Who made serious profits in Romania during 2010? (except the smecheri and rest of “very intelligent people)

2010 was a difficult year. But during this period I have also noticed something which was not mentioned by the media. What was that? Last year we experienced a serious change in the list of profitable companies in Romania. Comparing to the past, it was the moment that brought up to surface traditional and different ideas, business styles and methods. I have studied all these during December and January, trying to understand better the economic environment we all live in and I think that today I can share with you a part of this study.

(In this post I don't take into consideration all kinds of "smechers" and the rest of "very intelligent people". They are beyond my level of understanding and I simply leave them aside).

2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009. 2010. Think about it, things have changed…
I came in Romania in 2004. After I understood the basics of this country, I started trying to realize the situation here. So since 2005 I kept onchecking several domains of Romanian society and economy.

Now, please try to go back in time a bit. Who was profitable in 2005 – 2006? Mainly the "old money" of this country and the "ambitious new comers", plus the local and foreign companies which were already established here for some years.

Then in 2007 – 2008? Tens, hundreds of thousands of people, doing almost everything, especially services. At that time people were able to charge "whatever they wanted" for their questionable level of services and products. It was the time for easy money. Also we had the entry of several "giants" and people's mind got mixed up. Media announced huge investments (that never occurred) and almost everyone got the impression that "all people make money, easy and fast". (Yeah…)

In 2009 we had the first harsh year of crisis and things changed, dramatically. Plenty of companies continued being profitable, just as result of the last years' expansion. But it was clear that the ones without strong leadership and fast adjustment to the "new world" would be the most affected ones.

Have you also noticed the change? What about 2010?

2010: 4 categories of companies stood out from the market
During last year we saw lots of changes in Romanian economy. Also we noticed some "traditional values" returning. But the most interesting part is the part of successful companies / growth stories. Today let us check 4 profiles of companies which succeeded due to their work / strategy / decisions.

1. Manufacturing companies which (mainly) export
It is not just Dacia and Nokia. I have counted tens of manufacturing companies which saw their figures increase during 2010. Most of them export their production and succeeded impressive results. A typical "success story" was like this. They:

• Know their business really good, plus know how to structure their business.
• Came in Romania during the previous 5 years.
• Invested a lot, following the trend.
• During 2009 adjusted fast to reality.
• Took advantage of Ron's depreciation and then stability.
• Also managed to cut expenses, reaching their favourite figures.
• Increased the level of their workforce and productivity.
• Targeted foreign markets.
• Exported / distributed a lot.
• Reached "healthier" profits, coming out of more production, not just price increases.

2. Long time established Romanian and multinational companies
They dominated the market until 2005 – 2006, but afterwards they appeared to be "less important", as almost everyone thought that it would be easy to reach their sales. They found their ways of survival during 2009 and rose again in 2010, reminding to everyone that they remain the important business players of this country.

In the same time the "old money" followed 2 different directions: Some of the rich people lost enormous sums of money, while the majority succeeded to maintain the biggest part of its wealth. But very few of them really proved out to be "crisis proof".

3. Companies producing products whose value increased during the year
Romanian GDP shrank only by 1,2% in 2010, mainly because the prices for agricultural products  and other commodities increased too much and the country's exports benefited from this occasion. But there was no strategy behind this, in national level. Only local companies approached this issue professionally.

Despite the tens of problems that this country has, we have to admit that there is a growing trend for serious people to invest in agriculture, or production of commodities with added value. Romania's potential is enormous in this field and if they use their profits in order to expand and carefully re-invest, I am sure that they can build bigger and stronger companies in the near future.

4. Smaller firms which took advantage of crisis and started business with low costs
Just go back in time 3 years ago and try to remember how it was. The majority of people was asking too much, most of them had incredibly high expectations. 2010 was the second difficult year, which forced many of them to return back to reality. This means that there were found many reasonable persons, able to offer good services / products at decent costs.

Who benefited the most out of this? The smaller firms or simple private persons, who started their own business. What would cost them 30.000 – 40.000 Euro back in 2008, cost them about 10.000 – 15.000 Euro in 2010. Others started business even with 3.000 – 5.000 Euro! This is why many new business started, with some of them having serious hopes to become very successful in the years to come.

Successful but due to other reasons: Monopolies, connections etc
Except the rise of these 4 categories of companies, 2010 gave us once more a clear example of how monopolies (local or national ones) can make money at any time, not being interested in crisis. But this is not a trend for the mass to follow.

Reality proves that there are still opportunities for serious people / companies to grow
I know that when I present positive results of people, based on work etc, there are many who will tell me that "this is bullshit, you should trick some others and make fast money", or (based on their limited knowledge) they will insist that "there is nothing good in this country etc". This is a point of view indeed.

But except the problems we note every day, some business people in Romania made steps forward. Instead of easy, useless criticism, it would be better for us to understand why and how they did it. This is the first step in order to learn, to improve.

This country has plenty of advantages. Some people used them for their own benefit during 2010. This is called healthy entrepreneurship. Bravo.