Codruța Ilie is an HR professional at Zig Software Romania and brings extensive experience from industries such as media, healthcare, banking, consulting and hospitality. The companies she has worked for, whether entrepreneurial or multinational, have had one common denominator: change.

C&B: What is the mission you have taken on through your work?

Codruța: I am glad that, in 2026, we have moved beyond the stage where Human Resources focused primarily on personnel administration. Today, I am more concerned with creating the conditions in which people and organizations can succeed in the long term and continuously adapt to change. We are the architects of the future of the workforce, while at the same time contributing every day to building a sense of belonging for every colleague. We look ahead, but we take the journey one step at a time.

C&B: What is the most important challenge you see today in your field, and how do you think it can be addressed?

Codruța: For me, one of the most important challenges I see today is the effective adoption of artificial intelligence within organizations. Although technology is evolving very rapidly and offers significant opportunities to increase productivity, many companies are still facing resistance to change, a lack of the necessary skills, and even fear of AI. A European map showing adoption rates places Romania at 18%, compared with France, for example, at 48%.

I believe this challenge can be addressed through a combination of education, experimentation, and responsible leadership. AI is not just a technology, but a tool that can simplify our work and allow us to focus on activities with greater value and meaning. Organizations can therefore invest in digital skills development programs, encourage pilot projects, and create an environment where employees can test new solutions without fear of making mistakes. At Zig, we are already taking well-directed steps in this direction for all employees.

In the years to come, success will not belong to companies that have access to the most advanced technology, but to those that manage to build a culture in which people and artificial intelligence collaborate effectively, ethically, and responsibly.

C&B: What is the most valuable lesson you have learned throughout your experience and believe is worth passing on?

Codruța: The most valuable lesson I have learned is that people can achieve extraordinary things when they feel part of a community. Whether we are talking about a team, an organization, or society, lasting change is created by people who share a common purpose, trust one another, and feel that their voices and actions matter.

Throughout my experience, I have observed that when we build communities based on collaboration, respect, and involvement, people become more open, more creative, and more willing to contribute beyond their formal responsibilities. I believe one of our most important missions is to create contexts in which people can connect, learn from one another, and grow together.

If I were to pass on just one message, it would be this: invest in relationships and communities. The results emerge almost as if by magic, while the true value remains in the people who choose to build together.

C&B: If you had the opportunity to change one single thing in Romania, what would it be and why?

Codruța: If I could change one thing in Romania, I would invest in the development of education and a culture of continuous learning. I believe education is the foundation of a prosperous society, and a better-prepared person has access to better opportunities, contributes to economic development, and is more adaptable to the rapid changes we are all experiencing so intensely. From my professional perspective in HR, I know how important skills development is for the success of both people and organizations, and consistent investment in education clearly has significant long-term effects for society as a whole.

C&B: How can we work together to help people, companies, and communities develop more effectively?

Codruța: I believe we can help people, companies, and communities develop more effectively by investing in collaboration and authentic connections. For example, we can support people in developing their skills and working together, encourage companies to create cultures based on trust, and help communities bring together people who share ideas, experiences, and original resources. When we grow because we genuinely want to, the benefits multiply for everyone.

Good examples are the occasions when we initiate international projects that bring together colleagues from different cultures and countries, or when innovation working groups encourage diverse opinions and experiences.

The interview with Codruța Ilie, HR professional at Zig Software Romania, highlights the transformations taking place in the HR field during a period shaped by artificial intelligence, organizational change and the need for continuous development. From responsible AI adoption and digital skills development to building cultures based on trust, collaboration and belonging, her perspective places people at the heart of the future of organizations.

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For over 15 years, Crina Diculescu has been building bridges between people and opportunities. She is a specialist in strategic networking, business matchmaking, and organizing impactful events. Founder of Dynamic Business Connections and an advocate of the Business is Human philosophy, Crina believes that the best business opportunities always begin with people.

C&B: What is the mission you have taken on through your work?

Crina: I believe that each of us has a talent that we can put at the service of others. Mine has always been connecting people.

For over 15 years, I have been working in business development, networking, and event organization. I have had the opportunity to organize events in Romania and participate in business projects and missions in countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and Argentina. Regardless of the culture or industry, I have noticed the same thing: the most valuable opportunities arise from relationships built on trust.

The mission I have taken on is to create contexts in which the right people can meet, get to know one another, and, when there is compatibility, build projects, partnerships, or even friendships together.

I believe networking should not be viewed as a sales technique, but as an essential business skill. For me, the success of an event is not measured only by the number of participants, but by the value of the connections that emerge after the event has ended.

C&B: What is the most important problem you see today in the field you work in, and how do you think it can be solved?

Crina: I believe that, many times, we confuse networking with self-promotion.

We attend events with the goal of quickly finding clients, making sales, or becoming known. It is natural to want results, but when this becomes the sole purpose, we lose sight of the essence.

The most valuable professional relationships are not built in a five-minute conversation or through the exchange of a business card. They are built over time, through consistency, trust, and genuine interest in the other person.

At the same time, I believe that business event organization needs to evolve. A successful event does not simply mean having a good speaker or a full room, but creating a context in which people actually interact, exchange ideas, and leave with new relationships, not just a presentation folder.

I believe we need more education in strategic networking and more events built around people, not just around the agenda.

C&B: What is the most valuable lesson you have learned throughout your experience and that you believe is worth passing on?

Crina: If I had to choose just one lesson, it would be that relationships are built before you need them.

Over the years, I have met people whom I had not seen for months or even years and who, when the right context arose, became partners, clients, or collaborators.

That is why I always encourage entrepreneurs not to view networking as an activity you do only when you need a contract or a new client.

Invest in relationships consistently. Be present. Offer help when you can. Be curious. Listen.

Many times, opportunities arise from places where you least expect them. But they only arise if you have built trust beforehand.

C&B: If you had the opportunity to change one thing in Romania, what would it be and why?

Crina: I would like to change the way we view collaboration.

In the international projects I have participated in, I have noticed how natural it is for people to make recommendations, share opportunities, and build bridges between companies and professionals.

In Romania, there is still, sometimes, a hesitation that if you help someone else, you are losing an opportunity yourself.

I believe exactly the opposite. When we build communities where people trust one another and want to grow together, we all win. The economy grows through collaboration, not isolation.

I believe Romania has extraordinary professionals. If we collaborated more and had greater trust in one another, we could build a much stronger and more internationally competitive business environment.

C&B: How can we work together to help people, companies, and communities develop more effectively?

Crina: I do not believe there is a single solution, but I believe that each of us can contribute.

Companies can create contexts in which people can learn from one another. Entrepreneurs can share their experience. Professionals can become mentors. And each of us can take a simple but extremely valuable step: connect two people who could have something to build together.

In my work, I have often seen how a single introduction between two people has led to a partnership, a new project, or even the development of a business.

I believe we need more active communities, more events that bring people together, and a greater willingness to contribute before asking for something in return.

At the end of the day, the development of a community is not measured only in numbers or projects, but in the quality of the relationships between the people who are part of it.

And I believe this is one of the most important things we can build for the future.

With over 15 years of experience in networking, business development and event organization, Crina Diculescu promotes a perspective in which people and authentic relationships are at the heart of business opportunities. Her insights into strategic networking, collaboration and trust show that the most valuable partnerships are built over time through genuine connections and a commitment to the community.

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Adrian Cursaru is an entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of Envi Group, a Romanian company specializing in HVAC-R solutions and energy efficiency. With more than two decades of experience in the installations and management industry, he has built his career around the belief that sustainable performance is based on competence, ethics, and the continuous development of people. Under his leadership, Envi Group has evolved into a trusted partner for complex projects in the commercial, industrial, and medical sectors, promoting innovative, sustainable, and energy-efficient solutions. Through his entrepreneurial vision, he creates long-term value for clients, partners, his team, and the community, demonstrating that a company’s success is measured not only by its results, but also by the positive impact it generates in society.

C&B: What is the mission you have committed to through your work?

Adrian: Through every project and solution we implement, we generate long-term value for our clients. We offer more than HVAC equipment, energy solutions, or software solutions; we offer trust, expertise, and real solutions that generate measurable results, efficiency, and reduced energy consumption, with a minimum lifespan of 10 years from the time of investment. We have implemented solutions at Tulcea, Baia Mare, and Timisoara Airports, as well as at shopping malls such as Moldova Mall and Arena Mall, for which we have provided warranties of at least 5 to 10 years, further strengthening the quality of the solutions implemented with us.

We continuously invest in technology, process optimization, people development, and relationships built on integrity, because true success is based on responsibility and respect for the client. We have created our own environment in which people can work efficiently and remain motivated with clarity through the Hubeez application, a solution available for any type of business that contains all the core functions of a business.

C&B: What is the most important problem you currently see in the field you operate in, and how do you think it can be solved?

