Introduction ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………. 3 1…. [624278]

1
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………. 3
1. Conceptualization ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………. 5
1.1 Leadership and strategic leadership defined ………………………….. ………………………….. 5
1.2 Contrasting strategic leadership and strategic management: the solution for
„untying ‖ the Guardian k not ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. … 7
1.3 Theories of leadership – from Great Man T heory to transactional leadership ………. 10
1.4 Styles of leadership ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …. 13
1.5 Leadership competences ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………. 15
1.6 Strategic leadersh ip in an organisation ………………………….. ………………………….. ….. 17

2. A comparati ve approach to leadership and strate gic leadership culture between
USA and Romania ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………. 19
2.1 The XXIst century context for developing strategic leadership in business ……………… 20
2.1.1 Talking about USA ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. . 20
2.1.2. Romania‘s framework for strategic leadership ………………………….. ………………….. 21
2.2 S trategic leadership perception and influ encing factors ………………………….. ……………. 22
2.2.1 Influencing factors in USA ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………… 22
2.2.2. Influencing factors in R omania ………………………….. ………………………….. …………… 22
2.2.3. Focus on R omania‘s background ………………………….. ………………………….. ………… 23
2.3 Comparing leadership cultures of USA and R omania ………………………….. ………………. 24

3. A critical approach to strategic leadership ………………………….. …………………………. 28
3.1 Conceptual limitations of leadership theories and styles ………………………….. …………… 28
3.2. Reasons why strategic leaders fail – based on misconceptio n of strategic leadership
theories ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. .. 32

2
3.3 S trategic leadership in the future – global trends ………………………….. …………………….. 34

4. Strategic leadership from theory to practice ………………………….. ………………………….. . 38
4.1 Identifyin g the predominant leadership style in R omania ………………………….. ……… 38
4.1.1. Objective and hypothesis of the research ………………………….. ……………………… 38
4.1.2 Methodology of the research ………………………….. ………………………….. ………….. 38
4.1.3 The Blake & M outon questionn aire ………………………….. ………………………….. … 39
4.1.3. Researched population and size of sample ………………………….. …………………… 41
4.1.5. Realizing Blake & M outon managerial grid ………………………….. ………………… 53
4.2 Traking a s trategic leader‘s vision: SC Argus Optik SRL – 10 years of German
quality in Romania ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………….. 55
4.2.1. Creating a company ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………….. 56
4.2.2 The man behind the vision ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………. 57
4.2.3. Developing business environment ………………………….. ………………………….. …… 60
4.2.4. Dealing with competitors ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………….. 62
4.2.5 Creating eyewear collections ………………………….. ………………………….. …………. 63
4.2.6. The marketing process as a st rategic leader: ―playing in the big league‖ ………. 65
4.2.7. Counting the results ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………. 68
4.2.7 Creating vision for the future ………………………….. ………………………….. …………. 69

5. Conclusions and proposals ………………………….. ………………………….. ……………………. 71

Bibliography ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. …………………….. 75

Annexes ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. ………………………….. .. 77

3
INTRODUCTION

The world is changing and is changing fast. Globalization, technological innovation
and the growing number of linkages among people, events and activities made the today‘s
rhythm of change to be relentless. The people of t he world mix and mingle as never before,
forging new partnerships and creating more culturally diverse workplaces. Increasingly,
groups of companies collaborate to investigate new opportunities and exploit new markets.
Technology brings new surprises every day, some of that can shake up entire industries in a
matter of months.
Taking into co nsideration this global business environment it is naturally to assume
that all organizations desire financial stability and long -term viability. Every organization
wants a leader who encourages innovation in the face of changing environments and contexts
and, moreover, seeking innovation and change in moving forward. This ―superhero leader‖ is
called a strategic leader and what he does is called a strategic leadership p rocess. This process
nowadays implies the ability to envision an exciting future and create a commitment to
achieving that vision.
The reason why I have chosen this topic is because I believe that strategic leadership
process and the existence of a strate gic leader in a company are imperative for a healthy
business growth. I consider that strategic leaders inspire others in following their dreams and
this is why this kind of business people deserves to be highlighted.
This paper is focused on the way that people are leading businesses. I wanted to pull
out the main theoretical aspects regarding leadership in order to analyze the Romanian
leadership culture by comparison with SUA. Moreover this paper presets a critical approach
of the leadership concept emp hasizing on the limitations of the theoretical base of the concept.
The practical part of this paper is having two directions. For the first direction I
wanted to discover the ruling leadership style among Romanian private organizations because
I consider it related to the strategic leadership process. The second direction consists of a case
study realized inside the company SC Argus Optik SRL, located in Cluj -Napoca, which object
is selling medical equipment related to ophthalmology field and creating eye wear collections.
In fact, the case study was realized on the company‘s strate gic leader, Mr. Roland Bagossy
whose ultimate goal in business is to create, capture and distribute innovation in a manner that
is sustainable for Romanian business framework.

4

Absolvent: Niculescu F.A. Dana Andreea
Promoția: 2014

Programul de studii: BA

Conducător științific: Prof. dr. Bogdan Băcanu

Tema lucrării: Leadership strategic

Studiul de caz efectuat la: SC Argus Optik SRL,

Leadership -ul strategic reprezintă un stil de conducere al unei afaceri dorit în multe companii. Mai
mult decât atât, liderul strategic este persoana care oferă o viziune pentru viitor ce inspiră angajații și
ȋi motivează pentru a colabora eficient spre ȋndeplinirea misiunii și obiectivelor strategice ale firmei.
Această lucrare prezintă ȋn prima parte, o evidențiere a celor mai importante aspect teoretice legate de
conceptul de leadership și leadership strategic. Ȋn capitolele următoare se prezintă o analiză a culturii
leadership -ului ȋn România prin comparație cu SUA și o abordare critică a conceptului prin
identificarea limitărilor impuse de noțiunile teoretice. Capitolul patru al lucrării este format din două
direcții paralele, dar complementare, prin care se identifică și analizează, pe de o parte, stilul de lider
preponderant utilizat de executivii români din mediul privat, iar pe cealaltă parte se urmărește
evoluția unui lider strategic al unei companii românești.

Capitolul Nr. Nr. Nr. Nr. referințe

Nr. Denumire pagini figuri tabele bibliografice

1 Conceptualization 14 ½ 1 – 27

2 A comparativ e approach to leadership and
strate gic leadership culture between
Romania and USA 8 ½ – 1 6

3
A critical approach to strategic leadersh ip 10 – 3 13

4 Strategic leadership – from theory to
practice 33 23 1 3

5 Conclusion and proposals 4 – – –

Nr.
pagini
text Nr. figuri Nr. tabele Nr. referințe
bibliografice Anexe (nr.pag)

Sinteza lucrarii de
licenta

70 24 5 49 1 ½

5
1. CONCEPTUALIZATION

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the concept of strategic leadership. This
chapter begins with a conceptual defini tion and brief discussion of both leadership and
strategic leadership. Moving on, it is important to differentiate leadership and management.
Although over time people paid a lot of effort to bound the differences between the duties of a
manager and a lead er, in recent years has created a substantial confusion between the two
positions. Since the mid -1980‘s a growing body of leadership research has focused on
strategic leadership, in contrast to managerial and visionary leadership. Moreover, this chapter
presents a brief history of the theories that influenced during the time the leadership concept,
following a review of the most important leadership styles and competences. In the end of this
chapter it is presented the concept of strategic leadership in an organization and how exactly
this concept apply to real situations.

1.1 LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP DEFINED

Leadership is a process of influencing an organization (or group within an
organization) in its efforts towards achieving an aim or goa l.1 But this is not as simple as it
seems to be. There are many other diverse definitions of leadership. The theme of leadership
has been of attention for many hundreds of years, from the ancient Greek philosophers such
as Plato and Socrates to the conte mporary management authors. It is argued that in this
changing, global environment, leadership holds the answer not only to the success of
individuals and organisations, but also to sectors, regions and even nations.
Plato believed that only a select f ew with superior wisdom should be leaders. Aristotle
contended "From the moment of their birth, some are marked for subjugation and others for
command."2 Machiavelli felt that those princes who had the cunning and the ability to
organize power and knowl edge in the defense of the state should be followed. He believed
people are weak, fallible, gullible, and dishonest; therefore, manipulation is acceptable to
achieve one's goals when the end justifies the means.

