understand their audiences, and about our talent to listen and integrate the expecta tions of different categories of stakeholders in organisational and business strategies.
How has the industry changed during these past 20 years according to representatives of agencies that operate in Romania? Alina Bratu, managing partner at WefflerMark, says that PR in Romania has grown tenaciously and enriched the media landscape with cam paigns that were full of meaning, purpose, and impact. It has evolved with the pace of
the consumer's lifestyle and needs; now audi ences are moving away from the classic and embracing things that are different, unique, digitally connected or technology-driven. “Each year brought its own lessons. And the most valuable were probably the hard ones, which had to be overcome using great preci sion, soft skills, and bold decisions. I believe that years like 2020 brought back solidarity in PR, as well as purpose; 2008 was the year when CSR became part of the PR definition, and even though the economic crisis dimin ished its impact, it was still a time of great, meaningful, and innovative campaigns,” Bratu said.
Raluca Rotaru, managing director at Chapter 4 Romania, notes that since the lo cal industry is relatively young compared to traditional PR markets, and since the people working in this industry are part of a genera tion that makes and lives through history every day, they are extremely fortunate to have actually created and developed the
Romanian PR industry. “It might sound pre tentious, but in fact it was and still is a huge learning opportunity for us all, as well as a way to catch up with the more experienced markets in basically no time. It has kept us on our toes from the very beginning and quickly improved our competitivity. There is amazing proof in all the international prizes the Roma nian PR industry keeps winning every year, ever since its earliest days.” When it comes to crisis communication management, the
McCann PR, believes that the current times are very interesting. As part of a regional “trend,” Romania has lost PR in translation in the past few years. “This happened for two reasons: first, PR was mostly impacted by the expansion and diversification of com munication channels and second, there was a budget fragmentation that came along with the expansion of channels. PR as an industry thought it could own and perform in any circumstance, in any medium. Of course
treasure the pure and honest value of what PR means and the way it can bring light into a room that’s more packed than ever before,” Ruxandra Vasilescu added.
According to Tereza Tranakas, founder & CEO at Oxygen, PR has evolved in terms of the strategic role it plays in the commu nication mix. We’re seeing more and more PR-driven campaigns, because brands and companies choose it over advertising in engaging and building relationships with various audiences. “Technology has also advanced the industry, allowing it to expand into new territories and reach out to a wider array of stakeholders in real time. The field now encompasses traditional and social me dia, influencer relationships, internal engage ment, and much more. I am really thrilled with the possibilities that lie in front of us in the PR industry, blurring the lines between communication fields and opening up new opportunities,” Tranakas said, adding that PR professionals thrive in challenging envi ronments. “That’s probably why the most interesting years have been the difficult ones, when we’ve had to deal with the economic crisis, the pandemic or all the challenges— and opportunities—presented by the current socio-economic context.”
agency Rotaru represents goes by the “never waste a good crisis” principle. PR profession als are the best at turning every challenge into an opportunity.
Andrei Alexandru, head of strategy at Mc Cann PR, says we had a decade of outstand ing growth that ended with the emergence of the pandemic. The industry as a whole devel oped in size and scope as the lines between PR, digital, ATL, and BTL started blurring, so it kept acquiring new capabilities at a break neck speed—digital departments, creative departments, social media, and so on. “Now that things have cooled down, we’re starting to see efforts to rearrange all these resources into new models that take into account the new market realities. But I think PR is still at the core of all communication, and we can securely anchor our future developments to that,” he argued. Meanwhile, his colleague, Ruxandra Vasilescu, business director at
that’s possible, but it takes time and effort to get people ready and keep up with all the transformation.” Vasilescu also pointed out that when social media was starting to get budgets, it was PR agencies doing social media activities because that’s where those budgets were.
