New opportunities in

New opportunities in the age of big projects

Romania has been allocated a total of EUR 80 billion through the EU’s resilience mechanism programme and 2021-2027 budget. Most of this large sum will be spent on large infrastructure projects including roads, railroads, hospitals, energy, and urban regeneration.

By Sorin Melenciuc

This year, Romania increased its motorway network by almost 25 kilometers

HARD WORK In fact, Romania is already experiencing a construction boom, despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Construction works in Romania rose by 12.2 percent year-on-year in July and by 18.1 percent in the first 7 months of this year, with the main driver being the engineering works sector (+25.5 percent year-on-year in January-July 2020).

According to the latest Eurostat data, Romania has registered by far the largest increase in this sector among the 27 EU member states – and this deserves an explanation. Most experts say that Romania’s construction boom, overtaking regional peers, is a logical consequence of its lack of infrastructure. This year, Romania increased its motorway network by almost 25 kilometers – 2 sections of the Transylvanian A3 motorway – to a total of 873 km, below Hungary or Serbia. But the speed of infrastructure projects seems to have accelerated this year as the new Liberal government has signed several contracts for new projects.

According to the Pro Infrastructura Association, an NGO monitoring infrastructure projects in Romania, the new contracts will mean that at least 375 km of motorway or expressway will be under construction in 2021 (compared to less than 100 km in 2019), and the financing will mainly come from EU funds. These projects could trigger a bonanza of construction, with large local companies such as UMB, Selina, Arcada, Erbasu, Marcotim or Deme very well placed to secure large contracts and enjoy a golden age in terms of their profits.

The main beneficiary of this boom is by far the UMB Group, owned by Dorinel Umbrarescu, called “the king of the asphalt” in Romania. In the past few years, UMB has won some motorway projects and managed them very well compared to other construction companies. UMB is already working on two main projects: the Bacau ring road (31 km, of which 16 km of motorway) and one of the four sections of the Craiova-Pitesti expressway (DX12).

But this year, the company has secured many other contracts: one section of A0 (Bucharest Orbital motorway), 3 sections of A3 (Nadaselu-Poarta Salajului), 2 more sections of DX12, the Galati ring road, and the GalatiBraila expressway. These new contracts could push Umbrarescu’s UMB to become a true engineering champion in Romania and even in the region, as it has become by far the largest and best-equipped construction group in the country.

But other, smaller groups are also seen as being among the beneficiaries of this boom. Selina Group, based in Oradea and owned by local entrepreneur Beniamin Rus, completed its first motorway section this year as a main contractor (a 5.3 km connection between Romania and Hungary near the city of Oradea)

and has signed another contract for a 28.5 km section in the western county of Bihor with CNAIR, the state-owned company that manages the country’s roads.

Other local construction companies generally work as subcontractors for larger Romanian or foreign companies – such as UMB, Astaldi, Strabag, Porr, Max Boegl, Pizzaroti or Aktor.

But this is only the beginning of a larger, decade-long boom in the sector. The government is now preparing some really big projects that could truly change Romania over the next ten years. These include three trans-Carpathian projects: the Pitesti-Sibiu motorway (sections 2,3, and 4), the Meses bridge (a section of A3 motorway with a 3 kmlong tunnel, the largest in Romania), the A8 motorway (connecting Moldova and Transylvania through the Oriental Carpathians) and the A7 – a motorway connecting Bucharest to Moldova.

When completed, these multi-billion infrastructure projects will allow Romania to achieve a higher goal: becoming a truly developed nation. Even if the country’s construction growth is singular in the region, its neighbours could benefit from it as well. Romania produces only 20 percent of its needs in bitumen, a ke building material in road infrastructure, and the rest is imported, mainly from Ukraine and Poland.

URBAN REGENERATION, WORKFORCE SHORTAGE Another sector that is now at the beginning of a period of rapid increase is urban regeneration. Many large cities in Transylvania are already in the midst of large projects targeting the creation of pedestrian spaces replacing crowded streets, restoring old Secession or Art Nouveau-style buildings, creating new parking spots and cyclist-friendly public roads. Following in these cities’ footsteps, many more municipalities are already planning similar projects, based on EU funds, which translate into opportunities for local and foreign businesses. However, to achieve these goals, Romania must overcome a huge challenge in terms of its workforce shortage.