Adrian: One of the greatest challenges is the lack of professionalism and ethics in certain segments of the market. We sometimes encounter incomplete or insufficiently substantiated technical documentation, as well as a shortage of specialists with practical experience. At the same time, finding reliable partners is becoming increasingly difficult.

The solution cannot come overnight. However, I believe that consistent investment in education, professional training, and the promotion of a culture based on responsibility and integrity will, over time, lead to a more mature market. I am optimistic that organizations and professionals who choose to remain committed to these values will make a decisive contribution to this change.

Another serious challenge is creating a system and convincing people that there is always another way to act, not just the simple, repetitive approach that has no real impact on personal growth and development. By creating this system, we constantly educate ourselves and become more efficient.

C&B: What is the most valuable lesson you have learned throughout your experience, and that you believe is worth passing on?

Adrian: The most important lesson is that people are a company’s most valuable asset. They can accelerate the development of a business, just as, if they do not share the same values and behaviors, they can slow its progress or even bring it down. Building a strong team is a continuous process that requires patience, trust, and ongoing investment in people. Over time, those who share the same vision and principles stay and build together.

C&B: If you had the opportunity to change one single thing in Romania, what would it be and why?

Adrian: I would change the relationship between entrepreneurs and the Romanian state. I would like to see an authentic partnership between the entrepreneurial environment and state institutions. Entrepreneurs constantly invest in education, people, technology, and economic development, and this effort should be supported through a predictable legislative framework, reduced bureaucracy, and public policies focused on development.

I believe Romania has extraordinary potential, and if the public and private sectors collaborated more effectively, the results would benefit society as a whole, creating real impact and a decent standard of living for all parties involved.

C&B: How can we work together to help people, companies, and communities develop more effectively?

Adrian: Education is undoubtedly the foundation of development. Throughout my more than 20 years of professional experience and entrepreneurial journey, I have participated in numerous courses and development programs. Some of them profoundly changed the way I think and had a direct impact on the results I achieved. This confirmed to me that investing in education produces the most valuable long-term effects.

Equally important is the courage to take action. I believe Romanians possess this quality, but in recent years we have become more cautious when faced with change and the assumption of risks. Every form of progress begins with action, while experience, success, and even mistakes become the best sources of learning.

Sustainable performance is built through a balance between technology, well-defined processes, and the continuous development of people. We place particular emphasis on making the way we work more efficient and creating an environment in which every member of the team has clarity, autonomy, and the motivation to perform, while the Hubeez platform developed by us is genuinely driving this measurable change.

In entrepreneurship, there are no universal recipes. Every field has its own challenges, and the most complex of them remains working with people. That is precisely why I believe success is built through continuous education, courage, responsibility, and the ability to constantly learn from every experience.

Through his entrepreneurial vision, Adrian Cursaru promotes a development model built around technology, energy efficiency, continuous education, and skilled people. His experience in the HVAC-R industry and management highlights the importance of sustainable solutions, efficient processes, and an organizational culture based on responsibility, integrity, and performance.

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At just 17 years old, Daria Drăghici is the founder of the Association We Change Time with Energy and Progress (STEP), mentor of the LittleBrave robotics team, and a member of the BraveBots team. Through the projects she develops, she aims to bring young people closer to technology, leadership, and STEM education, building initiatives that create real change in the community.

C&B: How would you describe yourself in a single sentence, so as to capture the attention of someone who does not know you?

Daria: I am the kind of person who, when she sees a problem, does not ask who should solve it, but starts building a solution.

C&B: If you look back, what is the “common thread” that has guided your professional journey?

Daria: Paradoxically, it all started by chance.

I signed up for the LittleBrave recruitment because my younger brother wanted to participate, but he was too young to apply. I did not have high expectations, nor did I think that robotics would become such an important part of my life.

After the first test, I achieved a very good result and made it to the interview. At that point, I told myself that, since I was already there, I wanted to give it everything I had. I joined the team as a non-technical leader, and the responsibility I was given at 13–14 completely changed my perspective.

Looking back, I realize that the common thread was not robotics. It was the choice to make the most of every opportunity I was given. From LittleBrave I moved on to BraveBots, and later I founded STEP. Each stage made me want not only to participate in projects, but to create contexts in which other young people could grow as well.

C&B: What was a difficult moment or failure that truly changed you?

Daria: At first, I believed that if you worked hard enough and had a good idea, things would work out on their own. I discovered quite quickly that this was not true.

I had projects in which the technical side was well developed, but communication, organization, and team coordination were not at the same level. The result was that the impact was much smaller than we had imagined.

It was frustrating, but also one of the most important lessons I have learned. Today, I invest just as much time in people, planning, and partnerships as I do in developing a project. A good idea changes nothing if you fail to build the right team and context around it.

C&B: What is a bold (or counter-intuitive) decision that significantly influenced your trajectory?

Daria: In ninth grade, I had to choose between moving to FTC with BraveBots or staying for another season as a leader at LittleBrave in FIRST LEGO League.

Many people told me that the logical choice was to move forward. And they had good arguments. If I had taken that step, I would have even participated in the European Championship.

However, I felt that I still had something to build at LittleBrave and chose to stay. It was one of the hardest decisions I have made so far.

Looking back, I think it was also one of the best. That year gave me the time and experience needed to start developing the WaveMotion project and shaped my desire to create STEP. I lost an important opportunity, but I gained a direction.

C&B: How have you changed over time as a leader / professional?

Daria: The first time I was put in a leadership position, I was 13–14 years old. I was convinced that a leader had to know everything, solve everything, and always be one step ahead of everyone.

Today, I no longer believe that.

I have understood that leadership means, first and foremost, creating an environment in which others can evolve. I am still demanding and I still like things to be done well, but I have learned to trust people more and accept that I do not have to control every detail.

I think the biggest change is that today I enjoy the team’s achievements more than my own results.

C&B: What do you think the people who work directly with you say about you — beyond your public image?

Daria: Probably the first thing they would say is that I am strict. Sometimes even too strict. I have high standards and find it difficult to accept superficiality, and that can be difficult for those who work with me.

At the same time, I think they would also say that I am one of the first people they come to when they have a problem. Not only related to a project, but also with school, family, or personal matters. I try to be there for people when they need help.

I do not believe that a leader has to be liked by everyone. I believe they have to be fair, consistent, and close enough to people so that they know they can trust them.

C&B: What truly differentiates you in the way you build or lead?

Daria: I try to build projects that continue to produce effects even after the event or competition has ended.

I am not only interested in the immediate result. I am interested in how many people have learned something new, how many have gained the courage to start their own projects, and how many will pass on what they have received. If a project ends with the last photograph, for me, it has not truly achieved its purpose.

C&B: How has the current context (technology, AI, the economy) changed the way you work?

Daria: Technology and artificial intelligence have changed my pace of work considerably. Processes that used to take me several hours can now be solved in a few minutes.

However, I believe that value no longer lies in access to information, but in the ability to ask the right questions, filter information, and make good decisions. AI is an extraordinary tool, but it cannot replace responsibility, creativity, or empathy.

C&B: Is there a habit or routine that has significantly influenced your performance?

Daria: I am quite a workaholic and I admit it without hesitation. If I am passionate about a project, I can work for hours without realizing how much time has passed. My best ideas often come to me in the evening or at night.

That is precisely why, lately, I have started imposing breaks on myself. I have a simple rule: between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m., I am not allowed to work. That hour is reserved exclusively for relaxation. It may seem like little, but for me it is an exercise in discipline.

I have realized that I do not perform better when I work continuously, but when I manage to preserve my energy over the long term.

C&B: What principles do you follow when making important decisions?

Daria: I am quite a workaholic and I admit it without hesitation. If I am passionate about a project, I can work for hours without realizing how much time has passed. My best ideas often come to me in the evening or at night.

That is precisely why, lately, I have started imposing breaks on myself. I have a simple rule: between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m., I am not allowed to work. That hour is reserved exclusively for relaxation. It may seem like little, but for me it is an exercise in discipline.

I have realized that I do not perform better when I work continuously, but when I manage to preserve my energy over the long term.

C&B: How do you see the evolution of your field over the next 3–5 years?

Daria: I believe we will see fewer and fewer boundaries between education, technology, and entrepreneurship. Artificial intelligence will become an ordinary tool, and the difference will be made by people who know how to collaborate, think critically, and turn ideas into solutions.

At the same time, I believe there will be an increasing need for organizations and communities that provide young people with practical experiences, not just information.

C&B: What role do you aim to have in this evolution?

Daria: I want to contribute to changing the way young people learn and discover their potential. Through STEP, I want to develop projects that help them experiment, create, and understand that they can have a real impact even during high school.

If, in a few years, I can say that because of the projects I have worked on, more young people have had the courage to start their own initiatives, then I will consider that I have achieved my goal.

C&B: What real advice would you give someone who wants to build something relevant today?

Daria: First of all, do not wait for the moment when you will feel ready. Most likely, it will never come.