One of the biggest challenges in PR is that of doing meaningful and creative work, espe cially when your audience is large and very diverse. “We took on board creatives and challenged them to put content at the heart of any campaign, to build narratives, and to forget about the Key Visual as the main cam paign asset. We changed our business models and agencies to accommodate creatives, which is costly and takes time. Clients love it—but most of the time they cannot afford it. So, in 2022, we’re living through fascinating times and hopefully our mission gets clearer. We have had lots of experiences and we can
“The present is the best time, the time when we can act, and PR works towards creating positive action. For example, we’re living in a digital era, when the rise of social media platforms gives greater chance to interconnectivity. The growing influence of the public brings up issues around free speech, while other considerations such as user privacy and data security continue to raise concerns for people and institutions alike,” said Simona Dan, managing partner at Public Advisors. Moreover, while in the beginning the focus was more on the written word and people had more time and patience to read, now video content and the ability to deliver complex messages within a few seconds has become the standard. On top of this, generation Z and millennials increasing ly make their choices based on their values and not on the buzz generated by a company or campaign. This trend is boosted by the growing number of content creators, who can amplify your message but also make it harder to control,” Simona Dan concluded.
Gen Z gained a reputation for being flighty during the Great Resignation as they job hopped in search of better salaries and working conditions. Data provided by LinkedIn to Fortune in March found that workers switching jobs increased by 37.6 percent from 2021 to 2022, with Gen Z and millennials leading the way, at 59.6 percent and 34.8 percent, respectively.
By Romanita Opreaa sense that younger gen erations feel loyal to themselves and their careers over their companies, exacerbated by their experience with layoffs during the pandemic. Remote work has made it even more difficult for some workers to feel like they’re part of a company.
“As an HR professional, I understand how important it is to effectively adapt the onboarding process to evolving needs, as well as to accommodate generational differences. As a result, we have constantly improved our onboarding process to answer any new comer’s need for relevant information. We did notice two important traits among the young generations in the past few years: Gen Z and Millennials perceive work as an extension of their personality and always look for develop ment opportunities. Young newcomers have
a different relationship with work. Flex ibility is key,” said Cristina Ulesan, human resources director at Brico Dépôt Romania. Young people might work in bursts of several hours, then take a long break, then finish an assignment during what would normally be their time off. Work is included in the fabric of their being. “This further translates into more efficient communication, as they are able to express their needs clearly from the very beginning—be that work flexibility or involvement in strategic projects—, as well as into a need for connection with the com pany’s identity. Particularly in the case of Gen Z, identity is a big topic; in fact, it is the topic. So, they tend to ask questions about our sustainability and community initiatives, for example, as a quick check on whether they feel aligned with the company’s mission
and values,” Ulesan adds. As for development opportunities, at Brico Dépôt Romania, they have noticed that many young newcomers access training courses immediately after starting their job. They have colleagues that only started three weeks ago and have already taken part in several courses from the com pany’s training catalogue, with a distinct ap petite for soft skills. Moreover, these employ ees want to understand the core business, and thus they are highly receptive to the onboard ing programme, which starts with one full day spent in one of the company’s stores.
According to Dana Dobrescu, corporate & government affairs manager at Mondelēz Ro mania, the onboarding process is clearly more difficult in a virtual environment. Technical knowledge can definitely be acquired in a flexible setup, but the connection to company
Gabriel Pantelimon, Xerox Romania & Turkey
culture, networking within the company, and getting a sense of how the company really is beyond the formal employer brand ing proposition are trickier. “We also had this kind of feedback from newcomers who joined the company during the pandemic. That’s why I think it is important to look at the onboarding process with special care these days. At Mondelez, we maintain a very flexible approach, with a hybrid working
know each other on a personal level, as this always makes collaboration easier.” This is precisely the reason why the company’s lat est initiative was to set up a breakfast with the Country Manager, where about a dozen people met with Lucian Enaru and talked business and personal matters—as appropri ate—around nice food and good coffee.
Based on his experience, Gabriel Pante limon, general manager at Xerox Romania & Turkey, believes that what matters more for the younger employees is the sense of balance between their personal and profes sional lives rather than the sense of belong ing. Younger workers come with their circle of friends and former colleagues; they are digital natives, so they are used to commu nicating all the time anyway. They look for jobs that make sense to them financially and satisfy them professionally, but they draw a line between office hours and personal time.
need for social connection perspective. We’re talking about a basic human need and, from a socio-psychological point of view, the main driver of personal happiness. “If we redesign the office space to enable connection, col laboration, co-creation, and celebration, then it will make sense for each of us to come back to the office, while still maintaining a flexible approach. Redesign means a rearrangement of the physical space—with more collabora tive places and with modern formats that go beyond meeting rooms—as well as a change of mindset.”
