volume 10, number 17 May 8 - 14, 2006 15 RON

motoring diplomatic vox populi entrepreneur profile inter view

page 13 page 16 page 20 page 21 pages 22 - 23 page 26

i n s i d e
Digital city was open
for business last week
as Romania's largest
IT&C forum took
place for the fifteenth
time.
page 8

Co-branded credit
cards are becoming all
the rage in Romania,
but the market has yet
to fully mature.
page 18

Cosmote's
CEO,
Nikolaos
An ancient practice remains a modern problem.
Tsolas, has

Slaving away
managed to create his
own unique identity
for himself.
page 22
EUROPEAN
AWARDS FOR
With the demand for
EXCELLENCE
smaller offices on the
rise villas have
become the very BY PAUL DREHER And just as the conference got under-
attractive to corporate way, guardia civil in the Spanish seaside
They’re the oldest businesses in the resort of Torrevieja found a young see page 19
clients.
page 11
world, but serious efforts are now under- Romanian girl hiding in a hotel kitchen
way to wipe them out. desperately seeking help, saying she had
Human trafficking mainly for slave labor been held hostage and forced to have sex

book
Romania's five SIFs and prostitution has become a billion- by people who had confiscated her pass- T HE G UIDE TO L EADING B USINESSES

currently find them- Euro-a-year business with several thousand port and imprisoned her and others in a
selves in quite the Romanians involved either as abused or house used as a brothel. Police swooped of
conundrum, as they
are determined not to
abusers, global experts attending a four- in on the house and arrested a Romanian lists 7 TH
edition
2006

day UNDP conference said last week in couple, charging them with illegal deten-
sell their stakes in Bucharest, adding that greater police train- tion, assault and coercion. 29 EURO Special
BCR. ing and inter-country co-operation was season offer
page 6 see Slaving away, page 4
necessary to control the situation. see page 10

Woman of destiny IS GOING

BY PAUL DREHER when necessary, successful - all emotional sensitivity and femi- TO
while being a single mother. ninity and sense of humor with- BRASOV
Anca-Daniela Boagiu is one "A model for many young out losing her sense of direction
of those increasing number of women in the emerging modern and decision-making abilities."
women in Romania - independ- Romania of today," as one ana-
Boagiu see Minister, page 4 see page 15
ent, committed, tough-minded lyst said. "She maintains her

finance it & c proper ty travel EU frontier nibbles

page 6 - 7 page 8 - 9 pages 10 - 11 page 17 page 15 pages 24 - 25
May 8 - 14, 2006
21
entrepreneur

The Transylvanian Dutch

BY RAUL CAZAN "We have recently decided to also new contracts with clients and
use that experience on the very rapid- we are currently hiring staff for
Jaap Veldjesgraaf has been adopted ly growing Romanian market. We have the newly created positions; in
by Transylvania. our own product for the Romanian May we should have more than
The Dutch IT specialist established market - an ERP suite - called 100 employees," adds
a software company in the Nether- NetWorker," says Veldjesgraaf. Veldjesgraaf.
lands, and decided to expand to Networker is a modern, flexible and Nethrom is doing very well
Romania. Thus, in 1993 Veldjesgraaf complex solution applicable to almost on the Romanian software mar-
set up Nethrom software. "Since then, every field, based on innovative tech- ket. "For 2006 we are expecting
I've been living in Romania, at first nologies and was created with the pur- a turnover of over 1.5 million
traveling between the Netherlands and Euro, twice as much as the one
Romania and, starting in 1999, I have that we obtained last year,"

“
been permanently living in Cluj- shows Veldjesgraaf. The CEO's
Napoca," says the manager. Advice for budding forecast for this year is a profit
"In May 2006 Nethrom Software margin of over 15 per cent.
will celebrate 12.5 years of existence," entrepreneurs: The best selling product of
said Veldjesgraaf proudly. Nethrom is "the Romanian pro-
The company's activities can be "One of the most grammer." "When Nethrom
divided into two directions: offshore important aspects of started in 1993, I realized the