Secondly, build around a real problem, not around an idea that sounds good.

And perhaps most importantly, surround yourself with people who are better than you. The most important lessons I have learned did not come from books or courses, but from the people I had the chance to work alongside.

C&B: What is an uncomfortable truth about your field that few people talk about?

Daria: I think that sometimes we focus too much on image and too little on impact. It is easy to organize an event that looks good in photographs or to collect likes on social media. It is much harder to build something that still produces results one year or five years later.

For me, success does not mean how many projects you have done, but how many people have remained braver, better prepared, or more confident because of them. If the answer is “very few,” then I think we should have the courage to tell ourselves that we still have work to do.

Daria Drăghici proves that age is not a limitation when initiative, courage, and the desire to build are present. Through STEP, her experience in robotics, and her involvement in projects dedicated to young people, she promotes leadership, STEM education, technology, and community development.

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C&B: How would you describe yourself in a single sentence that would capture the attention of someone who doesn’t know you?

George: I’m ambitious, creative, and constantly connected to multiple directions—an entrepreneur who finds focus and energy precisely in the dynamics and challenges of building systems and businesses.

C&B: Looking back, what is the “common thread” that has guided your professional journey?

George: The common thread has been realizing that entrepreneurship is the environment where I truly perform at my highest potential. Like most people, I initially started with the desire to make money—quickly discovering that it’s much harder than being an employee—but I realized that my personality (slightly ADHD-minded) finds its order and purpose in entrepreneurship. It was the best decision of my life.

C&B: What was a difficult moment or failure that truly changed you?

George: The period between 2015 and 2017 was a real turning point. In the Republic of Moldova, I had opened a bakery, a pizzeria, managed my parents’ event restaurant, and launched a consultancy center for EU funds and loans. When the 2015 crisis hit (the billion-dollar bank fraud), the market froze: loans and projects disappeared overnight, while my debts doubled. I borrowed heavily from non-banking financial institutions, friends, and acquaintances, and by 2017 I realized I couldn’t keep going. I decided to give up everything and return to Romania. Until 2015, my self-confidence had grown more than it should have, and the setbacks that followed taught me humility: if you hit the crossbar, it’s not 100% your fault—but if you succeed, it’s not 100% your credit either. Luck and circumstances play an enormous role.

C&B: What is one bold (or counterintuitive) decision that significantly influenced your trajectory?

George: The decision to enter a field I had absolutely no connection with: first by opening a small medical pedicure salon without any podiatry background, and then by taking the huge leap of building a clinic from scratch without medical training. I went from a small location to a clinic with ten treatment rooms and multiple specialties simply because I saw the enormous potential of this niche. Those were two incredibly difficult years of learning by doing, but I don’t regret a thing.

C&B: How have you changed over time as a leader and professional?

George: In the beginning, I tried to solve every problem using only my own reasoning. Over time, I understood that we need the intellectual humility to recognize our limits and accept that many people have already faced similar challenges. Today, I no longer reinvent the wheel: when I encounter a roadblock, I research, seek advice from more experienced people, and implement systems that have already been validated—adapting them to my business.

C&B: What do you think the people who work directly with you say about you beyond your public image?

George: They probably say that I’m sometimes too soft and understanding with employees. They also know I’m extremely ambitious—I often take on more goals simultaneously than seems possible—but they appreciate the creativity and vision I bring to the table.

C&B: What genuinely sets you apart in the way you build and lead?

George: The courage to step into large projects even when I don’t yet have all the resources or a rigid plan. I have the agility to act quickly and find solutions along the way, turning bold ideas into stable operational systems.

C&B: How has today’s context—technology, AI, and the economy—changed the way you work?

George: Economically, rising taxes have a direct impact on every business. As for AI and technology, we’ve moved beyond experimentation into real solutions: we developed a mobile app for nail diagnostics and assessment, implemented automated financial workflows for rapid P&L calculations, and built our own lead management system and intelligent phone platform—resources that would otherwise have cost us tens of thousands of euros through an external company.

C&B: Is there a habit or routine that has significantly influenced your performance?

George: Since I’m someone who always has multiple projects in motion, I need moments to reset. At least once a month, I go to bed very early so I can wake up at 3 a.m., come to the office, and work in complete silence—just me with my thoughts. I analyze what’s working and what isn’t, where I need to accelerate or pivot, and I rethink my original plans through small but meaningful reorganization processes.

C&B: What principles guide your most important decisions?

George: People and life come first: Money and companies are artificial constructs; the real goal is to enjoy life, work hard, and treat your team with respect and fair compensation.

The patient’s benefit comes before profit: I’m frustrated by the fact that in private healthcare, a significant number of procedures aren’t truly necessary. In our clinic, we always prioritize the patient’s best interest first, and only then do we build the business model around it.

Speed of execution: If something needs to be done, we start immediately—even if we don’t have every resource or aren’t 100% prepared.

100% transparency and legality: We’re probably the only podiatry business in the market that pays real salaries officially through employment contracts. Even if it’s financially frustrating in the short term, it’s the only sustainable path for a scalable and ethical business.

C&B: How do you see your industry evolving over the next 3–5 years?

George: The market will consolidate. Instead of being extremely fragmented, it will be dominated by two or three major players, and large medical chains will begin acquiring businesses in this niche. The field will become regulated, and the public will be much better educated, understanding the essential collaboration between dermatologists—who provide the initial consultation and diagnosis—and podiatrists, who then perform the technical treatment procedures.

C&B: What role do you want to play in that evolution?

George: I want to be a catalyst for change and for the recognition of podiatry at international standards in Romania. Through the development of our school and our clinic network, I aim to create a genuine bridge of interdisciplinary collaboration between podiatrists and medical specialists, raise patient education standards, and demonstrate that correct, non-invasive treatments can prevent severe complications.

C&B: What practical advice would you give someone who wants to build something meaningful today?

George: Apply the Lean Startup approach: Don’t invest large amounts of money in ideas that exist only in your head, and don’t go into debt from day one. Start with a minimal budget of around €1,000–2,000, validate the idea in the market, gain traction, and only then seek funding to scale.

Invest in education: Always maintain intellectual humility. Accept that there’s always something new to learn, and consistently invest in your own development.

Measure yourself by effort, not only by results: Success is not entirely your merit, and failure is not entirely your fault—circumstances matter enormously. Give your maximum effort, and if you fail, get back up without wounded pride and keep moving forward.

C&B: What is an uncomfortable truth about your industry that few people talk about?

George: The uncomfortable truth is that the industry is still largely unregulated and lacking standardization. A huge amount of work is done unofficially—in salons or even private apartments—and very few people have genuinely heard of medical podiatry, despite the enormous demand that exists in the market.

The interview with George offers an authentic perspective on entrepreneurship, medical podiatry, and building a scalable business in an industry undergoing significant transformation. From failures and bold decisions to the use of AI and the development of a clinic network, his story highlights the importance of adaptability, education, and discipline in entrepreneurship.

The post George Timbur about entrepreneurship and the future of medical podiatry: “The courage to take on big projects makes the difference” appeared first on careers-business.com.

Mihaela Păuna is a CFO and financial consultant with over 18 years of international experience in FP&A, controlling, audit, and financial reporting transformation, gained in multinational companies in technology, engineering, and services. Today, she puts this expertise at the service of entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized companies in Romania, building a bridge between corporate rigor and the real needs of growing businesses.

C&B: What is the mission you have taken on through your work?

Mihaela: My mission is to turn numbers into decisions. I take what seems to many entrepreneurs like a closed language, full of accounting terms, and translate it into clear answers to simple questions: “Can I afford this investment?”, “Why do I have a profit on paper but no money in the bank account?”, “What happens if sales drop by 20%?”

The clearest example comes from a specialized equipment distribution group, where the company paid foreign suppliers in foreign currency but collected revenue in RON. The foreign exchange exposure had existed for years, but it had never been quantified — it was treated as an unavoidable reality of the market. We measured it: approximately €1 million in annual payments exposed to EUR/RON fluctuations. The conclusion was that hedging this risk, combined with serious negotiations with the bank, could substantially change the annual result.

What worked: quantification. The discussion changed completely once the risk stopped being a feeling and became an amount that anyone in management could understand. A measured risk can be acted upon; an intuitive one is postponed indefinitely.

My background in psychology added a dimension that I did not have at the beginning of my career: behind every financial decision there is an emotion — most often, fear. Ultimately, my mission is to replace the fear of the unknown with the clarity that comes from knowing your own numbers.

C&B: What is the most important problem you see today in the field you work in, and how do you think it can be solved?

Mihaela: The biggest problem I see in Romanian companies, especially SMEs, is that they treat accounting as an obligation to the state, rather than as a decision-making tool. The month is closed, the declarations are submitted — and that is about it. The result: entrepreneurs who confuse profit with the money in their bank account, who discover a liquidity problem only when they can no longer pay their suppliers, and who run their businesses by looking in the rear-view mirror rather than through the windshield.