What they’ve found at Brico Dépôt Roma nia is that team members across all genera tional segments want to recapture connec tion with their peers, but that at the same time they value flexibility more than ever. Their findings confirm recent conclusions from Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, which suggested that employees were motivated by the promise of socialising with co-workers.
model. We encourage the return to the office for collaborative purposes, for all hands on deck gatherings, and for celebrations—like the recent 10-year anniversary of Mondelez,” Dobrescu explained. At the same time, the company also encourages each function to have conversations about their way of work ing, so as to balance the need for office-based connection and individual needs. They also try to understand that different people have different approaches: some of them really cannot work from home, while others only want to come to the office in certain circum stances, so the level of flexibility varies.
Cristina Mancas, HR VP SEE at Schneider Electric, acknowledges that the past three years have encouraged too many virtual meetings and too few live ones. “We do not want to live our lives online, so we cre ate setups for people to meet and discuss in a pleasant and structured way, to make sure they still have an opportunity to get to
There have been many changes and trends gaining traction during the pandemic years. “Research is now struggling to catch up with the multiple effects generated by WFH—and now by the hybrid work system—on employ ees from various age groups, and some of the conclusions are contradictory at times. What we are seeing now is that the vast majority of employees would only consider a hybrid work format, if not to work from home all the time,” said Gabriel Pantelimon.
Of course, for a generation that changes the Zoom at school for the Teams at work, the experience can be disconcerting and alienating at first. “The difference we’re seeing in onboarding processes is quite significant. New employees no longer have a chance to ease into their own professions, ask around or check in with their peers or simply have a coffee with them and actually breathe in the organisational culture. We have to accept this and find ways to some how compensate for it. But I don’t think that younger employees would be interested in having a full-time office schedule just to be around their new coworkers; quite the op posite,” Gabriel Pantelimon said.
According to Dana Dobrescu, this situa tion suits all employees, whether they belong to the Gen Z or Millennial group, from the
“This naturally poses a challenge, but also creates an opportunity. We constantly look for ways to engage our colleagues at the office, from simple breaks to celebrate certain occasions to organising more ample semiformal events, during which our leadership team or high-level guests from the group discuss business news with everyone in at tendance,” Cristina Ulesan explained.
In Cristina Mancas’s opinion, the WFH or hybrid model isn’t a bigger source of frustra tion than the full-time office schedule used to be. And that’s because Schneider Electric looks for people with strong work ethics, who understand that a company is just as produc tive and well-performing as its people are. So, they can work from wherever they need to be. Some feel more comfortable coming into the office and meeting with their colleagues or managers; others need to take care of their children or limit their time in traffic so they prefer to stay home.
“We discuss and accommodate their needs based on trust and openness from both sides. And, of course, we evaluate perfor mance and job satisfaction. We always listen and observe when it’s time to make a change. Given the results we have had lately, on both counts, I can say we’ve managed to find a balance that works well for our colleagues,” Mancas said.
At the beginning of September, an ambitious citizen-driven initiative promoting the transition of the European food system towards a low carbon circular future, titled FoodSHIFT2030, hosted a showcase and roundtable event in Brasov. Local partner Highclere Consulting created the Brasov FoodSHIFT Accelerator Lab, which aims to foster a more localised food economy and revive the region’s gastronomic heritage.
By Oana VasiliuThenewly created Brasov FoodSHIFT Accelerator Lab focuses on support ing local food product innovation by capitalising on the commercial gastronomi cal potential of the region and incorporating plant-based nutrition. It aims to improve innovation in public policies, notably in procurement for public catering as well as in marketing and supply chain management. The project aims to boost the rural food pro duction sector by creating links with urban stakeholders and institutions. The long-term ambition is for these connections to mature and eventually facilitate a circular urban-rural economy.
