Radu Matei – for MCVP Organizational Development of AIESEC Romania

“Impossible is just another realized objective!”

General Questions

1. Why have you decided to stand for AIESEC Romania? What will be your contribution to the MC team and

what do you expect to learn from the experience?

First of all, I’m not standing for AIESEC Romania – I’m running. AIESEC is like a marathon which you

run either to test, improve or surpass yourself; you can run for a cause or a dream and the best part is that you never

do it alone.

I gave a lot to AIESEC in the past 2 years and I don’t consider it a sacrifice, but an investment in myself

and other people because I learned and grew so much and the organization I helped build did the same with so many

others. I want to take this investment and everything I’ve learned from the people I worked with (members, vice

presidents, presidents, MC, companies, NGOs and many others) and realize my new dream – to help develop

AIESEC Romania into realizing its true potential. I simply love AIESEC –my second family – and my country and

there is nothing else I see myself doing next.

As a contribution to the MC team:

- My transferable skills and attitude: perseverance, passion for my work, having fun, open communication,

inspiring others, adaptable to unexpected challenges, working with the external market, courage to take on

big endeavors.

- Non-transferable skills: creativity, empathy, going the extra mile.

- Helping the MCP to ensure the resources for developing the skills and knowledge the MC team needs. I

already have some close personal contacts who can help in that direction (Ascent Group, Dr. Graham Giles,

HPDI ...) and I intend on creating more.

- As a president, I worked a lot with the external market and also, coming from a new LC, I bring new

perspectives and the unique respect for simplicity.

- There are also the small things, which I consider highly important when working in MC conditions like

making sure everyone has a comfortable and creative-friendly working space, making sure we have cooked

food instead of wasting money on fast-food and going out meeting new people from Bucharest. It is

amazing how food, space and people can affect your performance as an MC team.

From this experience I expect to learn how to improve: working and planning efficiently, how to connect local

needs with national and international ones, management & leadership, working in an international environment. All

these, plus the added contacts will support my long-term plan (LCP->MCVP->MCP->Internship->AI->PAI->social

entrepreneurship) for realizing my biggest goal to bring positive and sustainable change in the world.

2. Create a proposal for AIESEC Romania 2012-2013 strategy that should cover the next points (a, b and

c):

a. Make a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threads) of AIESEC in Romania. The points above have to

be evident in the plan you create and the correlation between them too.

Strengths: The only NGO who is connected to a high variety of business environments as a stakeholder - We have

many activities/structures which can be related to many types of business areas.

The image we created based on delivering extraordinary people to the AIESEC International network,

aswell as the external market – Romanians in MCs abroad, reopening AIESEC Ireland, people delivered

through internships (both in and out), members doing career practice in companies and our alumni.

The only organization which delivers all the types of internships we do.

The early start in piloting new initiatives and structure based on the AIESEC ELD programs to fulfill our

2015 Mid Term Ambition and our BHAG.

Weaknesses:

We have a poor relationship with the external market (companies, NGOs, GOs, schools, students) - which

leads to projects which are not anchored in the real needs of the market and projects with a low impact.

Radu Matei – for MCVP Organizational Development of AIESEC Romania

“Impossible is just another realized objective!”

A low visibility = a low rate of engagement = few people actually know what AIESEC is - Although we are

starting to increase our visibility, it is still at a low point taking into consideration our market (example:

how many students of the total in Romania, actually know about AIESEC).

Not pulling as a country - We are still separated by individual needs of each LC and that creates many

directions in which a country is going, so we basically sacrifice the development of the network as a whole,

for the better of one. It’s understandable why this happens, but only until one point, because past that, you

get low performance as a country and that affects every LC, including the ones who don’t accept the

direction (example: risk of being ignored as a viable country for internships based on poor quality of TNs).

Low financial sustainability – as a country we can sustain most of our basic functions, but when we want to

go for bigger endeavors/investments it comes with high risks, pressure and low chances of success.

Few applicants on leadership positions – given the number of members we have, there are too few applying

for EB and MC positions – we are reaching a point where we will have more applicants for MCs abroad.

Opportunities: The economic instability – it generates new needs on the market, which we can cover by developing new

products or reshaping the ones we already have in order to respond to those needs (example: a company

wanting to expand to another country by forming a partnership there can’t afford the cost of actually going

for research, can receive help from our AIESEC contacts in that country).

Low level of education delivered by the Romanian school systems – this creates a need in the educational

sector aswell in the business one, which we can cover (by developing young people or delivering already

developed ones through our internships).

