Post-Privatization Foundation

Sign-ups for Business Mentoring Program 2012 have started!

flori — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:40:03 +0000

With the support and experience of the MIT Center for Entrepreneurship professors, the business mentoring program, performed at an MBA level, will begin its first workshop in January 2012.

Brought for the first time in Romania in 2010 by the Post-Privatization Foundation, with the support of Entrepreneurship Ventures Inc. (USA), the program perfects and improves managerial abilities to consolidate their respective businesses in a sustainable way. By going through all the evolutionary stages of a business, Romaian entrepreneurs have the opportunity to benefit from the experience of top mentors from the MIT Center for Entrepreneurship : Kenneth Morse, Laura Morse and William Aulet.

Business Mentoring Program supports the continuous preparation of Romanian businessmen, in such a way that they can develop their own organisation up to the point of entering the global market. For this reason, to facilitate networking and the exchange of experience between Romanian and foreign entrepreneurs, the program will be extended to the entire South-Eastern Europe from 2012.

Alongside the three mentors from the MIT Center for Entrepreneurship, participants will take part in five intensive training sessions spread over the course of six months. The courses will be centered on key aspects for developing a solid business : sales strategies, marketing, creating action value for operational excellence, leadership and financing for development.

The program is thought on a level of exigence and preparation suitable for an MBA and especially addresses already established entrepreneurs, executive directors and management teams of Romanian companies, together with companies from neighbouring countries (such as : Hungary, Ukraine, Moldavia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia).

The number of places on the program is limited. Enrolment is conditioned by filling in an application form available at www.businessmentoring.ro and will remain open until January 6th 2012. Further information on the Business Mentoring Program, on workshop timetables and on ways to participate can be found on the same website. The first workshop of the program will take place on the 18th and 19th of January 2012 in Bucharest.

About the Business Mentoring Program mentors

Kenneth Morse is, among other things, a serial entrepreneur, president of Entrepreneurship Ventures Inc., founding managing director of the MIT Center for Entrepreneurship and guest lecturer to the ESADE Business School of Barcelona. Ken is on the board of directors of several start-ups, among which Denkwerk Gmbh (Germany) ; iMotions – Emotion Technology ApS and Zylinc A/S (Denmark) ; The Little Engineer (Lebanon) ; Aifos Solutions SL, Indisys and Invenio (Spain) ; Izon Science Ltd. (New Zealend) ; Naeeb Networks and Sofizar (Pakistan) and several other MIT spin-offs including Cogito, FloDesign Sonics, IntAct, Terrafugia and UkuMi.

Laura Morse is Executive Director of Entrepreneurship Ventures Inc., ex co-instructor to the MIT Sloan School of Management and Senior Executive at S.W.I.F.T Sc (Belgium). Laura has worked for 20 years as Partner at Leading Global Executive Search Consultancies, Russel Reynold Associates and Heidrick & Struggles in Chicago, Boston and Brussels. Presently, Laura is part of the directing committee of Aura Biosciences, an oncology start-up from Madrid, and offers advice to other tech start-ups from Barcelona and Boston.

William Aulet is Managing Director at the MIT Center for Entrepreneurship, senior lecturer for the MIT Sloan School of Management and president of the MIT Clean Energy Prize. Bill is a succesul leader in business, with over 25 years experience in all areas concerning high-tech operations, product marketing and financing strategies, both for start-ups and public companies. Apart from the experience gained within his own companies, Bill is a mentor and counsellor for many other companies, on issues related to fundraising, and he is also frequently sought out for advice by venture capital specialists and “business angels”.

You can find further details about the program here.

Startup Fest reaches Cluj-Napoca!

flori — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:35:55 +0000

Enrolments have started for Startup Fest Cluj-Napoca!. Under the umbrella of School for Startups Romania, the event will take place on 14 October 2011, at Hotel City Plaza, the Ballroom hall, and it will begin at 5.30 PM.

