How do CEO’s view the prospects of their companies and the economy?
How do CEO”s view the prospects of their companies and the economy? Find out from the 2024 edition of PwC CEO Survey for Romania, in the 10 interviews included in the “Inside the mind of the CEO” section.
➤ Dinu Bumbacea: As inflation shows signs of easing and business leaders get used to running their
businesses in volatile macroeconomic conditions, CEOs are slightly more optimistic about the growth prospects for the global and domestic economies than they were a year ago. However, their ’concerns remain, as evidenced by a downward trend in confidence in the performance of their companies, both in the short term (12 months) and over a longer time horizon (three years). Moreover, their main concern is now shifting to the long-term viability of the business, with an increasing number of CEOs lacking confidence that the current business model will still be relevant to the market in ten ’years’ time.
The imperative to reinvent organisations therefore stems from a realistic analysis of the long-term viability of the business, as well as an in-depth examination of the impending changes brought about by two disruptive megatrends in particular – artificial intelligence and climate change. The pressure is likely to increase in the coming years.
Given the pace of change, the scale of the megatrend challenges and their impacts on the business environment, established approaches to preparing the organisation for the future may no longer be sufficient. New ways of doing business and creating value are needed (sometimes inspired by completely different industries or fields of activity), new ways of solving problems in uncertain situations (because there are still no clear answers to some questions) and new mechanisms for monitoring progress. For this
reason, it can sometimes be more effective for CEOs to involve the whole management team in all aspects of change rather than appointing functional or business unit leaders to deal with different initiatives. It may be necessary to expand the leadership team to include experts in emerging areas critical to the long-term success of the business.
PwC Central and Eastern Europe Reinvention should not be perceived as vague or too complicated to achieve, so companies need a clear strategy that includes both the objectives and the key actions and processes they will undertake as part of their radical business model changes. There also needs to be a plan for communicating the reinvention strategy so that all employees understand the urgency of the change and can contribute to finding solutions. People who are highly competent in their field often resist change because they fear they will not be good at what is required of them in the future. CEOs need to identify and discuss employees’ concerns, cultivate their curiosity and openness to learning, and encourage managers to help their own teams to adapt. As we enter the era of continuous reinvention, CEOs have a unique opportunity to reshape their organisations and themselves to thrive in an increasingly complex and often hostile environment, and to contribute to the sustainable development of society as a whole.
As every year, we would like to thank all the business leaders in Romania who accepted the invitation to join the discussion platform around the PwC Global CEO Survey and who contributed with their responses and opinions to the 13th edition of the country report, which contains the key findings for Romania. As always, we are honoured to make their views heard.
➤ Mihaela Bitu, CEO ING Romania: “A clear opportunity in banking is to use technology to redefine operating models and revolutionise the customer experience. Technology is evolving at an accelerating pace, and Generative Artificial Intelligence brings new possibilities. Of course, the adoption of technology must be done with great responsibility, but it is a trend that no one can afford to ignore. At ING, we have been driven by innovation since our inception, so current trends are very relevant and inspiring. Throughout our 30 years in Romania, we have improved the range of services and digital products offered to our customers year after year, contributing to the modernisation of banking services in Romania.
At least as important is the area of sustainability, which we strongly promote. It is essential to build a better and sustainable future for future generations, and the efforts of every company and every individual count. We no longer have the luxury of treating sustainable practices, especially those related to climate change, as a long-term goal, but it must be at the top of our agenda every day. The past year has seen a steady increase in the volume of funding that contributes to the transition to a greener economy. We mobilised more than EUR 1 billion in sustainable finance, including both loans and intermediated green bonds. ING also provided EUR 5.2 million for projects that support financial health and climate action through civil society partners.
Indeed, we face many uncertainties and megatrends that make it difficult for leaders to ensure a sustainable future for their organisations. What is essential is agility, the ability to identify and act on key opportunities.
For us, it is very important to take our ‘phygital’ business model, which has been and continues to be successful, to the next level. We need to get better and better, remove as much friction as possible from the customer’s relationship with the bank, and focus our resources on areas where we can add value. This requires
many strategic changes and initiatives, both operational, technological and commercial. We are working on a new long-term strategy that will define a vision, a set of ambitions and a roadmap. One thing is certain: at the pace of change we are experiencing, any long-term strategy will change and pivot along the way, so the agility of leaders and organisations will be a key ingredient for success in the future.
There are many possible applications of GenAI in banking, and we are working with colleagues in the ING Group on several projects, some at an advanced stage, others in the design phase. The potential benefits are manifold, whether in terms of operational efficiency or customer experience.
