Experts recommend that a person save money, even 10 lei per month, but also refuse to buy things that are not absolutely necessary. For companies, look for alternative sources of funding (did you know there are companies that lease capital?) or seek partnerships with others to help you navigate the turbulence. These are the conclusions of the conference organized by HotNews in the BNR, with the participation of business and economic leaders.

Tudor Miheilescu, financial director of the eMag group: How to earn more? The get rich overnight model is not possible

First, I would encourage you to have a financial education section. I think this is a topic we should all take into consideration. Let’s not wait for the state or another entity to come and help us. I think on a micro level we can all contribute to this issue, said the CFO of eMag Group.

Tudor Mihailescu addressed 3 topics to keep in mind when we face a period of financial instability.

“The first task: how to earn more. And here, perhaps, the emphasis should be on patience. Some young people have grown up with some get-rich-overnight models and try to apply that to their careers before they invest. Why should I invest in, say, the stock market, in a company that gives me an 8% dividend? Is it better not to find bitcoins, something that promises 11,000%? Basically, this lack of patience sometimes comes at a cost,” says the financial director of the eMag group.

So, how do I earn more? In order to have something to invest in, I have to save first. And here, I think, we have a good opportunity to discuss it from a school level. Maybe even starting at the kindergarten level, where through games adapted to the level of children, they can learn why, if you have 10 candies, it is good to save one for bitter days

Then I would encourage the media to talk as much as possible about these topics related to how they save and invest

Laurian Lungu – Consilium Policy Advisors Group: Now you can find companies that rent your capital. It’s all about ingenuity

There is so much information out there today that people who are truly entrepreneurs are spoiled for choice. If your company is in a vulnerable position, it may look for a solution not necessarily in restructuring, but in refinancing.

Money in the markets. I attended several business meetings and was impressed by how innovative companies are in terms of access to capital.

Now on the market you can find companies that, for example, rent your capital. And who then charges you based on the movements of the working robot – how many times the robot moves and moves the part it’s working on. There are all kinds of financial innovations that keep the world moving forward.

Many of us may not yet be on the cutting edge of innovation, but the world is moving forward, and some entrepreneurs are reading, learning and participating in these changes. I am convinced of this

There is a lot of talk about financial education. But I wonder: how financially literate were the people at Uipath? They relied on great ingenuity. And on the exploitation of niches.

But the idea is that access to capital should be diversified. In Romania, we have mainly bank financing.

Banks finance most enterprises, although if you look at the number of companies that are financed through banks, it is very small.

This is a structural problem that we have had for decades. The idea is to diversify to have access to other types of financing. Now we have a foundation, we have a number of funds that come and look at Romania and have capital to invest in our country. For me, it’s just a matter of finding these funds and using them.

Andriy Chonka, Impetum Group: We must understand the myths in which we lived as a generation and as a country

Yes, I believe that first of all we need to understand the myths that we have lived in as a generation and as a country. We were taught that we were exceptional. You may remember that all over the TV we used to see maths and physics Olympians coming back from I don’t know where, and we all thought we were the Olympian generation.

Let’s not live with the idea that we are a generation of geniuses and highly gifted people. Now, when we analyze macroeconomic indicators, we realize that our economy is still extremely small. We can’t live up to our potential to make a real impact, and that makes us sad.

Instead of encouraging us to do some research and find out why this is happening and how to actually deal with the problems. And then I would say that the first change would be to take a lesson in humility, humility. As a generation of young managers, I believe we should take this lesson of humility to heart. To understand what sometimes we don’t really understand?

Let’s really understand that there are a lot of things that we don’t know, that we are the first generation because none of our parents think they did what we do, considering that since 1989 it’s been a very different society. And I think we need to talk about that. Friends, we are not as we see each other in the morning, each in the mirror.

And perhaps we should take a closer look at some patterns. And I’m referring to the model of Israel, which 10 years ago decided to lose a little money in a few tech startups to then radically transform itself. As a state and as an economy. Israelis today are the second Silicon Valley in the world. I have shown several times a chart with the level of amounts invested in Israeli startups and the exits that occurred after 10 years. This is something fabulous! They have effectively reoriented their entire economy.

Then I would look at the Polish model, which is much bolder. I spoke two weeks ago with the head of sovereign wealth funds. In Poland, there are 40 investment funds in startups, with public money, they are super-professionally managed by people from the private sector, whom we have no right to change for 3 years. There are 40 investment funds operating in Poland, and one billion on the market. Imagine the result in an ecosystem.