Startup Fest is an event of university business training, dedicated to those university students who are willing to share a unique experience: that of being taught directly by two successful businessmen: Marius Ghenea and Doug Richard, the aspects that lie behind a successful business career and the secret ingredients which can turn a student into an entrepreneur.

The pros and cons of working on your own, structuring the ideas in order to turn them into solid business, building the business career step by step are only a few of the subjects which will be debated during the event. No matter if you are at the beginning or you’ve already taken the first steps in your career, the experience of some successful people will help you discover the rules for securing a successful professional career.

Attendance is free of charge, subject to the number of available places, by filling the registration form available on www.startupfest.ro.

About Doug Richard and Marius Ghenea.
Doug Richard is known as a “serial entrepreneur” and angel investor. In 2005, Doug appeared in the first two series of the televised British show “Dragon’s Den” (a concept which is similar to Arena Leilor), and in 2010 he became the first American to be honoured with Queen’s Award for promoting entrepreneurship, and, et the same time, he received the prize “the Educator of the Year in the field of Entrepreneurship” in UK.

Marius Ghenea is known as a business man, business angel, serial entrepreneur and teacher of entrepreneurship. He is also president of the Romanian Association of Online Shops ARMO, Board Advisor for Venture Connect Forum, Board Member in the Programme for Community Foundations and Expert Reviewer for European Venture Contest.

You can find further details about the event here.

Elaine Cohen and Tobias Webb in Romania

flori — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:34:13 +0000

Romanian companies choose to answer certain needs of the internal community (employers, stakeholders) as well as the external community of the company ( local or interest communities) through programmes which are being elaborated more and more by CSR. (Corporate Social Responsibility). Are they doing the right thing? Are these programmes efficient? Does the invested money have the desired impact or does it generate profit for those involved?

Those who choose to ask themselves these questions in order to make efficient the use of resources in the projects of investment in the community and in order to see what other benefits the company may have – human resource managers and CSR, practitioners and journalists – are invited to the third annual meeting of the group LBG Romania.

On 12th September, Bucharest will be the host of this meting organized in partnership by the Association for Community Relationships and Post-Privatization Foundation.

The international guests of the annual meeting of the LBG group are:
Elaine Cohen, the author of the book “CSR for HR. A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices.” She is an international consultant in CSR and she works with some large multinational companies, such as Unilever or Procter&Gamble. Her area of expertise covers CSR strategies, the relationship between CSR and human resources, reporting and assessing data quality.

John Scade, director of MAS Business, a consultancy company in CSR and checking the reported data; a member of International Standards Board al AccountAbility; a member of Tomorrow’s Company, a member of the consultancy group on CSR subjects on the CSR commission InnoBasque; a member of the Committee of Business Ethics Committee; a member of the Spanish committee of ISO Standards Board’s (AENOR), a member of the European Climate Forum. Thanks to his work and experience, the subject of CSR and the importance of sustainability have become intensely debated topics in Central America, as he’s dedicated his entire activity to these fields in Spain and Latin America.

Tobias Webb, the founder of the international company specialized in consultancy and analysis in the field of durable and environment-friendly business. Webb is coordinating an international network of researchers, analysts and organizers of events in this field. He carries out another part of his activity at the Birkbeck College University of London, where he teaches CSR classes to PhD students. He is also an editorial director of FC Business Intelligence, a company focused on publishing information on specific sites in industries, about subjects such as renewable energies. Between 2006 – 2008, Toby Web was president of the work group on topics of social responsibility of the Conservative Party, which created the present CSR policy of UK.

Important Romanian professionals specialized both in CSR and Human Resources will join them: among them we can mention the following:
Peter Barta, the executive director of Post-Privatization Foundation and consultant with a large experience in management, especially in the field of project management, an experience which he has accumulated during twelve years of activity in the profit and non-profit sector. He also collaborated with certain institutions such as the Council of Europe, where he carried out monitoring missions in countries such as Mexico, Palestine, the Scandinavian countries, Russia or Macedonia.