This technology can bring productivity gains in various types of activities and, in this context, can go some way to addressing talent shortages, but it cannot be considered a universal panacea. The banking sector is a critical part of the economy, so we need to be very careful in managing the risks associated with the introduction of this new technology, which can be significant.”
➤ Ömer Tetik, CEO Banca Transilvania: “It is necessary to anticipate opportunities and risks in the market, to capture value from them.” Our focus is to execute the year 2024 as we have accustomed shareholders and clients – results, client service and impact on the country’s economy. At the same time, we are looking carefully at the consolidation of the banking system, considering the status of the OTP Bank Romania’s acquisition, for which we signed a commitment in this regard in February, and now we are waiting for the authorities’ approvals for the transaction. It is a period in which we are also counting on organic growth while maintaining the dynamism of the bank, and in which operational excellence and the best services are a priority. Our concern is finding, training and adapting people to new service flows and models. For us, reinvention means we want to be proactive about adapting to customer and shareholder expectations so that we deliver the best products for customers and above-average market results for shareholders. It is necessary to anticipate the opportunities and risks in the market, to capture the value from them. That is, we keep one eye on the present and one eye on the future, we allocate resources ambivalently, following both horizons Over the years, BT has marked several reinventions. One of them was the stock exchange listing, almost 30 years ago, which came with responsibilities, especially regarding the transparency of the activity and financial performance, but also with advantages, such as the financial one, considering the flow of money from investors to entrepreneurs who need capital. Another example of reinvention was the acquisition of Volksbank Romania, which is an M&A best practice and gave us the courage to continue, given that it was followed by the purchase of Bancpost and Idea::Bank by Banca Transilvania. And we, at Banca Transilvania, are paying
attention to how artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies (e.g. robotic process automation – RPA) impact or could change the customer experience and the operational efficiency of bank and industry processes.
We look at the subject rather as an opportunity to be a first mover and thus gain a competitive advantage in terms of services or cost of operations. We have also had successful implementations that are already operational. On the large language model side, an example is Ask BT, the largest public database of banking information, where we implemented AI. AI also helps us to classify complaints that come through the call centre so that they can be taken over by our colleagues as quickly as possible. If I am referring to RPA, I have automated processes or parts of processes, especially in the area of credit, garnishments and payments.
In the short and medium term, I see significant opportunities especially in the interaction with customers through the call centre and applications, in the area of online safety of money and personal information, but also regarding credit decisions. However, in the short term, I do not think AI and automation can solve the systemic talent shortage problems we have. Here I think we need a national policy which approaches the problem from several perspectives – from creating the premises for Romanians from the diaspora to return home, to coherent policies to attract and integrate emigrants with a superior skill set, and until the improvement of demographics.”
➤ Christina Verchere, CEO OMV Petrom: “At OMV Petrom, as the largest integrated energy producer in South-Eastern Europe, our ambition is to lead the region’s energy transition. This comes with huge opportunities and also with challenges. In order to transition our business to a lower carbon one, we are now entering the most intensive investment period in the company’s history. We plan to invest up to 8 bn lei per year for the next 3 years, more than double compared to the annual average of the last 5 years, of 3.5 bn lei.
The other side of the coin is the predictability of the fiscal framework. A recent study shows that, for the energy sector, oil and gas taxation in Romania is four times higher than the European average. This includes royalties and additional specific taxes for both offshore and onshore projects. We need a fiscal framework that is primarily stable, predictable, but also competitive, to be able to support our ambitious
investment plan. The energy Industry is undergoing a huge transformation, in order to be able to respond to society’s increasing demand for energy and at the same to provide our products in a cleaner, sustainable manner. We launched our Strategy 2030 at the end of 2021 with the aim to transform our business for a lower carbon future. This is what transformation means to us. And in order to make that happen, we focus on three pillars: transitioning to low and zero carbon business, growing regional gas and optimizing our traditional business.
2023 was a pivotal year in our strategy delivery. With the final investment decision for Neptun Deep, we entered the development phase of this strategic project for our company and for Romania. We continued to expand our low carbon portfolio. In building our renewable power portfolio2, we signed the financing contracts to build 4 photovoltaic parks of 450 megawatts with CE Oltenia and we also purchased 710
megawatts of installed capacity for photovoltaic power projects in Teleorman county. More recently, we signed the largest acquisition of green projects in Romania: this refers to 1 GW capacity of renewables mostly wind, as well as acquiring Romania’s leading EV charging network, adding to our existing e-mobility
portfolio.
