Dan Sucu, Mobexpert's lesson: "I realised back then that production was useless, non-existent and worthless without a market to sell it on. The value of a company is set by the market and not by its products."
Romania celebrates twenty years of freedom and capitalism this year. Ziarul Financiar begins a series of articles today that will show who Romania's capitalists are now, twenty years after the Revolution: how they made their first million euros, how they run their companies and who are the people they trust.
We will seek to delve into inner workings of the domestic businesses, see how they are organised, how they are run, how much they have changed in the meantime, what makes them different from a multinational.
Today's issue presents the story of Dan Sucu, who has 3,500 employees and 200 million euro business through his Mobexpert group. Sucu, who started his furniture business in 1991, is a symbol of the evolution of the Romanian economy since 1989 until now.
"Back then I was very "engineer-minded" and I was really interested in the idea of producing something. I thought that producing was an incomparably stronger base than just going into trade. My dream was to produce. (...) Gradually, after a number of talks with foreign partners, I realised how important the market was and that thinking of being strong a market 3,000 kilometres away and leaving your (home) market to somebody else was a lack of normality. I realised back then that production was useless, non-existent and worthless without a market to sell it on. The value of a company is set by the market and not by its products," Sucu told Ziarul Financiar.
This idea of the market being more important than the product, has blocked the minds of many of the Romanian officials after 1989 and is still taking its toll.
Capitalism is learned, as revealed by the story of these people who first got businesses with thousands of employees and hundreds of millions of euros in revenues going and only then learnt what EBITDA or progressive tax meant.
The Romanian capitalists learned business on the job, from books, newspapers, business partners or competitors.
The example of Dan Sucu shows that a furniture importer turned into a producer. Altex, a major importer of electronics and home appliances, also became a computer manufacturer.
Imports came about because there was a market for them. No matter how much we might decry the fate of the Romanian industry or agriculture, because we import goods that we could manufacture locally, as long as these goods have a market, despite being shipped from hundreds or thousands of kilometres away, imports will prevail.
While politicians make statements, businesspeople take action. Romania has been through twenty years of capitalism, but there is tremendous distrust between capitalists and the state.
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