Collaborative spirit drives success inside Vodafone Romania

Operating on a very competitive market, Vodafone Romania managed to post significant results last year. CEO Achilleas Kanaris sat down with Business Review to talk about the company’s efforts to prepare for the challenges the AI era may bring.

By Anda Sebesi

What is your leadership style and how does it support your company’s performance?

I don’t believe there is a specific leadership style. You need to apply different leadership methods depending on the situation you have in front of you—sometimes it’s more about being directive, other times it’s more about giving ownership to others to drive things themselves. There are moments when you need to go into detail and moments when you can step back and keep an eagle’s eye on things, entrusting others with execution. So, I try to adapt to the situation. That’s what I’ve been doing and it has generated very good business performance.

Another ingredient of effective leadership, in my experience, is keeping up the pace. Leadership cannot be delegated, there are no days when you are less of a leader—you need to have a plan and maintain a constant rhythm, even when it’s hard or when you fail. Failure is also part of success. Recognising it and being able to learn from every experience is key. But what has never failed me so far is trust in the relationships we build as people, because that’s the only way we can understand what motivates others and what sustains them in being high performers, day in and day out. This is a journey we must be on together. In many situations, I’ve asked for and listened to feedback from teams and reframed strategic directions to reflect the organisation’s experience. It is a dynamic and rewarding process, because we are all part of the same story.

What were your main professional achievements in 2023?

In terms of highlights for Vodafone, the most important would be the fact that the business is back to growth. Secondly, an achievement of which I am very proud is the competitive and the collaborative spirit inside Vodafone. Another highlight is the
AI era we’ve entered, with all the experimentation we’ve done with AI and the transformation it brings for our business, but also the excitement that I see among my colleagues.

But the constant reason of pride for our company is the work of the Vodafone Foundation, which has had a really significant impact in terms of saving newborns lives, providing digital education for youth and the elderly, and last but not least,
fighting against domestic violence.
I am glad to see external partners increasingly supporting and engaging with the Foundation.

What were the biggest challenges your business sector faced last year and how did you navigate them?

The telecom sector is extremely competitive and there’s a constant challenge for all operators to maintain the right balance between cost and quality, and that continues to be in focus in 2024. Another sensitive topic is the geopolitical environment, which gives rise to several threats—for us, the response takes the form of cybersecurity resilience. We are very proud to be global leaders in this field, and therefore our ability to defend ourselves and our infrastructure against any type of external event is of major interest.

Goals for 2024:

To continue to grow our business in a responsible, secure, and sustainable way, by bringing high quality services and innovation for our customers at the best price ratio.
To surprise and delight our customers with extra benefits outside our portfolio of services—with the Easy Tech platform being just one of the examples.
To continue to make a significant contribution to Romania’s development, because it is our responsibility as a company with strong roots in the Romanian society and culture.