About every day elections – Article published in HotNews.ro

Elections, hot topic these days. Beyond the results of the European parliamentary elections or the referendum, it’s the frenzy that matters. Maybe it’s the desire for change, maybe it’s civic sense and the reflection of ideas, maybe it’s an exercise in power, in the antithesis between “we, the many, the people” and “they, the few and powerful who decide”.

How we choose our leaders, our career, our life partner, our business strategy, our lunch menu will impact our lives, those around us, to some extent, contributing to the success-failure balance we build daily.

So we have established that participation in decisions is important. We also say that decisions are made to achieve a goal, an objective (rational or emotional, but we are pursuing something). When we talk about goals, the terms “plans”, “measures” immediately line up in the mind and thoughts turn to the economic and business sphere, a sign that the opinion of someone with experience and training in this area is needed.

“How do you choose? Why do you choose? What do you choose? What happens after you choose?”, I asked Claudiu Aiftimiei, CEO of Systema.

“Let’s take them one by one. In the 11 years we’ve been on the market , due to the nature of our services, we’ve seen over 3,500 entrepreneurs and general managers, from all fields of activity, choose.”

Reporter: Have you found a template?

C.A., smiling: There are a lot of jokes with theory and practice: because it’s a painful antithesis. Theory offers solutions, at the level of guidance, of process. There is a rich literature on decision trees and resource allocation methods. But in practice, the premises of theory are not always found. And then there’s the time pressure, the degree of knowledge of the theory…

Reporter: Okay, but the template, the recipe…

C.A.: There is. The solution applied by those who run their companies well is based on the right decisions.

Reporter: How do you know a decision is right before you make it?

C.A.: You don’t. But you have a higher degree of confidence that it’s right if it’s based on real, sufficient, relevant information.

Reporter: It gets complicated.

C.A.: It isn’t. A successful business isn’t based on satisfied customers and that’s it. A successful business is based on customers who tell you what they want, what they think of your product and who you adapt to. Over time we’ve seen how challenging it is for businesses to get real and timely feedback.

Reporter: Have you also found a solution to support entrepreneurs?

C.A.: Yes, we have found it, we have tested it both with us and with several partners and we promote it with confidence: the Systema Insights customer satisfaction monitoring system.

The system has a physical component (the robot that displays a question and answer options) and a software, which collects and analyses the data and sends reports based on this information. A strength of the system is the much higher response rate that is achieved using this tool, somewhere between 15 and 30% (well above traditional solutions such as printed or electronic/telephone questionnaires) which means relevance of findings and cost efficiency.

Reporter: What would a manager need to do to really benefit from this tool?

C.A.: 3 things. First: ask the important and painful questions. Second: be consistent in asking for feedback. And the last one: make decisions, make choices based on the feedback.

Reporter: What does an important and painful question sound like?

C.A.: A real example: hospital asking publicly, through this device, if patients have given bribes…

Reporter: In Romania?

C.A.: In Romania. In Suceava. And it’s a state hospital, one of the biggest in the country. You should know that the “Sfântul Ioan cel Nou” Emergency Hospital in Suceava is the first in Romania to be officially certified on the ISO 37001:2016 standard – the anti-corruption management system, the first international standard with such an objective. Systema Insights equipment acts as a tool through which the management is permanently connected to patient feedback on this issue: within 5 minutes after a patient states that he/she had to give “attention”, the information reaches the hospital management. It’s something WOW: more efficient than that I don’t know how it could be done.

Reporter: How is the Systema Insights solution received in Romania?

C.A.: We at Systema are by definition courageous and optimistic. But even so, the market reaction has been overly favourable. And I’m not just talking about managers, who are trained to look for effective solutions, but also the public, customers, employees who use the equipment and express their opinion.

Reporter: Maybe it has to do with the revival of civic spirit, maybe it’s simply that people want to be heard. Either way, it’s a good thing. So the decision is not just the prerogative of the managers.

C.A.: No, of course not. But managers are more aware of their role. That’s why I really appreciate people who take their destiny into their own hands, as they say, and opt for professional development, for career changes…

Reporter: We know you’re a man of factual information ..

C.A.: I will be consistent with the brand… More than 5,400 people have passed through the hands of Systema’s experts who have completed vocational training courses, mostly for ISCIR and ANC accredited trades. Just as many people who have chosen to do more for their future. And we are grateful for the trust they have placed in us and are developing both the types of courses we offer and our reach, with the immediate aim of providing training services across the country.

Reporter: In your opinion, why do people choose Systema?

C.A.: You know, we are always looking at what our customers and employees think. Any feedback can be interpreted constructively. And the most common term we are associated with is professionalism, understood in terms of promptness, meeting commitments and customer focus.

Systema

Systema SRL has been representing the United Registrar of Systems Ltd. group in Romania for 11 years, with headquarters in the UK and offices in 36 countries, one of the largest certification bodies in the world. The main products and services are: ISO certification, accredited qualification courses, customer satisfaction monitoring systems.

Article published in HotNews.ro .