Even during pandemic times, many workers in the Romanian construction sector are from other countries – both from the region (Turkey, Moldova or Ukraine) as well as from southern Asia (Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India or Nepal). In urban regeneration projects, the workforce shortage is even more obvious: the workers laying down new pavement in the central area of Oradea are Italians, as Romania has very few trained masons.

ARCHITECTURE BOOM IN SIGHT But other companies will profit as well, and that includes architecture firms. Public and private projects need the input of professionals from various branches. Romania has a decent architecture school at the European level but local firms lack the know-how needed for some of the projects in sight.

As an example, major healthcare projects are planned for the next decade, from large regional hospitals in Cluj, Iasi, and Craiova to smaller urban hospitals or county-level emergency units. But some architects have already acknowledged the potential and are thus seeking partners abroad in countries that have developed a lot of healthcare projects in the previous decades. In a first, Cluj-based architecture firm Dico & Tiganas won the solutions contest for a large new public hospital in its home town – the 300-bed Integrated Transplant Center – and became the first local architecture firm to gain expertise in healthcare projects.

“Hospitals are far from easy to build. The functional complexity, the technology being used, the requirements related to the multiple flows of people and materials and especially the rapid and continuous evolution of medical science and practices make hospitals the spaceships of the construction sector,” says Serban Tiganas, partner of Dico & Tiganas and co-author of the winning project. “Hospitals must be as comfortable as possible for patients and cause them as little inconvenience as possible during hospitalisation, allowing people to remain connected to their lifestyles, passions, desire, social lives, and even to their work, if their health allows it,” he adds. This highlights new trends in hospital projects, with these new ideas having landed in Cluj through a bold partnership with a Spain-based firm. The Pinearq office

in Barcelona, managed by architect Alberto de Pineda, specializes in health projects, and their know-how is already at work in Romania. But Romania will certainly need more such expertise during the next decade, with many other projects planned.

By 2027, three major hospitals worth EUR 1.6 billion will be delivered in Romania, and the current government programme plans a EUR 3.6 billion investment in the construction or modernisation of local hospitals. The project includes 1,450 medical centres, 25 county hospitals, and 110 city hospitals – by far the largest health modernisation programme seen in Romania in decades.

But if all these projects materialised, they would trigger a boom in several sectors – including construction, logistics, transport, and architecture – both in Romania and abroad. Such large projects will also generate intense international competition, so local companies should already be making plans if they want to receive a big slice of the pie.

Burning gas to turn green: what does the future hold for Romanian gas?

Romania’s energy sector will be under pressure from the European Union to become much greener over the next decade, but there is an opportunity to make this process less painful: using gas as a transition energy source.

By Sorin Melenciuc

For Romania gas exports could turn out to be a bad choice in the long term

GREEN DEAL Even though the European Commission’s first version of the European Green Deal did not include gas among the transition energy sources which would be eligible for financing through EU funds, the European Parliament voted on September 16 to allow some gas projects to tap into the EU’s green transition fund.

In fact, the Parliament decided to back an amendment making some gas projects eligible for aid as long as they were located in coal-dependent regions and complied with the EU’s 2030 emissions target. This decision was welcomed by countries like Romania or Poland, both with coal-heavy regions, but criticised by other member states such as Germany, where Green political groups have much more traction, as well as by environmental NGOs.

“It’s just not explainable to the public,” said German Green party lawmaker Niklas Nienass, as cited by Reuters. Experts say that gas emits around 50 percent less CO2 than coal when burned in power plants, but it is also associated with leaks of methane, a greenhouse gas.

However, the Parliament decided that EU member states would be able to access Just Transition Fund money if they pledged to become climate-neutral by 2050 – a condition targeting Poland, the only country that has not signed up to this EU-wide goal. The European Parliament’s decision comes at a time when the European Commission is preparing to launch the Just Transition Fund, supported through the recovery fund and the EU budget, to help fossil fuel-dependent regions in the EU shift to cleaner energy sources. The goal is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, but this also implies a tougher 2030 target for emission cuts.