Adela Jansen: the executive director of Human Resources of BRD – Groupe Societe Generale. With an 18 year experience in management, business development, logistics, sales, marketing, communication and human resources, in different industries, Adela Jansen has been working at BRD since 2003. She was the Secretary General of the bank for 5 years and in 2008 she became the executive director of human resources of the BRD Group – an organization with over 9000 employees.

Suzana Csizsek, a CSR manager of Raiffeisen Bank. Suzana has been working in the Corporate responsibility department since it was set up. Some of her responsibilities are: elaborating CSR strategy and policies and the associate communication strategy, as well as managing the annual CSR budget. At the same time, Suzana deals with the analysis and management of sponsorship projects, overseeing their implementation. Under her coordination, in 2010, the bank published the first report on corporate responsibility, which describes the value and the impact on the community of the sponsorships which were granted in 2009. The report was made in keeping with the LBG model for measuring the involvement in the community.

The topics deal with the analysis of the efficiency of the CSR programmes belonging to companies as well as the way in disciplined reporting contributes to improving the quality of the portfolios of the community programmes as well as the way in which it can influence the objectives of other departments, such as the human resource department. The legislative implications of the CSR practice as well as possible changes will also be debated with this occasion.

Romanian SMEs are being supported to have access to the finance

flori — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:28:04 +0000

Post-Privatization Foundation and the National Fund for the Guarantee of Loans for Small and Medium-Sized Companies have recently signed a protocol focused on providing accurate information about the guarantee products which already exist on the market, as well as designing new financial instruments adequate to the funding needs of the Romanian SMEs.

The protocol signed between Post-Privatization Foundation and the National Fund for the Guarantee of Loans for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises is focused directly on facilitating access to bank loans and programmes for financial support from national or European public funds. On the basis of this partnership, the two organizations propose to cooperate for a better large-scale promotion and dissemination of the information regarding the existing guarantee schemes and products, and at the same time they are pursuing the design of new financial instruments, adequate to the needs for finance of the small Romanian firms.

The proposed objectives will be implemented by: upgrading the information platform in the field of sources of finance on the portal esimplu.ro, administrated by Post-Privatization Foundation, plus adding the content of on-line information regarding the guarantee tools and products provided by FNGCIMM and any other relevant references; elaborating analyses and studies in order to assess the degree in which access is gained to the existing guarantee tools and in order to identify the requirements of the SMEs; preparing and designing several innovative financial tools for the SMEs and organizing other joint actions in order to provide entrepreneurs with information.

In this way, Post-Privatization Foundation contributes actively to promoting entrepreneurship, supporting through its activities the development of a competitive and durable business environment in Romania. To this effect, it constantly undertakes a series of inter-institutional collaborations aimed both at providing entrepreneurs with more accurate information on the resources which are available for business and pooling the efforts to support the SMEs sector, starting from the knowledge of its current status.

By elaborating specialty works, analyses and comparative studies, the annual report on the SMEs sector of Romania, Post-Privatization Foundation provide the decision-makers belonging to the public and private sector useful tools for making decisions and designing the policies and programmes supporting the business environment, especially the SMEs.

The enrolments for School for Startups Romania 2012 have begun

flori — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:26:33 +0000

Enrolments for School for Startups Romania 2012 have begun. As of 2012, the programme will extend to the entire area of South-Eastern Europe and Timisoara becomes the new host of the courses, next to Cluj and Bucharest. Application by the end of September affords the possibility to pay the participation fee in instalments, as well as the opportunity to meet some of the most important investors of UK at the end of the programme.

“2012 will be a great year, because we have included in the agenda everything we have learnt this year, we are going to learn even more and we’ll be supported by a full online service for planning the business process. I’m thrilled because in 2011 I discovered how important the spirit of the Romanian entrepreneurs is and how many opportunities there are in this country”, Doug Richard.

The first series of 170 participants of S4S Romania, trained by Doug Richard and Marius Ghenea have joined this year the 10,000 startups of UK, which participate in School for Startups UK. With an experience of over 20 years in developing and running technology and software companies, Doug Richard has proved that entrepreneurship can and must be learnt, by offering the participants business lessons and practical methods designed to achieve success in business. Thus the bases have been set for the greatest community of Romanian entrepreneurs, and in 2012, School for Startups proposes to become the greatest community of entrepreneurs in South-Eastern Europe.