I have experienced this transition from both sides. In a group with operations in several Central and Eastern European countries, I led, in Romania, the implementation of an FP&A tool and the transition to a new ERP system, together with colleagues from the European Union and outside the EU. The most visible result: the monthly accounting close moved from the 25th to the 5th of the following month, while forecast accuracy gradually increased from 65% to 96% over six months.

The fundamental decision was not technological, but process-related: I moved forecasting responsibility from finance to each department head, who presents and supports their own figures every month in a variance analysis meeting. The close was shortened through simultaneous measures — a calendar with an owner and deadline for each activity, a firm cut-off date for supplier invoices, estimates for predictable recurring expenses instead of waiting for the document, and automated reconciliations in the system. The hardest part was not technical, but accepting the idea that a good figure delivered on time is worth more than a perfect one delivered three weeks late. The effect was that management discussions shifted from “what happened last month” to “what are we going to do in the coming quarter?”

The twenty days gained do not mean twenty man-days saved, but that management information reaches leadership three weeks earlier. The real effect is on how the team’s time is structured: the same people spend much less of the month collecting and checking data and much more time analyzing it. I measured accuracy as the average deviation from actual results, based on the forecast frozen at the beginning of the month — at aggregate level, it reached 96%, while dispersion at individual line level remained, naturally, higher.

What did not work from the beginning: implementing a new tool changes nothing if people continue working in parallel in their own Excel files. The first few months were consumed not by configuration, but by adoption. The lesson: a financial transformation project is 20% software and 80% organizational habit, and planning should follow the same proportion.

The second component of the solution is discipline — which almost always pays for itself. At a global IT services and business process outsourcing provider, through rigorous control of audit and inventory processes, I recovered €3 million in VAT that otherwise would have remained unutilized. It was not a spectacular discovery, but the result of systematically reconciling records, something no one had done before.

The good news is that today this expertise has become accessible. The fractional CFO model and artificial intelligence tools allow even a small company to access financial thinking that, ten years ago, was available only to corporations.

C&B: What is the most valuable lesson you have learned throughout your experience and believe is worth passing on?

Mihaela: The most valuable lesson is that profit is an opinion, but cash is a fact. You can have a profitable company on paper that shuts down because it has run out of money — and, conversely, you can get through a difficult period if you take care of liquidity.

I learned this most profoundly at an engineering services company, where I took over as CFO after several consecutive years of losses. The transition to profitability took place after five years of losses, gradually, beginning with the first year in which the way of thinking changed, while operating margins also recovered incrementally, starting in that same first year.

The turnaround had two stages. First: a cost optimization plan, built not through uniform percentage cuts, but by eliminating expenses that produced no identifiable benefit — the across-the-board scissor approach is the fastest way to weaken precisely the areas that generate revenue, and I am not a fan of this practice. Second: a revenue-focused business plan, in which the CEO became directly involved, supported by continuously updating the cash-flow position.

What worked: the direct involvement of operational leadership in the revenue plan. A turnaround plan led exclusively by finance inevitably turns into a cost-cutting exercise and stops there.

What did not work: something I initially considered extremely important as a factor in reducing general and administrative expenses — changing the company’s location, meaning giving up an excessively expensive lease under a contract that I still consider commercially unbalanced. Why did we not change location? Because the employees liked it. It was a business decision that was financially difficult to sustain, but we found other avenues, and opened them in time to stop the bleeding.

An essential indicator to monitor in a rolling forecast is net working capital. It answers a simple but vital question: if the company were to pay all its short-term liabilities tomorrow, would it still have enough money to operate? And, if so, for how long?

The second part of the lesson, which I only fully understood later, is that finance is about people, not spreadsheets. The most valuable thing I leave behind in any organization is not the reports, but the fact that the people I have worked with come to understand the real situation of their business.

C&B: If you had the opportunity to change one single thing in Romania, what would it be and why?

Mihaela: I would introduce real financial education — both in schools and for entrepreneurs. I believe many of the difficulties I see every day, among both people and companies, do not come from a lack of intelligence or hard work, but from the fact that no one taught us, at the right time, how money works: what a budget is, why cash flow matters, how to read financial statements, and what it means to consciously take on a risk.

A young person graduates from university knowing how to solve equations, but without knowing how to create a personal budget. An entrepreneur starts a business out of passion and technical expertise, but stumbles when it comes to the financial side — not because they are incapable, but because no one has ever shown them the map. I believe the transfer of knowledge is the most lasting thing you can leave behind.

C&B: How can we work together to help people, companies, and communities develop better?

Mihaela: I believe in three things, in exactly this order: access, education, and trust.

Access means making high-level expertise available even to those who cannot afford it on a full-time basis. Until recently, an experienced CFO was a luxury reserved for corporations. The fractional consulting model is changing that: a small company can now have, for a few days a month, the same strategic thinking that a large player benefits from. Concretely, a small company can obtain a budget, a 12-month forecast, and a monthly dashboard for a fraction of the cost of an employed CFO.

Education means not keeping knowledge only to ourselves. That is why I write and explain things publicly. The only condition for people to learn is to be curious and willing to put in the effort to understand new things. Curiosity, when used correctly, opens doors you would never expect.

Trust means working transparently and putting the client’s interests before our own short-term gain. Real development does not come from quick solutions, but from relationships built on honesty and results that become visible over time. Trust follows a simple formula: I do what I promised, I keep my word, and I do not leave things unfinished simply because, at some point, the situation is no longer convenient for me.

Not every entrepreneur is emotionally prepared for this level of transparency, and the absence of real communication makes a business relationship impossible. I have ended collaborations for this reason, and I believe it was the right decision: a financial consultant who does not see the real numbers does not help anyone, but merely legitimizes an illusion. That is why I believe true development begins the moment we choose the courage to face the numbers — together.

With over 18 years of experience in finance, Mihaela Păuna promotes an approach in which numbers become tools for decision-making rather than simply reports. From cash flow and profitability to financial education and the fractional CFO model, her perspective highlights the importance of financial discipline, transparency, and strategies built on real data. For entrepreneurs and SMEs in Romania, access to financial expertise can become a key advantage for sustainable growth and long-term development.

The post Mihaela Păuna, CFO & Financial Consultant: “Profit is an opinion, but cash is a fact” appeared first on careers-business.com.

Cătălin Obretin is the founder and director of the OBSwim Sports Club Association, co-initiator of the Kzilla festival and the EroulMeu.ro project, a cultural and digital project built around storytelling, as well as the founder of Synterra. His story begins in performance sports, where he learned that a result is not built in a single day, but through hundreds of small choices, repeated until they become character. Later, working directly with children, he noticed that their development follows the same rule. A child may go to school, play sports, attend a cultural workshop, or participate in a volunteering project, but each of these worlds sees them for only a few hours and from a single perspective. The experiences accumulate, but they are rarely connected into a journey that shows them who they are, what they can become, and where they need support. From this observation came his entrepreneurial vision: to build an ecosystem that connects these stages, transforms isolated participation into real progress, and accompanies children step by step toward adulthood. Not with the promise of a life without mistakes, but with the opportunity to have reference points, people, and tools that help them become autonomous, responsible, and aware of the value they can bring to their community.

C&B: What is the mission you have taken on through your work?

Cătălin: My mission is to help children build a path that has meaning and continuity.

A child goes to school, plays sports, takes part in a cultural workshop, or participates in a community project. In each of these places, someone sees a part of them. The teacher knows their results, the coach observes their discipline and relationship with effort, the family knows their fears, while a cultural experience may bring their creativity to the surface. Most of the time, these observations remain separate.

I encountered this disconnect in our projects as well. Children were having valuable experiences, but after each stage, they seemed to start again from zero. What they had discovered about themselves, how they had progressed, and sometimes even the opportunity that should have followed was lost.

Through OBSwim, I understood how much sports, discipline, and a sense of progress can change the way a child sees themselves. Through Kzilla, I saw what happens when you give them the freedom to experiment, meet specialists, and discover fields they might not normally have access to.

EroulMeu.ro takes this vision into the area of culture, identity, and creative exploration. It is a project currently in development, built around the idea that a child can become an active part of a story, use their imagination, and begin to better understand who they are.

Synterra was born from the desire to gradually create a thread connecting these experiences. A thread that preserves the meaning of the journey they have taken and makes visible their results, effort, courage to try again, and the things they are beginning to discover about themselves.

All our projects start from the same belief: a child cannot be reduced to the grade in their school report, the time achieved in a race, or the position they hold in a ranking. It is important for them to discover what motivates them, what they enjoy, where they feel valuable, and in which direction they can build their own path.

This mission is also about access. There are children with extraordinary potential who do not reach sports, culture, mentoring, or other educational experiences because they do not have the information, resources, or the right person beside them at the right moment.

