Ioana Arsenie: Financial Strategy, Leadership, and Sustainable Growth for IMMs

Ioana Arsenie, business strategist and founder of Trusted Advisor Strategy & Finance, shares insights on key career decisions, leadership, trust in business, financial innovation, and her vision for the future of SMEs in Romania.

Ioana Arsenie is a business strategist with expertise in financial, tax, and management consulting. Since 2015, Ioana has decided to make top-level expertise available to SMEs through integrated financial strategy and accounting services, within her own firm, Trusted Advisor Strategy & Finance.

She is focused on innovation and has already created two digital products that facilitate performance at the level of Romanian companies.

Trusted App is the proprietary application that digitizes financial reporting and budgeting for SMEs.

Ioana is the founder of the From Accountant to CFO Program, dedicated to professionals in the financial-accounting field as well as entrepreneurs—an innovative career development product that includes an e-learning platform.

Ioana Arsenie holds roles as a board member or external CFO and is the author of numerous studies, analyses, and opinions mainly dedicated to SMEs.

C&B: If we were to look at the narrative thread of your career, which were the key moments that defined you?

Ioana Arsenie: There were certainly turning-point decisions that marked my progress. I am referring here to my beginnings in consulting, top roles in a multinational company, and the decision to start my own business. However, I would rather emphasize two more important elements, which are present in my life every day and create the context for growth and fulfillment. First of all, there are the valuable people who accompany me, reflect me, and sometimes challenge me—and to whom I am grateful. Just as important are my vision, values, and life principles. I believe that these things—what we do every day—determine our evolution and our responses in key moments.

C&B: What has been the most difficult moment so far in your journey, and how did you overcome it?

Ioana Arsenie: Beginnings are always full of challenges, and that was the case both in the early years of the multinational we were opening in Romania in 2006 and at my own company, Trusted Advisor. I am a builder by nature and I constantly seek new projects, trends that help companies prepare strategically for what comes next, and people who want to grow and have the courage to push beyond their limits. I offer what I know has impact at different stages of development, based on my own experience.

C&B: Is there a dream or ambition that has always guided you, regardless of obstacles?

Ioana Arsenie: I live through what I do; I am a person of work done well, with soul, and with impact for those around me. All my energy is channeled toward results achieved with optimal effort and a structure that supports their multiplication.

C&B: What were you like at the beginning of your journey, and how do you feel you have transformed up to the present?

Ioana Arsenie: I was a very ambitious young woman and I sacrificed a great deal for my career. I went through some difficult moments that showed me I also needed to work on myself, to take care of myself and my development as an individual, emotionally and spiritually. Not having this component in my education, which was largely oriented toward work principles and effort, I had to learn to make room for these new directions of growth, which are just as important for anyone, as a whole, in their evolution. It is a very vast area, full of satisfaction, and I believe it is good to be more open to this type of communication in business as well.

C&B: If we were to meet your team or collaborators, what do you think they would say about you?

Ioana Arsenie: Certainly, the people in my teams would emphasize the fact that they have learned a great deal from me. What I want now is to help them discover what is relevant and impactful for them and to make an individual effort toward learning and development at the same time, with greater long-term benefits. It is very important for us to understand that collective and individual results are permanently interconnected.

C&B: What is the most important decision you have made that changed your trajectory?

Ioana Arsenie: It is a decision in my personal life, which also has an impact on the business side. A few years ago, I decided to place my personal life first. Even if imbalances still exist, I have the great joy of prioritizing my personal agenda—activities that, once planned, actually happen and take place despite all existing constraints.

C&B: How do you build a relationship of trust with entrepreneurs, considering that you work with one of the most sensitive areas of business—finances?

Ioana Arsenie: Expertise is undoubtedly the key that opens any partnership relationship based on trust. Equally important is delivering on what you promise and being consistent in the results you provide. You also need to “be there” in special situations, often at a personal level, but with business impact. Firmness is another appreciated aspect, as entrepreneurs want a partner who can guide them strategically and financially, and who has an equal level of positioning.

C&B: How do you manage to adapt Trusted Advisor’s services both for start-ups and for companies already in advanced stages of development?

Ioana Arsenie: For us, different client categories have different objectives and needs, equally important, with different deliverables, and we engage the appropriate resources accordingly. Within my team, there is a continuous transfer of knowledge and a process of maximum transparency, which helps us all evolve and respond to demands in a rather complex economic environment.

C&B: What does a typical day look like for you now, and which moments of the day bring you the greatest satisfaction?

Ioana Arsenie: Every ordinary day is a good day, with maximum involvement and connection to people and projects. For me, a normal day brings the pleasure of contributing through what we do and of creating well-being within the team and in our relationships with partners.

C&B: Tell us about a defining moment in the evolution of Trusted Advisor—a bold decision or a client who confirmed that you were heading in the right direction.

Ioana Arsenie: The first years were difficult in building a portfolio, followed by other years marked by high standards and the creation of benchmarks that helped us attract the right people to the team, then a period in which we worked extensively on processes and internal optimization. These mechanisms help us operate without stress and dedicate the necessary energy to atypical situations. I believe the strongest proof that we are where we need to be is the way clients recommend us and the fact that they turn to us in moments of crossroads for their businesses.

C&B: How did the Contabil CFO story begin, and what need did you observe among finance professionals that led you to start this project?

Ioana Arsenie: The Trusted CFO Program is the first experiential program in Romania that provides the necessary resources for progress in a financial career, with a 360-degree approach: facilitation and mentoring, soft skills development, finance training (e-learning), and networking and experience exchange.

Throughout my journey and in my interactions with financial departments, I observed the need for rigorous support for the individual career project of finance professionals who, constantly caught between the priorities of shareholders or CEOs and those of their teams, tend to neglect their own agenda.

Among consultancy firm owners, I noticed the challenge of managing their portfolio and team as priorities, without constantly reverting by reflex to the role of consultant or expert.

This is a broad issue that we address through the Trusted CFO Program, in which participants train for an entire year with concrete objectives and continuous feedback.

C&B: What is your long-term vision for Trusted Advisor—how do you see the company evolving in the coming years?

Ioana Arsenie: In our 10 years of activity, we have consolidated a portfolio of over 150 SMEs and large companies from fields such as e-commerce, hospitality, medical services, agribusiness, transportation, as well as NGOs with diverse activities, from Bucharest-Ilfov and other cities—Craiova, Tulcea, Focșani, Timișoara, and others.

Our priorities remain quality and the impact produced in clients’ results, both through core tax and accounting recommendations and through real support for organizational development—of professionals in financial-accounting departments and beyond, as well as the tools they operate with. In this way, we maintain our motivation and develop our own team. We see in the SME environment a growing concern for personalized consulting, cost optimization, and controlled business development, as well as digitalization and agility in operational and financial reporting.

Ioana Arsenie’s journey clearly demonstrates that sustainable financial performance begins with people, vision, and the courage to build for the long term.