Photo by Mark Oostendorp

outsourcing for clients from the Net- entrepreneurship is the fact that the Eastern European
herlands, Germany, Hungary, Canada capacity to see countries had a huge potential
and the US, as well as development of in delivering quality software
professional software for the Romanian new markets, new development services, due to
market. opportunities as well as the highly educated work force

”
Through outsourcing, Nethrom the willingness to take here and to the geographical
Software has gained experience in proximity to Western Europe,"
many business domains, such as
risks." says the CEO. Name: Jaap Veldjesgraaf
tourism, hospital management, com- Nevertheless, it was really
Position: CEO
mercial and many others. But, the difficult to start a company,
company also has access to and since many clients needed to Company: Nethrom Software
knowledge about various different pose of providing Nethrom Software be persuaded that outsourcing
Birth date, place: September 24th, 1956,
technologies, platforms or software clients with competitive IT solutions. would work, "While internally
the Netherlands
development environments (Progress, The company currently employs 83 the infrastructure was simply
Microsoft .Net, Java or C++). people. Moreover, "We have closed not in place. Outsourcing was
an option in those days and
Romanian programmers were says the CEO.
not considered to be 'good'," noted In 1993 Veldjesgraaf became aware
Veldjesgraaf. of the huge labor force potential of
"Today, the world has a different Romania that by then hadn't been
opinion on this matter!" stresses used, so he decided to establish
Veljesgraaf. Nethrom software.
As Romania is preparing for inte- "The possibility of creating and per-
gration into the EU, Veldjesgraaf's fecting a group of IT specialists, who
intention is to develop Nethrom on would be able to provide high-quality
new markets, so that a higher percent- products has been for me very chal-
age of its income would come from its lenging, but also very rewarding," he
own software products marketed local- said.
ly and internationally, as well as from The business entangles also a few
higher-value added services. difficulties. One of the difficulties that
Based on his long-term partnership Nethrom is facing now consists of a
with foreign software companies and relative shortage of qualified work
on the support that Nethrom has pro- force for outsourcing. On the other
vided to them in building next-genera- hand, given that Nethrom has been
tion applications for their clients, active on niche markets from the very
Veldjesgraaf intends to launch software beginning, where the CEO could not
products that will support and improve find specialized work force for those
the efficiency of software develop- development languages, he instilled a
ment. "We detain vast experience in policy of internal training for the new
this field, and we will continue staying employees, and thus the problem was
Dutch experience transposed in Romania on the cutting edge of technology," solved.
 26
interview with... May 8 - 14, 2006

W ith a sense of humor that clos-

es the deal, Stephen Moroz,
country manager of human
NAME: Stephen Moroz
POSITION: Country Manager
resource firm - Hudson is at the top of
the pack in creating a service highly COMPANY: Hudson
adapted to each client.
Moroz said: "Clients go through
several HR company pitches, which are
equally competitive as we are and
some corporations have told me that
they decided among the rest to do
business with us because I had enthu-
siasm."
In an exclusive interview with
BBW, the 38 year-old said: "We do
a boutique operation and to give a
perspective, unlike a hug global fast
food chain, which serves by the bil-
lions, we see Hudson like a small fine
French restaurant." But thinking as
big as the competition, he said: "We
need to expand and soon enough we
will be moving to our new 180 sqm
villa. Our target for
this year is to
have a turnover
of half a million
USD and by September we aim to add

