Andreia Stanciu, Head of ACCA – South-Eastern Europe
- What was the most challenging thing your company, people, and you, personally, had to face in 2020?
2020 was THE “challenge year”, everything had changed: the way of working, the recruitment process within ACCA, the lack of human interaction, the uncertainty and the impossibility to make any kind of plans, not knowing what the next day will look like, moving everything online (which was a big change for us and for our community community, as we used to have a lot of business interactions), adapting 100% to work from home would be the top challenges I had to deal with last year.
- What pleasantly surprised you last year? / What are you grateful for?
Professionally, I am proud of the way ACCA responded to the crisis: we adapted extremely fast to the new way of working, we made a lot of supporting tools available, organised wellbeing sessions for our employees and we moved everything online in our continuous effort to support our community: from online events, seminars, conference (for our members and future members) to remote exams for our students; we launched a dedicated Covid-19 Hub with resources and assets on Covid-19 situation in order to help our members to manage the impact of Coronavirus on their personal and professional life.
I was impressed with all the dedication, the hard work, the collaboration and the out of the box thinking of the team members who found new ways to engage with our stakeholders: we organised technical webinars, business conferences with prestigious partners, a Regional CEE Virtual Careers Fair and we even hosted a virtual summer party for our members.
While none of us could have envisaged the scale and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the resilience we have built in ACCA’s operations over the course of our strategy to 2020 has been instrumental in helping us respond to this global crisis and the restrictions it has imposed.
https://annualreport.accaglobal.com/
- What are your plans and expectations for 2021?
Our strategy to 2025 is based on a clear vision to be #1 in developing the accountancy profession the world needs and how we will achieve this is detailed in our most recent annual report. Here, we explain how we will lead, create and deliver our strategy in the short, medium and long term. It also explains the capabilities we will need as an organisation to do this. For 2020/ 21 our plan focuses on:
- exam delivery and innovation: we want to ensure our exam delivery continues to evolve as the conditions become right for students to sit exams. That includes continuing to roll out computer-based exams at the Strategic Professional level, bringing the market with us as we do so. And to ensure that our students can continue to progress, we are accelerating our exploration of remote exam supervision.
- member and future member support and retention: our members and future members are at the heart of ACCA and supporting them through the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic consequences is an absolute priority. In these challenging times, we must be primed and ready to truly demonstrate the ongoing value of membership. If we truly understand and support our community, we will be able to retain them, create ACCA advocates for the future, and also deliver the trusted professional accountancy community the world needs.
- And financial sustainability: in these challenging circumstances, we will have a clear focus on costs and plan for a range of scenarios with associated mitigations.
- What do you foresee it will be different this year and what impact it will have on our industry/Romania/your company/your people?
I believe that slowly, with the arrival of the vaccine, some of the pressure on the sanitary system and the weight on the economy, in general, will be lifted. Surely, it is still early to make clear plans for the future (especially as I take a deeper look into the current situation), but at least we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel and start thinking about organising face to face events, to go to the office, planning our holidays and making plans for the future, when the situation will improves.
- What is your message for the ABSL community?
We are honoured to be part of such an outstanding business community and looking forward to create value added for all customers. These are challenging times, but we feel confident that as a company and community, we can get through this together.
- What could we do to grow stronger as a community?
Listen, adapt, learn, support.
- A message for ABSL or a suggestion.
Thank you for being a trustworthy partner for us! Keep up the great work you have being doing for the community especially during this past year. Be present and engage with our audience, develop projects and create opportunities for the community, continue to provide investment support and strengthen involvement in local communities.