To improve these aspects in Brasov Coun ty, the local Sustainable Development Agency is putting innovation on the food production agenda through a multi-level governance ap proach. The agency hopes to encourage and integrate food innovation, particularly in rural areas surrounding Brasov. This is being imple mented through the set-up of six Local Action Groups dealing with local food producers to address context-specific practical needs.
For the greater good, FoodSHIFT2030 also aims to shift to less meat and more plant-
based diets. This transition is necessary in order to address the pressing challenges related to food and nutrition security, contrib ute to the EU commitment of reducing GHG emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030, and revitalise urban-rural linkages and partner ships. The project includes nine regions in Europe—Barcelona, Bari, Wroclow, Ostende, Copenhagen, Brasov, Berlin, Avignon, and Athens—as well as over 30 place-based food partnerships that have joined the Europewide project, with the aim of establishing FoodSHIFT Enabler Labs (FELs) in their respective local areas.
SolBun Coop (Fair Soil Farmers’ Cooperative) is a private initiative that focuses on bringing together small and local producers to jointly access the market and connect with consum ers. Another key goal is to get all participating vegetable producers certified as organic, with long-term ambitions of becoming a key pro vider of local products in the Brasov region.
Breasla Carciumarilor (Brasov Restau rants’ Association) is a private initiative that promotes the use of local ingredients sourced
from small producers among restaurants across Brasov. The as sociation aims to develop its ap proach and introduce a labelling system that will allow restaurants to display logos indicating that they work with local producers.
SZIKRA Restaurant takes an innovative approach to food waste in the catering sector by celebrating every flavour and honouring every taste the earth provides. The team uses as little meat as possible and focuses on making the best out of roots, seeds and nuts, seasonal fruits, and vegetables, using them in their entirety. SZIKRA aims to plant the seeds of its circular economy approach in other res taurants, so it is setting up a project to deliver Food Waste Good Practices.
The Gastro Local Association (Vama Buzaului) aims to further enhance the at tractiveness of the region for tourists by offering Food Trails that include gastronomic points in the form of local farmhouses offer ing homemade food products. This provides additional income to local farms and attracts tourists, contributing to the overall prosperity of the region. The Carpathian EcoCentre As sociation focuses on educating young people on healthy diets, local food, and climate impacts. So far, activities have taken the form of didactic materials, developing partner ships with schools and kindergartens, and organising trips to local farms. The Tinutul Barsei Association was set up to support the professionalisation of local farmers, offering opportunities for cooperation and innovation. The association currently cooperates with 45 stakeholders including municipalities, NGOs, local institutes, and private partners.
Back in 2018, the Tasuleasa Social NGO decided to set up an extensive hiking trail across Romania: from Putna, the resting place of Stephen the Great, all the way through Transylvania and its cultural richness, to Drobeta Turnu-Severin, King Carol I’s point of entry into the country. Four and a half years later, the trail has reached a length of 1,400 km and it’s been officially launched in Alba Iulia. BR talked to co-founder Alin Useriu while he was on the trail, explaining why Via Transilvanica represents a journey of courage.
By Oana VasiliuWho is the team behind Via Transilvanica (VT)?
The association was established 22 years ago, in 2000, as Tasuleasa Social, and I was one of the founding members. We started working on Via Transilvanica (VT) 18 years later. We had a very well-prepared team to which we kept adding more members, and together we have a lot of experience in all kinds of big projects. (…) We have 15 team members, all of whom have worked on VT, along with over 10,000 volunteers. If we add up the total, Tasuleasa Social activities have attracted over 100,000 participants throughout the years.
What makes the Via Transilvanica trail unique in the world?
I always avoid terms of comparison, and I tried to convey the same idea to the team be cause we built this route the way we thought
was best. But in truth, no other long-distance trail in the world is marked like this, with andesite markers every kilometre. (…) I also think that this 1,400-km project makes it much easier to present the country at interna tional fairs. We were always missing some thing, but now with VT, you almost have it all in one place. We couldn't zigzag all over Romania, but if this project ever gets overcrowded, I'll be happy to think of another route.
At this time, VT provides a complete experience of Romania, covering all its historical, ethnic, cultural, cu linary, and natural levels. It’s true we haven't reached the sea, but we do have the Danube.