TRANSITION ENERGY SOURCE If this European Parliament decision remains in force, Romania may become a major beneficiary of this new policy. In fact, the Romanian government is already making plans to capitalise on this policy, as the Eastern European country has large gas resources as well as a chance to secure additional sources

from Black Sea offshore projects. These plans include two main objectives aiming to use much of the gas locally: new pipeline projects to connect cities and rural areas to the national gas grid and building new gas-based power plants. The first objective is underpinned by the low share of households in Romania which are connected to the gas grid – only a third – one of the lowest rates in the region.

“Only 35 percent of Romania’s population is connected to the gas network. Romania has gas but is has almost no petrochemical industry. (…) We have to try to use this resource more wisely. First of all, we must connect as many households as possible to the natural gas network,” Romanian prime

minister Ludovic Orban said in September. Two new projects were launched this year to expand the local gas pipeline network, aiming to provide gas to tens of thousands of new households. The second option is to invest in new gas power plants in Romania, and the European Parliament’s decision may prove a key support factor as it allows such projects to use EU funds.

There are also two gas power plant projects in the planning or development stage: a new gas power plant in Iernut (Transylvania) being built by state-owned company Romgaz and the Halanga project developed by Romgaz and Gabriel Comanescu’s GSP Power in western Oltenia. These new projects are important because they reduce Romania’s reliance on coal and allow the government to restructure the two major coal-based electricity producers (Complexul Energetic Oltenia and Complexul Energetic Hunedoara) and shift them to cleaner energy. Currently, one quarter of Romania’s electricity output is generated in coal-based power plants. This transition from coal to clean energy could prove painful for the regions where the two companies operate, but using gas as a transition resource could ease the process.

Another market for local gas is export, and this could become more attractive following the completion of the Iasi-Chisinau Pipeline – a project allowing gas exports to the Republic of Moldova – and especially through the AradCsanadpalota pipeline – allowing gas exports to western markets. In September 2020, Romania exported gas to western Europe through the Arad-Csanadpalota pipeline for the first time in the last couple of years as the gas price on the local market went below the Baumgarten reference price in Austria. Romania has an interest in being more present on the western market in order to attract foreign investment in production and transit facilities on its territory. Another goal is to expand its gas storage facilities so as to avoid reliance on foreign suppliers during harsh winter periods.

THE GEOPOLITICAL FACTOR But for Romania, gas exports could turn out to be a bad choice in the long term. In fact, the country faces a much bigger challenge: to get better use for its gas and avoid the Dutch disease – an economic relationship between the accelerated development of the natural resources sector and a decline in other sectors like manufacturing. This challenge is also associated with rising difficulties in building a real regional network and a real regional market connected with western Europe and supplied by as many sources as possible.

For Romania, the key pipeline now under construction is BRUA (Bulgaria-RomaniaHungary-Austria), but it is being blocked by the conflicting geopolitical options of the “partners” involved in the project. In fact, Hungary has decided to change the route of the pipeline to have it go through Slovakia rather than stick with the initial route going directly to Austria’s Baumgarten gas hub. This choice directly hurts Romania’s goal to gain access to western markets through the Austrian hub.

Romania has been calling for the project to be completed based on the its initial plans. “I believe that Hungary will build its part of the project in the end. They’ve come up with an alternative, but I think that they will eventually meet their obligation,” Economy minister Virgil Popescu recently said.

Another important phase is the gas pipeline interconnection between Bulgaria and Greece, now under construction, which will allow Romania and other countries in the region to be supplied with gas from alternative sources – Azerbaijan or other countries – through the Turk Stream pipeline and BRUA. Romania needs these projects to be completed for several reasons. Besides gaining access to major export markets, the country is also aiming to become a major transit route for gas and a regional gas hub. But other countries in the region have similar – and thus conflicting – objectives, as well as often divergent geopolitical views.

Romania is currently the only country in the region with strong relationships with both Brussels and Washington and a poor relationship with Moscow. However, the EU has failed to create a unified energy policy in the block, mainly due to divergent interests among its member states. The biggest failures in this area were the Nabucco project, which was abandoned, and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is almost completed but serves Russia’s interests. The biggest challenge for Romania now is gaining support from the EU for BRUA and the two key interconnections to Baumgarten and Greece.

If completed, these projects would limit reliance on Russian gas in the region and hurt Moscow’s interests. However, Russia still has many options at hand and it has been trying to block these projects through friends and proxies in the region such as Serbia or Hungary.