In order to facilitate regional networking and due to its openness to the neighbouring countries, Timisoara has been chosen to be the new location for the courses, thus increasing the number of the participants to a total of 700, for the three cities.

“ The fact that S4S is available in 2012 in Bucharest, Cluj and Timisoara, makes this programme accessible for even more participants from the countries in the areas. At our first edition, we had participants from the Republic of Moldavia, and in 2012 we’ll also receive to our programme participants from Serbia (considering its vicinity with Timisoara), Hungary ( either in Timisoara, or in Cluj) and Bulgaria (at Bucharest). The development of this business school within an important regional programme is beneficial both to the participants , who will be able to share their experience with entrepreneurs from the neighbouring countries, and to Romania, which becomes in this way a regional hub of entrepreneurial development in South-Eastern Europe”, Marius Ghenea.

Next to Doug Richard and Marius Ghenea, other experts such as Andrew Davis and Dan Sordegren will come to Romania in 2012 in order to teach the participants how to use on-line marketing and Social Media in order to make a business grow. At the end of the programme, the participants will have the chance of having their business plans put forward in front of several investors from UK and Europe, who will come to Romania especially in order to choose the best start-ups in which to invest.

In order to qualify for the programme, you must go only through two stages: fill in the registration form you can find on the official site of the programme: www.schoolforstartups.ro, after which it will be analyzed and, when you have the affirmative answer, you can enrol officially on the programme. The total cost of the programme amounts to 5000 Euros, but the Post-Privatization Foundation has accepted to pay 3600 Euros for each participant, so the final price of the programme is 1400 Euros.

What will participants get in exchange of this amount?
-   2 intensive training sessions with Doug Richard, the founder of School For Startups UK ( lasting one, respectively two entire days),
-   1 intensive training session with the best trainers of Europe, brought by Marius Ghenea and the Post-Privatization Foundation.
-   1 intensive training session with the best instructors of the UK team School for Startups, where everything that must be known about financial operations, purchases, partners and sales will be learnt,
-   The participants will have the opportunity to present their business plan in front of several foreign investors, who will be brought to Romania especially for School for Startups 2012,
-   Free access to the LivePlan application, provided by Palo Alto Software, the world leader of the business software developers,
-   Online mentorship twice a month, provided by Doug Richard, for the entire duration of the programme,
-   Free access to a series of online speciality resources (articles, essays, videos, links etc),
-   Free access to a series of “How to” videos, especially made in order to teach participants how to make their business grow rapidly.

Further details about the enrolment and the participation fee can be found on the official site of the programme www.schoolforstartups.ro.

Promoting the entrepreneurship as an option of professional career among Romanian young people

flori — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:19:56 +0000

Post-Privatization Foundation and the National Centre for the Development of Vocational Training have recently signed a collaboration protocol whose objectives are cooperation in order to support entrepreneurial education and promote entrepreneurship as an option of professional career among Romanian young people.

In this way, the two entities propose to pool their efforts in order to stimulate private enterprise, by supporting entrepreneurial education at the level of pre-university education and during the continuous professional training. Another objective is developing the cooperation between the educational system and the business environment and transferring the information and successful practices from the real business environment to the programmes of entrepreneurial training of the educational system.

These objectives will be fulfilled by carrying out some common activities, promoting the programmes and the projects of entrepreneurial education implemented by each of the two organizations and by creating databases and collections of information, available in a dedicated virtual environment. Involving some successful businesspeople as well as the business organizations in this partnership will contribute to the creation of a national platform for supporting the business education of the young people, both during their training in the educational system and during the process of continuous professional training.

The most important conference on granting microfinance will take place in Romania

flori — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:18:59 +0000

Over 300 participants, representatives of microfinance institutions, SMEs and European loan institutions are being expected to attend the conference “ European Microfinance Network”, which will be organized next year in Romania, for the first time in Eastern Europe, by Post-Privatization Foundation and Eurom Consultancy & Studies.