1 Johnson, G., Whittington, R., Scholes, K. – Exploring strategy. Prantice Hall. 2011, p.471
2 www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_91 -96/921_footsteps_soc_plato.html

6
Stogdill (1948, p.70 -72) said also that "th ere are almost as many definitions of
leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept‖, while Drucker
(1999) sums up that: "The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers. To gain
followers requires influence but does n't exclude the lack of integrity in achieving this‖. Some
theorists believe that leadership is no different from the social influence processes occurring
among all members of a group and others believe that leadership is everything someone is
doing in ord er to lead effective.
Leadership is presumed to have an effect not just on individuals but also on teams, and
sometimes even on entire organizations. Leadership enables followers to be motivated and
perform, but also small teams to synergize, and organizat ions to accomplish goals through the
differentiated yet synchronized efforts of these individuals and teams. Organizational
effectiveness hinges on coordinated leadership being enacted from leaders residing within
multiple hierarchical levels, whose leader ship shapes crucial individual -, team -, and
organizational -level outcomes. Strategic leadership however involves influencing not merely
those elements internal to an organization but external as well. A large proportion of
leadership responsibilities that strategic leaders take on involve direct boundary management
between the external and internal environment. Moreover, the influence of strategic leadership
extends to the whole organization or its major segments. Strategic leaders are expected to
influence some, if not many, in their organizations that are not their direct reports. While the
term strategic leadership emerged as a responsibility of the top management team, some
researcher said that ―leaders at all levels of the organization should develop th is ability,
indicating the fact that strategic leadership can be exercised by first, middle and top -level
managers‖ (Hitt & Ireland, 2002, p.4). Ireland & Hitt (1999, p.52) argued that leaders must
provide group members with sufficient flexibility to ―take advantage of competitive
opportunities that develop rapidly in the new competitive landscape‖.
Strategic leadership basically means using strategy in the management of workers. The
main strategy usually employed in astrategic style of leadership is to mot ivate workers to take
the initiative to improve their productive input into the company. Strategy involves thinking
and planning. Leadership inspires others to take the appropriate action. Strategic leadership is
a management model that trains and encourag es employees to best prepare the company for
the future.
Strategic leaders are always looking ahead and analyzing the present in terms of
preparation for what may be ahead for the business. Awareness is a big part of
a strategic leadership style, but it mu st be followed up with well thought out

7
action. Strategicleaders are adaptable and growth -oriented. They take responsibility for
getting things done by training employees to think and act more effectively to achieve the best
result possible for the company .
Productivity is a main goal of strategic leadership. Yet, it's not about merely increasing
the amount of work done, but rather it'sstrategic productivity, or working harder for reasons
best for the company. Although the strategic style of leadership alwa ys keeps the best
interests of the business in mind, it's also appreciative of employees' unique talents and
efforts.
Strategic leaders use leadership techniques that empower and motivate rather
than bully employees. Another goal of strategic leadership is to create an environment in
which employees anticipate the company's needs in relation to their own job. Employees in a
workplace environment led by a strategic leader are encouraged to follow their own
initiative. Strategic leaders reward quality workers by promoting them and offering incentives
to do well for the company.
When it doesn't make sense to promote an employee or initiate other changes,
a strategic leader rethinks the situation rather than going through with a change. Strategy, or
careful plan ning, before making any change in the company is absolutely crucial in
astrategic style of leadership. The philosophy behind the practice of strategic leadership is to
use strategy in every act of decision making. A more thoughtful management approach can
lead to greater success in the workplace if many factors are considered before action is
implemented.
Barking out orders to staff is certainly not a style that's conducive to a strategic type
of leadership. A coaching style of leading others is very much a part of strategic leadership.
Strategic management realizes that employees have a potential that should be encouraged in a
respectful, yet motivating way. Strategic leaders look to retain good employees while also
forecasting how the company can run even more efficiently in the future.

1.2 CONTRASTING STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT: THE SOLUTION FOR UNTYING THE GUARDIAN KNOT

It has become fashionable over recent years to distinguish leadership from
management however increasing evidence indicates that this distinction may be misleading.

8
Yukl(2010 , p.65 ) stated that there are is continuing controversy on the differences
between management and leadership and that the degree of overlap of these two concepts is a
point of disagreement. Accord ing to Yukl (2010 , 65-70), some authors like Bennis and Nanus
or Zaleznik are of the opinion that leadership and management are qualitatively different and
that they are mutually exclusive. ―Other scholars like Bass(1990), Hickman (1990), Kotter
(1998), Mi ntzberg (1973) or Rost (1991) view leadership and management as different types
of processes, but do not assume that leaders and managers must necessarly be different types
of people. ‖3
Zalenznik (1977 , p.67 -78) began the trend of contrasting leadership an d management
by presenting an image of the leader as an artist, who uses creativity and intuition to navigate
his/her way through chaos, whilst the manager is seen as a problem solver dependent on
rationality and control. Since then the leadership literatu re has been littered with bold
statements contrasting the two. Bennis and Nanus (1985, p.21), for example, suggest that
managers ―do things right‖ whilst leaders do ―the right thing‖ and Bryman (1986, p.6) argues
that the leader is the catalyst focussed on strategy whilst the manager is the
operator/technician concerned with the ―here and -now of operational goal attainment‖.
Central to most of these distinctions is an orientation towards change. This concept is
well represented in the work of Ko tter (1990 , p.104) who concluded that ―management is
about coping with complexity‖ whilst ―leadership, by contrast, is about coping with change‖.
He proposed that good management brings about a degree of order and consistency to
organisational processes and goals, w hilst leadership is required for dynamic change.
The distinction of leadership from management as represented by Kotter and his
contemporaries clearly encourages a shift in emphasis from the relatively inflexible,
bureaucratic processes typified as ‗manage ment‘ to the more dynamic and strategic processes
classed as ‗leadership‘, yet even he concludes that both are equally necessary for the effective
running of an organisation: ―Leadership is different from management, but not for the reason
most people thi nk. Leadership isn't mystical and mysterious. It has nothing to do with having
charisma or other exotic personality traits. It's not the province of a chosen few. Nor is
leadership necessarily better than management or a replacement for it: rather, leaders hip and
management are two distinctive and complementary activities. Both are necessary for success
in an increasingly complex and volatile business environment.‖ (Kotter, 1990, p.103)

3 Yukl, G. – Leadership in organizations (7th ed.)., NJ Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, 2010, p.67

9
Despite the popular appeal of a distinction between leadership and mana gement,
however, there is some doubt as to whether they are really quite as separate as this in practice.
Firstly there is increasing resistance to the way in which such analyses tend to denigrate
management as something rather boring and uninspiring. Rost (1991), professor of leadership,
for example, highlights the need for consistency and predictability in many aspects of
management and leadership behavior and concludes that ―down with management and up
with leadership is a bad idea‖4.
Thus the leader mu st ensure that systems and structures remain in place that offer
workers a sense of security and balance, without which it would be hard to maintain levels of
motivation, commitment, trust and psychological wellbeing. Secondly, much research
evidence impli es that, far from being separate, the practices described as ‗management‘ and
‗leadership‘ are integral parts of the same job. ―From detailed observations of what managers
do, Mintzberg (1973, 1975) identified 10 key roles, of which one was ‗leadership‘. H e
concluded that far from being separate and distinct from management, leadership is just one
dimension of a multifaceted management role5.‖
Much of the difficulty and confusion that arises from contrasting leadership and
management is the manner in which they are often mapped to different individuals. Thus, we
talk of ‗managers‘ and ‗leaders‘ as if they were different (and to a large extent incompatible)
people – we consider leaders as dynamic, charismatic individuals with the ability to inspire
others, wh ilst managers are seen as bureaucrats who just focus on the task in hand. Such a
view, however, does not coincide well with the lived experience of being a manager. People
are generally recruited into ‗management‘, rather than ‗leadership‘, positions and a re expected
to complete a multitude of tasks ranging from day -today planning and implementation, to
longer -term strategic thinking. None of these are done in isolation, and throughout, it is
essential to work alongside other people – to motivate and inspir e them, but also to know
when to relinquish the lead and take a back seat.
―Most of us have become so enamored of ‗leadership‘ that ‗management‘ has been
pushed into the background. Nobody aspires to being a good manager anymore; everybody
wants to be a gr eat leader. But the separation of management from leadership is dangerous.
Just as management without leadership encourages an uninspired style, which deadens

4 Bolden, R. – What is leadership? Case study. University of Exeter. Exeter, 2004, p. 8
5 Bolden, R. – What is leadership? Case study. Universi ty of Exeter. Exeter, 2004, p. 7

10
activities, leadership without management encourages a disconnected style, which promotes
hubris. And we all know the destructive power of hubris in organizations.‖6 (Gosling, 2011)
Leadership is not better than management, nor is it a replacement for it. Leadership
and management complement each other and expertise in both is required in order for
organizations to effectively implement strategy. In contemporary business environment,
organizations need strong leaders as well as strong managers in order to accomplish optimum
effectiveness. Organizations need leaders to challenge the status quo, to creat e visions of the
future and to inspire members of organizations to want to achieve these visions. In turn,
competent managers are required to formulate detailed plans, create efficient organizational
structures and to oversee the day -to-day operations requ ired to control or evaluate the
achiev ement of the formulated plans.