Riding the pandemic wave: Essential apps in the age of social distancing

The COVID-19 outbreak has created a new space for video conferencing, and might have completely changed the way people communicate going forward. In the span of a few months, the video call has gone from an occasional practice to being an essential part of our daily lives.

By Aurel Constantin

that video conferencing could have on business and our personal lives. But when cloud computing hit the scene, any company that could develop an easy-to-use tool with a good interface had just as much of a shot at being successful in this space.

In 2020, there are numerous video communication platforms to choose from based on your needs. Some video tech providers have had more experience with the public over the years. Pretty much all the social media platforms have incorporated video into their messaging apps to allow users to see each other at the click of a button.

Other video systems, like Cisco’s WebEx and the now mega-popular Zoom, were mainly used by businesses to streamline communication with customers and teams in different locations.

Where voice-only conference calls fall short in terms of what they can communicate (just like texting), video comes to fulfil the need of seeing the other person in order to

Video comes to fulfil the need of seeing the other person in order to have a better experience

The first companies that built modern video communication systems were tech pioneers who saw the impact

have a better experience. SWITCHING TO DIGITAL COMMUNICATION With dramatic fluctuations in supply and demand, the pandemic has also represented a stress test for the power of platforms. Outcomes have varied by sector, Geoffrey Parker, a visiting scholar at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, said during the MIT Platform Strategy Summit in July. Information technology, communication services, and discretionary consumer companies — including platform companies like Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Netflix — had seen market cap gains in the range of USD 401 billion as of June 2020, said Parker, who presented research conducted with fellow platform strategy summit co-chairs Peter Evans and Marshall Van Alstyne.

In the finance and energy sector, market cap losses had been in the range of up to USD 130 billion, as 18 of the top 25 market cap losses were in the financial or energy sectors, following a drop in oil demand. In other areas, ride-sharing platforms also saw dramatic drops, while other companies pivoted to meet changes in demand.

There are three archetypical ways in which platform companies have responded

to the pandemic, demonstrating that the platform model might be uniquely positioned to survive disruptions. First, it is about “Ride the wave”: companies that saw increases in demand have been riding the wave, according to Parker. Explosions in demand “can be every bit as disruptive as the demand falling, because you’re trying to scale rapidly,” he explained. Companies that experienced these shocks included Instacart, which went on a hiring spree to meet demand during the first few months of the pandemic, and online communication tool Zoom, which topped weekly download charts for weeks on end. Second, it is “Weather the storm”: Companies like Uber, Lyft or oil companies, whose demand dropped suddenly and who didn’t have the ability to serve other markets, had to hunker down and weather the storm, by quickly going into resource conservation mode, which included furloughing employees. Last but not least, it is about “Rapid pivots”: The third type are companies that carried out a rapid pivot, taking their assets to supply other markets.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION Among the first effects of the pandemic was the closing of offices and schools, leading to tens of millions of people having to adapt to working from home, which came with its own challenges. As people set up home offices, the use of e-Signature apps such as DocuSign and Adobe Fill & Sign spiked in the first weeks of COVID. But there was one kind of app that stood above all, and that is videoconferencing. Zoom quickly became the most popular video communication app, with a customer growth of nearly 500 percent in the first month.

Zoom and rival apps Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex have all seen a big surge in usage since coronavirus lockdown measures were imposed earlier this year. The growth gradually slowed after May 2020, when things started to settle down and most people had already adopted one of these platforms. Profits however have been soaring, with Zoom reporting USD 186 million in net profit, mainly driven by high-end corporate clients.

The situation was similar in Romania, where the usage of Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex is still at very high levels. Though not at the same rate as apps in the business communication category, the likes of WhatsApp, Skype, and Viber also experienced significant increases in their user base in the first 2-3 months of the pandemic. Interestingly, however, some of these platforms not only slowed down their exponential growth, but they even started losing some of their users around late April - early May, when most countries lifted their strict lockdowns and allowed people to begin moving around again.

Google also decided to set up Google Meet, which is not among the most popular apps, but Google Classrooms is being used widely. On the social platforms side, TikTok saw so much growth that it got US president Donald Trump to order a shutdown of the app in his country if the network remained under the control of Chinese company ByteDance.

