Daniela Micușan, General Manager at Majorel Romania. Majorel designs, delivers and differentiates customer experience on behalf of some of the world’s most respected companies. It provides classic customer communication as well as digital solutions such as social media and online communications, automated interaction and AI, analytics, self-service and other customer lifecycle solutions. In Romania, Majorel has more than 1200 employees with a strong footprint in Bucharest, Brasov, Cluj-Napoca and Sibiu.
How did you start your career? Which were your first steps? How did you envision your career?
I’ve had big dreams with my career path ever since I was a child. My family has a strong engineering background, and obviously they wanted to continue this tradition, but for their disappointment (at first) this didn’t happen. I’ve always seen myself as a people-person, and I trusted myself that this is the right path for me. I’ve started my career as a teacher, then as a purchasing expert, and then an amazing opportunity came along, to take an executive position in an international company that provided logistics services. It was a leap of faith from their side, because at that time, I didn’t have the necessary experience for this position, and a leap of faith from my side, to have the courage to say yes to all that responsibility. I envisioned myself in a leading role, when I finally reached there, I had no idea how much hard-work, involvement, understanding and open-mindness this position requires. Ever since, it’s been a learning process, you cannot stop from it, and you cannot do it without passion, love for the people and the strength to carry on, no matter the circumstances.
What were your key career moments (those that had an impact on your professional journey)?
Career-wise, having a great mentor has empowered me beyond words, and this opened a new stage in my experience. I had the chance to win a grant at an International Business Program Leadership that profoundly transformed my vision as a leader, making me more aware about what people really need and how to create the trust in order for them to follow. I was very lucky to share this program with my mentor, information and experiences there are the foundation of who I am today.
Also, another key-moment in my career was having the opportunity of proving my team seamless capabilities in implementing virtual solutions for a global project in Asia. Working on such a big project, requires tact, know-how and skills, and a lot of work, but the end-result was a complete success.
Moving to different cities can be seen as key-moments in my career. Constantly changing the environment, the people you work with, the shops where you usually buy coffee let’s say, have provided me with a certain flexibility and openness that have an important impact in my daily activities.
What is the best three most valuable career lessons you have learned?
I’ll be very short on this topic, because sometimes the best messages are best conveyed in the simplest ways:
- Your team is your mirror
- Lead by example
- The best view comes after the hardest climb
Why did you choose Business Service Industry? What were top 3 reasons for choosing Majorel?
The reason why I chose this industry is because of the dynamic environment and fast decision making process. I am a very active person and I don’t like to be bored, thus, I am always up for new challenges. At first, Majorel Romania caught my attention with the great client’s portfolio, I’ve always wanted to play in the big boys league, so Majorel is definitely there. After that, I started to look at the company’s values, vision and mission, these are extremely important for me, and I found there a great company culture with various initiatives for employees and a healthy communication. Also, being certificated with Top Employer Award, represented a very strong motivation to take the new role that has been created for Majorel in Romania.
What are your/your company’s plans for 2020?
We have very ambitious plans for 2020, expanding the clients’ portfolio, further developing some LOBs, creating new retention programs for our employees, boosting brand awareness, being more vocal on the market with the great initiatives that we plan to coordinate this year, making a real difference as an employer and as a partner.
What do you think would be the keywords of the year for managers in the Business Services industry? Automation? Cutting costs?
In a nutshell it would be: Efficiency, Performance and Flexibility.
Tell us a little bit about your private life. Tell us about your passions, family. What do you do to relax?
I like to think that I manage to create the perfect balance between my work and my personal life. So when I’m at work I give 100% there, but when I’m home, I’d like to be fully present there. I really enjoy reading, cooking, playing board games, having coffee with my friends, but recently I discovered a new passion that almost takes all my free time: nutrition. It’s been 2 years since I completely change my lifestyle, and this helped me to realize how complex is everything, and how balance is crucial in order to have a happy life.
If you were starting now your career, knowing the present and near future opportunities, what would you do? What career would you pursue?
Here I must be concise, because it is crystal clear for me that I’d follow the same path, over and over again.
What are the top 3 skills that you would develop?
As I said before, I’m always feeling in learning process, and this thing motivates me the most. But I’d definitely invest more time in boosting creativity, like accessing design or marketing fields, maybe working a little bit more on my personal branding, if time will allow. Moreover, project management is a hot topic for me, learning Scrum, or other innovative tools would be a plus.
What would you do and what would you avoid doing? – practical advice to young professionals.
I’d apply curiosity and roll up my sleeves whenever I’d have the possibility. Involvement, engagement, passion and desire are often more important than the experience itself. And I’d avoid declining ownership, you should always be responsible for your actions.