1.3 THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP – FROM GREAT MAN THEORY TO
TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP

A review of the leadership literature reveals an evolving series of 'schools of thought'
from ―Great Man‖ and ―Trait‖ theories to ―Transformational‖ leadership . Whilst early
theories tend to focus upon the characteristics and behaviours of successful leaders, later
theories begin to consider the role of followers and the contextual nature of leadership.7
 Great man theories. This theory is based on the belief that leaders are extraordinary
people, born with innate qualities, destined to lead by nature. The utilization of the
term 'man' was made by purpose since until the latter part of the twentieth century
leadership was thought of as a concept which is primarily male, military and Western.
This first approach led to the next school of Trait Theories.
 Trait theories – The lists of traits or qualities associated with leadership exist in
abundance and continue t o be produced. They draw on virtually all the adjectives in
the dictionary which describe some positive or virtuous human attribute, from
ambition to zest for life.
 Behaviourist Theories – These concentrate on what leaders actually do rather than on
their qualities. Different patterns of behaviour are observed and categorised as 'styles

6 Bolden R , Hawkins B , Gosl ing J , Taylor S – Exploring leadership. Oxford. 2011, p 25
7 Bolden, R., Gosling, J., Marturano, A. ,Dennison, P – A review of leadership and competency frameworks.
Center for Creative Leadership.2003

11
of leadership'. This area has probably attracted most attention from practising
managers.
 Situational Leadership – This approach sees leadership as specific to the situation in
which it is being exercised. For example, whilst some situations may require an
autocratic style, others may need a more participative approach. It also proposes that
there may be differences in required leadership styles at different levels in the sam e
organization.
 Contingency Theory – This is a refinement of the situational viewpoint and focuses on
identifying the situational variables which best predict the most appropriate or
effective leadership style to fit the particular circumstances.
 Transacti onal Theory – This approach emphasises the importance of the relationship
between leader and followers, focusing on the mutual benefits derived from a form of
'contract' through which the leader delivers such things as rewards or recognition in
return for the commitment or loyalty of the followers.
 Transformational Theory – The central concept here is change and the role of
leadership in envisioning and implementing the transformation of organisational
performance.

Each of these theories takes a rather in dividualistic perspective of the leader, although
a school of thought gaining increasing recognition is that of ―dispersed‖ leadership. This
approach, with its foundations in sociology, psychology and politics rather than management
science, views leadersh ip as a process that is diffuse throughout an organisation rather than
lying solely with the formally designated ‗leader‘. The emphasis thus shifts from developing
‗leaders‘ to developing ‗leaderful‘ organisations with a collective responsibility for
leade rship.
In developing leadership styles and theories have been considered the trait and
behavior of the leader. „Burns (1978) and Bass (1985) wrote about transactional and
transformational leadership styles. Transformational leadership is a process in whi ch ―leaders
and followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation‖ (Burns, 1978)
and ―is about change, innovation and entrepreneurship‖ (Tichy and Devanna, 1986). Bass
(1985) developed on Burns‘s research, differentiating more clearly between the two styles of
leadership and including a relationship of the type supervisor subordinate within the
definition. Bass (1985) also brought a third type of leadership to the table, the laissez -faire

12
leadership. ‖8 Transactional leadership implies that the leader ―works within the framework of
self-interests of his or her constituency, whereas the transformational leader moves to ch ange
the network‖ (Bass, 2010, p.76 ).
The full range leadership theory comprises the three typologies of leadership beh avior
(transformational, transactional and non -transactional laissez -faire) represented by nine
distinct factors: five transformational (inspirational motivation: charisma, idealized influence
attributed, idealized influence behavior, intellectual stimulat ion, individualized consideration),
three transactional (contingent reward, management -by-exception active, management -by-
exception passive) and one laissez -faire. Transformational and transactional leadership are
viewed by different authors as either comp eting or complementary. Studies have shown that
the transformational leadership styles is more effective than the transactional style and is
positively correlated to the performance of business (Benjamin, 2008 , p.216 ).
„The interaction between leaders and their subordinates or followers contribute to
determining the success of a team in a hierarchical organization (Kocher et al., 2009). There
are two main leadership styles describing how leaders exercise their authority: democratic
leadership (leaders want to obtain consensus among followers and value their input) and
authoritarian or autocratic leadership (leaders seek out and consider only minimum input from
their followers and consult with them less). The participative style is regarded as the middle
way between these two leadership styles. As one moves away from the autocratic side and
approaches the democratic one, leaders become more and more friendlier and followers fear
them less, moving from a subordinate relationship towards a consultancy relationsh ip. Bass
and Avolio (1994) consider 9 leadership factors: five transformational leadership factors,
three transactional leadership factors and one non -leadership or l aissez -faire leadership
factor.‖9
The leadership theories were developed as to explain the nature and consequences of
leadership. Biological genetic theories that imply that leaders are born that way and it‘s in
their nature emphasize that when it comes to nature and nurture, the nature aspect is more
important and has a more important contribu tion. In the great man theories, history is shaped
by great men and their leadership or their capacity to lead masses of people. For these leaders,
character and personality traits played a key role. The traits theories capitalized on the great
man theory by highlighting specific qualities of leaders, not found in non -leaders . More recent

8 Bolden R , Hawkins B , Gosling J , Taylor S – Explorin g leadership. Oxford. 2011, p 124
9 Bolden R , Hawkins B , Gosling J , Taylor S – Exploring leadership. Oxford. 2011, p. 125

13

research carried out by „Bennis (2003) advances four leadership traits: the ability to engage
others through a shared vision, to have a distinctive, clear voice among cons tituents, to
possess a strong moral code and pursue change on a a constant basis. Situational theories, on
the other hand, argue that leadership arises because the situation demands it (shaped by time,
circumstances and place) and not because of some inher ent traits of the leader (Stodgill,
1975). Contin gency theories (Fiedler, 1975) uphold the ideea that the effectiveness of
leadership is based on the leadership style (whether task oriented or relations oriented) and the
favorableness of the situation, of the environmen t in which the leader operates.‖10

1.4 STYLES OF LEADERSHIP

Leadership style plays an important role in shaping the behavior and attitudes of
employees in an organization. In recent years the study of leadership has drawn attention due
to its role in the failure or success of an organization. Several studies have focused on
investigating the role of leadership in developed countries. However, relatively little is known
about the prevailing leadership styles in developing countries. Despite al l the theories there is
no best style of strategic leadership. Moreover there is evidence that succesful strategic
leaders are able to adjust their style of leadership to the context they face11. The next section
attempts to enhance the understanding of di fferent leadership styles as introduced by Blake
and Mouton(1964)12.

Fig. 1.1 Blake & Mouton managerial grid

10 Bolden R , Hawkins B , Gosling J , Taylor S – Exploring leadership. Oxford. 2011, p 125
11 People Leadership and Subordinate Influen ce: Journal of Organizat ional Behaviour, vol 9, No 4, p. 359-366.
12 http://www.12manage.com/methods_blake_mouton_managerial_grid.html

14
The Blake and Mouton leadership grid as shown in Figure 1 uses two axes: concern
for people which is plotted on the X axis and concern fo r production or task plotted along the
Y axis.
Both of these axes have a range from 0 to 9. The notion that just two dimensions can
describe managerial behavior has the attraction of simplicity. Blake and Mouton came up with
the following five leadership s tyles after studying the behavior of those in managerial
positions:
a. Authoritarian or ―Produce or Perish‖ (score 9 on production, and 1 on people scale).
b. Team leader (9 on production, 9 on people scale)
c. Country Club leader ( 1 on production, 9 on p eople scale)
d. Impoverished leader ( 1 on production, 1 on people scale)
e. Middle -of-the-road leader (5 on production, 5 on people scale)
Authoritarian Leader (high on task, low on relationship)
People who get this rating are mainly task oriented and are hard on their workers
(autocratic).There is little or no allowance for cooperation or collaboration. Heavily task
oriented leaders display these characteristics; they are head strong on schedules; they expect
people to do what they are told without questi on or debate, when something goes wrong they
tend to focus on who to blame rather than concentrate on exactly what is wrong and how to
prevent it; they show intolerant behaviour, which is contrary to norms, and they do not like
people who show dissent, so it is difficult for the subordinates to contribute or develop.
Team Leader (high on task, high on relationship)
This type of person leads by positive example and endeavors to foster a team
environment in which all team members can reach their highest poten tial, both as team
members and as people. They encourage the team to reach team goals as effectively as
possible, while also working tirelessly to strengthen the bonds among the various members.
They normally form and lead some of the most productive teams .
Country Club leader (low on task, high on relationship)
As the name suggests, this person uses predominantly reward power to maintain
discipline and to encourage the team to accomplish its goals. Conversely, they are almost
incapable of employing punitiv e, coercive and legitimized powers. This inability results from
the fear that using such powers could jeopardize relationships with the other team members,
and thus would render them unpopular in their respective domains.

15
Impoverished leader (low on task, low on relationship)
This is a leader who uses a ―delegate and disappear‖ management style. Since they are
not committed to either task accomplishment or relationship maintenance; they essentially
allow their team to do whatever it wishes and prefer to de tach themselves from the team
process by allowing the team to suffer from a series of power struggles and failures.
Middle -of-the-road (equal concern for task, equal concern for people)
―Such a leader is a compromiser, a politician who wants t o maintain t he status quo.
Avolio (2002) has identified this criteria of leadership as being that of a transactional
leadership style, enforcing the notion that this type of leader perform up to the minimum
expected level of performance, which is required in order to justify their stay or tenure in the
organization. ‖13
Leadership styles depend upon conditions, which are typical of certain organizations.
Furthermore, they also depend upon the situations in which people are performing in their
respective organizations. Th ese include working conditions, pay scales, fringe benefits,
hygiene conditions, etc.
According to Blake & Mouton, although most managers admire and see themselves as
operationalizing a team management style, this style is not easily achievable in practice . There
have been instances in the past, where leaders have attained the team management styles in
their respective organizations, but were unable to sustain them over the long run.
Blake and Mouton‘s Managerial Grid (1964) still serves as the basis for re search in the
areas of leadership studies because the pivotal point in leadership studies is the determination
of leadership styles, and the focus is often on determining to what extent a leader adjusts his
style to changing situations and circumstances.
The managerial grid is widely used to gauge leadership effectiveness and it has been
adopted extensively by several major industrial organizations throughout the world in order to
improve interpersonal effectiveness and develop leadership skills.

