1. Specific Questionnaire
1. Taking into account the current situation of Romania as a country, please describe your
strategy to achieve AIESEC Romania’s budget.
The situation of Romania as a country has been, for a few years now, governed by an
economical crisis. This doesn’t necessarily imply the fact that companies no longer invest in
projects and ideas, but that they have become more selective with their investments, thus
challenging organizations such as ours to increase the quality of our products and direct our
attention towards the needs of the market. This can be transposed in the idea that AIESEC as an
organization is not selling, it is doing external relations, in the sense that the companies
are not our customers, but our partners. A partnership means a win-win collaboration that puts
both entities in gain. Thus, the strategies that I propose for next year, strategies that ensure the
relevancy of AIESEC in the corporate market and can ensure the sustainability of AIESEC
Romania’s budget are:
1. Products customized on market needs. This means implementing the processes of
market assessment and segmentation qualitatively, in order to attract the right partners and
create products that are relevant for the market.
"Your most unhappy customers
are your greatest source of learning.”
- Bill Gates
I would add to this quote the fact that all of our customers are the greatest source of
learning, so a simple action step towards this strategy is involving BOA Corporate & BOA Alumni
in the product development of the projects that we have and the ones that we are thinking of
implementing, in order to get an external opinion and perspective of the market.
2. Account management for current partners. How people generally perceive account
management is only as a process of calling them on special events or sending greeting cards
and they see delivering on promises as a different process, when in fact, delivering on promises
is the first thing we should think about. For me personally, the word “friendship” best
represents the idea of account management. What our partners want from us is what a friend
would want from us: being true to our promises, honesty, involvement.
2. Present your strategic projects for the next year with description, timeline, objectives,
concrete activities to support their development.
Description Timeline Objectives Activities
Romania Youth July - 26.000 Product development
Leadership Forum November Euros Creating sales portfolio
2013 Account management with current partners
Contacting former partners
2. Description Timeline Objectives Activities
Leaders Of November 20.000 Product development
Tomorrow + Youth – May 2014 Euros Creating sales portfolio
to Business (open Account management with current partners
for externals) Contacting former partners
AIESEC Academy November 5.000 Euros Product development
– March Creating sales portfolio
2014 Account management with current partners
Contacting former partners
3. What improvements do you foresee in terms of AIESEC products, market/sector focus,
pricing and delivery models? Please also mention 2 new products that you would propose for
your term with a brief description and concrete steps of implementation.
Strategies Bottlenecks Solutions
AIESEC For national products, only the brand is Alignment of national products
Products aligned, but the projects are completely Products designed on country needs
different, being difficult to sign national
partnerships for all LCs. (Example: BRD
investing in only 3 LCs for AIESEC Academy,
because the rest of them do not have the
same structure and target group).
Market The LCs do not know what is the suitable Defining the market. For example, LCs
focus solution (HR, CSR or Employer Branding that have multinationals present in
Solutions) for their local market. their market can come up with CR
products that offer CSR & Employer
Branding Solutions, while LCs that
have SME sector more developed
should focus on HR solutions.
Pricing There is no delimitation between project Creating standard criteria for each LC
partners and long-term partnerships, thus for LGPs and for MC (NGPs)
LCs and MC usually fall into one extreme.
Delivery The quality of the delivery is very different Setting national standards for delivery
models from LC to LC. Tracking on national projects
3. Product Description Steps
Romania Customizing the AI initiative (putting together Customizing the AIESEC
Youth 2 leaders of the society, companies’ International brand
Business representatives and students in an event filled Fixing the locations for each
with speeches, workshops, networking spaces event and participating LCs
with the following topics: CSR Innovation & Establishing the pricing policies
Entrepreneurship) that is implemented in the Contacting companies &
whole AIESEC network, especially in Europe, we speakers
will develop regional Y2Bs around the big cities National promotion of the
of Romania, in order to reach a bigger market events
than just the one in Bucharest and involve LCs in Implementation & follow-up.
selling. Timeline: October-November 2013.
Leaders of Customizing the current LOT conference, by Creating the brand of the
Tomorrow adding one day of Y2B and by opening it towards event
people from other NGOs in H4TF. Fixing the location for the
Timeline: May 2014 event
Contacting companies &
speakers
Contacting other NGOs
National promotion of the
event
Implementation & follow-up.
4. Imagine you are in front of the national accounts. Please present why our current
partners should reinvest in AIESEC. Also find 3 more partners for the NGP and present
why they should invest in AIESEC.
The benefits that AIESEC is offering to the corporate market should be the same, whether
we talk about current partners that should reinvest in our organization, or about companies such
as FORD Romania, Oracle or pwc that have the potential to become partners in the future. To any
of them, the message should be the following one:
“In a country where after 23 years things are still moving slowly, AIESEC, together with their
partners, has brought the concept of youth leadership in Romania, a concept that has
widened the views of both youth and business sector, because what youth leadership
development refers to is the fact that AIESEC provides young people with both entrepreneurial
skills and a strong sense of mission. Across generations, AIESEC has empowered students from all
over the country to be the voice of their generation. We can say that what our organization is
developing is an attitude which is later on translated in the careers of its members, as they
become leaders of the society, of their own companies and teams that they work in. Thus, on a
long run, why AIESEC invites you to invest in the organization is because whether you are looking
for HR solutions, Employer Branding solutions, CSR solutions or Youth Engagement and
Innovation, together with AIESEC, the act of co-creation for a better society can happen.“
4. 5. Please describe how will you collaborate with the LCs and how will you assure the
quality of the delivery that the MC and LCs are making for the national partners?
The idea of quality of the delivery for national partners and collaboration with the LCs are
tightly connected, in the sense that the best way to ensure quality for our stakeholders, we
need to educate our members on how to deliver quality.
In terms of preparation, the main strategies would be:
- Implementing the Sales Education Cycle (which exists in some LCs) together with MC VP
Corporate Development, that should include Sales School (for members and VPs), sales
education integrated in national conferences (especially RockMe and SprinCo) and webinars
and skype meetings with VPs and members on specific needs.
- Creating an R&R system for sellers and showcasing the top performers on sales in
front of the national plenary, to encourage members to perform at their best.
- Collaboration and accountability system on national projects, to make sure that they
are aligned at LC level, that the delivery for partners is equally qualitative from all LCs and to
easily bring national partners that the local committees can also benefit from.
- Creating national standards for partners, to ensure the quality of the sales and account
management process in the entire country.
Since I entered AIESEC, I’ve been through these things, I recommend them and I see them
as the main strategies that need to be implemented in order to develop the sales culture and
bring higher results.