The conference “ European Microfinance Network” has the mission to promote microfinance as a tool for developing entrepreneurial spirit and employment, by supporting the microfinance organizations and disseminating the best practices at an European level. Through plenary sessions, workshops, round tables and open dialogue, EMN promotes the development of a set of financial services designed to ensure the creation of economic support and social inclusion in Europe.

The conference that took place this year in Amsterdam between 9th and 10th June approached the issue of non-financial services, the new strategies which have been created in order to cope with the challenges of the economic environment, presenting at the same time the best practices of the microfinance sector from outside Europe.

In order to strengthen the tie between the small businesspeople and the microfinance institutions of Eastern Europe, Romania has taken over from Holland in order to be next guest of the event. The organizers of the 9th conference, Post-Privatization Foundation and Eurom Consultancy & Studies, wish to lay stress on the benefits brought by microenterprises both economically and socially, in order to improve the business environment of the entire Eastern Europe.

Potential sources of finance and business solutions for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

flori — Wed, 25 May 2011 13:42:33 +0000

The potential sources of finance and the business solutions for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises will be analyzed by entrepreneurs, bankers and Government representatives at the new edition of the conference Mediafax Talks about SMEs, which Mediafax organizes with Post-Privatization Foundation, on Thursday, 26 May.

The fourth edition Mediafax Talks about SMEs has the following speakers: Andreea Paul Vass – counsellor of the prime minister, Peter Barta –executive director of Post-Privatization Foundation, Aurel Saramet – the president of the National Fund for the Guarantee of Credits to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Ioan Hidegcuti – president of the directorate of the Romanian Fund of Counterguarantee, Mirela Iovu - vicepresident of CEC Bank, Daniela Niculescu – director of the SMEs Department of Alpha Bank, Teodora Pasa- chief of the department Structural Funds of Alpha Bank and Dan Barna – Managing Partner of Structural Consulting Group. The moderator of the event is Cristian Dumitru – editorial director of Mediafax Group.

The lecturers will debate the issue of accessing European funds and the budget which this year have been allotted for the programmes designed for the small and medium-sized companies. The simplification of the procedures for submitting the access projects and those for reimbursing the payments is one of the main subjects of the lecture.

The event will also debate the financial products aimed at SMEs, both from the point of view of the banks which offers the finance, and from those of the entrepreneurs who need these funds.

The participants in the Mediafax Talks about SMEs will also speak about the solutions to reduce costs and make activities efficient, as well as the role of IT products in this respect.

The lecture of Thursday will be broadcast live on www.mediafax.ro.

Mediafax Talks about SMEs is part of the series of business events Mediafax Talks which Mediafax, the biggest provider of general and business information of Romania, has been organizing since 2006.

The partners of the event are CEC Bank, Alpha Bank, FNGCIMM (The National Fund for Loan Guarantee of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises), the Romanian fund of counterguarantee and Microsoft and it’s taking place with the support of Structural Consulting Group.

Post-Privatization Foundation supports your educational development

flori — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:41:47 +0000

If you want to excel both professionally and personally, if you want to find out directly from the best trainers and successful people the ingredients that may ensure you a successful career or if you want to get in contact with the latest courses and development programmes, we recommend you to squeeze two entire days into your programme, 14 and 15 May. We will be waiting for you at Hotel intercontinental, at EXCELEZ, so that we can discover together why education is the most important element for achieving success.

Post-Privatization Foundation, as the main partner of the event, together with the organizers, dares you to invest in yourself and become better at what you do.

In order to help you, the organizers have prepared for you the widest range of courses and programmes, which are presented directly by the companies that develop them. (The Empower Association, TÜV Rheinland România, Road Language Centre, Codecs, Academia Credis, British Council, International House, Monteneo Investments, Life After Work, Agenţia Universitară de Francofonie, Yourway, Rentrop&Straton, Coaching Essence, SocioDrama, QS WorldGradSchool Tour). You can choose between foreign languages, management, marketing, sales, entrepreneurship, investments, non-formal education, project management, leadership. If you can’t wait any longer and you want to start learning at once, we suggest that you should participate in the workshops which have been designed especially in order to show you what steps you should take in order to find the perfect strategy in order to achieve performance.