But there are tons of big enterprises offering help to smaller vendors and entrepreneurs through discounts or by offering their tools for free. Below are some free tools you can access to make running your business on a budget a little easier.

DOCUSIGN New customers who sign up for DocuSign’s Business Pro e-signature product will receive a three-month free trial. This offer includes up to 100 “envelopes”, meaning you can have multiple documents sent out for signatures in the same envelope. This is a great option for businesses who need to obtain legal signatures while working remotely.

MICROSOFT Microsoft is offering six months of free Microsoft Teams, its communication and team collaboration platform, with Microsoft 365 Business Basic, which you can now also get for free for six months if you make an annual commitment. The license costs USD 5 per user/month after the first six months and includes web versions of Office apps, such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

GODADDY GoDaddy provides a number of free tools to support small businesses’ online marketing efforts. Get a free website as well as free access to GoDaddy’s marketing tools for email marketing, Google Business, and Facebook. If you already have a website, check out GoDaddy’s social media design tools with a free three-month Over subscription, including access to the design content library.

MAILCHIMP Mailchimp is also offering a free, custom website domain for up to five years. In addition, the popular email marketing platform is making its website builder platform free until May 31, 2020. This is a great way to set up an e-commerce store or landing page quickly to promote your business.

PAYCHEX This payroll and benefits platform is offering three months free for payroll and unemployment benefits, as well as two months of free HR support. Paychex is also advertising support and resources to help small businesses come up with a strategy to keep employees on and continue to pay as many people as they can while the economy recovers.

Kent Orrgren (World Class Romania): We want to help Romania become a healthier nation

The COVID-19 outbreak forced all gyms and fitness clubs to close down for a few months, hitting the industry hard. Authorities were reluctant to reopen these venues because they thought the risk of infection was too high. Business Review talked to Kent Orrgren, the CEO of World Class Romania, to find out how the industry is dealing with the pandemic crisis.

By Aurel Constantin

How much have restrictions affected World Class in term of revenue? Do you think you can recover the loss from this period by the end of the year? I want to start with the thing that matters most: the health of the nation. All our efforts are directed towards this aspect. The pandemic has challenged our lifestyles and now more Romanians need to make a change towards a more active way of life, and not just to improve their health, but also to live longer lives. Dr Robert Sallis, co-director of the Sports Medicine Fellowship Programme in California, said it best: “COVID-19 has just so vividly exposed our unhealthy lifestyles... You go through the list of risks for COVID-19, including the risk of dying or getting severely ill: those are the diseases of INACTIVITY.” In terms of going back to normal, World Class has completed the gradual reopening of all 40 of its premium health & fitness clubs in Romania and it is ready to reopen its network of indoor pools when authorities allow it. World Class is the largest pool operator today, with 21 indoor pools and 3 outdoor ones in its network of Health & Fitness centres.

The entire health & fitness industry has been affected by the COVID-19 restrictions, and that includes World Class. However, the way we have tackled the coronavirus crisis by providing alternative health & fitness solutions like online or outdoor training will actually consolidate and grow our community while making our network stronger. We strongly believe that we can make a difference and contribute to making Romania a healthier nation. We are committed to encouraging and motivating Romanians to keep exercising, whether in health & fitness clubs, at home or outdoors. More Romanians adopting an active lifestyle will actually save the government significant costs related to healthcare, as it has been proven that exercise improves the immune system and helps it fight against respiratory infections.

Romania could benefit from a 9 percent GDP boost and a USD 26 billion GDP impact over the next two decades, about half of which would come from a larger and healthier workforce, according to a McKinsey report. The remainder comes from expanding the capacity of older people, disabled individuals, and informal caregivers to work as well as from productivity gains as the burden of chronic health conditions is reduced. In Romania, the largest amount – USD 11.5 billion – will be generated by a higher participation of the above mentioned categories, while almost USD 8 billion will be the result of fewer health conditions.