Technological development – new energy solutions and digitalization (incl. automation, machine learning, AI) are both a source of pressure and opportunity. We are actively leveraging digitalization to implement programs that reduce carbon footprint and enhance HSSE capabilities, and also upskill our employees and increase overall efficiency. By automating routine and repetitive tasks, we give the possibility to our people to focus on more strategic, creative, and more value-adding tasks. For example, in Exploration and Production we have implemented programs that reduce manual work and downtime via automated algorithms to assist engineers.
We are also focusing on upskilling our employees, ensuring they are equipped to work alongside AI technologies and can harness their full potential. Since 2020 we have been investing in enabling our colleagues to leverage the benefits of low-code tools such as Microsoft
Power Automate and PowerApps. Moreover, Data Science is an important strategic direction for us and in 2022 we started a dedicated training program – “Data Citizen Program” – which showed us the impact we can have through advanced use of data. As a result, we will expand and continue this program in the coming years. As a sub-domain of Data Science, I believe GenAI is here to stay and by the end of 2023 we already had in place an AIenabled chat. Further opportunities are already in different maturation stages throughout the company.
Regarding AI mitigating the shortage of talents – we are just at the beginning of this technology and its impacts on many aspects of business and personal life are still to be seen. Within our organisation, we have multiple ongoing initiatives aiming to explore opportunities that GenAI is enabling by assessing its potential to transform our business processes, enhance our customer experiences and drive innovation across all departments. We have ongoing proof-of-concepts on predictive analytics, sentiment analysis, smart chat-bots and metadata extraction. Looking at our flagship project, Neptun Deep, the entire infrastructure will be operated remotely, through a digital twin. This is a virtual representation of the platform. It captures every piece of relevant information, such as full 3D models and renders, live operating parameters and past trends, maintenance records and stores them in the cloud for easy real time access and updates. This reduces the risk of incidents by lowering exposure to risk and improves our
overall safety performance.”
➤ Sergiu Cristian Manea, CEO BCR: “Our main concern is to improve the financial health of Romanians and businesses, as well as the digital transformation of society as a whole. At the same time, both represent a huge opportunity for Romania to unlock our potential as a country, on a human, social and economic level. Promoting the financial health of the population starts with financial education. In fact, the most important achievement for us in 2023 is to have surpassed one million Romanians who have benefited from financial education through our two dedicated programmes – Money School and BCR Financial Coaching Service. Today, Money School has become the largest and most well-known financial education programme in Romania. We are proud of the fact that 650,000 people have put their trust in us and taken the step to learn the basics of financial education with the help of more than 1,500 BCR colleagues who work as financial education teachers alongside their day jobs. From 2022, we have also launched the BCR financial coaching service, available free of charge to anyone interested, whether or not they are a customer of the bank. To date, more than 410,000 people have accessed a personalised financial plan based on their life plans and individual goals, using an innovative data analytics platform developed by BCR’s in-house digital labs. Sergiu Manea CEO BCR It is certain that we will continue to normalise discussions about money, prevention and financial health. And LifeLab, BCR’s latest project, is aimed at bringing financial education into the school curriculum through a petition that we hope will gather as many signatures as possible. Through LifeLab, we aim to integrate financial education into different subjects and educational cycles, from kindergarten to high school, and prepare children for effective management of personal and professional resources. The pilot project started in the 2022–2023 school year, when it was implemented in two schools in Romania, involving 65 teachers and 1,200 students. The very good results – a 19% increase in the financial knowledge of secondary school students, and a 15% increase in the knowledge of high school students – led us to scale up the project. Thus the second edition of the programme, in the school year 2023–2024, was extended to 10 schools in four counties in Romania: Brașov, Mureș, Prahova and Suceava. In the future, we aim to make LifeLab a national programme that can benefit all children and young people in Romania. BCR’s development plans and investments in recent years have been based on a responsible banking model that prioritises the consumer. Which places respect for customers, data and technology at the heart of our strategy, built around financial health and digitalisation. And BCR today is a bank for every Romanian, for the community and for Romania and will continue to evolve and reinvent itself in this role. In fact, the 2024–2026 strategic exercise has given us the framework for an open dialogue with our customers, partners and colleagues, as a result of which we are implementing a series of changes to become a better bank. The pillars of this transformation are financial health, investment in digital transformation and omnichannel strategy, the development of digital[1]advisory capabilities and financial analytics expertise for corporates. Everything we have learnt in our eight years of Money School is being applied in the way we interact with our clients on a daily basis and in Financial Coaching – the personalised financial plan that is a financial education approach put into practice. Digital also plays a key role in democratising access to financial education. It paves the way for financial inclusion at scale. It ensures accessibility, convenience and personalised solutions. And we will continue to expand our digital advisory capabilities, scale the omnichannel experience and build an integrated and relevant customer journey. At the same time, we will make it easier to access the information needed for business planning, both online and offline. We are doing this so that business owners have a reference point for what it means to grow their business sustainably, create value and ensure relevance across the supply chain. We started with the launch of the BCR Romania PMI®, a key indicator of economic health developed by S&P Global. Available for the first time in Romania through BCR, PMI® is an essential tool for all financial institutions, central banks, local authorities and governments, as well as for investors and companies in all sectors of the economy, providing a reliable basis for strategic decision[1]making and the formulation of coherent economic policies. When we talk about artificial intelligence, as with any new technology, from metaverses to edge and quantum computing, it is necessary to consider human capital. Any company that wants to perform, and any society that wants to prosper, cannot exist with people excluded from the workforce. In other words, GenAI is not a solution to the talent shortage, which could become even more acute if there is no overall reform of the education system and if we do not continuously invest in skills and reskilling. At the moment, investment in human capital and managing the transition of the workforce is a major concern for all industries. Automation is leading to significant changes in job requirements. It has the potential to eliminate some jobs while creating new ones that require different skills. And to manage this transition effectively and ensure that the workforce remains employable, we need to invest in training and lifelong learning.”