I want us to contribute to raising young people who understand who they are, what they can do, and what value they can bring to those around them. For me, this is the most important form of achievement.

C&B: What is the most important problem you see today in the field in which you work, and how do you believe it can be solved?

Cătălin: The most important problem is the lack of continuity.

We are not lacking good people or valuable initiatives. We have schools, clubs, NGOs, and specialists producing results. Yet, once a project ends, we are often left with a list of participants, a few photographs, and a report. We know how many children attended, but we know much less about what changed for them and what should come next.

I understood this limitation through Kzilla. The project reached 16,400 participants and 63 workshops. I saw children who, within a few hours, discovered something new, gained confidence, or gained access to a different experience for the first time. The energy was there, and the immediate result was visible. After the event, however, it was very difficult to find out how many continued, what skills they had discovered, or what the next suitable opportunity for them would have been.

The same problem existed in sports activities. The coach had their observations, the parent knew about the child’s changes, while the organization had data about attendance, bookings, and results. The information was divided between conversations, spreadsheets, documents, and different systems.

When you work with many beneficiaries, good intentions are no longer enough. Information gets lost, errors appear, and too many things end up depending on the memory of a few people.

At first, we tried to address each need with a different tool: a spreadsheet, a form, a scheduling app, or a messaging group. Some worked for the specific problem they had been chosen to solve, but they did not communicate with one another. I learned that simply digitizing a weak process does not automatically make it better. Sometimes it just moves the disorder from a folder onto a screen.

This experience led to Synterra. Synterra is the digital ecosystem we are building to gradually connect the activities of organizations with the educational, sports, cultural, and social experiences of children and young people.

What we currently have is an MVP, a first functional version through which we are testing part of this vision within OBSwim’s activities. The MVP does not represent the entire ecosystem or its final form. It is the first concrete step through which we are checking whether the idea works in a real environment.

The first version is being tested within OBSwim’s current workflows, in the relationship between the organization, team, members, and families. We are looking at whether it can reduce administrative errors, simplify workflows, and provide a clearer picture of scheduling, attendance, and activities. For now, these are the objectives we want to measure, not results we can claim.

Testing shows us what needs to be kept, simplified, or abandoned. Some features we considered secondary have proven more useful than much more ambitious ideas.

If this stage produces the results we are pursuing, the next step will be to test certain components together with other clubs, NGOs, and educational organizations. We do not want to force organizations to work in the same way. We need to see whether we can build a common foundation that is flexible enough for different realities.

The true measure of success is not only how many children have gone through a project. It is how many moved forward because of that experience, how many discovered a skill, and how many found the next door that was open to them.

We need to move from counting participation to understanding journeys.

C&B: What is the most valuable lesson you have learned throughout your experience and that you believe is worth passing on?

Cătălin: The most valuable lesson I have learned is not to let other people’s “no” become my “no.”

Performance sports shaped me in this way. It taught me that a result that is not what you expected is not a sentence. It is an experience from which you need to understand what did not work and what you need to change. Some people learn from other people’s mistakes. I have mostly learned from my own mistakes.

Kzilla is the example that best expresses this lesson. The project started from an idea that I developed together with Radu Mateescu. Initially, we were supposed to organize it in a different context, but things evolved differently from what we had imagined. Instead of giving up, we chose to continue on our own and build the event in the form we believed in.

There were approximately two weeks left until the scheduled date of the event. It was just the two of us, without the initial framework, without the resources we had relied on, and with only the idea we believed in.

We looked at each other and asked ourselves: “Can we do it ourselves?” The answer was “yes.”

At that moment, other people’s “no” became our “yes.”

Within two weeks, we organized the first edition of Kzilla, starting almost from scratch. It was not perfect, and I learned an enormous amount along the way, but the project grew and reached 16,400 participants and 63 workshops.

This result does not mean that we were right in every decision. It means that we were willing to listen to reality, correct what was not working, and continue without losing sight of the reason why we had started.

This is also where the difference between perseverance and stubbornness lies. Perseverance does not mean repeating the same solution endlessly. It means keeping the direction while having the courage to change the path. Listening to criticism, acknowledging when you are wrong, and rebuilding without allowing others to decide for you how much the dream you believe in is worth.

Sports taught me that performance is also built on days when you are tired, results are delayed, and those around you tell you that perhaps it cannot be done. Sometimes a dream requires more time, more sacrifices, and more patience than you anticipated. It is not enough to believe in it today. You must be prepared to believe in it five years from now as well.

However, I also learned that perseverance does not mean putting projects before people, regardless of the circumstances. This year, we chose to put Kzilla on hold for personal reasons. Family was more important than an event or a professional goal.

A pause does not mean giving up. It means stopping, understanding what we need to change, and returning with a stronger project that is closer to the values we want to pass on to children.

The lesson I would pass on is simple: listen, verify, learn, and adapt, but do not abandon your dream just because someone else cannot see it yet.

And if I had to describe myself in one word, I would say without hesitation: perseverance. Not because I have never fallen, but because I have chosen, every time, to get back up and continue.

C&B: If you had the opportunity to change just one thing in Romania, what would it be and why?

Cătălin: If I could change just one thing in Romania, I would change the way we build for the long term.

We have good ideas, valuable people, and initiatives that start with energy. However, too many of them depend on one person, one term in office, one source of funding, or the enthusiasm of a particular moment. When one of these conditions disappears, the project stops and we start again from zero.

Romania does not lack beginnings. It lacks continuity.

We change leadership, teams, and priorities, and with them we lose processes, relationships, and experiences that had begun to work. Instead of improving what already exists, we tend to erase and rebuild. We consume energy repeating stages that others have already gone through.

A good project should be able to continue even if the person who initiated it changes. A program for children should not disappear when funding ends. An organization should not lose its experience when an important person leaves.

I would like us to build with the understanding that valuable things need to last longer than our momentary enthusiasm. This requires clear processes, organizational memory, responsibility, and patience. It means leaving behind something that those who come after us can understand and carry forward.

Sports taught me that performance does not appear after a single training session. The same is true in entrepreneurship, education, or public administration. Important things need time, consistency, and the ability to correct without destroying everything that was built before.

If we managed to transform good initiatives into structures that continue, we could use more energy to grow what already works instead of constantly starting over.

C&B: How can we work together to help people, companies, and communities develop better?

Cătălin: We can help more effectively when we give up the idea that everyone has to solve everything on their own.

Companies, NGOs, institutions, and communities have different resources. Some have capital, technology, or access to networks. Others know the field very well and can say what actually works in real life.

The best results in our projects have emerged when each partner had a clear role. We brought direct experience working with children and implementation expertise. Institutions provided access and legitimacy. Specialists brought expertise, while private partners made expansion possible.

We need to move away from the model in which a company provides money, the NGO implements the project, and at the end everyone receives a report. A company can bring expertise, technology, mentors, and access to people. An NGO can turn an idea into a program that works. An institution can create continuity and take a successful pilot to a larger scale.

The question we should ask ourselves is simple: what remains in the community after the project ends?

Do better-prepared people remain? Does a solution remain that can be used again? Does a relationship between partners remain, or only a one-off activity? If nothing remains, we probably have not built well enough.

Our projects are at different stages, but they are part of the same direction. OBSwim is where we work daily with families and test real processes. Kzilla showed us that we can build educational experiences for a large audience, while EroulMeu.ro takes this experience into culture and storytelling. Synterra is the framework through which we want to gradually connect what we learn from all these projects.

For companies, social involvement can become an investment in the people and skills that communities will need several years from now. A child who learns discipline, empathy, and responsibility today will carry these qualities into their profession and relationships with others later.

Partnerships must be sincere. Not every idea works, and some need to be changed or stopped. We must be able to say what worked, what did not work, and why. We need to test, listen, and expand only what has demonstrated its value.

People and communities must be listened to and involved in the solutions that concern them. Otherwise, we risk building projects that are very well presented but do not solve the problem for which they were created.

I believe good partnerships begin when everyone honestly says what they can bring to the table and what they still have to learn. We know the problem from the field and have a real environment in which we can test solutions. This is where any serious construction should begin.

A project built around children starts with an idea, but grows through continuity, collaboration, and perseverance. The story of Cătălin Florin Obretin, from OBSwim and Kzilla to EroulMeu.ro and Synterra, shows how sports, education, culture, and technology can be connected to create experiences with a real impact.

The post Cătălin Florin Obretin talks about OBSwim, Kzilla, EroulMeu.ro and Synterra, the digital ecosystem in development for children, families and organizations. appeared first on careers-business.com.

Simona Nicolaescu is a psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, coach and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in training, wellbeing and team building programs for companies, author of the book “Secrets and Sincerity” and creator of Flow Balance — an app with audio training for the mind, body and emotions, built on a belief tested both in the therapy room and in the mountains: real change does not come from revelations, but from small reflexes, repeated daily.

C&B: How would you describe yourself in one sentence?

