The newest book of the EMBA community, Shaping the Future. A Manifesto of the Romanian Future Business Artisans, is a collection of works representing not only a record of outstanding achievement by the authors but also a snapshot into the entrepreneurial and managerial experience of Romanians at this moment. The book can be order from HERE.
The first part of the book gathered the dissertation work focused on strategy and change, in different business sectors, from IT to healthcare, agriculture, green energy, and ESCO. We invite you to read the first section of the volume to explore how organizational culture is impacted when companies are preparing to occupy and explore new marketplaces and how companies are leveraging organizational change and participative work environments to capture new modes of value production.
In the first article of the volume, Readiness Assessment of an Integrated Solutions Provider for Blue Ocean Strategy Implementation – A Perspective from a Romanian ESCO, Gabriel Souca writes about the energy sector in Romania, analyzing how employees of an energy company understand innovation and energy efficiency in a sector that so far has focused mostly on raising revenues and behaving like a Red Ocean company (Kim and Mauborgne 2017). His study outlines the silent change taking place within organizations, showing how certain beliefs and approaches regarding innovation and value creation become implicit knowledge within companies without being consciously developed or recognized as such.
In the second article of this section, The Effects of Democratizing the Strategy on Decision‐Making. A Perspective from a Romanian IT Company Operating in the International Markets, the author - Florian Balogh-Sămărghițan takes an IT company as a case study for organizational change, looking at how the adoption of a more open, participative, and deliberative structure changes the way value is produced and captured and how employees perceive and manage organizational change. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, the authors is analyzing the way employees perceive and understand the transition to an open system and how organizational culture changes with an underlying new leadership style.
Teodor Băbuț, the author of the third article, An Empirical Investigation of Business Turnaround Strategy – A Case Study of the NORDWIND Company, is critically analyzing the practices employed by Romanian companies with turnaround problems, asserting that business failure is not entirely a problem of costs and allocation of resources, but a problem of management and capacity of critically thinking about value production. In the light of these findings, the author proposes several measures that managers and companies should critically think of and employ when see to address turnaround problems.
The attention of the reader is shifted towards the healthcare sector, with a special dissertation written by Cristinela Velicu on HPV Vaccination Hesitancy in Romania – A Social Marketing Perspective. Cristinela tackles the sensitive issue of vaccination by assessing the perceptions towards HPV immunization in Romania and developing a marketing and communication strategy that can be deployed by health authorities and other stakeholders to address negative attitudes towards vaccination and achieve higher immunization rates.
The diversity of the EMBA students is well represented in this book, with different perspectives on strategy and change. The next article, written by Mirela Târnovan, Workforce of the Future: Changing Organizational Structures and Value Creation. A Study Case in a Multinational Company, is exploring how the knowledge-based economy is changing the way global companies are operating, showing that employees want to work in more lean and agile structures, asking for more autonomy in decision making and more transparent and participative working environments. In this sense, her findings show that Romanian employees are embracing these changes and are not far away when it comes to understanding the new shifts and transformations in the way value is captured and produced.
The last article of this section, takes us to another important sector of Romania, Agribusiness in the digital era, written by Ovidiu Cernea. He explores the transformation of the agricultural sector in Romania, by analyzing the creation of a farmer association in the Someş area, in the north-western part of the country, which employs digital solutions to create a better experience for customers but also for developing better and more sustainable products. This development illustrates the need for the farming activity to incorporate digital solutions, sensors, and innovation on all levels in order to make this sector more competitive, farms more sustainable and improve the livelihoods of farmers and small producers.
We invite you to read more about who are the authors of this book and their professional experience.
Gabriel Souca is a C-level professional with expertise in various fields of activity: FMCG, energy or industrial production both in multinationals (FrieslandCampina Netherlands), Romanian owned companies (Prodvinalco, Energo ESCO, EnergoBit Group), or foreign-owned companies (Electroceramica). He held various positions in these companies like Procurement Manager, Executive Manager, Improvement Manager, Commercial and Supply Chain Manager, or even General Manager. In 2020 he decided to start his own consultancy company: EDS Advisors. Gabriel has an Executive MBA degree from the University of Hull (UK), graduated in 2019 with “Distinction”. As a personal touch about Gabriel, he is a passionate fan of Universitatea Cluj and is also involved in organizing cultural events together with Scena Urbana.
Florian Balogh-Sămărghițan is an experienced professional with a proven history of working in the IT industry. Skilled in business development, team leadership, IT consultancy and delivery, strategy, and HR, he has held different mid and top-management roles in various IT companies. Passionate about people and technology, his mission is to help companies create organizational systems which leverage their human talent and technological assets. He is focused on a strategic level, working with C-level to transform businesses, challenging their status quo. Florian has an Executive MBA degree from the University of Hull, graduated in 2018 with „Distinction” and a Bachelor in Engineering, Computer Science from The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca.
Teodor Babut is a very experienced Executive with over 18 years of experience in the Energy field (Oil & Gas, Renewables, Energy Infrastructure) that has held various Top and Middle Management positions (Board Member, CEO, Deputy CEO, COO, CCO, Area Manager, District Manager). He has a deep knowledge in Oil & Gas and International Business being relocated in various countries from Europe and Africa with American (NOV, ReedHycalog), Canadian (International Logging Inc.) & French (Datalog) multinational companies, with an outstanding track record of business achievements. Teodor has an Executive MBA degree from the University of Hull (UK), graduated in 2017 with “Distinction”, and a Geological Engineering Degree from Babes – Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca graduated in 2001.
Mirela Târnovan has a diversified and multicultural track record. She is a graduate engineer from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, the city where she also started her career with Emerson; a global multinational company providing process automation solutions. Within the company, she performed multiple roles in different locations across Europe. She worked in Sales in Netherlands and UK organizations, Project Management Office for Europe, management of strategic proposals working on major projects globally for which she has also been awarded the Emerson Presidents Award as success recognition. Most recently she moved to Emerson Dubai organization to represent Service Management Office where she drives operations initiative ensuring the organization is ready to execute projects with the highest quality. Mirela is a proud graduate with “Distinction” of the Executive MBA degree from the University of Hull (UK). She is passionate about driving results, learnings new areas of expertise but also music, reading, and exploring cities.
Cristinela Velicu is a Health policy expert with postgraduate education and training in political science, public policy, and business administration (Ph.D. in Political Science, research fellow Université Libre de Bruxelles and Executive MBA from Hull University). Accumulated progressive and diverse experience in the health sector while working in the Ministry of Health, pharmaceutical sector (MSD) and providing technical assistance to national and international bodies (WHO, The Global Fund, Deloitte). Fostered health policy improvements, evidence-based strategic reforms through input for policy design, health strategies, and policy-shaping aiming to improve access to innovative medicines and vaccines. Designed and coordinated integrated public affairs and public relations campaigns supporting access to vaccines and medicines and developed tailored social marketing campaigns to improve vaccination awareness.
Ovidiu Cernea has held different middle management positions (Regional Director, Manager, Internal Auditor, assistant professor), in his 20 years experience in the financial and banking services industry, having a proven record of results in management, sales & customer services, backed by consistent financial analysis expertise and excellent academic records. He worked for two of the top 5 banks in Romania – Banca Transilvania and BRD, but also for local university - “Babeș-Bolyai” University from Cluj – as an assistant professor. Ovidiu has an Executive MBA degree from the University of Hull (UK), graduated in 2020 with “Distinction”, and a Ph.D. Diploma in Accounting from “Babes Bolyai” University of Cluj (2014).