After years of exporting Romanian IT specialists, engineers and other members of its qualified work force, the West is now seeking Romanian managers, in the context of business globalization. Romanian managers are attractive to Western companies because of their experience on an emerging market.
"We believe there will be a management level 'brain drain' in the 2008-2010 period. Romanian managers have overcome the timidity that was keeping them at a "second class managerial" level, and they realize they can compete with European managers," said Rudolf Fedorovici, consultant and shareholder of Advice HR, a domestic human resource company and affiliate in the EMA Partners executive search global network.
Romanian managers began appearing in the shadow of expatriates as multinationals entered the Romanian market. In the past few years, Romanians have begun replacing foreign managers in domestic operations. A generation of 30-45-year-old managers is already in place and leading regional company centers in Romania (such as: Procter&Gamble, Unilever). The next step will be to accept management positions in Western European companies.
"Romanian managers, trained in an emerging economy, will bring a fresh approach. They are able to see business opportunities where Western managers now fail to do so. A British or French manager, who has been working on a mature market, lacks creative business vision," added Fedorovici. Romanian managers started putting pressure on companies to consider them for management positions on mature markets. "They will force European employers to grant them equal opportunities for positions in Lyon or Bratislava," said Rudolf Fedorovici.
