81% confidence vs. 18% pessimism

Recruitment in 2010

Executive manager’s expectations regarding recruitment activities are optimistic this year. Continental Automotive Products (AP) Company for example, will continue its recruitment program. This year, the organization plans to fill in several positions, ranging from production to various management levels. The company’s human resources policy is based also on supporting individual initiatives of the employees. In the medium term, Continental AP intends to increase the number of employees by approximately 200, through expanding the production of the Timişoara plant.

Surviving the crisis

The crisis produced its effects beginning with the second half of the 2008. Since then, the companies have implemented cost cutting measures and have improved their own strategies in order to survive in an uncertain market. In the last two years, Coca-Cola Hellenic group has optimized its Romanian business, it has consolidated the production capacity, it has rationalized its stocks and it has reorganized its distribution network to cope with a complex, constantly changing market.

Of the five areas (buildings, residential, energy and infrastructure, data centers and industry) in which Schneider Electric activates, the buildings and residential areas are the most affected, especially because of drop in investments and credit. Therefore, the crisis management plan included a cut of funds in some of these areas. On the other hand, in the market, more investments than before have been made in the infrastructure, data centers and services. During the crisis, an opportunity appeared for the company: energetic efficiency is a field that helps people to save money, so it matches the demand in the market. Consequently, energy efficiency area has developed during the crisis, balancing out the drop in the other areas.

The crisis and its outcome were not a surprise for Darian consultancy company, which, in 2009, succeeded in retaining its incomes and even to increase them by a few percent. There were also cost cutting measures taken. Almost a quarter of the operational cost was cut. For 2010, the company aims to maintain the incomes of the team members at the present level and to pay more attention to current costs.

Crisis management

The managers are optimistic about the course of the economy. Currently, Coca-Cola HBC tries to improve and increase operational efficiency and productivity towards securing organizational health in a competitive and complex business environment, affected by the financial crisis, says Simona Popovici, Country HR Manager at Coca-Cola HBC România&Moldova.

Another way of managing the current economical juncture is the employee program implementation at Continental AP. Also, the company’s development strategy will operate in 2010 too, providing new jobs, specialized trainings and promotion opportunities for the employees.

Schneider Electric has put in practice management measures intended to minimize the impact of the crisis on company’s profitability. On a difficult market, the financial results were satisfactory, says David Nicholl, Country President at Schneider Electric România. Consequently, the company continued to invest in communication, in its website and brand to increase de level of recognition on the market.

Because the people are the essence of every organization, and the knowledge, their attitudes and their abilities can be a competitive advantage on the long term, Schneider Electric will start a talent management program. “Over 85 per cent of our employees have a bachelor degree and we will continue to invest in them through the Schneider Electric University programs, like the development program «Solution Professional and Master»”, declares David Nicholl.

Decision outcome

Because of the unpopular anti-crisis measures, the credibility of some industries suffered. More than one in four CEOs believes their industry reputation has been affected during the recession. The maximum was recorded in banking and in the capital market, on which 61 per cent of the respondents noticed a drop in public confidence, as PricewaterhouseCoopers Annual Global CEO survey shows. Almost half of the chief executives are concerned with the fact that the recession caused permanent change in consumers’ behaviour. Most of them say that the consumers will pay more attention to the social reputation of a company (64 per cent), will spend less and save more (63 per cent) or will get more involved in product development (60 per cent).

“This year’s PricewaterhouseCoopers Global CEO Survey, the most important tool of assessing worldwide business community outlook, is the first that included Romanian chief executives”. – Vasile Iuga, Country Managing Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers România

The PwC survey shows that 81 percent of the chief executives worldwide were confident in their company prospects for the next 12 months, while only 18% said they remained pessimistic. A year ago, 64% of them said they were confident and 35% were pessimistic. 31% of CEOs said they were now "very confident" in their short-term prospects, up 10 percentage points from last year, the lowest point in CEO confidence since PwC began its tracking. Protracted global recession remains the biggest overall concern of CEOs around the world (65%), followed closely by fear of over-regulation (60%). More CEOs are “extremely concerned” about over-regulation (27%) than any other threat to business growth. Simona Popovici says the reputation of the Romanian soft drinks industry hasn’t been affected by this difficult economical time period.

To help the clients in these difficult times and to reach the energy standards according to the Kyoto Protocol, Schneider Electric is today focusing on reducing consumption and cutting the cost for its clients up to 30 per cent. Adrian Crivii, General Manager at Darian, thinks that the image of his consulting industry hasn’t suffered. On the contrary, the image of the evaluator consultant is even more visible and well-understood because of this juncture. The volume of work needed to do a quality project. In today’s conditions of market instability, the expert evaluators spend more time searching for market data and demonstrating their conclusions with regard to the value.