1.5 LEAD ERSHIP COMPETENCES

Despite the fact that trait and behavioural theories of leadership have proved
unsuccessful in isolating a definitive set of leader characteristics, the competency approach to
leadership development and assessment is becoming increasing ly widespread. Leadership

13 http://www.12manage.com/methods_blake_mouton_managerial_grid.html

16
standards, qualities and/or competency frameworks now form the basis of the management
development and review processes within most large organisations .
„From a review of 26 leadership and management frameworks in use throughout t he
public and private sectors Bolden et al. (2003) concluded that a somewhat moderated version
of transformational leadership tends to be promoted in most frameworks. ‖14 Whilst many go
beyond simple definitions of behaviours, to consider the cognitive, affe ctive and inter –
personal qualities of leaders, the role of followers is usually only acknowledged in a rather
simplistic, unidirectional manner. Leadership, therefore, is conceived as a set of values,
qualities and behaviours exhibited by the leader that e ncourage the participation,
development, and commitment of followers. It is remarkable, however, how few of the
frameworks reviewed (only 8 out of 26) referred to the leader‘s ability to ‗listen‘ and none
mentioned the word ‗follow‘ (following, followers, etc.). The leader (as post holder) is thus
promoted as the source of leadership.
He/she is seen to act as an energiser, catalyst and visionary equipped with a set of
abilities (communication, problemsolving, people management, decision making, etc.) that
can be applied across a diverse range of situations and contexts. Whilst contingency and
situational leadership factors may be considered, they are not generally viewed as barriers to
an individuals‘ ability to lead under different circumstances (they simpl y need to apply a
different combination of skills).
Fewer than half of the frameworks reviewed referred directly to the leaders‘ ability to
respond and adapt his/her style to different circumstances. In addition to ‗soft‘ skills, the
leader is also expecte d to display excellent information processing, project management,
customer service and delivery skills, along with proven business and political acumen. They
build partnerships, walk the talk, show incredible drive and enthusiasm, and get things done.
Furthermore, the leader demonstrates innovation, creativity and thinks ‗outside the box‘. They
are entrepreneurs who identify opportunities – they like to be challenged and they‘re prepared
to take risks. Of interest, too, is the emphasis on the importance of qualities such as honesty,
integrity, empathy, trust and valuing diversity. The leader is expected to show a true concern
for people that is drawn from a deep level of selfawareness, personal reflection and emotional
intelligence.

14 Bolden, R., Gosling, J., Marturano, A. ,Dennison, P – A review of leadership and competency frameworks.
Center for Creative Leadership.2003 , p. 13

17
1.6 STRATEGIC LEADERSH IP IN AN ORGANISATION

Strategic leadership is a process, not a position. Strategy represents the pattern of
choices intended to assure an organization‘s enduring success. Strategic leadership is about
transforming an organization through its vision and v alues, culture and climate, and structure
and systems as well as through its strategy. In doing so, managers and executives can
establish greater clarity, make stronger connections and expand their leadership repertoire —
and contribute to their organizati on‘s well -being. Center of Creative Leadership (CCL), a
worldwide organisation whose mission is to advance the understanding, practice and
development of leadership for benefits of the society, explored the question of how strategic
leadership different fr om good operational leadership, which tipically involves a specific
focus and the marhalling of resources to get a certain job done. Through this research and
work nearly a thousand executives, they have found that strategic leadership requires different
skills and perspectives than operational leadership because it is:
 broad in scope – the strategic leader sees the organisation as interdependent and
interconnnected so that actions and decisions in one part of the organisation are taken
mindful of their imp act on other parts.
 future focused – the strategic leader operates with a far -reaching timetable, integrating
short -term results and a long -term focus
 change oriented – the strategic leader is often a driver of organizational change. The
impact of his or h er work ripples throughout the organization.
Leading strategically involves discovering the few key things an organization needs to
do well and can do well. Equally important is creating the conditions needed to act
collectively on the implications of th at discovery. To do this, organizations need to
understand strategy as a learning process. The purpose of strategic leadership, then, is to drive
organizations to become continual learning engines.
Strategic leaders are those who continually develop and d iscover strategy and hold it
in an ongoing state of formulation, implementation, reassessment and revision. Making
strategy a learning process has five primary elements:
• Assess where the company is. Strategic leadership requires a clear understanding of the
competitive situation facing the organization. This involves collecting and interpreting
information about the organization‘s external environment as well as its internal reality.

18
• Understand the identity of the organisation and which is the best dir ection to follow.
Strategic leaders need to understand the spoken and unspoken culture of the organization and
its leadership. Examining the vision, mission and values is crucial. Strategic leaders must
imagine the company ten or twenty years in the future , then look at the distance and direction
they must travel to succeed.
• Learn how to get there. This is the nuts and bolts of strategic leadership – how a strategic
leader draw on insight, information and vision to determine priorities and formulate the
strategy. Business strategy should be based on an understanding of key strategic drivers: the
relatively few but critical determinants of long -term success for a particular organization in a
particular industry. It‘s also important to develop a leadership strategy for addressing the
human and organizational capabilities that are essential to implementing the business strategy
effectively.
• Make the journey. How does strategy translate into action? What are the tactics to take to
implement strategy? How d oes strategy seep into the lifeblood of the organization? These are
questions that a strategic leader must respond.
• Checking the progress. Strategic leadership requires a continuing assessment of the
organization‘s effectiveness. This involves looking at indicators of current performance
compared with expected performance. Strategic leaderst must realize adequate investments to
assure the organization‘s sustainable competitive advantage in the future.
While the CEO is ultimately responsible for deciding u pon a path for the organization,
many people play an important role in their organizations‘ strategic leadership. Strategy is an
ongoing discovery process involving both top -down and bottom -up elements. When strategy
creation is limited to off -site meeti ngs by top executives, organizations may miss critical
information and opportunities. Individuals throughout the organization whose decisions have
an impact beyond their own functional areas have many opportunities to act as strategic
leaders. For example , a purchasing manager can anticipate the impact on engineering and
manufacturing of switching a supplier. Or a human resource director can develop systems to
encourage cooperation across business units. Even those who are on the front line, interacting
with the customer, are in a unique position to scan the environment, spottrends or concerns
and make sense of that information.
In addition, strategic leadership is not just for individuals; often it is a collaborative,
team activity. Strategic leadership t eams (SLTs) are those whose collective work has strategic
implications for a particular business unit, product line, service area, functional area, division

19
or company. The skills of strategic thinking, acting and influencing are what ―drive‖ strategy
as a learning process in organizations. In other words, they are the how of strategic leadership.
• Strategic thinking involves having a vision of what the organization can and should become
and offering new ways of understanding the challenges and opportunit ies before it.
• Strategic acting is the coordinated effort required for an organization to implement insights
and understanding derived from effective strategic thinking.
• Strategic influencing is about creating conditions of clarity, commitment and sy nergy
throughout the organization.
While leaders distinguish between the three elements of how to go about leading
strategically, it is important to appreciate the dynamic way that strategic thinking, acting and
influencing interact with each other. They are not separate, distinct or linear processes. For
example, strategic leaders often need to draw upon a group of diverse stakeholders to address
a complex organizational challenge. That involves making sense together, not just within one
leader‘s own head ; it involves thinking and influencing simultaneously. Or, consider that
often there‘s limited time for deep or prolonged strategic thinking before an action is required
– so strategic thinking and strateg ic acting occur simultaneously.

2. A COMPARATIVE APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP AND
STRATEGIC LE ADERSHIP CULTURE BETWEEN USA AND
ROMANIA

Leadership is a complex areas of human behaviour about which much has been
written. It is no wonder that there are a number of competing theories of leadership. As you
read in the previous chapter, a review of the leadership literature quickly reveals hundreds of
definitions. The awareness of the complexity relationship, leader -follower situation is critical.
The leader is a person who occupies a position of responsibility in c oordinating the activities
of the group members in their task of attaining a common goal. Leaders are those who give
credibility to their words by their actions. Leadership is not only about leaders, but also about
followers and it differentiates depending on each country‘s culture. For a better understanding
of the strategic leadership first we must understand the factors that influence leadership
generally. I have chosen to realize a comparative approach between Romania and USA‘s
culture of leadership. Leadership is culture -specific.Unfortunately, this theme has been unduly

20
overshadowed by the bias, which is often an American one, toward the pursuit of a universal
model of leadership.
Romanian leadership processe is a rich source to study. This part of the thesis will help
better understanding over Romanian leadership mentalities with theories in the conceptual
framework of Romanian history, culture, political and social environment which explain
Romanians leadership prefferences. Also this part of the thes is, will highlight the differencies
between USA and Romania when it comes to leadership perceptions and mentalities.