➤ Jovan Radosavljevic, GM Coca-Cola HBC Romania: “For this year, we continue to build on our strengths, consolidating our core portfolio of soft drinks, while grasping the opportunities that arise in the newer territories for us, for example coffee and premium spirits. Innovation continues to be at the forefront of growing the business and transitioning to more sustainable operations. We are a company that has been present on the local market for almost 33 years, with a strong commitment to grow sustainably and a constant solid contribution to the local economy. As members of the beverages industry, a sector that has been impacted in the past two years by successive discriminatory measures, we hope to have a more predictable environment, especially in fiscal terms, this year, but also in the years to come. This is something that all industries need, to continue investments that provide growth. The rise of the VAT rate from 9% to 19% for soft drinks, implemented at the beginning of 2023, produced a 10% drop in our sector’s volumes last year. Starting with January 1st, 2024, we face a completely new excise tax applied only to our sector – sugar tax for non-alcoholic beverages – that will have an additional impact not only on our business, but on the entire value chain, affecting mainly small traders and customers that are already facing a decreased purchase power. Another element of price increase comes also from last years’ evolution of production and raw materials costs. Overall, the external environment has been volatile in Romania and this plays a negative role on medium-term plans of companies such ours. Indeed, pressure level steps up on all these megatrends affecting global business. From my point of view, reinvention means, first of Jovan Radosavljevic General Manager Coca-Cola HBC România all, adapting our operations to the overall external environment translated in protecting the core business of sparkling soft drinks, while grasping the opportunities that arise in the newer territories that we entered, for example coffee and premium spirits. This is the essence of our vision of being a 24/7 company, being able to offer consumers the right beverage for any time of day or night and for any lifestyle. We stay true to our long term strategy and we don’t compromise when investing in our people, developing internal capabilities, digitization, implementing new technologies and sustainability to support our transformation. In terms of digital transformation, an important project, which also shows our focus on providing the best experience to traders which purchase products from the Coca-Cola HBC portfolio, is the partnership we have with Heineken, jointly owning Stockday – an e-commerce platform dedicated to operators in HoReCa and traditional retail. Through Stockday they can order products from the Coca-Cola HBC portfolio at any time, have visibility over their available stocks, which are updated in real time, benefit from complete, on-time deliveries and can easily monitor the status of orders, invoices and payments. Being a consumer packaged goods business with a significant environmental footprint, we prioritize investments towards transforming the way we design the packaging, produce the soft drinks, and deliver them to consumers. Our packaging should never end up as litter – not only because of the terrible impact on the environment, but also because this material has a value. We are working to ensure that the right infrastructure is in place so we can collect back our bottles and cans for recycling. Over the last 5 years, we have been actively involved in the design and implementation of the Deposit Return System, the biggest circular economy project Romania has ever had. In the same time, we have had this goal of switching our entire PET portfolio to 100% rPET (recycled plastic) to be able to avoid the use of new plastic and drive a great drop in CO2 emissions. So we decided to invest in our own rPET production facility to enable our progress. Last fall Coca-Cola HBC Romania became the first beverages producer on the local market to have such unique internal capabilities to produce food grade rPET for all our containers. This is a perfect example of reinvention and transformation of our business as 5 years ago I would not have thought we would start this complementary business of producing rPET. We have integrated traditional AI in our business for some years now. For example, in order to improve market execution, we fully activated our in-store image recognition technology. This way we free up salespeople to spend more time with customers, improving revenue per outlet. We put efforts behind a technology enabled route to market by implementing business analytics tools to support segmented execution. Using extensive internal and external data to generate outlet-specific suggested orders and recommended activities, we have improved the order-taking process and execution. Further benefits have been achieved through the pilot of an online customer relationship management platform leading to faster and more flexible customer interactions and greater customer satisfaction. Our people come first. We continuously invest to create an enjoyable and inclusive work environment that nurtures and develops all our people. This includes reshaping how we work together. In 2022, we launched a programme that will simplify our business processes, reducing bureaucracy and complexity. The aim is to free up our people to focus on the work that matters most. And I’m proud that Romania is a pilot country for this programme. To identify opportunities for simplification, we invested in process mining, using Artificial Intelligence to map core processes. Combining the analysis with process expertise, we have defined priority areas where technology is being used to simplify and standardize for greater efficiency. GenAI is pretty new for us. We are doing some cool innovation with Microsoft around digital twin capabilities. Digital