Alexandru Cociorvei, Managing Director Connect44 Romania.
New year, New opportunities
Now it’s that time of the year when you look at the last 12 months that just passed and take a glance at what’s coming. I think everyone agrees that 2020 was a difficult & challenging year for humanity overall. No one could foresee a global lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic and everything that rolled after that. Fortunately, the Telecom industry was not highly impacted, so we were able to continue our business plans while taking fast decisions and quickly adapting to the new situation we were in.
With everything that took place, I can say that for myself, our company, and my team, 2020 was a pleasantly surprising one. I’m grateful that we are all safe and sound, working from the comfort of our homes. Another thing I’m grateful for is that, even if we worked from home, the productivity was high, the attachment of the people in the company has not changed, we have not lost contact with each other. The existing projects, as well as new ones, went well due to the dedication and involvement of our colleagues.
Although 2020 was a challenging year, with many changes on all levels, we achieved our business objectives of financial growth, along with the goals of expanding the team. For 2021, we maintain our expectations high to have business growth supported by a team expansion of 50%, which means an increase from 207 people to over 300 by the end of this year. 2021 will bring new projects from abroad, but we also intend to develop our business on the local market, oriented to the Telecom industry, as well as other industries that could need our services.
Working from home will continue to be a reality in 2021. Even if I hope that at some point we will return to normality, most likely it will happen in the second half of the year.
According to the socio-economic context of Romania, with the increase of the vaccination rate, things will return to normal, but at a slow pace. We must have realistic expectations and avoid believing that things will change overnight. The Telecom industry will continue its trend of digital transformation and adaptation to new technologies, maybe this year more than ever.
Furthermore, this year plan on being even closer to the ABSL community. Because we want this year to be a good one for everyone, we need to work closely as a community in Romania. Connect44 is open to collaborations and involvement in the business environment. To grow stronger as a community, it’s always a good idea to have an exchange of experiences & ideas, but even to work together on focus groups on various commercial and legislative issues.
We’d like to thank the ABSL representatives for their support and for everything they do, keep it that way!