How was it @ Zilele Biz 2013
Biz Days lasted for an entire week, starting on November 11th and included 5 main discussion topics, one for every day of the event: entrepreneurship, innovation, management, media & marketing.
Considering the activities we are involved in, we vibrated with entrepreneurship and media & marketing days, where we were present, eyes and ears.
First day of the week brought a complex discussion related to the ways of making entrepreneurship in Romania. Speakers had sincere and open speeches about their business and main lessons they have learnt. The main idea that started the discussions was that the entrepreneur and his business must live a “love story”.
- Jean Valvis (creator of Dorna, LaDorna, Aqua Carpatica) described his model of entrepreneurship: always informed (before coming to Romania, he read all French literature about mineral waters) , intuitive (anticipates a human needs an propose a creative solution), good opportunism, self-control, love for what you are doing. He considers the entrepreneurs the healthiest part of society, because is generating added value by the services created.
- Sergiu Negut (Wanted Transformation Consultancy) described the steps of a growing business. Every business starts as an Start up, continues as a Micro company, going to Small Business Enterprising, up to Large Private or Public Companies and reaching the ultimate level as Multinational Corporation.
- Dragos Petrescu (City Grill) believes in innovation. For his restaurants, he developed mobile app Out4Food as a loyalty program. Through app, clients can reserve online and receive 10% discounts of bills which cumulate in points that can be used for future payments. For next year he announced the launched of owned social media platform.
- Marius Stefan (Autonom Rent A Car) endorsed continuing education. At the recruiting interview, one of the questions addressed to candidate is about the last book read. During work program, employees need to continue develop themselves by borrowing & reading books from company library. More, they need to come with ideas on work innovations.
During the day, Biz & Unlock Research presented the results of Top Managers study, that ranked the top 50 entrepreneurs in 2013. In top 3 there were Camelia Sucu, Florin Talpes and Radu Georgescu. According to the same study, top 3 successful businesses in 2013 are Dedeman, Siveco and Mobexpert.
The profile resulted from this study showed that the ideal entrepreneur must have vision, knows how to make things happen (doesn’t just come up with the idea), and gathers teams of high professionals.
Day 5 of media & marketing brought interesting case studies of campaigns from multinationals like Coca-Cola and Unicredit, spiced up by Gabriela Lungu (Weber Shandwich) that came up with a free and captivating discussion about the difference between UK and Romania communication markets.
A very fresh message was brought by Thomas Kolster about Goodvertising. He started the speech with a funny poem about the brands that became already descriptive for every moment of our days. The case studies presented were fascinating and supported the message of how big companies can choose to spend money on really useful marketing campaigns, that generate a good outcome for society. Money School of BCR was mentioned as Romanian Campaign that made a difference for society.
Article by Mara Ababei, 57 Studio