In Romania we have 2 investment funds that had 70 million euros, the money they spent. Our PNRR, which is supposed to manage this money provided by the Romanian state, but is managed by the European Investment Fund, is lagging behind. At all the events we hold with Romanian startups, we are attracted by funds from Bulgaria, funds from Poland, funds from everywhere. And here we are, 3 Romanian investment funds, and we see that our money from the previous funds has run out, and from the next ones it has not yet arrived.

The Israelis have a great program called IP Passport, where if you have a great idea, they fund startups anywhere in the world on one condition: you move the IP to them, to Israel. That’s what they care about: intellectual property!

For some reason, it seems to me that we, both as a generation and as a country, if you will, have few chances to score, and when we catch the ball, we score a beautiful own goal!

So instead of starting to teach other lessons, I would suggest that we first understand the situation we are in. With all the problems I talked about: educational, that we don’t know how to get together, that we don’t have capital, that some people come and pay us to actually work for them in lohn…

We fail to keep the added value in the country. We must understand reality exactly as it is. Because problem solving begins with awareness. And it seems to me that we still do not realize what problems we have. And so in the research we do, there is a difference between perception and reality. I strongly believe that such honest, transparent and down-to-earth discussions can result in extremely constructive solutions.

Florian Libokor, Chief Economist of BRD-GSG: “Everyone must understand that a buffer, a reserve of money must be created

I totally agree with the modesty.

What I have noticed at the level of consumer philosophy is that there is no distinction made between what I need and what I prefer. If our consumer, regardless of age, manages to distinguish between necessity and advantage, this is already a good step towards improving his financial knowledge. We all know very well that if a person has 100 lei, and 40 lei is the maximum amount he could borrow from the bank, then 40 lei is borrowed. He has no desire to save anything.

I make a parenthesis to remind you of the consumption model that has worked with us for a long time. Until a few years ago, when someone who worked on the street came home, he bought another car or another TV. His neighbors, seeing what he took, said: Well, I can’t take it? Come see how I can too! And in many cases they would go and borrow just to get a bigger TV, even though they had a normal one that worked just fine. This is the difference between necessity and preference.

After that, another question arises: how to divide the money? I don’t have a perfect recipe here, but I believe that everyone should understand that you need to make a buffer, a reserve of money. Both companies and banks, as well as the state.

I know, people will tell me it’s really hard to save, especially when you’re working for minimum wage. Agree, the minimum wage in our country is a wage you cannot live on. But, having overcome this, it is impossible not to manage to save 5 lei, or 10 lei, or 20 lei per month. Because this money adds up slowly. This save function should always be with us.

Mihai Kopachu, director. adj. Modeling Office of the BNR: I think we should be careful for 2023

I think we have to be careful in 2023. Because we may still have some upheavals of some magnitude. I’m not necessarily looking at the situation with China and Taiwan, but I’m looking at the situation with Iran, which you don’t know how it’s going to develop. Or to a possible deepening of the war in Ukraine.

From my point of view, I have to make decisions based on the worst case scenario I have in mind.

Jonuts Lianu, CEC Bank: Try to understand what creates value and for whom. You don’t need to act all the time, but you must always seek, understand

From my life experience and the work I’ve had, as well as what I’ve personally tried in the investment field, I would suggest as a strategy to focus on what adds value.

Try to understand what creates value and for whom. You don’t have to act all the time, but you always have to look, understand things as best you can, because after all, crises are opportunities, and it’s important to know when this opportunity arises, take it and give it up.

And the moment such a choice presents itself and you decide to accept it, do it with all your courage and move forward, because it also gives you the strength to hang in there for a year or two or three until it is proven that you have done the right choice.

Paul Carlanaru, CEO of Transilvania Insolvency Bank: “Let’s be more open when bringing in a partner, looking for alternative ways to raise capital

The next step we need to take is in the direction of understanding association as a way to grow a business.

What are we doing to keep growing? It is useful sometimes to ask ourselves this question and to be more open when bringing a partner to us, looking for alternative ways of raising investment capital, because financing yourself under certain conditions can be really difficult and difficult.

Many segments of our economy are extremely granular, and we have many small companies.

It is important that we eventually manage to form larger, stronger groups of companies that will be able to survive the difficult times. Two things seem important to me: knowing the mechanisms and understanding them. And the second is related to trust.

Now there is a lot of talk about the ability of companies to turn around, to respond to difficulties, on the one hand, and at the same time to embed in their DNA the idea that the step of tomorrow does not necessarily have to be the same as the step of today. Models are constantly changing.

N. Red: All statements of the participants were made on their own behalf, without in any way affecting the institutions with which they are associated