Large network of alumni

New lines of financing from the European Union based on social entrepreneurship

Threats: The economic instability if we don’t adapt and learn how to capitalize on it.

The low interest of young people for what we do as an organization.

Our stakeholders not finding us relevant enough to invest in.

Romania’s government unhealthy policy regarding obtaining incomes – they would rather increase and find

new ways of taxation, than encourage development (example: increasing taxes for medium and small

businesses to the point they have to dissolve). Their next target for taxation is NGOS.

End of the “volunteering year” – in 2012 there will be fewer lines of financing on this particular sector.

b. The 3 main priorities for your area(s) based on the general SWOT analysis. What strategies would you propose

for each one and what results would you like to see in each of those priorities at the end of your term.

What you can see from my SWOT analysis is that it’s related to 3 main areas: how we work with the external

market, how we manage our organization and external relevance. From this, I developed 3 main priorities:

b1. Financial sustainability and working with the external market

This focus has 4 sublevels which can also be counted as steps:

- External market knowledge and activities management (why we work with them and they should work with

us, how we work ,what can we deliver and what we can gain)

- Quality standards and control on all activities and products

- Profitability

- Investment in members

As an organization, our objectives, values, core work and vision’s finality is the development of young people

and the main resource used to achieve it is our members. So in order to be able to grow, AIESEC Romania needs

to increase the numbers, quality and result of its members. A direct factor which affects this growth is our

profitability, not just sustainability. To be sustainable in this case, means to be able to have the same return as you

invested.

Radu Matei – for MCVP Organizational Development of AIESEC Romania

“Impossible is just another realized objective!”

To be profitable, means to get a benefit that is realized when the amount of revenue gained from an

activity exceeds the expenses, costs and taxes needed to sustain the activity.

Why this direction:

- increase the investment we make in our members (example: so they can benefit from free conferences)

- increase the investment we afford to make in our projects/initiatives/activities

- to have investment and crisis accounts

- for the long-term effect on the quality of our products/services and how we manage our

stakeholders/external market (it creates a necessity for it).

- makes us more visible and relevant to all stakeholders

- a lot of good members don’t apply for EB positions because they can’t afford to spend money on all

conferences they need to go to.

How:

The strategy is simple. Our profit is directly connected to our stakeholders and the external market. We need

them to invest in us and for that to happen they need to trust us, see that we deliver quality and a product which

brings them benefits aswell. So step 1 is to research our market and see what needs it has and how we can

deliver that to them; step 2 is to develop products which suits their needs and brings us profit aswell; step 3 is

to calculate the costs of that product including the investment made in the members implementing it

(especially the cost of a conference fee); step 4 is implementation under clear quality standards and control.

What are the expected results at the end of my term:

- more members being active in projects and participating in conferences

- an increase in the investment we make in members, their quality and numbers

- increase in number of applicants for leadership positions (especially EB if an LC pays all their conference

expenses) + in 2 years we could afford to raise the MC salary => more applicants

- more qualitative relevant projects for our external market and stakeholders

- overall growth of our organizational objectives

- more use from our external market, including all LCs working with a BOA

b2. LC development and performance

Strategy:

- Consolidating working process, improving the ones which lack performance and eliminate the ones which

take too much investment and a low return.

- Constant tracking and a specific clustering system to see where we need to improve and how.

- Prioritizing our resource investments so we can be sustainable

- Educating EBs on LC Management from the very beginning (LC Visit) and bringing them closer to the

MC.

- Customize LC visit strategy so we can maximize the output, reduce cost and deliver exactly where it’s

needed.

- Members development – having a local plan and resources to develop top and middle management and also

their knowledge and skills on key areas (communication, sales, planning, strategic thinking)

Expected results:

- Bigger results with less processes involved

- Overall growth (LC level and national level)

- Better prepared and more competent middle and top management

Radu Matei – for MCVP Organizational Development of AIESEC Romania

“Impossible is just another realized objective!”

b3. External relevance

Strategy:

- Having a Board of Advisors in every LC

- Accredited ELD Programs as student practice experience in every LC

- Accredited Specialists by the external local market (universities and companies )

- Accredited ELD Programs by Ministry of Education and Ministry of Work

Expected results:

- Working based on inputs from the external market

- Recognition in Romania for the quality of our work and our impact

- Significant growth in results and capacity

c. The external opportunities you can capitalize from your position to get the vision you propose in point

(b).