How has your activity been affected by the rules imposed upon reopening? How many of your customers have returned to the gym and what is the situation like today? More than 60 percent of our active members have already returned to clubs. Others have decided to continue to train online using our platform. It is important to know that all clubs function under strict health and safety and prevention rules. Social distancing, sanitising stations, deep cleaning of spaces and equipment multiple times a day. We work with authorities to minimise risks and provide a safe training environment in all of our clubs, regardless of their category, from Bronze to W. We still have thousands of members who are eager to restart their swim-

ming routine in our indoor pools. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “there is no evidence that the virus that causes COVID-19 can spread through water in pools, hot tubs, spas or water play areas.” It adds that treating these types of facilities with chemicals including chlorine “should inactivate the virus in the water.” COVID-19 is an airborne, not water-borne illness, meaning it spreads when droplets fly through the air. Chlorinated pools in particular pose very little risk from swimming because viruses are very susceptible to chlorine disinfection.

Swimming has extraordinary benefits for overall health. It also lowers the risk of diseases that are known to increase the severity of COVID-19. Besides being a great form of cardiovascular exercise, swimming for just 30 minutes a week can protect you against heart disease, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes.

What special measures has World Class taken in order to prevent the spread of the virus? Have customers complied with the new rules? All health and safety and prevention measures are clear and visible from the moment you enter the club. There is specific signage for social distancing and hygiene regulations. Every safety rule is in place and the process is continuous. Our members comply with the rules as they understand the importance of safety and prevention measures. All those who have already returned to gyms or have started to train using our www.worldclass. ro/online/ platform are health-conscious and aware of the fact that exercise is more than weight loss. It has a vital role in treating and preventing a lot of chronic diseases, heart conditions, and respiratory infections. That is why we have started the #ExerciseIsMedicine educational campaign, to get more Romanians to understand the health benefits of fitness and convince them to have a more active lifestyle. We want everybody to understand that when they train, they do it for their health, to set an example to others, to have a longer life, because exercise promotes longevity.

Here are some of the gains: exercise improves your immune system; it lowers the risk of heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, dementia and Alzheimer’s, several types of cancer, and some complications of pregnancy; it helps you avoid weight gain, obesity, and related chronic health conditions.

Only a few lifestyle choices have as large of an impact on your health as physical activity does. People who are active for about 150 minutes a week have a 33 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who are inactive. How long do you think these rules will normal will be possible this year? We are prepared for this “new normality” to be with us for a long time. Safety rules will certainly remain in place long after the pandemic ends. Hand sanitisation will become a habit and dispensers will certainly continue to be a part of the new normality. When we say “return to normal” we should take into account the fact that the old normal is gone for good. And to stay successful we need to adapt and embrace the new. Health has always been our priority. That is why we launched the #BeHealthy campaign a couple of years ago. We will keep health at the core of our services and many of the safety measures that have proven so effective in these challenging times will certainly be

Has the coronavirus crisis changed your investment plans? Will World Class continue to open new clubs?

remain in place? Do you believe a return to maintained. We will focus on growth, as always. By consistently following our social mission and strategically opening new clubs in Bucharest and other important Romanian cities, we’ve built a solid network so far, with tens of thousands of yearly memberships which translate into financial stability for the long term. It is a difficult period, and we will of course be extremely cautious about expanding the network in the coming year as we need to invest more in existing clubs in order to raise the degree of safety for our employees and clients. World Class invests in Romania and in educating more people to be active.

By opening more health and fitness centres every year and by promoting the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, World Class’s mission is to inspire more Romanians to be more active more often and live a healthy lifestyle.

Remote working shaping new models among PR agencies

A fifth of PR agency chiefs are planning to reduce their firm’s office space in the aftermath of COVID-19, and one in 10 are thinking of giving up their physical office entirely, according to exclusive new research by PRTheyek. Meanwhile, more than half of the UK’s in-house comms chiefs expect to take more work in-house in the aftermath of COVID-19. And while about onethird say their PR agency budgets have been cut, it is likely that more opportunities will emerge for agencies in the coming period.

By Romanita Oprea

Andreea Irimia, Oxygen

What has work been like for Romanian PR agencies during the pandemic? At Chapter 4 Romania, the switch to working from home got organised very quickly; in fact, they had moved everything online a week before the government declared a State of Emergency. And since they had been practicing remote working for a couple of years already, everything went smoothly and efficiently. With the exception of a hybrid break of a couple of weeks, they are still working from home, and they’ll continue to do so for the next few months, as they’ve performed well and

Raluca Ene, Chapter 4 Romania

continued working at full capacity for their clients.

