Romanians can turn to management consulting

After having acquired an MBA in France with the Copernicus programme, Ciprian Moga returned in Romania in 1997 as a consultant with Bossard Consultants, the leader of the counselling market in France at that time. When Bossard was taken over by the world’s leader Gemini, Moga entered the team of this consulting company.

Although Gemini soon focussed on IT and mature markets, ignoring the emerging markets (Southeast Asia, South Africa and Eastern Europe), Ciprian Moga was certain that the domestic market of management consulting had great potential.

He founded iQuest Consulting last March, a company whose counsellors do not stop at drawing files with recommendations to improve a company’s management, as it usually happens, but move further and put these recommendations into practice.

This kind of activity makes the company’s individuality, although iQuest manager has to admit that few clients accept to undergo the rigorous procedures of diagnosis and project implementation. “Not only we make recommendations, but we also forecast the results – cost cuts, revenue increases, productivity, market shares. We try to measure everything we do.”

The company, which has six consultants in Romania, registered $154,000 in turnover and posted profit at the end of its first year, “which is quite well for the beginning.” The company expects increases in turnover, profit and staff number this year.

Management consulting is a rare profession in Romania, as many managers find it hard to accept this kind of advice, Moga says. The activity of such companies will consequently grow while the market is maturing, which implies that consulting will be a part of the corporate culture.

Reference works on management consulting could become a turning point into the evolution of the managers’ mentality: “I am waiting for the day when the bookstores in Romania will have plenty of books on success stories, as it happens in America. When these books about the way a Romanian manager was able to make a company profitable are available, some of this success will be owed to the consultants.”

For the time being, in Ciprian Moga’s bookcase, Jack Welch’s works are his first choice among the books he purchased with his own money. As the lack of money is a chronic problem and paying for consulting services is not a priority yet, “some success stories should emerge in order to create demand for such services.”

By that time, reality points to a small market. Only several million dollars are paid annually for management consulting. Besides, this activity is mistaken for financial and audit counselling.

On the other hand, there are a lot of other companies focussing on organisational issues, providing human resources, quality or IT counselling services. Ciprian Moga, 32, thinks there will be enough room for high-quality consulting services on the Romanian market two years from now.