Whereas the management staff of multinationals in Romania used to be dominated by expats in the early '90s, their share of the total has gone down. Furthermore, a growing number of expats is being replaced by Romanians, who in their turn are now being hunted for top management positions in international structures.
Marcel Cobuz, 35, will become the new CEO of Lafarge operations in Indonesia as of this week, where he will be leading a team of nearly 400 people. Cobuz is leaving for Indonesia after having been Lafarge Romania's chief financial officer for three years. At the same time he also served as financial vice-president for the Greek operations, a position he added to his CFO duties last year.
"Once a sufficiently solid background has been put in place, a so-called 'expatriatable' population is created. Those that performed very well in one of the operational units of the group go to others, which are in need of successful operational practices," Marcel Cobuz told ZIARUL FINANCIAR. The CEO position is the highest position that Lafarge has a sent a Romanian to fill abroad thus far. Cobuz will be replacing American Tom Ehrhart, who is leaving Indonesia for a similar position in Africa.
Cobuz will be the only Romanian inside Lafarge Indonesia, becoming part of a management team that includes two more expats: an Indian and a Malaysian.
The first Romanian managers were sent to Lafarge divisions around the world soon after the takeover of Romcim by this group in 1998. The first Romanian manager was sent abroad in 2000. "A number of 31 managers have been expatriated thus far, with 18 Romanian managers currently expatriated," says Gabriel Matauan, human resources manager of Lafarge Romania.
The Romanian branch of Coca-Cola HBC has thus far supplied 50 Romanian managers to the international group structures.
"Romania was faced with a shortage of management, marketing and sales expertise in the first few years, but managers were built in time and not necessarily in universities. When a sufficient expertise level in terms of management was reached, multinational companies preferred to appoint Romanian managers," says Calin Dragan, general manager of CCHBC Romania and Moldova.
Calin Dragan is the first Romanian ever appointed to run Coca-Cola's operations on the Romanian market, but is not the first Romanian manager in the Coca-Cola structures.
"The group has a pragmatic approach when it comes to appointments and I am far from being unique, even though I am the first Romanian manager of CCHBC Romania. There were 40 Romanians before me that left for management positions inside the group," he adds. One in four managers of the Romanian management structure of Unilever has been expatriated to other branches of the group throughout the world. "As far as Unilever is concerned, Romanians became Europeans a long time ago and are serious competition to their co-workers for positions at the top of the organisation, as they are held in high regard. All in all, over 25% of the Romanian managers benefited from training programmes that included expatriation," says Alexandra Olaru, corporate affairs manager of Unilever South Central Europe (USCE).
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