twins is this ability to take data from sensors in production markets and recreate that representation of the physical production line in the virtual world. You have the ability to use that to simulate changes of configuration, changes of parameters before deciding on which scenario you would actually implement on the physical line. We have that in our facility in Austria up and running. This pilot digital twin project led to a 9% reduction of energy usage and a reduction of CO2 emissions in the piloted production line. We are at the beginning of our journey with GenAI, looking for efficiency and productivity, but as mentioned before, it’s a new area which is not well regulated yet. As Coca-Cola HBC chief digital and technology officer Mourad Ajarti always says, we have to balance between the rush for exploration, for learning, for prototyping, while keeping a good framework that makes us create ‘responsible AI’.”
➤ Elisabeta Moraru, Country Director Google Romania: “The biggest short-term opportunity lies in equipping Romanian companies and citizens with the necessary tools to successfully overcome the current economic uncertainties. Digital skills and technologies are not only essential for business but are catalysts of resilience and adaptability for the Romanian workforce. We, at Google Romania, are committed to supporting this transition through innovative products, impactful educational programmes and solid partnerships. The last three years have reconfirmed to us that technology plays a vital role in facilitating adaptation, connection and productivity, keeping the economy moving. The pandemic has acted as an accelerator of digitisation trends. To thrive in this complex economic climate, businesses must continuously integrate intelligent work models and cost-effective digital tools. We must be vigilant about maintaining a long[1]term strategic vision. Addressing pressing challenges must not prevent us from addressing fundamental issues of sustainability and inclusion – pillars of building a stronger and fairer future. Google is taking charge in the role of a key partner during Romania’s digital transformation. We will continue to support the short-term economic environment while keeping our long-term goals at the fore. We are particularly focused on providing cutting-edge technologies with a focus on innovative cloud solutions. Simultaneously, we are dedicated to raising the level of cyber expertise and resilience across the country. Elisabeta Moraru Country Director Google Romania Reinventing and transforming a business in the face of increasing pressures from technology, climate change and other global megatrends means making the most of digital tools and the right skills. In the short term, digital can help businesses adapt to challenges, become more efficient, productive and secure their operations. The pandemic has accelerated this digital transition, but we still have a long way to go. Support is needed for those who are not yet online to take the first steps in this direction, with encouragement given for those who have already started this journey to continue. This requires businesses to have access to the right tools and the right skills to make the most of them. Developing digital skills will help people to prepare for the future, so we need to focus on the digital transition. Everyone must have an equal opportunity to develop these key skills and reskill as the knowledge required for work and business continues to evolve. Increasing digital skills can be one way in which societies can overcome deep-rooted inequalities. To do this, we need to provide more support and partnerships to those who need it most, especially underrepresented groups. People need new skills to find new jobs, and businesses need the right skills to exploit technology. This is key to tackling rising inequality. Through the many programmes we run in Romania, Google remains a supporter of this digital transition process. Moreover, we want to contribute to the development of specialised training programmes for the public sector in Romania, which teach practical skills and improve basic digital knowledge. These programmes could fuel Romania’s rapid digital transformation and expand IT job opportunities. We are talking here about courses and workshops focused on developing digital skills for the public sector, Artificial Intelligence (AI) for entrepreneurs and students or online safety, among others. I think AI has tremendous potential to alleviate some of the pressures caused by the talent shortage. Recent studies, including research commissioned by Google and conducted by Public First, provide compelling evidence of this. In the EU, AI could boost economic growth by EUR 1.2 trillion and help reduce the work of each employee by 70 hours annually, meaning two weeks of work. Furthermore, 74% of EU employees anticipate that AI tools will make them more productive, freeing up valuable time that can be reallocated to higher-value tasks. While AI cannot fully replace the need for skilled human employees, it provides a crucial tool for optimising existing talent. Companies can leverage its capabilities to automate routine, time-consuming tasks, allowing employees to focus on strategic initiatives, creative problem solving and innovation. Google can help by providing useful tools. The previously mentioned report estimates that Google’s products, platforms and tools contributed to the creation of an economic activity throughout the European Union estimated at EUR 179 billion in 2023, enabling companies to employ more than three million people. Through the path opened by AI, we have a unique opportunity to accelerate economic growth and advance social change. To capitalise on these opportunities, we need to find the right balance between harnessing the benefits of AI and minimising its risks. This means we need responsible regulation that supports private sector innovation and promotes the adoption of AI and emerging technologies.”