Simona: I am the person who works for those who have a lot on their plate, little time for themselves and a mind that does not really know where the pause button is — and who does not give them yet another piece of advice, but trains them to reconnect with themselves in a few minutes.

C&B: What is the “red thread” of your journey?

Simona: The red thread is that I have never separated the mind from the body, nor life from business. Three moments cemented this. The first: more than 20 years ago, I had a serious car accident and realized how quickly you can disappear from this world. That was when I decided to do only what I love and built my own business. The second: the journey to Everest Base Camp, in 2016, where at 4,600 meters I became so ill that I could no longer stand — and I came out of that moment not with medication, but with the techniques I was teaching my trainees. I experienced firsthand that the mind and body work in tandem. The third: the moment when I understood that everything I give people in my practice — assignments, visualizations, exercises between sessions — could become a tool they could have in their pocket. That is how Flow Balance was born. The constant throughout all my choices: I transform what I experience and practice myself into tools for others.

C&B: A difficult moment or failure that changed you?

Simona: On Kilimanjaro, on the second night, at 3,800 meters, I had a panic attack. Me, the person who works with people precisely on this. My pulse had risen to 150 at rest, compared to my usual 72, I could not eat, I could not sleep, and it took me hours to recognize what was happening to me — it is much harder to see in yourself what you can easily diagnose in others. The uncomfortable part is what I discovered behind it: one month before leaving, I had given up my daily practice. I was no longer spending those 30 minutes with myself, every day, and I had turned a long-awaited trip into a source of stress, with a thousand worst-case scenarios. What I changed: I stopped treating daily practice as something optional, for days off. It is like brushing your teeth — you do not do it when you feel inspired, you do it because it is a reflex. And since then, I have told my clients exactly that, with my own example, not from a textbook.

C&B: A courageous or counter-intuitive decision?

Simona: The decision to build Flow Balance. Counter-intuitive, because a psychotherapist is trained to believe that transformation happens only in the direct, one-on-one relationship in the therapy room. And economically, the practice and the training company were the safe zone: loyal clients, a model that had worked for two decades. An app means continuous investment, a team, technology, a territory I did not master. The risk I assessed: that I would dilute the depth of therapy into a digital product. What convinced me to move forward was the reality in my practice — people do not get stuck because they do not understand, but because between sessions they do not have a tool at hand when their mind starts running. The alternative I rejected: remaining comfortable in the “my time versus money” model, which can never help more people than can fit into a calendar. The result: a system of audio training organized into programs of at least 14 days, for adults and children, designed from the beginning to grow internationally.

C&B: How have you changed as a leader / professional?

Simona: The biggest change: my relationship with my own body and my own pace. For years, I had so much work that I would forget to even go to the bathroom — literally. I was involved in so many projects that I no longer enjoyed either my role as a mother or my passions. Today, relaxation is a business objective, just as serious as the numbers: I exercise five times a week, have a minimum of 30 minutes every day just for myself, and start my mornings with a clear intention. In terms of decision-making, I have changed just as concretely: before, I said yes to almost everything; now I choose my clients carefully — if the stress comes predominantly from them and we cannot establish boundaries, we part ways. And under pressure, the first thing I do is no longer force things, but ask myself: what is my intention in this conversation? That simple question has defused more conflicts than anything I learned in the dozens of training programs I have.

C&B: What do the people who work directly with you say?

Simona: I think they would say two things, and both are true. That I can be both warm and distant, direct at the same time — I do not wrap things in cotton wool, but I do not talk down to people either. One client told me at the first session that he “does not believe in gurus”; we worked until he understood that I was not asking him to do that either — the only master he needs to listen to is the one inside himself. The difficult part: I have an intense pace and high standards, and for the people around me this can be tiring, while I also work with people who are determined to solve their problems and achieve their dreams. The universe does not help you if you do not know what you want and do not take small steps every day. I have received feedback that I want too much at once — and it is fair feedback, it is exactly my old struggle with too many projects in parallel. What I have learned to do is apply my own rule: carry in your backpack only as much as you can carry with pleasure. I do not always manage it. But the difference compared to ten years ago is that now I can see when the backpack is overflowing.

C&B: What truly differentiates you in the way you build?

Simona: Two concrete things. First: I do not teach anything I do not use. The visualization exercises you find in Flow Balance are the ones I used to manage my nausea and dizziness at 4,600 meters on the way to Everest Base Camp. The breathing in the training sessions is what I used to come out of the panic attack on Kilimanjaro. I did not create the app because I live in a perfect state of calm, but because I know how much it matters to have a simple tool at hand when the mind starts running away. Second: I build on repetition, not revelation. The entire industry sells “aha” moments. I have seen hundreds of people in my practice who understand perfectly why they feel the way they do — and remain stuck. That is why the programs in Flow Balance are a minimum of 14 days: not because it is a magic number, but because a new reflex needs repetition, just like at the gym. You do not expect a body to become strong after one workout; why would we expect the mind to change after a single revelation?

C&B: How has the current context (technology, AI, the economy) changed you?

Simona: Radically and practically. The most visible change is Flow Balance itself: I moved part of my practice and training work into technology, because one hour of therapy helps one person, while an audio training session can help thousands, at the same time, at an accessible cost. The second change: I work with AI as a strategy and content partner — from calibrating the brand voice to structuring campaigns around areas of need (sleep, anxiety, focus, exams for children). What I have not delegated and will not delegate: the therapeutic substance. AI helps me take what I know further, not invent what I do not know. And economically, I think about growth differently than I did ten years ago: not through paid advertising, but through communities built around concrete problems, tested as hypotheses — we launch, measure, adjust.

C&B: A habit or routine that has influenced your performance?

Simona: A minimum of 30 minutes a day just with myself — meditation, breathing, visualization or simply silence, every day, for years. I know exactly what happens when I give it up, because I have the experiment from my own experience: the month when I skipped my practice, before Kilimanjaro, ended with a panic attack at 3,800 meters. When the practice is in place, the difference is measurable in the way I work: I sleep well, make decisions without dwelling on them for days, and no longer react immediately to what annoys me. In addition to that, exercise five times a week and the mountains whenever I can — because I discovered that this is where I have my best energy; this passion gets me out of bed at any hour and gives me inspiration for the rest of my working days. Routine is not glamorous. That is exactly why it works.

C&B: What principles guide the decisions you make?

Simona: Three principles. One: everything I do, I do with intention — before any difficult conversation I ask myself what the purpose is, and that question changes the course of the conversation. Two: the body does not negotiate — if a decision keeps my body on alert for days, it is a signal, not a detail. Three: carry in your backpack only as much as you can carry with pleasure — I turn down good projects so that I can handle the essential projects well. The real test of these principles was on the way to Everest Base Camp, on the day when we were supposed to reach Lobuche: at 4,600 meters I became ill, the group lost a day because of me, and the next morning I woke up with a total lack of confidence that I could continue. The right decision was neither “grit your teeth” nor “give up.” It was to respect my own pace: small steps, at the rhythm of my own breathing, mind and body in tandem. I reached Base Camp. I apply the same logic in business: you do not climb a mountain by forcing yourself once; you climb it by taking one more step, at a pace that the body can handle.

C&B: How do you see the evolution of the field in 3–5 years?

Simona: Mental health is moving from intervention toward daily training — just as fitness moved out of the medical office and into everyday life. I see growth in three areas: short and guided digital tools, for people who do not have an hour free but do have seven minutes; emotional regulation for children and adolescents, where the need is huge and the serious offer is thin — from exam anxiety to therapeutic stories; and real organizational wellbeing, because companies are beginning to understand that burnout is a business problem, not an HR problem. The risks: AI will flood the market with generic wellness content, technically correct and empty of substance, while miracle promises — “get rid of anxiety permanently” — will erode trust in the entire field. I see a decline precisely there: in products that sell calm as a permanent state. Balance is not a state, it is a practice — and whoever builds on this truth, not on promises, will remain standing.

C&B: What role do you envision for yourself in this evolution?

Simona: I am building Flow Balance with a committed objective: one million users. Concretely, this means audio training for the mind, body and emotions — sleep, anxiety, focus, confidence, performance, mental preparation for childbirth, exams, therapeutic stories for children — organized into programs of at least 14 days, built modularly so they can be expanded into English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. The impact I am pursuing is simple to formulate and difficult to achieve: for the daily practice of regulation to become as natural as brushing your teeth, for adults and children alike. And my personal role in this is to remain the living source of the content — every new training starts from the practice, from the real needs of the people I work with, not from a brainstorming session about “what would sell.”

C&B: What advice would you give someone who wants to build something relevant today?

