1. RoCoach is the leading company in Romania in terms of coaching. How has 2016 been for RoCoach so far? Would you say it is the best year in the company’s history?
2016 is a very good year for us. First of all because the Romanian economy is growing significantly, second of all because the organizational development processes are beginning to reach the maturity I have envisioned more than a decade ago. Also, the number of managers and management teams that need coaching is increasing. Being the pioneer of the Romanian coaching market allows me to have an overview on its growth, and we can definitely say that it is heading the right way, even if there is still a long road ahead for reaching the top of its potential.
We have the luck or maybe the luxury to have a very good year every year because we work with people and organizations that are one of a kind and the experience of diversity is the most important thing for a coaching practitioner.
2. What are the drivers for the coaching industry in Romania in 2016 and beyond?
In and beyond 2016, the coaching industry is driven mostly by the fact that increasingly more managers and organizations turn to coaching as a way of growing and developing their systems and quality. Furthermore, there are a lot of coaching schools in Romania and therefore, a lot of coaching graduates, because of which the competitiveness in this market will grow.
In the long run, what matters most in a business like coaching is what the client authentically desires. This is the biggest growth driver: the moment when people go from standard solutions to specific tailored programmes. This is the time in which one can speak of a grown-up business environment. And this is our vision for 2020, 2030.
3. What fuels the appetite for executive coaching in Romania? How do you convince the executives that coaching is not just an auxiliary tool, but a real need for companies?
The appetite for executive coaching in Romania grows due to two forces. First of all, the executives and HR managers realise that increasingly more of their colleagues or even themselves encounter different situations that cannot be solved through a directive or didactical approach. This is the decisive moment for beginning to work with a coach. Second of all, a trend for businessmen to work with an executive coach appeared a few years ago. More than this, we strongly believe no one actually needs coaching, but there are people that need to constantly achieve results connected to personal and professional self-improvement.
When in a company there are two, three people in key positions who realize that they need this commitment, the need exists and it is completely authentic.
Furthermore, I don’t think that coaching works in a transactional or push-sales approach. The client must be informed and aware of the available options and he should choose this option for his development. The clients we are working with specifically asked for a development solution which is extremely customized to their context, objectives and culture.
4. What has been your biggest success in 2016?
In 2016 we have a lot of very big successes corresponding to the types of clients we work with: executive & business coaching. When talking about business coaching, for the Romanian entrepreneurs we managed to co-create the future of a client-company that has achieved way more than the targets that were set in the beginning. We are talking about an increase from less than one million euros to over 3 million, turnover, in small and medium entrepreneurship.
In the corporate sector, the success that stands out is an extremely difficult CEO transition between two positions, each of them holding great responsibility. The transition ended with a great success several weeks ago.
5. According to your studies, how much – in terms of percentages – does a successful executive coaching experience improve the managers’ skills and efficiency?
In order to answer this question I have to say that the coaching incrementally used for statistically improving the abilities and efficiency is a secondary subject for us, here at RoCoach. We focus on transformational coaching that changes the entire professional horizon: the managerial skills, the executive presence and also the organizational efficiency. Usually, people come to us for building a new perspective, a perspective in which the skills, abilities and competences are viewed differently, in a new, more efficient way.
Getting back to the question, the percentages are high, even when talking about incremental coaching, there is a minimum of 50-60% improvements.
6. How expensive is it for a manager to reach his/ her full potential from the executive coaching point of view? From your experience, how fast is the return on investment?
Because RoCoach is the leading supplier of executive coaching services on the market, it is perceived to be expensive, but this perception is strongly correlated with the power and the impact of the client’s objectives. The ROI appears immediately after the first meeting, basically in no time.
7. Can you forecast a growing share of the coaching market for 2017? Please detail the fundamentals.
From our perspective, the coaching market will have a moderate growth in 2017, because of several reasons. The vast majority of corporations are already working with executive coaches, so the only growth that can come from this point of view are the new players entering the market, or the companies that need an organizational transformation.
I would associate the market growth with the local and entrepreneurial businesses, because this part of the market still remains unexplored.