➤ Adrian Ariciu, CEO METRO Romania: “In an era when adaptability and innovation are essential, I believe that the biggest opportunity, and at the same time the biggest concern, for our company is to maintain a strong team that is responsive to change, open to transformation and able to evolve with METRO. From a business development point of view, the biggest opportunity and at the same time challenge is accelerating the digital transformation and strengthening our multichannel strategy. In this sense, the expansion of the Mshop online delivery platform, the continuous improvement of the METRO application and the integration of EPOS solutions, together with the development of the DISH platform for the HoReCa sector are proof of our orientation towards innovation and efficient service to our customers. On the other hand, the current economic landscape is shaped by the uncertainties generated by successive crises – market volatility and inflationary pressures, geopolitical tensions and a tight global election calendar. In addition, rapidly adapting to technological changes and evolving consumer expectations is a constant race against time that requires resources, vision and, above all, courage. These challenges demand vigilance and constant reinvention. However, I remain optimistic because we, as a company, are well positioned, and the lasting relationships we have built with over 100,000 Romanian entrepreneurs from the hospitality and traditional trade industries reflect solid partnerships, based on trust, which allow us to navigate the market challenges together. Adrian Ariciu CEO METRO Romania Without reinvention you cannot remain competitive. For our company, this process involves a deep reassessment of how we create value for our customers, our employees and society as a whole. Reinventing means looking at our company strategy through a lens that anticipates the future, identifying how megatrends can influence and shape demand in our industry, and proactively adapting our business model to remain relevant and competitive. And for us, that can be summed up in one word: multichannel. In this context, the digital transformation of our operations is a key element, aiming not only to optimise internal processes but also to improve the customer experience through efficient and accessible solutions. But this implies, in addition to the development and expansion of our digital platforms, the optimisation of logistics spaces in the 30 physical stores. We are focused on growing our footprint by expanding our current stores and building new warehouses to increase supply chain efficiency and ensure continuous product availability. But the transformation of a business cannot be done only from a technology and logistics point of view, the transformation means adopting an organisational culture that encourages innovation, experimentation and continuous learning. We need to be agile, adapt quickly to change and embrace failure as an essential part of the learning and growth process. Reinvention is therefore a continuous process of evaluating and adjusting our strategies to respond not only to today’s challenges but also to tomorrow’s. And for that, we need to invest in people – our most valuable resource. Through training and professional development programmes, we ensure that our team is prepared to meet the dynamic challenges of the market and the needs of our clients. GenAI presents outstanding opportunities for optimising back-end processes in areas such as: supply chain management, operations, market price surveillance and HR administrative services. The adoption of GenAI technology is becoming an imperative, given the advancement in technology and the need for continuous improvement in efficiency and productivity. This will enable organisations to optimise resources, improve workflows and direct human resources to value-added activities. On the other hand, in the front-end area, especially in the B2B context, personal relationships and interactions remain essential. While GenAI can support and improve certain processes, the human factor and direct relationship with customers continue to be pivotal. In conclusion, while GenAI is transforming certain operational segments, the essence of B2B interaction remains deeply anchored in human relationships and mutual understanding.”