Simona: Three recommendations, all paid for with my own mistakes. One: build from what you practice yourself, not from what the market demands — people immediately feel the difference between someone who teaches a tool and someone who lives with it; authenticity sells more slowly, but it does not expire. Two: choose one very clear problem and stay with it much longer than is comfortable for you. I lost years by being involved in too many projects at once — I no longer enjoyed anything and was not really growing anything. One vertical taken all the way beats ten beginnings. Three: put your relaxation into your business plan, not into your vacation. It sounds soft, it is my toughest lesson: you cannot apply any good practice from an EMBA from an exhausted nervous system, and the most expensive bad decisions I made were precisely during periods when I “did not have time” for myself.

C&B: An uncomfortable truth about your field?

Simona: Two, actually. The first: insight does not change anyone. The personal development industry lives from selling revelations — books, conferences, “aha” moments — but in my practice I constantly see people who understand perfectly why they suffer and remain exactly where they are. Personal development books and programs are good only if you apply something from them; otherwise they are wasted time and an additional source of frustration that others can do it and you cannot. Real change is boring: daily repetition, small reflexes, without gimmicks. Nobody wants to hear that because it does not package well. The second uncomfortable truth: we, those in the field, also become dysregulated. I had a panic attack on Kilimanjaro after 20 years of working with people. A therapist who always seems serene either has a serious daily practice or is playing a role. I did not create Flow Balance from a state of permanent calm — I created it because I know, from the inside, how quickly balance is lost when you give up your tools.

Discover Simona Nicolaescu’s perspective on change, balance and the power of daily practices, and learn how Flow Balance aims to make emotional regulation a natural habit for both adults and children.

The post Simona Nicolaescu, creator of Flow Balance: “Real change does not come from revelations, but from small reflexes repeated daily” appeared first on careers-business.com.

Adam Andrei is a young professional working in international freight transportation. With an educational background in a completely different field, but nearly a decade of experience in the corporate sector, he recently decided to set out on his own path.

C&B: How would you describe yourself in a single sentence, in a way that would capture the attention of someone who doesn’t know you?

Andrei: A consistent person, but deep enough to make the necessary adjustments along the way.

C&B: Looking back, what is the “red thread” that has guided your professional journey?

Andrei: From a positive perspective, I could highlight the joy of achieving a target whose level of difficulty was above average and for which even I wouldn’t have given myself much of a chance. At the risk of sounding cliché, the joy comes from the fact that this has happened several times over the past 10 years, and seeing that it is not impossible fuels me to keep setting goals that are increasingly difficult to achieve.

Also from a positive perspective, another “red thread” is the opportunities that come your way only once in a lifetime, and you have to catch that train. I embrace making as many calculations as possible, but sometimes it is healthy to listen to our instincts and catch that train.

To give an example from a more negative perspective, another “red thread” would be finding the ability to take the best out of any experience, even if that experience was not necessarily on your list. Preparing for what comes next in life or, more specifically, in your career, is not always dressed in pink and is not as comfortable as a seminar in an air-conditioned room.

C&B: What was a difficult moment or failure that truly changed you?

Andrei: I hope that, with further maturity, I will be able to assess the extent to which it changed me. A difficult moment was certainly joining teams where I was definitely not the first choice and being forced, without knowing exactly how, to make the best of what I had. Later, I realized that concessions were once again necessary on my part or, in other words, that I had to be an able politician while also bringing the teams together as much as I could, creating, why not, friendships that I hope still last today. Experiences of this kind “toughened me up,” but they certainly increased my emotional intelligence and, even though it is difficult for me to recommend such an experience to someone, I can say that it would definitely help anyone.

C&B: What is a bold (or counterintuitive) decision that significantly influenced your trajectory?

Andrei: Again, even though I believed this, it is not a cliché, but leaving a job is equivalent to stepping outside your comfort zone. Fortunately for me, I was never a person who was too easily influenced, as that would have made the situation even more difficult. I think you can already imagine what I could hear from the people around me when they received the news: “I am leaving my corporate job, where I had just been freshly promoted into management.”

Another event worth mentioning would be becoming closer to my business partners. It is natural to develop more stable relationships and gradually open up to one another, eventually creating friendships, but at some point I needed to set limits. Yes, it was counterintuitive, and I did not want to do this from the very beginning, but I understood that everything related to my professionalism would have been put aside. You cannot work as seriously with someone who has become more than a business partner, a friend.

C&B: How have you changed over time as a leader / professional?

Andrei: I understood what it means to work with people and how important emotional intelligence is. Before, I used to draw negative conclusions much more quickly, whereas now I can proudly say that I have become more empathetic. Yes, there are still disappointments; it would be impossible for there not to be, but what I do differently now is look deeper and identify some of the reasons why those people might be performing this way.

At the same time, I have learned that pressure is not something undesirable, as I used to think. Having pressure also means confirmation that what you are doing is okay. If pressure were to disappear completely, God forbid, it would mean that we were left without a workload. I have also learned to “make peace” with it and live with it. Of course, with small escapes, breaks, and other tricks.

C&B: What do you think the people who work directly with you say about you — beyond your public image?

Andrei: I want to believe they see me as a professional guy, but at the same time, I would not want that aura of an ultra-serious and unapproachable man. I would like to also be Andrei, the person they would want to have lunch with, for example.

And if I were to think of something less positive as well, I have not received this feedback, but I think that sometimes I get carried away and give too many details.

C&B: What truly differentiates you in the way you build or lead?

Andrei: The first thing worth mentioning would be the desire to also take on work that other competitors are less willing to do. We do not approach things through “cherry picking”; we also go where others stop because of the difficulty.

Another process that differentiates us is that our sales side does not approach clients according to that classic vision in which you have to speak to clients, after getting past that barrier of formality, in a syrupy way and with that personal-assistant attitude straight out of The Devil Wears Prada. I believe we can show respect and willingness to serve our clients in other ways, in fact, in a much more professional manner.

C&B: How has the current context (technology, AI, the economy) changed the way you work?

Andrei: I can say it has changed it for the better. We have saved a lot of time calculating our freight by implementing AI into our routine. As the volume increased, we also considered doing this for the documentation side.

At the same time, I categorize our field as a human one, and we have not yet opted to implement AI in the decision-making process.

C&B: Is there a habit or routine that has significantly influenced your performance?

Andrei: Here I will give a rather banal answer, unfortunately, but it reflects reality.

Checking — for some time now, I have been checking terms more carefully, details in an email, details in a quotation, the progress of orders that have already been placed. The simple fact that we demonstrate proactivity also helps and gives us a better image in front of our clients.

C&B: What principles guide you when making important decisions?

Andrei: To show that “we have a backbone,” regardless of how much a particular moment tests us. When things are difficult, we need to maintain our position and remain right there, alongside our clients.

C&B: How do you see your field evolving over the next 3–5 years?

Andrei: The transportation industry will become even more competitive. At the same time, it will be much more restrictive for newcomers. This all stems from the changes introduced by the EU through the implementation of tachographs for 3.5-ton vehicles, but especially from diesel price fluctuations caused by the current geopolitical landscape. Clients are resistant to change, while transportation companies are taking an even tougher negotiating position, rightfully citing the current bankruptcies.

C&B: What role do you aim to play in this evolution?

Andrei: Our main objective is to satisfy our existing clients even under the current critical market conditions. In second place, we have the development of the customer acquisition process. At the same time, we want to focus on expanding our client portfolio. On a tertiary level, we aim to increase our turnover by 50%, and this is being pursued through the development of the air & sea transportation sector.

C&B: What real advice would you give someone who wants to build something relevant today?

Andrei: Don’t listen to the voices around you that will tell you that now is not the right time. If we analyze things concretely, there is never a favorable time to start a start-up. There will always be something that does not work properly and could represent an impediment.

Don’t jump to conclusions: it is very easy to rush and say that someone is not a good collaborator, or that a client is not scalable enough. It is very easy to be proven wrong.

Think long-term and behave like a large company, even if you are just starting out.

C&B: What is an uncomfortable truth about your industry that few people talk about?

Andrei: Even though I would have been tempted to bring up the issue of honesty in this industry, ultimately I do not think that would be appropriate, because this represents an impediment throughout the entire Eastern European business environment.

Rather, the elephant in the room that many overlook is burnout in our industry. We only need to have ears to hear about cases where colleagues in our profession face severe problems such as heart attacks, strokes, or other conditions of this kind.

I believe it is vital to know our profession, to understand its negative aspects, and to learn to live with them, so that we can be part of a movie with a happy ending, rather than a drama.

Adam Andrei’s journey is about the courage to leave the corporate world, embrace entrepreneurship and build a business in a highly competitive industry. From leadership and emotional intelligence to customer acquisition and the challenges of international transportation, his story offers an honest perspective on building a business for the long term.

The post Adam Andrei about entrepreneurship in international freight transportation: “Don’t listen to those around you who tell you that now is not the right time” appeared first on careers-business.com.

Andrei Leverin is a designer and the founder of Leverin Studio. For him, design is more than a pretty image; it is a way of understanding problems and translating them into a language that people naturally use. He works on identity, communication, and wayfinding projects, at the intersection of design and the city.

