Radu Furnica hunts the future manager generations

Radu Furnica, 52, one of the oldest executive “hunters” on the Romanian market, is launching a new business unit in the midst of the crisis, through which he plans to bring in a data base the best 1,000 university graduates on the market, whom he should then place with the biggest players in the economy.

With a total investment of above 250,000 euros, Furnica hopes to reach turnover worth 1m euros annually with the new business unit. “In the first year, we’ll support an anorexic organisation as these are rough times. We have at least five companies that are interested. As we’ll place 500 young graduates per year with organisations, at a minimum tariff of 2,000 euros, we’ll reach turnover worth 1m euros per year. Our target is to deliver to companies young people who have the potential of becoming tomorrow’s managers. If one of the young people we’re going to select becomes the head of some corporation at a certain moment, I can say it will have been worth the effort,” says the chairman and CEO of Leadership Development Solutions (LDS) executive search firm, the partner for the Romanian market of Korn/Ferry International, the world’s biggest executive search firm. Talent Gate will set up a competency assessment system and a system to sort up the best graduates on the market. “(…) We want these candidates we want to propose to companies to be ‘the best of the best'”, explains Furnica. LDS chairman says the total candidate potential on the market stands at 400,000-500,000, in the context where universities deliver 200,000 graduates annually, to whom at least another 200,000 graduates from past years who are unemployed are added. At present, the system Talent Gate manages already includes 300 students. The assessment and selection process is largely operated online. The young people have to pass three types of tests, in the wake of which they get a cumulative report under the form of a profile of their career potential. Then, the best young people will enter a “one to one” validation system, where they will get advice so that they should understand what field and job suits them. Subsequently, they get information about the labour market, decide which fields and departments would best suit them and then the best graduates are “matched” with corporations.