2.1 THE XXI st CENTURY CONTEXT FOR DEVELOPING STRATEGIC
LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS

2.1.1. Talking about USA
United States of America represents a giant economic power globally which embrace
the ideology of capitalism. The concept of leadership even it‘s not born in USA, we can say
that is almost „made in United States‖, being well known and used since the XIX century,
after the end of Industrial Revolution. Nowadays, the concept of leadership is has deep roots
in the USA. A lot of american scholars published their writtins about leadership and strategic
leadership, representing a major contribution to overall leadership litterature.
Osborn et al. (2002) argue that there is a need for „a radical change in perspective‖
beyond the traditional way of looking at leadership because „…the context in which leaders
operate is both radically different and diverse. The world of traditional bureau cracy exists but
only one of many contexts‖. The Western world has entered a post – capitalist society in
which capitalists and proletarians are replaced by knowledge workers and service workers
(Drucker, 1993). This change in contextual frame bears conseq uences for leadership theory
and practice. American scholars state in their books three periods of economic evolution: the
Agricultural Wave, which lasted from 8000 B.C. to the mid -eighteenth century, the Industrial
Wave, which lasted until the late twenti eth century and finally the Information Wave which
began in the 1960s and will last for many decades to come. The first wave was driven by
physical labor, the second wave by machines and blue -collar workers and the third wave by
information technology and knowledge workers. It is clearly that in the contemoporary wave
organizations face different kinds of challenges than during previous waves and as a result the
requirements for strategic leadership are different. In the 21st century the business landscape
turned very competitive, due to trends of globalization and technology, while the external

21
environment drew more and more attention. Unlike previuos factors of prodction such as land
and labor that are subject to decreasing returns, knowledge is not bounde d. Knowledge
operates in termns of increasing returns. In orher words, using knowledge generates more
knowledge. Accesing more knowledge could mean a different style of strategic leadership,
based more on people and their power. The Center for Creative Lea dership (CCL) found in
the study named ―Changing nature of leadership‖ that challenges facing leaders today are
becoming so complex and difficult to solve that collective leadership has become a necessity.
The Center for Creative Leadership suggests that i n order to meet the complex challenges
being face by organizations today and into the near future, connected leadership is
increasingly important.

2.1.2. Romania’s framework for strategic leadership
While worldwide changes are taking place, Romania in it s intentions to alling to
succesfull economies, has to face different challenges. Romania has to realize that effective
leaders are critical for a succesful economy. My intentions for this part of the thesis are a
better understanding of leadership issues which I belive represents the key for Romania ‘s
future business environment development.
In Romania, leadership concept is a relatively new idea for the business environment.
If in USA we can affirm that the concept of leadership it has a strong history, in Romania
things look a little different. In fact, the leadership concept in Romania exploded after the
European Integration in 2007. It is important to mention that since 1989 Romania is following
a ―continuous transition period‖ and is trying to find s olutions to grow and align to other
developed European countries. If the Americans know about Romanians only generic things,
for Romanians USA means ―living the American dream‖. Being cursed with the obsession for
Americans, Romanian people feel the need t o borrow any idea, concept or business approach.
Borrowing and putting into practice what other nations do, is perfectly fine, but Romanians
have a different approach. They adapt an idea in their own, personalized way, causing a
diversity of concepts and o pinions.

22
2.2 STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP PERCEPTION AND INFLUENCING
FACTORS

2.2.1 Influencing factors in USA
The business world in USA is changing with phenomenal speed. Workplace dynamics
have shifted from stability and predictability to change and u ncertainty, after the economical
crisis begun. The business market changed from work performance to temporariness, from
standard work patterns to flexible patterns, from valuing loyalty to valuing performance and
skills and from linear career growth to mul tiple careers. These shifts have been triggered by
changing workforce demographics, growth of the knowledge economy, globalization,
digitalization and the advent of the social web, the culture of connectivity and the evolution of
a participatory society. E ven though that those times when the CEO was the superhero are
gone, there are still some people blessed with the capability for command and influence,
having an unique mix of skill, ambition, vision and charisma. Allan Mulally, the ex -CEO
from Ford Motors is one kind of a ―superhero CEO‖ and I will analyze his behavior and
strategic thinking in the next points of this chapter. Strategic leadership in USA is seen as a
powerful engine for changing mentalities and influence behaviors. The Americans are
influe nced by the marketing strategies, they are very nationalistic when it comes to their own
brands and pay a lot of attention when it comes to spending their money. During my research
on strategic leadership in USA, I come to a single conclusion: any American brand can revive
with the help of a good strategic leadership from a CEO because the Americans will always
prefer their own products despite other products, being proud of their cultural diversity. In
present, USA is experiencing the best level of leaders hip development based on the
collaborative relationships. Leaders recognize that critical business relationships could not be
controlled by formal systems but required a dense web of interpersonal connections with
various groups and departments to accompli sh a shared purpose.

2.2.2. Influencing factors in R omania
In order to have a clearer image over today‘s Romanian leadership it is important to
acknowledge the influences of political, economical and cultural factors over the leadership
process. Romania‘ s greatest historical curse is that it is settled in a land of inevitable
domination and permanent interference of contradictory internationally political streams.

23
Like many Eastern Europe countries, Romania has made a huge effort to introduce an
entirely new socioeconomic system based on private enterprise. Unfortunately, this
transformation begins from an extraordinary network of monopolized industries under state
control. Protected from significant competition by their monopoly position and guaranteed
government financial support, many of those state -owned companies were inefficient.
The economic system under communist regime was the command economy where the
production of goods and services were all planned by the government for the good of society.
While the objectives of the command economy were to mobilize economic resources for the
public good, just the opposite occurred.
A major exercise in restructuring and liberalization of economy was undertaken from
1989 onwards. Romania developed a market econ omy where production was determined by
the interaction of supply and demand. Confusion in the legal system has deep roots, as
Radulescu -Motru was writing at the beginning of the nineteen -century: “In Romanian’s
mentality things can’t be redressed without a law. Every one of us has as supreme ambition
the desire of making a law. No one knows how to manage his own activity, but still, everyone
wants to make a law in order to direct everybody’s activity.”
Petre Tutea, philosopher and specialist in economic pro blems stressed the importance
of individual freedom and initiative, pointing out the potential that lies in all people. As
people began to experience freedom, the autocratic leadership style began to lose power. Still,
the authoritarian style was well pres erved in some systems and especially in state -owned
enterprises. The concept of culture, which has become an essential factor in understanding
different economic and business environments, impacts leadership behavior.

2.2.3. Focus on R omania’s background
For a better understanding of the differences between Romania and USA when talking
about leadership and healthy business environment I have to explain first the causes of
Romania‘s diversity. The diversity of concepts in Romania can be explained through t he
different kind of occupations that Romanian people had to bear during their history: Russian
influence especially in the eastern part of the country, German influences in Bucovina due to
the Austro -Hungarian occupation, Ottoman occupation with influence s that can be seen in the
southern part of the country and Hungarian influences in the western part. The Romanians
share an illustrious 1900 year -old history, over which time they have developed a strong
cultural identity and a distinct set of common valu es. This culture is a powerful point of

24
reference for the way many Romanians view themselves. Romanian history was not smooth;
it was under different cultural influences and under a permanent political and economic
pressure from outside as well as from ins ide the country. Part of the Romanian history it is
characterized by Ottoman occupation, Russian empire influence, Austro -Hungarian Empire
pressure and Latin zone recognition. All these influences create a local psychology having as
main characteristics co mplex and causal understanding, capacity of improving and finding
passenger solutions, creativity and family care mentality.
Romanians see their history as a continuous process, disrupted but never entirely
interrupted by foreign occupation. They value pa st experience highly and look backwards for
inspiration before taking future actions. They cherish certainty, family and religious values. In
fact, Romanians have always shown as religious people, their attitude towards life
characterized by the idea that God has established their life path and they cannot do anything
better besides God‘s design for them. They easily fall in this pessimistic attitude in which
one‘s failure is motivated by the saying ―It was God‘s will‖. Fatalism‘s view is surrounding
Romani ans when they don‘t succeed in their purposes, when their plans fail or even when
they lose a soccer game. It can also be observed that in the period after 1989 there are some
people and their number is increasing which are holding a viewpoint closer to t he master -of-
destiny one.

2.3 COMPARING LEADERSHIP CULTURES OF USA AND ROMANIA

A major issue in present international business environment is the connection between
leadership and the corporate culture. Usually when leadership or strategic leadership is
analized the culture should be take into consideration. I suggest that culture is a critical
variable in the strategy process and so it should be examined together with the leadership
process. Cultural dimensions affect all organizazations no matter we tal k about the strategic
leader or other types of leadership or just ordinary employees. A combination of high
individual scores along with high masculinity scores tend to result in higly competitive
organizational climates for instance. On the other hand, ef fective partnership between the
strategic leaders and co -workers implies commnunication, coordination, relational
commitment, trust and time to develop expectations. Strategic leaders have to built trust and
strong relationship of they hope for having succ es in realizing their business with other
cultures, where relations are critical.