C&B: How would you describe yourself in a single sentence, in a way that would capture the attention of someone who does not know you?

Andrei: I am someone who uses design to make the world a little easier to understand and more pleasant to live in.

C&B: Looking back, what is the “common thread” that has guided your professional journey?

Andrei: My professional journey, like life in general, resembles a game of chess more than anything else. Every decision, if thought through strategically, brings you closer to a certain “checkmate” that everyone has in mind.

Looking back, the common thread has always been my interest in the way people understand the things around them. Because the way we understand the world influences our decisions and the reality we go on to build. That same curiosity concerns me as well: how I understand the world and how I choose to act based on it.

I think that interest is precisely what led me, without realizing it, toward design. Suddenly, I found myself doing graphic design, and along the way I understood that it means much more than the visual side. It means organizing information, human behavior, wayfinding, and the way things come to work better for people.

That is what I am trying to do today through Leverin Studio, which is, in a way, my professional extension: to start from real questions and problems, rather than simply from the desire to produce something beautiful.

C&B: What was a difficult moment or failure that truly changed you?

Andrei: I do not really look at things through the lens of failure. I think we put overly definitive labels on moments that are, in fact, stages of learning.

Every person has successful and unsuccessful moments. You learn the most from the unsuccessful ones: you explain to yourself what should have been done differently, where you should have made a decision faster, where you should have turned right instead of left.

If we are talking about a difficult moment, it was after my first year of university. I had been thinking about the idea of a design studio for a long time. After the first exam session, I set it in motion. After the second, I came to believe that I no longer needed university and that I could achieve more in design and entrepreneurship without it.

But the situation got the better of me. After many conversations with people close to me, I decided to continue university. Looking back, I think it was one of the good decisions. If I had dropped out then, I probably would not have discovered the connection between the city and design, which today defines an important part of my work.

Along the way, I understood that design is not just about aesthetics. It is about interaction, about behaviors that you encourage or discourage, about what works and what does not, whether on a poster, in a park, or at a street intersection.

C&B: What is a bold or counterintuitive decision that significantly influenced your trajectory?

Andrei: Probably the decision to come to Bucharest, a city that almost everyone runs away from. Most of my friends told me not to come: it is ugly, dirty, crowded.

Paradoxically, that is precisely what attracted me. I saw a complicated city, with many visible problems, but also with a great deal of potential. For a designer, that means there are many things that can be understood and improved. This is where I feel I have the most work to do.

C&B: How have you changed over time as a leader/professional?

Andrei: Leader is a word that it is in poor taste to claim for yourself.

But as a professional, I think the biggest change has been the way I understand control. At the beginning, I was focused on execution and on the idea that everything had to be done by me, as well as possible.

Over time, I understood that a studio is not built alone. It is built together with the people around you and with the clients who gradually come to believe in what you do and become ambassadors for your work.

C&B: What do you think the people who work directly with you would say about you, beyond your public image?

Andrei: I think the most accurate answer would come from them.

I hope they would say that I am a man of my word, responsible for the things I take on, and involved in the projects I am part of. They would probably also say that I am critical and attentive to detail, sometimes perhaps even excessively so. But that attention comes from the desire to avoid superficiality.

C&B: What truly differentiates you in the way you build or lead?

Andrei: If we compare it to the Google suite of applications, a good designer is like Google Translate. They receive complicated realities, coded information, services, or products and translate them into a language that people can easily understand.

A transportation map, for example, is not just a drawing with lines and stations. It is a tool that tells a person where they are, where they can go, and how they can make the best decision. The same thing happens with a visual identity, a campaign, a book, or an institution’s communication.

If the translation is poor, the message gets lost, because almost nobody can read the original; everyone reads the translation. And the role of a designer is to make that translation as clear and faithful as possible.

C&B: How has the current context — technology, AI, the economy — changed the way you work?

Andrei: Design cannot exist without technology and without a market economy. As the world becomes more technologically advanced, design changes along with it.

I believe, however, that what has changed most is where value is created. Demand has decreased for design that means nothing more than rapid execution, and many results have started to look alike. We see the same effects and the same formulas repeated both online and in print.

At the same time, the value of people who know how to ask good questions has increased. Today, it is extremely important to formulate the problem correctly before looking for the solution. A good prompt is, ultimately, a well-asked question. I probably would have reached this conclusion much later without AI, but when you ask a person a question, it matters just as much how clear and precise the question is. The answer generated by a person will be as good as the question.

C&B: Is there a habit or routine that has significantly influenced your performance?

Andrei: I think one of the most important habits for a designer is to observe.

I use public transportation a lot, I walk, I occasionally try new streets and routes, I photograph things that catch my attention, and I write down ideas. These habits, but not only these, train my powers of observation.

The subway is a good example in this sense. It is a place where you can see thousands of people every day, each with their own route and story. Everyone interacts with the wayfinding system, sometimes gets on the wrong platform, misses a train, speaks on the phone in a certain way, and you simply find yourself involuntarily listening to the conversation on your way to Eroilor. For a designer, carefully observing what is happening around you can be the best teacher available.

I sincerely believe that a designer must train their eye and mind first, and only then their hand.

C&B: What principles do you use when making important decisions?

Andrei: I would not say that I have fixed principles for this, but I have a few questions that I try to answer every time: What is the real problem? How important is it? What is the priority? And does the decision actually belong to me, or am I simply being handed a ready-made one, like the cookie button that you just have to confirm?

I believe good decisions emerge when you manage to step outside your own perspective and see the broader context. Sometimes I manage to do that. Other times, I only realize it after I have made the decision.

C&B: How do you see the evolution of your field over the next 3–5 years?

Andrei: Many people are afraid that AI will eliminate the designer profession. I honestly believe that they do not understand their profession very well and reduce it to the programs they use. The truth is that it cannot be eliminated as long as there are people who think. There will always be design, in one form or another, with the hope that people will continue to think.

In our recent history, this profession has somehow been appropriated abusively by those who knew programs such as Photoshop or Illustrator. Many of them, however, did not even have the courage to call themselves designers; they preferred to call themselves graphic artists who create and execute graphics. So a significant portion of them obviously feel targeted by this risk.

But with artificial intelligence, access to visual creation has become much more democratic. Yes, the quality is often absolutely mediocre, and the confidence with which some people create such things can genuinely be frightening, but broadly speaking, today it is much easier to execute; you just need to know how to formulate a prompt well enough.

I believe the difference will be made by people who understand problems, experience them, ask good questions, and can make decisions to solve them. Generating images or code with ChatGPT will be no different from using Photoshop, because design is, first and foremost, about the problem you are solving. Everyone chooses their own tool.

C&B: What role do you aim to play in this evolution?

Andrei: If I allowed myself to dream, I would say that I want a Romania where design is viewed as a process, as part of our culture, and is not limited to beautification.

Realistically, however, I will continue to work with those who genuinely want things to work. I want the studio to be a partner for companies, organizations, and people who want to communicate more clearly. There may be fewer of them, but I believe those who only want a profile picture deserve to be turned away with basil.

Even so, there are many things that could be clearer, more coherent, easier to use, or easier to communicate.

C&B: What real advice would you give someone who wants to build something relevant today?

Andrei: Well, the first step is to lay a solid foundation. For each person, this can mean different things: solid knowledge of the field, vocabulary, passion, curiosity.

The second step would be the walls, windows, and door, which can represent the people you surround yourself with: friends, colleagues, family, community.

And the third step is the roof, which can represent your own view of the world and the place you want to occupy in it.

Whether it is relevant or not is ultimately decided by the others, the people who enter the house. Maybe you chose the wrong location, maybe you installed the windows crooked, maybe you also need a garden, maybe the foundation is not yet solid enough. What matters is to keep building and learning from every stage, even if that sometimes means rebuilding part of what you have already built.

C&B: What is an uncomfortable truth about your field that few people talk about?

Andrei: Nothing comes to mind that is more obvious than the fact that design in Romania is still underdeveloped, both as a thinking process and as a problem-solving process.

Many decisions are made without any real process of understanding: who, in fact, is this thing being made for? At an institutional level, practically nobody truly cares whether things work, as long as they look like they work. A confusing map, a poor website, chaotic communication: nobody loses their job over that. Maybe someone only loses their job if discussions and heated debates start on Facebook or TikTok.

But design does not begin in Photoshop. It begins the moment someone tries to understand why things are not working and how they can make them work better. The visible part is only the result of a process that begins much earlier, with research, questions, and good decisions.

Perhaps the role of a designer is not, first and foremost, to make the world more beautiful. Perhaps their first role is to make it easier to understand. The rest comes almost naturally.

Andrei Leverin approaches design as something that goes beyond aesthetics and visual execution. From identity and communication to urban wayfinding and artificial intelligence, design becomes a tool for understanding problems and creating clearer, more coherent, and more useful solutions. For Andrei, the future belongs to those who know how to observe, ask the right questions, and use technology to solve real problems.

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