1.       

Q.

Let us introduce our distinguished guest to the readers the UNIDO Pharos portal news bulletin:

A.

I’m Valentin Cojanu, a university professor in international economics and business with the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest and consultant for GEA Strategy & Consulting SA in Bucharest. My area of interest covers problems of international development and competition such as competitive potential of economic growth or strategy and competitive advantage.

2.       

Q.

How you learned about UNIDO Pharos workshops and became interested in its participation?

A.

For good or bad, academic research is seldom assimilated by the business environment. The needs here are of a more technical nature like accounting skills, financial ratios, quality control procedures, production management. Dealing with theory-laden concepts like competitiveness is of little use for daily business decisions. Arriving at that point in my consultancy work, I began looking around for templates that could convey at once a theoretically sound concept of competitive advantage and a means of visualizing related progress in practice. This is what Pharos stands for.

3.       

Q.

Which new opportunities you may see after the Workshop in improving policy making with evidence based on regular benchmarking of SMEs and entrepreneurs capacity to manage business development, innovations and investments in your country?

A.

The Pharos tools may help the SMEs sector to rely more on analytical skills in improving their competitive advantage. The EU structural policy aimed at socio-economic development of its less developed areas is an important source of funds to support this programme. We have to find a way to connect the two, the source and the would-be beneficiaries.

4.       

Q.

What type of problems could be addressed with such tools as regional and national industrial modernization and capacity building programmes applying UNIDO methodology and ICT tools which you learned during your participation in the Workshop?

A.

The effectiveness of the Pharos tools may be especially visible in such areas as training programmes dedicated to the SME sector, competitive analysis within clusters, professional associations’ programmes of improving the competitive advantage of their members. On a case-by-case basis, the implementation is time-consuming and even a bit frustrating, as some international experiences prove it. 

5.       

Q.

What other the ways, tools and methods which may contribute to sustainable development of SME industries in your country?

A.

The EU structural funding is presently the more ambitious policy setting to improve the competitive standing of companies and industries.

6.       

Q.

What important insights did you developed after this workshop?

A.

In was good to see that the competitive analysis can be compressed and made accessible in a powerful, easy to handle piece of software. At the same time, it also became clear to me that the future success of this programme relies heavily on developing an international platform (database) of various country experiences of the kind, for example, International Trade Center provides for issues related to international markets.

7.       

Q.

Which issues should be introduced into future UNIDO Pharos workshops?

A.

To increase its effectiveness, Pharos should include a programming platform to allow benchmarking against competitors through an easy, handy manner. Had data collection about competition been not so difficult, Pharos could have been instead developed around such business yardsticks. Setting our own targets may simply not work in many company environments.