The experience of a private sector manager who tried to bring to Transelectrica part of the lessons he had learnt in multinationals is bringing forward some of the biggest problems the executives that the Government, the World Bank and the IMF want to bring at the helm of large state-owned companies are likely to cope with.
The lack of motivation and employees’ mentality, the impossibility of taking swift restructuring steps because of trade union pressure, the interference of politics in decision-making, the rigid structures and the difficulty of persuading employees to work in teams are creating a “universe” of state-owned companies, different from the one of multinationals.
The lack of a technocratic government that should allow for major changes in the structures of national companies leads the former head of Transelectrica believe no private management system can be introduced soon.
In his opinion, the introduction of private management in state-owned companies with high losses will not bring an efficiency boost, as long as those private managers will not be able to implement tough restructuring measures involving layoffs or asset sales.
Baicusi says that the only state-owned company where a private management system may work is airliner Tarom, which works a lot with foreign partners.
What has made an executive who worked his entire life in the private sector, where the salary and bonus he got from Siemens in 2009 was worth EUR246,000 to go to a state-owned company where he did not earn more than EUR19,200 a year?
“It was not about the money. Being the president of a company that is called National Grid Operator means something professionally,” says Baicusi.
Would he return at the helm of Transelectrica? “I have no idea. Maybe I would, in a way, because there are a lot of things I haven’t managed to complete, but I would return only if a proper private management is secured, though the influence of politics will always be there”.