general questionnaire

Radu Matei – for MCVP Alumni 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 developing 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: perserverence, passion for my work, having fun, open

communication, inspiring others, adaptiveness to unexpected challenges, working with the

external market, courage to take on big endeavours.

- 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 higly 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, as well 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.

http://www.ascentgroup.eu/ro

http://www.badea.com/ro/c/graham-giles

http://www.hpdi.ro/



The early start in piloting new innitiatives 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.

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 endeavours/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 economical 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 cots 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 trough our internships).

Large network of alumni

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

Threats: The economical instability if we don’t addapt 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 rather increase and

find new ways of taxation, rather than encourage development (exaple: 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.



H4TF Development

Strategy :

1. Implementing a qualitative H4TF Stage in every LC

2. Allingnment between individual and organizational goals

3. Local and national accreditation

- AIESEC RO recognised as a “practice academy”

- Recognised Diplomas by the external market for members in H4TF

More details given in the Specific Questionaire.

Results: Provide a complete AIESEC

Experience for members and help them understand and leverage their AIESEC experience.

Increased relevance of the H4TF program for students and compaies => growth in organizational obj. and income

Program profitability due to its increased value given by accreditation

Provide a clear transition for members to the alumni stage and give them clarity on how to get re-engaged

Alumni Engagement

Strategy: 1. Communication

- Further develop the current Alumni Communication Plan

- Fully working CRM - Communication triangle between AIESEC,

Alumni and the External Market 2. Reconnection

- Product and event development - Strong collaboration with all LCs for

facilitating the connection between the MC and Alumni in Bucharest

3. Involvement

- Using communication, reconnection and a healthy CRM

- Active Alumni Communities which offer benefits to both sides

Results: Monthly newsletter and news

blasts Updated needs assessment Alumni segmentation based on

areas of activity/knowledge/skills Increased media exposure 3 national branded

events/conferences (LOT, Alumni Retreat, ELA)

Generator of internships/revenues/education

Functioning Alumni Communities

Revenue Generating

Products

Strategy: 1. Research

- Market segmentation - Find revenue generators - Find generators’ needs

2. Develop products based on the revenue generators needs on separate segments - Find GCP - Design - Get Feedback

3. Implement - Pilot - Evaluate - Improve

Results: Strong pipeline for incomes

based on Alumni Communities of Alumni engaged

in developing AIESEC (Sales Task Force, Educators Community)

Grants obtained with Alumni help ( Educating on Social Enterprises, Start-Ups, Active aging).

Revenue generating events Increase in raising internships



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, appart 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 and the available stakeholders.

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 atumn 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 phisical 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 vey 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.

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

of “creative task force” should bring diverse solutions for continous 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,

wants 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

highschool (even earlier). This way, not only we increase the number of applicants for programs,

but also their quality.

Well implemented H4TF – making sure that our members have a concrete plan for their

AIESEC ELD together with a career plan and a qualitative H4TF stage to look forward to, should

be a healthy push towards performance.



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 mathcing 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 recognised as an official practice experience – not only by universities,

but also by our Guvernment (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 innitiative for

obtaining it or a contest.

Capitalizing on Alumni – we have Alumni working in the corporate sector which haven’t been

approached yet.

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 providor of hi-gh

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 innitiatives 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, which helps promoting our country. In order for us to

increase this advanage 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 confernces.

general questionnaire

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