25
As I say in the previous chapter, business don‘t fail, but leaders do. A lot of causes can
be fiind when it comes to a failure of a leader: poor communication, workplace fru strations
for the co -workers and the numer can be infinite. However, the culture of the organization,
although it is an important elemnent in the leading context is often missed. Leadership
development and organizational culture are two complementary conc epts; developing both is
essential for having succes. Ussually succesfull strategic leaders such as Allan Mullaly from
Ford or Carlos Goshn from Renault incorporate a cultural learning curve along with
experience and efficiency curvers into their thinkig. Effective strategy implementation beyond
a country borders, for example, requires more than simply gathering recipes for dealing with
various country business practices. The USA business environment properly understood the
importance of culture in the lead ership development, but Romania has a lot of more work to
do. Most of the biggest companies in Romania are multinationals and they are receiving
indications from the headquarter of the company located outside the border. However
improving cultural dimensio ns it will have a major influence on leadership process.
In this 21 -st century large corporations will increasingly operate outside specific
national identity without reference to national or geographic limitations.Worldwide
competition within markets for ces strategic independencies and encourages parterships
amongst business people of diverse cultural heritage. In the future especially for Romanian
leaders it will be necessary to develop a better leading technique that is beyond present
cultural distincti ons. This will require a better understanding of the process of cross -cultural
development for both strategic leaders and organizational leaders or managers. When
considering economies such as Romania‘s the mail concern of the transnational leaders is the
diverse cultural dimensions within other countries. Therefore, implementing a strategy and
lifting organizational functions are far more complex that postulated by the Americans
techniques based upon Western cultural dimensions and experience.
The followi ng comparison is the result of some research that I undertook with people
that had experience of travelling and working in USA (especially collegues and friends) and
felt the differencees between the culture of leadership in Romania and USA. This compariso n
focused on leadership cultures from the two countries is based on some Hofstede (2005 ,
p.136 ) and Hall‘s (1976 , p.93 ) cultural dim ensions.

26

ROMANIANS AMERICANS
Power distance 15
-relatively high level of formalism in
relatioship and communication;
-high bureaucracy;
-negative implication for foreign direct
investment and international joint -venture;
-depend on conncections to establish and
maintain business relations;
Uncertainty avoidance16
-less tolerance and less flexibility in dealing
with differe nt opinions and ideas from it is
known;
-a greater belief in experts of any kind;
Masculinity/Feminity dimensions
-going for walfare and happiness;
-more traditional and more discriminating;
Long/Short -term orientation
-undecided, middle -of-the road leader ship
style;
-there is no concern for the future
-family, friends and connections are more
important than goals;
-a too traditional approach which slows the
business process;
High/Low context dimension Power distance
-low power distance scores;
-organizations are more flexible;
-individuals are seen as part of an
interconected social web whose focus is to
correct shortcomings;
-individual performance is ap preciate;
Uncertainty avoidance
-need for clarity
-explicit style
Masculinity/Feminity dimensions
-going for performance and success
-assertive
-less discriminating
Long/Short -term orientation
-reciprocal favours
-short -term oriented
-do not usually subord inate individual goals
for a noble purpose;
-very pragmatic;
-achieving tasks and meeting goals at the
expense of family, friends and partners;
-a concern for quick results may undermine
relationships;
High/Low context dimension

15 Some of Hofstede‘s(2005) cultural dimensions: Power distance – the extend to which a society accepts the
unequal distribution of power within its institution s; Masculinity/ feminity dimension – m – associated with
earnings, recognition, opportunities for advancement and distinct gender roles; f – associated with strategy,
democracy; Uncertainty avoidance – denotes a preference for stability, order and predict ability; Long/short term
orientation.
16 One of Hall‘s (1976) cultural dimensions/factors: High context; in a high -context culture, there are many
contextual elements that help people to understand the rules. As a result, much is taken for granted. This can be
very confusing for person who does not understand the 'unwritten rules' of the culture. Low context; in a low –
context culture, very little is taken for granted. Whilst this means that more explanation is needed, it also means
there is less chance of mi sunderstanding particularly when visitors are present.

27
-many covert and implicit messages
-using metaphor and reading between the
lines
-high-context culture
-many overt and explicit me ssages that are
simple and clear
-rather low context culture;

Cultural dimensions affect all organizations, managers, co -workers and even strategic
leaders. Generally speaking the greater power distance and uncertainty avoidance scores, the
greater the p reference for centralized hierarchical organizations and large scale production
facilities, which appear to support firms pursuing especially cost leadership strategies. A
relatively high long -term orientation suggests a cultural preference for continuing within
hierarchical organizations. Culture may be a behavioral determinant which affects the
capability of international joint venture partners to work together cooperatively. It is more and
more obvious that international joint venture longevity decreases with the cultural distances
between partners.
Although I have used some Hofstede and Hall‘s dimensions of culture applying them
on a Western and on an Eastern management model, it seems that this kind of management
model transferability might be misleadin g sometimes. Even when the theory appears to be
valuable, it is often inaccurate because of the numerous layers of cultural dimensions that
confound managers, leaders and strategic leaders in global operations. The findings presented
here reveal, among oth er things, that the Western management paradigm and its derivative
practices are not exactly transferable to the cultures of Eastern Europe, at least not to
Romanian culture. This why usually the concept of leadership is misunderstood in Romania
and the co ncept of strategic leadership is barely inexistent. Nevertheless, the presented
comparison confirms, what many authors have said about culture, management and leadership
namely that cultural dimensions have an important influence on developing the guidelin es for
improving the multinational business strategy.

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3. A CRITICAL APPROACH TO STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP

Discussions about leadership, organizational behavior, strategic leadership and CEO‘s
personality in order to obtain success in business can be very hard to understand for a lot of
strategic practicians. This chapter aims to highlight the problems faced by managers because
of the barrowing of uncertain terms, often incomprehensible, discussed by the greatest
scholars of leadership. This misunderstood ―made in USA bo rrowings‖ like professor Băcanu
(2014) named in one of his books , can repre sent a major source of failures. Following the
present context for developing a business idea, the gap between theory and practice seems to
be deeper than anything an d the scientific language is often confusing. Strategic leadership is
―the wanted hidden treasure‖ in any company. Like I mentioned in the previous chapters, a lot
of managers are willing to be leaders, or a lot of managers think about themselves that they
are leaders, even though they are not even close to being one. In fact, in Romania the concept
of manager or leader beats the functionality area and bases more on the social impact in the
community. This chapter will bring a new approach – a critical one – on strategic leadership
which can be useful for a better understanding of the concept.

3.1 CONCEPTUAL LIMITATIONS OF LEADERSHIP THEORIES AND
STYLES

A lot of scholars write about strategic leadership benefits but less consideration is
given to the nega tive impacts of that ―culture‖ of leadership that promotes this concept as the
answer for any business problems. Only few scholars wrote about negative impact of strategic
leadership. One of those who had the ability to criticize and highlight the limitati ons of
leadership theories was Gary Yukl (2010) whose studies combined with Bogdan
Băcanu (2014) different approach of strategic leadership conducted to this part of the thesis.
There are a lot of examples like the big corporate scandals such as the case o f Andrew
Fastow from Enron(the chief financial officer who executed six -years prison for financial
crimes) in which the personal ambition and style of the executives conducted to extremely
negative consequences for their organizations. If the executives tu rn ―bad‖ and they work in a
selfish way for their personal interests and force their followers to act in the same manner,
then the leadership is having a negative effect.

29
The transactional leadership theory, the situational leadership theory and the
trans formational leadership theory which are most common and used theories all provides a
model for efficient ruling of a business. Even though transactional leadership is one the most
widespread and used in most of the companies, it has also its ―cons‖. If thi s theory works in
most of the cases and an assertive leader will find this approach suitable for his way of ruling
the business, he will be able to see that he only creates great followers and he will cut their
growth as future leaders. People will get use d just to execute things that the leader told them
to do and they will stop thinking ―out -of-the-box‖. The negative part of this leadership theory
is that it not encourages original thinking and imagination. Productivity level will be
maintained but innova tive thinking will not rise. Transactional leadership kills the creative
instinct of the followers and creates ―compliant‖ workers.
When talking about transformational leadership which is a more humane theory
compared to transactional theory, it is known that this style inspires people. Summarizing, this
theory state that the vision of a man can transform his followers in order to achieve together
the objectives of the firm. But, this theory is totally based on the skills of the leader in order to
inspire and conduct the team to put their best in. There are few strategic leaders who have the
necessary force of character and abilities to do this.
Situational leadership theory says that neither a transactional leadership model, nor a
transformational model w ill obtain results in all situations that a company may face. This
theory state that a leader must be flexible and adapt his strategy in a certain condition. Also,
like the other two well -known theories, this theory it has its negative part. If a leader
constantly changes his strategies with time he will find very difficult to implement new
strategies and he won‘t be able to follow his vision. Also, changing strategies permanently
will affect the team: they will be off the scent and they won‘t know how to r eact in an
efficient manner.
The main issue of the shadow side of the leadership is that scholar try to predict and
take correctly into consideration the psychological factors involved in the strategic leadership
process, but sometimes they forget that e ach individual is unique, as Băcanu (2014, p. 129)
says ― Much of management theorists have psycho -sociology initial lineup. A comparative
look on executive level management practice, especially in large organizations shows that
only a minor proportion of managers have such a preparat ion‖.
Some writers proposed that leadership could be ―an alienating social myth‖ that is
producing more negative effects than positive ones. These authors (Gemmil and Oakley,
1992) believe that leadership deskills employees and places excessive dependency on the