“Our procedures and workflow were definitely changed by the pandemic, especially when we moved to working from home. We had to adjust all our internal and external procedures, from brainstorming and client meetings to presentations and weekly status reports. Fortunately, we had a lot of tools available to help us communicate and we also discovered a lot of new things about our team and about ourselves as professionals. We are in work from home mode, but we have a flexible policy by keeping our offices open for colleagues who want to use them, while enforcing clear procedures for a safe work environment. We are evaluating the situation on a monthly basis and planning to start coming to back the office in shifts in the coming period,” said Andreea Irimia, group communications manager at Oxygen.

For Fabrica de PR, even though they faced all sorts of personal and professional difficulties at the beginning of this pandemic – uncertainty about how projects would develop, the changes that came up in the workflow, events that were cancelled or put on hold – they actually managed to make it work quite rapidly. They were also involved in volunteering projects and were happy to offer their expertise to NGOs during these difficult times. “We did something new for the first time in many years, and discovered that we really liked it. We realised that we were lucky to be able to do our jobs in friendly and safe environments, where we could be closer to nature or to our families. We can now work from anywhere and do so efficiently, we can save time because we no longer waste countless hours in traffic or in long meetings, and this means more time to reflect and create. It’s a kind of freedom we believe every human should experience at least once in a lifetime and decide whether it is good for them,” said Camelia Cavadia and Alina Sin, managing partners at Fabrica de PR.

“Constant communication is the best way to make things work. Generally, we follow a normal daily schedule, but should there be any interference, we let each other know and help each other out to make sure the

client is always well served. We have regular online team meetings, doubled by individual meetings depending on activities and projects, plus ad-hoc brainstorming sessions to maintain our creative flow. Instant messaging is constant, but we have a mutual agreement to use it responsibly, to keep work time undisturbed as much as possible,” explains Raluca Ene, managing director at Chapter 4 Romania.

But what about coming back to the office? Have perceptions and attitudes around working from home changed forever? Because

even though the communications industry has more openness and creativity than others, some actions and events or meetings still need to happen face to face.

Andreea Irimia argues that flexibility is key and thinks that a mix between working from home and coming to the office will continue for an indefinite period. “For some of our colleagues, working from home gave them the opportunity to be more time efficient or more proactive in their work, while for others it clarified the fact that they need to be at the office to be productive and stay connected to other people. We are all different and I believe we cannot talk about a change in attitude that will last forever, but about a better ability to adapt to various conditions, which will continuously change,” added Oxygen’s representative. Looking at the entire Romanian PR industry, Irimia believes that things have definitely changed for all players, as most clients have recalibrated their marketing budgets or changed the focus of these budgets. This was reflected in the workflow and in the ways in which departments were organised. “However, we were glad to see that many brands decided to change their messaging and approach to fit the new context. It’s a work in progress and the communications market reacts quickly to changes,” com-

mented Irimia. Moreover, Raluca Ene points out that control over the team’s activity has by far been the biggest change in the way they are organising activity. “The perception that there was a need for compulsory physical control used to be so deeply ingrained into our culture that it seemed impossible to make this work. But moving everything online has forced us to do so, and we did it in a very effective manner, thus reminding the entire society that adaptability is in fact the secret to our thriving throughout history. We have understood that human relations go beyond the physical aspect – which is always important, don’t get me wrong, but the energy, the motivation, the positive attitude can all go through any screen and have the power to keep us close together,” explained Chapter 4 Romania’s managing director. Speaking about the industry in general, Ene says that it had a short period when it slowed down and adjusted to the social realities, but once we and our clients evaluated all the variables and started working with different scenarios, we found ways to not just move forward, but also to push for better results. “The fall feels busy and rich in opportunities, and I think we’ve also been able to adapt business-wise, which is great news for our industry,” Ene concluded. At Fabrica de PR, the past months have led them to exclude the option of coming back to the office in the near future. With lots of devices and apps available, things can go very smoothly. But if requested, face to face meetings are not excluded, of course. “For the moment, we no longer see the purpose of having an office. It saves time and energy; we can be more focused on results and less on the means in which to achieve them. The feeling that you can do your job anywhere is a very pleasant one, with positive effects for each team member. In addition, it can also be a wise business decision regarding the management of administrative expenses,” said Fabrica de PR representatives. They also believe that this new work from home (WFH) experience has opened many people’s eyes, employers and employees alike. “Each company was able to make its own assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of working from home during this period. For some of them, the budgets assigned to monthly rents suddenly became unnecessary, a roadblock to other possible investments, while for others it became clear that the loss of physical contact between employees would be bad for the company. As we have seen all over the world, companies are considering flexible work schedules and hybrid work arrangements, workspaces are being redesigned to ensure safe human interaction, and there’s more room for choice. Adaptation is again a key word,” Cavadia and Sin added.

