„Why were you so late?”, I am hassled as I reach the office at the 8th floor of an office building in Pipera. „Yes, I will tell them to put some signs, so they’ll know their way... We moved here recently, but, and I didn’t manage to”, corrects himself and reaches for hello. A landlord paying rent, surprising. „Well, we don’t build offices for ourselves, we are not that important in order to ... „ Ion Sturza defends himself, former Prime-Minister of the Republic of Moldova, former honorific consul of Kazakhstan, one of the key-persons, as he was called by the press of the time, in the transaction through which the Rompetrol Group was sold to the Kazak company KazMunaiGaz. „We are not big, but we are innovative!”, Sturza amuses himself.
And, even though before me I have a fine connoisseur of history, a truly political analyst –Ion Sturza was often solicited by important foreign press companies to comment the actions of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, for instance, a former general manager of an important oil company, the descendent of a family of Moldavian rulers, now the President of a former investment fund, the dialogue comes naturally , covered here and there by American words – view, summit, technologies, wrong, or regionalisms.
„In Cluj you can create a technological centre. I have an ambition –I told it also to the authorities. We are creating conditions so that Cluj can have not outsourcing companies, with primitive codes, call-centres or I don’t know what, but research-development companies. All our residents are companies creating products with added value. All of them”, he stresses. Among them, Siemens, that has just announced that it rents 3,000 sqm in Sturza’s technological park or Spherical Accelerator – a star-up accelerator, founded also by Sturza.
A WON BET
As the royal blooded entrepreneur says, the first par t of the investment, amounting EUR 10 million was made speculatively. „It was just a crazy thing of ours. It had to be demonstrated. Who could believe that everything would be ready in half a year and also rented! We risked with the fund’s money, in order to demonstrate that it can be done”, says the president of the Fribourg Capital fund. Practically, the invested money created the entire infrastructure, so during the following development steps, less money shall be spent, and historical buildings were restored, property of the old Libertatea furniture factory. „ They were built during the inter-war period and have a rare beauty. That combination between bricks and new, modern, engineered installations. There isn’t one office area not customized....”, insists Sturza.
„THE CHAIR METHOD”
And Sturza thinks that you cannot reach your objectives, unless you can visualize them. Therefore, he says, the image of the technological park in Cluj was designed during a walk with ... a chair. „I took my chair and started walking. I was looking, sitting and looking again. I was even imagining where the window will be and what we will see through it, what I would like to see if I had an office there. I walked with the chair through every halls, to see the view”, says the business man. „There, the key word if „park”. We have 1.5 ha of green areas, where we create the ecosystem, including that we founded the Spheris start-up accelerator, through which we encourage, including through preferential prices, for Romanian to come to the park. We also have a few candidates. This, together with the partnership with Cluj University, creates the ecosystem. People must permanently circulate, to meet, to take those accidental meetings where ideas are born. This was one of the things that impressed those from Siemens when they visited us. Siemens is a company that doesn’t take random decisions. After months of audit, they took the decision to come to us. This also validated our concept”, says the royal blooded entrepreneur. What big companies found at Parcul Tehnologic Libertatea? Areas that, besides complying with the quality standard, class A, are atypical as dimensions, with a sophisticated infrastructure, destined mainly to IT companies or research-development – weak currents, clime, dimensioning towards areas, with height, width, as well as floor surface, access on one side, also provided on the other, secured, common areas, terrace restaurants, garden, lake, gym, sport fields, biking lanes.
„Again, some will say that it was something extravagant for Cluj, but these details provided, in only a few months, the construction and lessees. It was our differentiation point”, shows Sturza.
LTPC, PHASE TWO
The first step wasn’t even finished, that Liberty Technology Park from Cluj is entering a new development state. Therefore, until the end of the year, 13,000 sqm more will be finished. „We are starting the works because we also have a pre-agreement for 3,500 sqm per level. There is no such thing in Romania. There are other companies wishing to have all these employees under the same roof, on one floor, under their eyes. They are all building up. But, again, we have another concept”, says Sturza.
Articol scris de Anca Doicin, redactor Sef Business Days Magazine
Face parte din generaţia de jurnalişti care îşi găsea subiectele pe teren. De altfel, nici acum, Anca spune că nu reuşeşte să scrie un articol din birou, cu o singură sursă. Are peste 18 ani de experienţă de presă, preponderent în media de business, dar şi legal. A făcut şi presă de cotidian – Bursă, şi săptămânal – Capital, de revista – Money Express, dar şi on-line – Avocatură.com. În perioada în care Anca a coordonat această publicaţie, a dezvoltat şi coordonat o echipa de 13 jurnalişti din ţară, Avocatură.com fiind singură ce reuşea să treacă de graniţele Capitalei. A fost implicată în proiecte, ce, la timpul lor, erau considerate inovative, cum au fost Capital Top 300 sau Capital Top 100 companii. La finele anului trecut, a fost coordonatorul echipei ce a realizat şi publicat primul număr în limba română al revistei Intelligent Life – o franciză aparţinând grupului The Economist. Nu crede în puterea inspiraţională a motto-urilor, ci în puterea comunicării.
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