Bring your updated CV with you so you can have instant career counselling and interview simulations within Career Corner, as well as your glasses, because you will have a special reading area, where you can find the latest editions and offers of books, audiobooks or CDs.

QS WorldGradSchool Tour will also be present and they will be expecting you in the Expo area with advice and information on the available study programmes, grant opportunities and successful stories of the Romanians who studied abroad.

Among the guests: Mădălina Uceanu (careeradvisor.ro), Elena Marineci (Life after work), Vlad Stan (Seedmoney), Eduard Ezeanu, Ian Peatey, Rodica Obancea (successcoaching.ro), Dragoş Nicolaescu (Visionary Business Consultants), Sandra Ghiţescu (Life after work), Dragoş Roua (Mirabilis Media NZ), Péter Barta – The Executive Director of the Post-Privatization Foundation, Ana-Maria Andronic (Biriş&Goran), Claudia Jimeno Beltran (amaneser.ro), Liviu Pleşoianu (rs.ro), Mihail Muşat, Fundaţia Calea Victoriei, Ionuţ Ciurea (Empower.ro).

Among the media partners: Capital.ro, Evz.ro, 9am, Wall Street, Ejobs, Best Jobs, Radio21, comunicatedepresa.ro, comunicatemedia.ro zona@it – TVR2, Rentrop&Straton, Formare.Info, Hart.ro, Raluk.ro, Hotnews, startups.ro, Balaur.ro, AIESEC, ASLS, EESTEC, ASER, LSRS, VIP, CROS, Motivonti.ro, Stiridebine.ro, EvenimenteStudentesti.ro, BestResource.ro, Smart Woman, Regielive.ro, BookBlog, Lumebuna.ro and many others..

You can find further details about the event here.

Post-Privatization Foundation and Europe Internet Invest invite you to Online Business Forum

flori — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:37:39 +0000

The 2011 Edition of Online Business forum (OBF) will take place in Braşov, on May 27th at the ARO Palace hotel. The organizers of the event, the Post-Privatization foundation and Europe Internet Invest, propose to create an framework where all those interested in the online environment may find out the latest trends in this respect, but also important strategies which they can apply in order to optimize their businesses.

This year, the OBF programme will focus on three important aspects: the internationalization of businesses, the use of online tools in business and the use of social media in business, and we mention some of the people who will add value to the event through their online experience: Marius Ghenea, Ciprian Stăvar, Dorin Boerescu, Hedi Hoka, Anca Petrescu etc.

Online Business forum is dedicated to the Romanian entrepreneurs and businesspeople who use the Internet as a support in order to make their business grow. Being focused on promoting the use of online tools in business, the purpose of the event in Brasov is to provide entrepreneurs with part of the secrets that have given the speakers the opportunity to develop their personal business worldwide.

The participation fee is 150 lei until May 1st , and afterwards a ticket will cost 250 lei. You may register by accessing the address: register.obf.ro.

The media partners who support the event are: Underclick, JCI Braşov, Comunicatedepresa.ro, IubescBraşovul, Transilvania Expres, Ziare.com, myTEX, TEX FM, MindQuilt, 2 Parale, InternetCorp, Venture Connect, Rotary Club Braşov, Bursa de Reclamă, How2Web, Onlinestudent.ro, Businesslive.ro, Amelie.ro, Studenţie.ro, Mail Agent, LTV, JCI România, Comunicatemedia.ro, KBC, StartupWeekend, Bestjobs.ro, Zumzi.ro, Floria, Ştiridebine.ro, Laptopnews.ro, Looms.ro, Morning Newsbrief, Arena Biz, Bestresourse.ro.

For extra information as well as the detailed programme of the conference, you may access directly its site www.obf.ro.