The upcoming investment in Social Enterprises from the European Union and Romania*

Support from specialized companies, trainers and alumni (personal and new contacts) *

New needs created by economic instability

Romania’s Ministries looking to outsource some educational needs

* = more information on point 5 about Social Enterprise from the MCVP OD Questionnaire

3. What is the role of MC? What should be the role of MC? What actions can you take as an MC team to fill

the gap?

The role of the MC, as I see it, has been so far to provide a national direction for the country and give support

and consultation to the EBs in order to achieve their measures of success and reach performance.

What I think the role of the MC should be, apart from the current one, is to be connected to all realities (internal

and external) and ensure an environment where LCs can collaborate for developing strategies and finding

implementation solutions, an environment where they can learn how to connect their reality to opportunities.

As an MC we can fill this gap by keeping all EB teams close to the MC, not just the LCPs, encourage and create

more places for the LCs to exchange knowledge and resources, do extensive market research and encourage LCs to

do the same and engage more with the external market.

4. What strategies does AIESEC Romania need to follow to increase performance for the ELD programs?

Please specify at least 3 strategies for Domestic Programs (TMP&TLP) and 3 strategies for the International

Programs (GIP&GCDP).

Strategies for Domestic Programs:

Ongoing recruitment – we recruit what we need, when we need it. We keep autumn and spring

recruitment at a national level for national education cycle and advertising purposes, but we can use a

“needs based” ongoing recruitment for fulfilling our HR needs

Clear benefits portfolio – a both physical and virtual portfolio which explains, in simple terms, what a

young person can benefit from long term and short term in AIESEC

Free conferences – creating a financial sustainability plan, so we can afford to pay conference fees for our

performing members (or at least top management). We all know that conferences have a very big impact on

members’ engagement and education.

Quarterly career planning and goal setting – as often as possible see what members need and how they

can get it from AIESEC so they can always have a goal to achieve with realistic expectations.

Radu Matei – for MCVP Organizational Development of AIESEC Romania

“Impossible is just another realized objective!”

Creative task force/initiative for ongoing promo campaigns - having a team with the specific of

“creative task force” should bring diverse solutions for continuous promo campaigns in order to ensure

presence on all forms of channels.

National market research campaign for students – we need to correctly evaluate the needs, expectations

and background of students from all areas of study in order for us to deliver truly impactful experiences

Early engagement – a long term strategy is to engage and keep young people engaged since high school

(even earlier). This way, not only we increase the number of applicants for programs, but also their quality.

Strategies for International Programs:

High standards for quality – We need to think and act quality before quantity in order to gain the trust,

popularity and most important - impact, that we desire. We must make sure our EPs and Trainees are being

offered at least the conditions they expect and they are well taken care of by challenging ourselves and the

other entities involved in the process.

Market Segmentation – we need to have clear targets for raising in order to ensure the health of the

matching and realizing process.

Internship page for every LC – on each LC’s web page, we need to have a short description of our

successful internship stories (if not all of them).

LC-LC partnerships - they work very well when you form them on something you already have to offer.

AIESEC Internships recognized as an official practice experience – not only by universities, but also by

our Government (Grow opened that door). Some LCs already started obtaining this recognition from

universities, but we need a bigger push on it.

Grants for Internships – we have some good case practices already (ex: Craiova) who obtained these

grants. We need to persist in this direction, maybe by launching a national initiative for obtaining it or a

contest.

5. What are the competitive advantages that AIESEC Romania has in the international network? What can

we do to maintain and/or increase them?

Very low education grade in the country, which offers us the benefit of positioning ourselves as a very

important resource to the external market as an educator and provider of high quality young people

through our internship program. To increase this advantage, we need to actually position ourselves on

the market and start generating bigger and more impactful projects.

Early start on experimenting and implementing initiatives for the new programs. To maintain this

advantage, we need to keep an open mind and courage to pilot new ideas for country development and most

importantly, make sure we don’t do it superficially.

Delivering many people to MCs abroad, this helps promoting our country. In order for us to increase this

advantage is to make sure we offer as many international experiences and access to diverse cultures to our

members as possible.

Our country itself – the history, the art, the food, the culture, the architecture and especially the different

types of landscapes which makes it a great place to visit and experience diversity. We need to make as

many creative promo materials as possible and use them when sending and receiving trainees, when we go

to international conferences and online. Another way to increase this advantage is hosting international

conferences.