OPINION Mihnea Radulescu, Vodafone Romania SME Digitalisation: Charting a course towards resilience and recovery

It is widely accepted that SMEs are the “backbone” of the Romanian economy. Small businesses account for 52.7% of total value added and 65.8% of employment in Romania making them integral to innovation and job creation.

What is more open to debate is how governments can best support SMEs through this unprecedented period of economic challenge – and the role digital tools and solutions can play in driving greater business stability and resilience. At Vodafone, we provide a comprehensive range of digital services to small businesses in Romania, and so we are well placed to help identify the solutions that will enable them to achieve the digital transformation that will deliver long-term growth.

Six months after the first wave of EU lockdowns, now is an opportune time to assess how businesses have been impacted – and governments have reacted – by the Covid-19 crisis to date. Vodafone Group commissioned a new study involving 1,200 SMEs from several European countries, conducted from the start of the pandemic up until July 2020 with the aim to better understand the main challenges faced by SMEs and how digital has supported SME resilience during the pandemic crisis. The learnings highlighted by this study, combined with additional analysis by Deloitte, provide tangible recommendations for future government policy.

DIGITAL SUPPORTS RESILIENCE AND RECOVERY Vodafone Group’s survey of 1,200 SMEs has shown that those SMEs that have digitalised are more likely to have found new business opportunities during the pandemic. In fact, the most digitalised businesses secured opportunities at more than double the rate of the least digitalised.

And it is highly likely that these digital shifts will drive long term changes. Just as more of us expect to work more flexibly in the future, 44% of businesses expect the measures they have implemented in recent months to be permanent as indicated in another Vodafone Group’s research, Future Ready Report.

However, too many SMEs have found significant barriers when it comes to the adoption of digital services. They are still much less likely than larger businesses to take advantage of new technologies, even though they connect to the internet at the same rate. Despite the benefits of digitalization, the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) 2020 data found SMEs lag behind larger businesses in adoption of nearly all technologies. The largest gaps are in digitalization of the internal organizational process, where the greatest efficiency gains are to be made.

There are a number of reasons why SMEs have struggled to digitise: • 73% said they had had trouble with the set-up and implementation of new technologies, integration with existing technologies and business processes, migration from previous systems and decommissioning old technologies; , • 51% said that they had struggled to identify the right technology to use, or the right supplier • 38% of SMEs said that they needed support with training.

However, while there is much technology firms can do to make their products and services more accessible and thereby increase adoption, not every small business still understands the importance of greater digitalisation. Therefore, there is still a significant role that governments can play to help accelerate adoption in order to unlock further economic and societal benefits.

A TAILORED SME DIGITALISATION FRAMEWORK The research clearly shows that the government in Romania should adopt a clear SME digitalisation policy framework that: • addresses availability gaps and take- up of high-speed connectivity. In order to better facilitate digitalisation of SMEs, it should aim to increase overall and rural access and potentially pair this with short-term voucher schemes to support high-speed connectivity take-up and reduce barriers to further digitalisation; • offers flexible vouchers, grants, or tax credits for digital investment, so that SMEs have the capacity find solutions based on their individual needs; and • delivers additional support measures to support capability such as an accessible, onestop shop, particularly providing targeted guidance and training for key sectors.

These recommendations will not only help Romania improve its overall DESI score, currently ranking 26th across EU Member States, but will also ensure that SMEs are able to digitalise fully.

As we seek to emerge from the crisis, we have an opportunity to shape the economic recovery in a way that delivers sustainable, long-lasting, impactful change. The EU reconstruction plan presents a once in a lifetime opportunity to contribute to this transformation. Investing in small businesses, and helping them achieve their full, digital potential, will ensure a stronger, future-proofed Romania.