| COOL FRIENDS |
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| Iulian Chihaia, Business Associate/ Senior Trainer |
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All those who know Iulian were convinced he had a long career ahead in the company he had been working in for some time. However he surprised everybody: he is now an entrepreneur and he is enjoying a very successful 2008 in an increasingly competitive environment.
Iulian, you've worked with Philip Morris Romania for many years, in different sales and sales development positions! I'm sure you had your good moments and your bad moments, situations you learned from. How has this experience helped you mature? As a professional, what mistakes will you avoid doing?
For me, the 15 years I spent with Philip Morris Romania were a fantastic experience. It is where I developed as a specialist, as a manager, plus I learned what it means to view every situation as a whole and when necessary get down to details. I had the opportunity to meet a lot of valuable people and experience the joy but also the challenge of working in a team. Working with people brings you a lot of satisfaction and intense emotional experiences. Of course there were difficult moments.
This is how I discovered that it's not always easy to empathize and that patience and the desire to understand those around you, even if they are different, are extremely important if you want to be a good teammate or a good leader. In learning to become a better leader I also made mistakes but I tried to learn as much as I could from them. Calibrating and clarifying your expectations, mixing moments when you are are actively involved with those where you analyze and reflect, a balance between reaching your objectives and helping people develop are the fundamental elements of management that I appreciate and use as a result of the experiences I went through.
You worked for the better part of a year with Philip Morris Zagreb! What kind of people did you encounter? What would make you go there again?
I had the opportunity to take part in building the organization in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Passion, commitment, a desire to perform are just a few of the attributes that describe the people I worked with. The process of selection and recruiting, start-up projects and the various day to day responsibilities were things that we did together, with commitment, regardless of the hours that flew by. The same intensity they showed in the office or on the field was visible in the free time they spent with their families, friends and coworkers. I have fond memories of the lively discussions we had and how well we mixed jokes with extremely serious subjects. I want to go to Zagreb again, to see my former colleagues and talk about what we did all this time.
A short time ago you started your own training company and you are a business associate of Human Invest. What is the reason you decided to work together with Human Invest?
I knew Viorel for a couple of years... I appreciated their training projects as being both beautiful and ambitious, and their main areas of expertise - leadership, change and team work are very dear to me. We had already been collaborating for some months and this is how I ended up meeting all the other members of the Human Invest team. I feel very good whenever I go to their office, it's a pleasant mix of work atmosphere, open and intense communication as well as a successful cooperation on different themes. When you work with competent, friendly and helpful people business is no longer tiring, it truly becomes a pleasure...
As an entrepreneur what things do you find different than you expected? Which things feel more difficult than you expected and which are easier?
I can say that I managed to anticipate the challenges I am facing pretty well. Sometimes you need to be patient and have faith, there are moments when it seems that the things you set out to achieve take a little more time than you imagined. If you have a clear understanding of the environment you work in and the opportunities it offers then it's pretty easy. The hard thing to do is continuously analyze your surroundings and develop a clear definition of what you can and can't do. Getting days off or having a holiday is a bit easier...
There are a lot of people in the corporate environment that want to start a business in the field of consultancy or training. What advice would you give them?
Vision, strategy, analysis, defining your expectations, a bit of courage, the pleasure and joy of working with people and that's about it. The rest comes naturally.
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Human Invest is a Premier League company in the arena of training and
organizational development consultancy services, present on the Romanian market since 1998.
We are recognized for conceiving and implementing programs which offer managers an authentic experience towards improving their leadership
performances, and thus we support companies in becoming more and more engaged in delivering excellent services for their clients.
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