➤ Lacramioara Diaconu-Pintea Pințea, Country Manager Romania, OX2: “The opportunity is given by the fact that Romania continues at a constant pace in its transition towards achieving climate neutrality in coordination with the EU. There is political will and investor interest, there are important budgets to support this effort – the Modernisation Fund, PNRR, Just Transition Fund and REPowerEU, as well as from financial institutions and financial and strategic investors. According to the available reports and estimates, investments in the renewable sector in the EU were around EUR 150–200 billion in 2023. These investments have been directed towards various technologies and projects, including wind farms, solar farms, energy storage systems, smart grids and other infrastructure associated with renewable energy. I believe that the renewable sector will become the largest energy investor in the coming years. Under these conditions, forecasts from government or industry sources are that in 2030 we will add 10–15 GW of new wind and solar power generation capacity. Investments in renewable energy have a direct impact on the economy. The concern, in my view, is about the whole context, which remains complicated macroeconomically, politically and geopolitically. Romania has a very electoral year in 2024, with four sets of elections, which could disrupt some aspects that for us, energy investors, are essential. I mean here, for example, the project authorisation process and the way in which the business plans of private investors intersect with the plans of the authorities. The cost of financing remains high, there are elements of uncertainty in the area of long-term contracts – PPA, the mechanism of contracts Lăcrămioara Diaconu Pințea Country Manager Romania OX2 for difference, the process of connecting to the national grid. All these elements make up an uncertain context and the market reaction is the offer with insufficiently attractive prices for a developer. Because of this, investors continue to show reluctance, and there is a risk that the investments we need to achieve our European potential and targets will take much longer. Studies show that every euro invested in electricity generation mainly from renewable sources has the potential to generate a gain of 0.3 euros for the economy, and every million euros invested would create an average of six jobs. OX2 is powering the great shift, therefore we contribute to the reinvention and transformation of businesses through the essence of our activity. Change is happening right now and is increasingly measurable. A recent EU-wide statistic from Ember shows a ‘monumental’ change, with wind producing more electricity than gas (by 15%) and coal (by 26%) in 2023 for the first time. At the OX2 group level, the portfolio is constantly growing. At the end of 2024, it reached 47 GW in the 12 countries where the company operates compared to 37 GW in 2023. In Romania, OX2 projects are moving forwards, and our thoughtful way of development means constant organic growth but also through carefully made acquisitions that ensure the solidity of the portfolio. Our plan is to start new projects as we complete the development stage and start construction on those already in the portfolio, with a strategic or financial investor with us. The OX2’s perspective is clear: our projects are top quality, bankable, that end up being built and put into operation. I can say that the focus is both in the area of project authorisation and in the area of responsibility towards nature and towards the community, which have acquired new values. Let us take for example a wind project that has to obtain environmental approval. Even if the authorities do not require biodiversity monitoring in the relevant area for that project, we do it. It is in line with the requirements of any investor in such projects, with those of financing institutions in accordance with IFC standards. We aim to build and operate projects without affecting natural habitats, such as the migrating of migratory birds. Offshore wind projects also have this biodiversity check. For example, OX2 and Ingka Investments, the owner of IKEA, are developing the Neptunus project in the Baltic Sea, which aims, among other things, to oxygenate the seabed to stimulate marine life. ‘AI and energy are the new power couple’ is the title of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) November 2023 report. From making energy production and demand forecasts more flexible to managing the grids of the future using much more powerful analytical tools, it is clear that the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in energy will be critical. In the field of renewable energy, AI has started to have relevance in identifying project locations for renewable energy potential. AI can help to develop renewable energy sources such as wind and solar by predicting energy production, optimising performance and improving maintenance needs. For example, AI can be used to make wind turbines more efficient. They are equipped with sensors and AI algorithms that can predict changes in wind conditions and adjust operation accordingly. In addition, the AI-based maintenance program is used to proactively identify and resolve issues, reducing downtime and maintenance costs. AI can also contribute to biodiversity conservation by investigating data on species, habitats and threats to them. This can help the design of conservation strategies and improve understanding of the complex relationships between different species and their environments. In OX2, we use or are in the process of implementing some AI applications in production departments with repetitive work, in jobs that involve a low or medium level of involvement in managerial decisions. Equally, we look to our design service or equipment providers for those solutions that also involve GenAI, given that it can be used for: . generation of synthetic data for simulations – synthetic data imitates the behaviour of renewable energy systems such as solar and wind power generation; . generation of projects and documentation associated with renewable energy projects; . generation of reports and analysis associated with renewable energy projects. By applying GenAI to renewable energy projects, benefits can be achieved in terms of efficiency, innovation and cost reduction, helping to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable and resilient energy infrastructure.”