Satisfaction guaranteed
three more staff bringing us up to nine.
We intend to have two more consult-
ants for this year who would specialize
in two to a maximum of four function-
al areas like marketing, sales and IT."
Speaking about other investments, BY CARLO DIONISIO
the country manager mentioned: "We
intend to send all of our employees to to develop and improve in the corpora- advantage of long-term business devel- against low cost competitors and we
Ghent, Belgium on the company's tion. We want businesses to know that opment plans. We also offer consultan- have to find the balance of offering the
research and development center for we provide the service and tools that cy such as outplacement, executive market a competitive price for the best
training and certification. The two to give them a deeper understanding of coaching, defining competency for job value."
five-day, depending on the course, pro- their human resource, which includes - roles and 360 evaluation." Moroz spoke of his biggest accom-
gram costs between 500 - 1,500 Euro." career counseling, personality evalua- Offering personalized service to plishment as being able to instill a local
Currently, 90 per cent of company tion, reasoning ability tests, competen- each and every client, the New Yorker culture of entrepreneurship and a
business is on recruitment. "This year, cy based interviews and simulation noted: "We wish to maintain our status proactive attitude. "I eliminated fear in
part of our strategy includes dividing exercises. Our strategy is to center our of personalized service and good rela- the work place as I told my staff that it
the business into 50-50 instead, for attention to deep talent management tionships with the was fine to com-
recruitment and talent management," as we provide these assessment servic- client. We focus on mit mistakes. I
he said, and further explained: "People es for both current teams and short list repeat business and "Our target for this allowed them to
stay in a company not because of salary candidates. Equally dividing these two with experience in be independent
but remain loyal to the company if they services, recruitment and talent man- sales, I know that it is year is to have a and make deci-
realize that their careers will continue agement, will give customers the easier to work with turnover of half a sions on their
existing customers."
The American added: million USD and by own." And on the
topic of pride and
"Not only do we September we joy, he says:
maintain positive rela-
tionships with our
aim to add three "Nowadays peo-
ple spend around
clientele but also more staff bringing 50 per cent of
make it a point to us up to nine" their lives on
treat our candidates careers and the
the same way. work place. I have
Through this we seek the greatest job in
to eliminate the challenge on the war the world because as we help people to
for talent. Clients all seek for applicants have satisfying jobs, we are involved in
that have the highest potential who can creating a fulfilling life for the individ-
grow, develop and adapt with the com- ual."
pany. With the coming EU accession of During his free time the energetic
Romania there is a high demand and manager spends time swimming, play-
low supply and we have to make sure ing golf and tennis. He is also into
that both companies and the best tal- motorcycles, plays the guitar and likes
Moroz and his angels at work ents come to us. Our challenge is to travel around Romania.
BBW’s ‘EUROPEAN AWARDS Comments from
FOR EXCELLENCE’ 2006 confirmed VIP Guests:
Our modest effort to host a unique national event to platform indi- Minister of
viduals and groups which have raised this nation´s image abroad and European
helped it reach its rightful place at the European table of power has Integration,
been met with overwhelming response from readers, with a deluge Anca Boagiu
of nominations having being received over the last week or so. “We can bring
With two weeks to go before the event and to accommodate the our values,
diversity of persons whose names have being put forward for these culture,
unique awards, we at BBW have decided to create convenient cate- sensitivity, and
gories, with a final deadline of Friday, May 12, 12 Noon. experiences from
As an involved observer in this exceptionally important develop- our own history
ment, we ask you to please provide us your feedback and name per- to the EU.
sons and groups for these awards, and succinctly the reasons for Accession will bring recognition of the
your choices. efforts made by Romanians as well as
economic opportunities.”
SPORTS.............................................................................
Ambassador
CULTURE .........................................................................
Christian
Zeileissen, of
DIPLOMACY…………………………………………………..............
Austria, which
holds the
POLITICS..........................................................................
Presidency of
In return, you will receive a special invite to a ‘Champagne the European
Celebration’ event and a complimentary copy of BBW’s new Book of Council
Lists 2006 (valued at 29 euro). BOOK OF LISTS, released this week, “Romania has
is a unique BBW trademarked product - a comprehensive guide to been quite
businesses and services containing a database of information on fortunate to
thousands of companies nationwide in Romania today, including have cabinet leaders, including
company name, address, e-mail, tel./fax, number of employees, Minister Boagiu, with so many
major clients, top local executives, turnover, gross profit, net profit, different personalities who have
and services. worked closely together as a strong
Please send directly to silvia.iordache@bbw. ro with the subject of team. They have achieved respect and
your e-mail being ‘BBW EUROPEAN AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE.’ done a very good job.”