Call for Leaders – 3Q is a new category where Business Review features our 3 questions with some of Romania’s top business professionals, bringing a positive, insightful, or otherwise constructive view of their markets in the context of the current crisis.

Current conversation: Marius Mihailovici, Managing Director Porsche Engineering Romania.

What measures have you taken to protect your business during this period?

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Given that we work in an information technology rich environment and that our team is very flexible and young, in touch with all the new communication platforms, we managed to reorganize quickly so that we allow most of our colleagues to work from home. We quickly set up a good WFH framework and ever since we changed our working conditions, we replaced the face to face daily interaction with substantial and constant online communication, to consolidate our support of each other and our mutual trust.

The situation also pushed us to look into simplifying and digitalizing some of our procedures, we reduced even further the paper work and moved everything we could move quickly in a secure, online environment. It was a considerable effort that had to be completed against a tight deadline, but it paid off and now we are able to continue our work in the new setup. We #stayhome , we #workfromhome .

What would be your advice for other business leaders in this time of crisis?

First piece of advice would be, of course, to set up the framework which would enable people to safely continue their work. In some lines of business this is possible for all employees, in others it is not, so shifts must be rethought, production flows must be redesigned, but as long as you, as a leader, keep your people as your first priority in your mind, you are bound to find ways. Look at the solutions others already found abroad, this is a global situation and many people share their solutions because they can save lives. So stay informed, keep an open mind, find the solutions that work for you and your team, make them happen fast.

Also very important is communication. In this time of rapid and drastic change, we all need to stay in touch, even to have off-work communication channels to continue socializing, and also to organize time for feedback on the new working conditions. We organize what we call check-in calls with our colleagues and ask them as often as we can what is good/what is bad, what is missing/what can be improved, because this is an unusual situation, we have never had such experience and decisions might sometimes be adjusted to work better. If we keep communicating with our employees and our clients, I am sure there is a lot to learn for us, as leaders, these days.

What is the most positive business news you have read today and would want to share?

We are happy to see that companies in our group are moving to help people in need as best as they can, and in this respect I would like to share one recent example: https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2020/company/porsche-oliver-blume-interview-donations-corona-20348.html?sf119875878=1