30
leader, rather than empowering organizations. ―When pain is coupled with an inordinate,
widespread, and pervasive sense of helplessness, social myths about the need for great leaders
and magical leadership emerge from the primarily unconscious colle ctive feeling that it would
take a miracle or messiah to alleviate or ameliorate this painful form of existence‖ (Gemmill
and Oakley, 1992). ‖17
Also, a lot of organizations adopt the charismatic and inspirational leadership.
Problems can occur even in this style of leadership because over -idealizing the leader; the
workforce is probably to deskill themselves from their own way of seeing things. No author
sustains the dependence on the leader. Most of the strategic leadership scholars promote the
idea of sust aining employees and encourage their participation in the leading process.
Conger (1990, p.44 -45) explains his concerns about the dark side of the leadership, but
from the leader‘s perspective. He argues that there are three main fields in which strategic
leaders can become displeased and lose touch with reality. First of these fields is strategic
vision. A strong vision can represent a major advantage for a company but if the leader is
ruled only by the strength of this vision and by personnel ambition he would become churlish
in accepting or even listening to other opinions. Such a situation could be explained with the
fact that the leader fails to detect important market changes or the resources required to
achieve the vision.
Using other words, the le ader may become blind sighted searching only information that
supports his own vision and ignoring other problems.
This situation may become worse when other people within the organization fail to
challenge the leader‘s vision, either due to fear of reper cussions, or overdependence and trust
in the leader‘s judgment .
“Others in the organization, who tend to become dependent on a visionary leader, may
perpetuate the problem through their own actions. They may idealize their leader excessively
and thus ignor e negative aspects and exaggerate the good qualities. As a result, they may
carry out their leader’s orders unquestioningly – and leaders may in certain circumstances
encourage such behavior because of their needs to dominate and be admired” (Conger, 1990,
p. 407). ”18
A second way in which strategic leaders can lose touch with reality is as a result of
their poor communication and formal management techniques. It is undoubtedly true that

17 Organizational studies, edited by Warwik Organizational Behaviour Staff, NY, 2001, p. 499
18 Bolden R , Hawkins B , Gosling J , Taylor S – Exploring leadership. Oxford. 2011, p 156

31
effective communication is a key leadership skill; however it is also o ne that is handy to
abuse. In order to make his or her vision more engaging, a leader may be tempted to distort
the information that they convey – selectively presenting only those aspects that enhance their
message. Whilst this may serve to deceive follow ers (either intentionally or unintentionally)
there is evidence to indicate that it may ultimately begin to delude the presenter as well. This
is particularly likely where positive responses are received from the audience, which reinforce
and confirm the l eader‘s argument.
The third issue presented by ―Conger (1990) that may undermine a leader‘s
effectiveness are management practices that become liabilities. Whilst unconventional
behavior may commonly be associated with charismatic and visionary leaders, it may well
give rise to difficulties in the organization that are hard to overcome. ‖19 In particular,
problems may arise with managing upward and sideways, relationships with subordinates, a
lack of attention to administrative detail and implementation and f ailure to plan for
succession. Thus, the leader‘s need for dominance may sour relationships with colleagues and
subordinates, limit the development of future leaders, and engender an action -orientated
culture that fails to take sufficient account of everyd ay detail.
Coming back to charismatic leaders they are in many cases narcissist and driven by a
need for recognition, power and self -promotion. Such leaders tend to express a clear vision
and are capable of inspiring followers through their charisma and co mmunication skills. On
the negative side, they are often sensitive to criticism, emotive, they are poor listeners, and
they lack empathy and maintain a distance when it comes to mentoring and development,
being in the same way intensely competitive. In the se cases, the blind desire of followers to be
lead can be just as harmful as the blind ambition of the leader.
It is important for the organizations to avoid these kinds of leaders and to repair the
problems induced by these one. Also, constantly checks a nd controls can be helpful in order
to minimize the potential negative impact of narcissism. Organizations can reconsider the
importance that they place on designated leaders in resolving their challenges. This will lead
to a greater sense of determination , sense of competence, feeling of community, sense of
enjoyment and sense of meaning.
Responsible strategic leadership requires a deep sense of self and community while
valuing diversity, ethics, the individual and the collective is the core responsibilit y. To
conclude this part, Băcanu (2014, p. 129) said ― A strategy practician that occurs in most cases

19 19 Bolden, R. – Wha t is leadership? Case study. Universi ty of Exeter. Exeter, 2004, p. 15

32
on economic -technical branch has the same dilemma as a consumer in Somalia, first being in
front of a psycho -sociology library and the second one shopping in an American hipermark et.
What should the manager choose? Schein, Barney or…and would be a long list of famous
names in the field of organizational culture and leadership!‖.
So, leadership literature models must be wise chosen in order to produce the desired
effect.

3.2. REA SONS WHY STRATEGIC LEADERS FAIL – BASED ON
MISCONCEPTION OF STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP THEORY

According to proffesor Bolden (2003 ) from Brisol Business School, in this climate of
change, leadership is viewed as the key to organizational success. Although the co re qualities
of leaders may remain constant, the manner and mix in which they are exhibited needs to
become more fluid and matched to the context.
We hear a lot in the media exemples of businesses that fail. But the maim question
remains if this approach i s correct to take into consideration or there is something else.
Usually, CEO ‘s are trying to find excuses, justifications and explanations for explaining their
failure, but after stripping away all this ―fluff‖ (expression used by Rumelt for highlighting a
lot of needless words) probably remains the fact that businesses don‘t fain, leaders do.
In most of cases, a lack of character will cause failure. A leader must attract his team
with his character and leading style. An authoritarian style will do nothin g but installing fear
in his employees and the work efficiency will be at a high level as long as he will inspire this
feeling, but never as good as accepted. Leaders must create trust, confidence and create
loyalty, not pushing away his team.
A lack of v ision is also a cause for fail. If the CEO is not able to create and
communicate his vision it will be his responsibility for a poor leadership style. Moreover, the
vision must be in alignment with the company values and objectives in order to be effective .
An executive must create a powerful brand with the help of his leading style. A poor
brand generally means that the business has failed. In most of the cases, executives don‘t
understand their purpose in the company and they often see themselves more as a taskmaster
than a leader. Because of a misunderstanding of concepts leaders allow the brand to erode and
fail to deliver the brand promises to customers.

33
Probably leaders do really have good ideas to implement, but they experience a lack of
execution. The execution is elementary for a business success. Entrepreneurs or CEO‘s who
don‘t focus on developing their talent and necessary resources in order to predict the risks of
their strategy or to exploit the biggest opportunities for the company will be de stined for
failure.
A slight strategy reveals a week leadership style. Strategies must be very well studied
in order to be effective. Not every good idea can be a real success for the company. Leaders
must not forget that consulting their team is essent ially for implementing a new concept.
Leaders must be adaptive and correlate their leading style with the company‘s framework.
A poor capital management will definitely cause a leader failure. Raising, deploying
and managing a business capital is the res ponsibility of a strategic leader. Therefore if the
strategic leader conducts the business without consideration for capital constraints then the
failure is the CEO‘s responsibility. Also there will be severe consequences if the executive
uses the capital through irresponsible acts or for personal needs.
A poor strategic leader will always blame his management team for failure to execute
his business strategy. But in fact, the leader is the only one who takes the blame because he
wasn‘t able to choose his t eam wisely and, moreover, to communicate them the strategy steps.
As an example, Allan Mullaly, the ex -CEO of Ford Motor Company, when he accepted his
position inside the company, he didn‘t fire a single member of his management team. He just
implemented a strong strategy that would cause a natural demission of the incapable
managers.
A lack of sales is also a leadership problem. The strategic leader must take care of
strategy, pricing, positioning, branding, distribution or any other parts of sales produc tivity. A
lack of revenue, in fact, is not an employee‘s problem, is a leadership of the company‘s
problem.
A toxic culture background of the leader will affect the productivity and the success of
the company in a negative manner. Leaders who adopt a boss y and arrogant style without any
strong professional base will conduct the company to failure.
Leaders are able to create the culture of innovation witch is mandatory for having
success. Leaders who can‘t maintain the company aligned with the market reque sts and trends
and adopt a conservative style will result in losing a lot of market share. A good strategic
leader will always want to improve and the company through change and innovation.

34
Choosing a wrong market for delivering the company‘s products wil l cause failure. In
fact, this is probably the first step in order to lead efficiently. If a company leadership doesn‘t
correctly identify the best market, then it won‘t be no leadership concept.
In many cases CEO‘s strongest willing is to dominate a mar ket, but this is not
essentially for having a positive turnover. Also, it‘s not a rule that top of the pyramid
businesses will never fail. Each and every company, medium, small or large, can experience
in a moment of time loosing which in most of the cases results because of a poor
understanding of competition and the lack of ability to compete.
In conclusion, businesses don‘t fail, but leaders do. If it was an easy job to rule a
business, inspire team and take efficient decisions, everyone would do it. A s a matter of fact,
it can be seen all over the world examples of companies that failed because of a poor
leadership.