➤ Catalin RADU, General Manager Bristol Myers Squibb Romania: “The year 2024 will unfold in a complex context, marked by numerous rounds of elections and difficult political decisions. Regardless of political orientation, it is clear that a proper commitment to health should be a priority. In this regard, there is a significant opportunity for the pharmaceutical market in updating the list of compensated drugs and negotiating new cost–volume contracts, both of which have been delayed since the previous year due to a lack of financial resources. A major concern stems from the inefficient management of public funds, with an uncontrolled increase in the number of public sector employees, increased expenditure on salaries and pensions, the absence of essential administrative reforms and a low collection rate of revenues to the state budget. The election year may bring populist measures that could affect the business environment, such as the 1% tax on the previous year’s turnover. This lack of vision and political will for a clear development direction for Romania will have consequences for our medium-term development prospects and on developments this year. Awareness of the global impact of our actions, sustainable development and the rapid and efficient integration of new technologies are essential aspects for companies to adapt and progress. For the pharmaceutical industry, combining technology with our drug treatments can significantly improve their quality and make a difference in the survival of patients with conditions such as cancer or multiple sclerosis, or in saving the lives of those with heart problems. Technology has already Cătălin Radu General Manager Bristol Myers Squibb România enabled remarkable progress in discovering and modelling new drugs and molecules with curative potential. What in the past required years of fundamental research can now be developed faster due to the use of technology platforms. In this regard, Bristol Myers Squibb has made strategic and rapid decisions regarding the formation of partnerships or the acquisition of research and development platforms based on state-of-the-art technologies. At the organisational level, we are trusted partners for healthcare professionals and the doctors who care for patients. Technology helps us to collect and process information, analyse and interpret large volumes of data, studies and publications, enabling us to provide physicians with a valuable and insightful synthesis for practice. Our entire business chain, from discovery and development to commercialisation, is technology oriented, and we expect to continue on the same path in the future. At Bristol Myers Squibb, we are dedicated to researching, discovering and commercialising treatments for people. In many situations, that ‘human attention’ that cannot be replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) is essential. However, we recognise that there are many steps in our processes that can be improved by implementing AI, and we already have this technology in the company. Certainly, GenAI has and will have an important role both now, and in the future, in areas such as user-interacting websites and chatbots, for example. We already use GenAI in the creation of promotional materials, educational materials and complete training programmes. GenAI technology is already being used in suggesting molecules or ingredients with the potential to become drug treatments. We can say that GenAI has appeared since 1932, when the ‘mechanical brain’ was invented, the first computer that did translations, and the first chatbot was created in 1966, but the major advances began to be observed in the last 10 years, and the pace of development is exponential. GenAI is definitely a solution for the talent shortage, for streamlining and redesigning processes, and I believe that ‘the sky is the limit’ for technological development. Whoever does not adopt it, will lose. Personally, however, I also believe that human interaction will continue to be something special and necessary.”
➤ Volker Raffel, CEO E.ON Romania: “The energy transition to the new decentralized, carbon-free energy world is undoubtedly the biggest opportunity for the energy industry, but also the biggest challenge. E.ON is one of the largest energy infrastructure operators in Europe and an energy solutions provider for around 48 million clients. These are the two main segments of our business, which ideally position us to be a leader in the European energy transition. On the way to the climate neutrality, our clients need decentralized, sustainable and, above all, efficient smart solutions. E.ON solutions mean customized offers that meet these requirements. As a partner for heating, cooling, power generation and energy efficiency solutions, our goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and, at the same time, to lower the energy costs for our clients. For example, in the heating area, our solution with condensing boilers, which bring savings of up to 30% on the gas bill, has been chosen by tens of thousands of clients. We also focus on sustainable heating, offering heating solutions with heat pumps. The market is still more timid in Romania, but we aimed to be as present as possible here as well. Last year we continued to install photovoltaic systems to householder clients, more than 1/day, and we reached 1,265 installed solar systems, beginning with 2020, since we have launched this solution on the market. With the relaunch of the Casa Verde program, we want to strongly accelerate this year as an AFM authorized installer. Regarding the photovoltaic generation solutions for companies and municipalities, the PV plants number completed in 2023 was 161, the total Volker Raffel CEO E.ON Romania installed capacity being 32 MWp, and the energy production of 38 GWh/year. At the end of the last year, our portfolio of photovoltaic generation projects thus reached 359 completed projects. At the moment we have another 40 similar projects underway. On the e-mobility side, in 2023 we installed 201 charging points for electric cars. We reached a total of 441 charging points, and for this year we aimed to install another 250. E.ON is also active in the area of the renewable electricity decentralized generation, and we have already signed several contracts in Romania as well for the construction and operation of photovoltaic power plants for partners under PPA type contracts, because we want to be as present as possible in this expanding area of the market. We are also looking carefully at other opportunities that may come, such as green hydrogen production and storage. Regarding the biggest concern, it is related to the current regulatory framework of the distribution activity, which does not support the grids necessary investments. Right now, the grids should be the energy absolute investment priority. We want to invest in grids even more than the record amounts we have already invested in the past years. And Romania has that once-in[1]a-lifetime chance to attract European money and still has the necessary workforce. But this mechanism must be carefully adjusted because, to be eligible for European funds, the distributors must also invest from their own funds. And these investments must be recovered through distribution tariffs.”
Source: PwC.ro
28.03.2024 / Editor, Andreea Dragan
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