“My only regret is that I didn”t take this step in 2001-2002,” said Ioan Nicolae, the owner of Interagro Group, the majority shareholder in Asirom, the third most important company on the market, during the official introduction of the insurance company”s management team yesterday.
“It is just that sometimes people think with the heart and not the mind. I hope to do some catching up,” said Nicolae.
The launch of Asirom”s new management team, says Nicolae, was “the fruit of over ten months” work with an international head-hunting company”. “For every position I considered at least ten options.”
The new Asirom managers are Boris Schneider (general manager), Ion Gheorghe Bratulescu (deputy general manager), Mariana Diaconescu (head of Economic-Financial Department), Steluta Racolta (head of Insurance Sales Department), Diana Ganescu (head of Insurance Department), Mihaela Rausser (head of Human Resources and Planning Department), Daniela Meghea (head of Subsidiary Coordination and Administration), Ovidiu Mihai Vadean (head of Regulations and Claims Processing), Cristian Gheorghita (head of Marketing and Public Relations Department), Nicolae Moldoveanu (head of Damage Verification and Control Department) and Dumitru Dinca (head of Internal Audit Department).
The recruitment firm used by the company in creating its new management team was Pedersen & Partners, which has Danish shareholders, and is focused on Central and Eastern Europe. Asirom is the second Romanian company to become a client of the firm (the company also has Medicarom as a client).
Ulrik Rasmussen, the regional consultant associate of Pedersen & Partners, said Ioan Nicolae had approached the company at the time Asirom was in talks with Fred Heath. Heath had been brought on board by Asirom “for a trial period”, which he did not pass, explained the Interago owner.
“Asirom has grown organically until now, which means people have been here for a long time and moved from one department to another because that was what was necessary,” Rasmussen explained. “We are now trying to put in place a new structure, starting from the top of the hierarchy and going down.”
This is how, says Rasmussen, Asirom got its more decentralised hierarchy, in which management members interact better with one another and take on more responsibilities. The main selection criteria, besides some specific skills, were international experience and restructuring experience.
The best example around which the team crystallised, explained the recruitment specialist, is Mihaela Rausser, who had worked previously with PricewaterhouseCoopers and then Raiffeisen Bank. “Mihaela Rausser has the experience of Banca Agricola”s transformation into Raiffeisen Bank, and the optimisation of the management structure of a company is the same as in the case of a takeover. There are similarities between the process that took place at Banca Agricola after the acquisition and what has happened now at Asirom.”
In the beginning things will not be easy for the new team, but results will start to show within a year and a half, explained Ramussen. “Had it waited for 2 or 3 more years, Asirom could have faced some problems.” ioana.leaua@zf.ro