The south end was very easy to choose as Transylvania was a name given by the Ro mans, who built the Bridge of Apollodorus, which marks the end of VT. It was also there, at the penultimate stop, that Modern Romania was formed when Carol I practically declared himself Romanian. (…)
These two endpoints were very important to us, to which we added other important Romanian landmarks, such as Alba, the place where the Union was forged and where the 100-year celebration took place. (…)
"The road that unites" comes from our
recurring question of whether we are united to develop big projects in civil society as well. I think we have demonstrated that it can be done, as in these four and a half years we have managed to build a national infrastruc ture of 1,400 km across Romania, crossing 10 counties and 107 administrative units.
Now that you've completed Via Transilvanica, what would you differently if you could do it again?
The trip I’m on now is related to a new proj ect, where we need to remap about 200 km of the VT trail in order to ensure better safety along with the spectacular scenery. We must work very hard on quality, safety, national and international promotion, and mainte nance. I would do absolutely nothing differ ently. We didn't change our plans on the way; in fact we’ve never done that at Tasuleasa Social in the 22 years of its existence.
How would you describe the Via Transil vanica experience to a foreigner?
VT is the best ambassador of Romania. It’s an ambassador who will never lie, and whoever comes across it will have the complete, real, and beautiful experience of Romania. It is very interesting to see a foreigner on VT; so far there have been very few of them, because we haven’t promoted it that much. They all say they didn’t know what Romania was like, that they had all kinds of preconcep tions, and some of them have said that it’s like a fairy tale. I would like VT to be not only an ambassador among foreigners, but also a way for Romanians to start falling in love with this country, because if you take it one step at a time, you’ll learn that Romania has much more to offer than you might think.
October 14-16, several venues in Bucharest
For this edition of the festival, Fratelli will be the place where hospitality entrepreneurs and professionals as well as wine lovers and collectors can interact directly with the owners of participating wineries. As always, the festival will bring on wineries from Romania, Europe, and other wine regions of the world, an impressive gourmet selection, masterclasses held by local pro fessionals, and special events.
Jimmy Carr is coming back to Sala Palatului as part of his latest stand-up comedy tour, TERRI BLY FUNNY. The British come dian's new show promises to test the audience's limits on dark humour by taking an irreverent approach to the most gruesome topics of the day. Tickets still available.
RADAR #3 – METAVERSE will take place in the centre of Bucha rest, in three heritage buildings: the Oscar Maugsch Palace, the Palace of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce & Industries, and Ghica House. RADAR is an an nual x-ray of the new media art industry and the largest festival dedicated to new digital media in Romania. The exhibition will consist of a selection of multi disciplinary projects created by artists from all over the country: AR, VR, interactive installations, NFTs, AI art, an immersive space with 360-degree projections, and dedicated interactive installa tions created using the architec ture of the spaces. Tickets are still available.
October 15-16, Fratelli
October 18 & 19, Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca
Finnish singer Tarja Turunen, the former lead vocalist of sym phonic metal band Nightwish, will perform at Arenele Romane in Bucharest on October 18, and on the following day she’ll be in Cluj-Napoca, at Form Space (already sold out).
Jack Savoretti is a British artist whose music takes the public through an amalgam of the folk, indie, and alternative genres. He has six studio releases, and his most recent, 2019's “Singing to Strangers” and 2021's “Euro piana” both debuted at number one in the UK Album Chart.
Tickets almost sold out.
October 27, Fratelli
Macy Gray will return to Bu charest with a special concert. Always full of surprises, per former and actress Macy Gray will present an inspired 11-track new album from Moonslice
Records—The Reset—and a fresh new presentation, featuring her own band, The California Jet Club. Tickets still available.
The main exhibit of the 10th edition of Art Safari is “Seeking Truth: The Art of John Consta ble,” curated by Dr Emily Knight and Katharine Martin and organ ised by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which cov ers works by English landscape painter John Constable.
Visitors will also get a chance to see works by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Claude Lorrain, William Turner, Thomas Gainsborough, and Jacob van Ruisdael, as well as an interna tional pavilion for Korean Beauty in Poster Art by Byoungil Sun and others.