3.3 STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP IN THE FUTURE – GLOBAL TRENDS

According to Fulmer (2012 p. 137 ), the following issues represent strategic le adership
problems of present and future leaders:
• Competition is coming from unpredictable fields. Leadership theoreticians highlight some
expected behaviors, but because the rules of the business game are changing with revival of
competition, current str ategic leaders represent what the business needed in the past and not
the present or in the future. So leaders must be more predictible and must anticipate the
changes in the market.
• The talent pipeline often do not provide innate talents of leaders so that in the future might
be a lack of competent people to lead big businesses.
• The organisation‘s expansion goals outstrip the amount of internal talent needed to support
them.
• Globalisation and increasing technological demands make the strategic lea der‘s job more
difficult than ever.
• Problems with strategic direction, organisational behavior and employee commitment and
loyalty will continue to exist even in the future.
• Human resources and those responsible for leadership development will feel a n increased
pressure to demonstrate value, particularly in terms of return on investment for leadership
development, and other education and training programes.

35
• Leadership development initiatives are not integrated with business needs, and
consequently , are of questionable value to internal customers.
So, strategic leaders must be prepared for an even rapidly changing business
environement.
If in 2003 Bolden and Gosling stated that the key leadership for the next ten years are
integrity and moral coura ge, self -awareness and humility, empathy and emotional
engagement, transparency and openness, clarity of vision, adaptability and flexibility, energy
and resilience, respect and trust, knowledge and expertise and delivering results, nowadays, in
2014 -2015 things became different. The business environment changed. It is more complex,
volatile and unpredictable. Also, the skills needed for strategic leadership have changed.
Nowadays more complex and adaptive thinking abilities are needed for a better performa nce.
Center for Creative Leadership in partnership with Harvard University have published a study
that highlights the major future global trends for strategic leadership. Having witnessed so
many changes over the past decade, the fact that the strategic leadership approach has
changed too is not surprising. In this study they predict four trends for the future of strategic
leadership:
1. More focus on vertical development
Since now the focus was on horizontal development (competencies) and very little
time o n vertical development (developmental stages). The two methods are quite
different. Horizontal development can be ―transmitted‖ from an expert, but vertical
development must be earned (for oneself). Using other words, horizontal development
is about transf erring information to the leader and vertical development is about
transformation of the leader.
2. Transfer of greater developmental ownership to the individual
People, in general, ―upgrade‖ them when they feel responsible for their own progress.
The current trend of development encourages people to believe that they have to
permanently invest in their preparation in order to be a successful strategic leader.
3. Greater focus on collective rather than individual leadership
Strategic leadership development has c ome to a point of being too individually
focused in a society where people attribute the success of a company to the charisma
of the leader. In the next future, leadership is expected to be a collective process. We
can say that business environment will fa ce a ―democratization‖ of strategic
leadership.

36
4. Much greater focus on innovation in leadership development methods
There are no exiting models in order to develop an efficient collective leadership.
Instead of a theory, model or style for leading change, an era of innovation will be
needed in those organizations which embrace the idea of leadership. Those
organizations that will adopt the change and innovation will resist on the market.

In the next future, the focus will be on the concept of ―shared lea dership‖ rather than
on individual leadership. CEO‘s must consider the best way to help leadership flourish in their
organizations. Leadership spread throughout a network of people is more likely to flourish
when certain ―conditions ―support it, including: open flows of information, flexible
hierarchies, distributed resources, distributed decision -making and loosening of centralized
controls.
Moreover, according to Center of Creative Leadership, another several trends will
have a major role in the future f or understanding and practice strategic leadership and
strategic leadership development. This future trends represents, in different ways, the critical
role changing contexts that will play in strategic leadership development.
1. Leadership competencies w ill still matter, but will have a different approach.
2. Globalization/internationalization of leadership concepts, constructs, and development
methods will be necessary for a productive business environment.
3. The role of technology will be exploited at a maximum level.
4. The new business environment will have an increasing interest in the integrity and
character of leaders. Only the best and talented ones will be chosen for leading companies.
5. Because of the economic changes it will be a high pressu re to demonstrate return on
investment.
6. It will appear new ways of thinking about the nature of leadership and leadership
development and the concept of ―shared leadership‖ it will be mostly adopted.

Another research conducted by The Conference Board Association based on 645 respondents
from middle executives and above, worldwide located, highlights the future changes and
perceptions about most strategic leadership competences. The following tables sustain their
research.

37
Table 3.1 – Most important strategic leadership competences now

Source: The Conference Board, inc
Table 3.2. – Most important strategic leadership compete nces currently being developed

Table 3 .3 – Most important strategic leadership competences over the next 5 years

As the tables show, leading change, retaining and developing talent and a global
thinking/mind -set are top competencies desired by companies today and in the next five years,
worldwide. As a comparison with the leading competences stated as future trends in 2003

38
Bolden and Gosling, humility, dedication and fairness were reported as the least important
competencies across all regions and time.
To conclude, I just want to highlight the fact that in such a rapidly changing world,
being a close -minded leader will not help. A good strategic leader will always be interested in
developing new ideas, innovation and preserving the company‘s mission and values in order
to deliver the best products and services to the final customer. A good leader will always be
there for his company and team, even when he is not.
4. STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

4.1 IDENTIFYING LEADERSHIP PREDOMINANT STYLE IN ROMANIA
4.1.1. Objective and hypothesis of the research
Having done already a literature review of both leadership and strategic leadership
concepts, an analyze of leadership culture using a comparative approach between Romania
and USA and also a critical approach on leadership literature, I believe it is important
discover the predominant leadership s tyle in Romania.
Even though this research is not focusing only on strategic leaders and is taking into
consideration also leaders at any level of an organization the results can represent a major
finding for a better understanding of Romania‘s strategic l eadership process. In most of the
cases leaders from any organizational level represent the reflection of the company‘s strategic
leader – or at least this is how it should be. The purpose of this research is to discover the
leadership behavior in Romania. The main hypothesis of this research is based on verifying if
Romanian leaders are more authoritarian than team -orientated because of the Romania‘s
background.

4.1.2 Methodology of the research
In order to identify the uppermost leadership style in Rom ania I applied the Blake and
Mouton managerial grid and also an additional question to satisfy a personal curiosity of mine
about how a leader prepares for his or her position. A survey was carried out by Blake &
Mouton (1964) in the United States to iden tify leadership styles, in manufacturing industry
and for that purpose a questionnaire was developed, which served as the research inst rument
for subsequent analysis.

39
The sample of this research consisted of 55 private companies from all business fields
from Romania. From each company one executive was selected to answer the Blake and
Mouton questionnaire and also an additional question related to their leadership activity.
4.1.3 The Blake & Mouton questionnaire
Below is listed the Blake and Mouton questi onnaire that I used for identifying the
Romanian leadership s tyle in private business area . 20

never sometimes alwa ys
0 1 2 3 4 5
1. _______ I encourage my team to participate when it comes decision -making time and I try
to implement their ideas and suggestions.
2. _______ Nothing is more import ant than accomplishing a goal or task.
3. _______ I closely monitor the schedule to ensure a task or project will be completed in
time.
4. _______ I enjoy coaching people on new tasks and procedures.
5. _______ The more challenging a task is, the more I enjoy it.
6. _______ I encourage my employees to be creative about their job.
7. _______ When seeing a complex task through to completion, I ensure that every detail is
accounted for.
8. _______ I find it easy to carry out several complicated tasks at the same time.
9. _______ I enjoy reading articles, books, and journals about training, leadership, and
psychology; and then putting what I have read into action.
10. _______ When correcting mistakes, I do not worry about jeopardizing relationships.
11. _______ I manage my time very efficiently.
12. _______ I enjoy explaining the intricacies and details of a complex task or project to my
employees.
13. _______ Breaking large projects into small manageable tasks is second nature to me.
14. _______ Noth ing is more important than building a great team.
15. _______ I enjoy analyzing problems.
16. _______ I honor other people's boundaries.
17. _______ Counseling my employees to improve their performance or behavior is second
nature to me.

20 Borkowsk i, N. – Organizational behaviour in health care. Malloy, Inc. USA. 2011. p.187

40
18. _______ I enjoy reading articles, books, and trade journals about my profession; and then
implementing the new procedures I have learned.
The additional question is „How do you intend to prepare for the challeges that you
could face as a leader?Select the answer th at fits you best.‖ and it has the following options:
 formal education
 informal education (trainings, other courses)
 reading some business field related materials
 studying examples of succesful leaders
 anyhow
The Blake and Mouton questions can be categorize d on the basis of people and task
orientation stated by the two dimensions of Blake and Mouton‘s management grid.
Questions pertaining to people orientation
 Question 1, is about encouraging and motivating the subordinates so that they can take
decisions.
 Question 4 emphasizes the coaching and training aspect, as far as subordinates are
concerned.
 Question 6 is about inculcating creativity in jobs.
 Question 9 is about developing reading habits, leadership traits, understanding human
psychology and significan ce of training at the work place.
 Question 10 emphasizes the significance of not only admitting mistakes, but also
correcting them as well.
 Question 12 emphasizes the importance of making complex tasks simple for the
subordinates.
 Question 14 emphasizes th e importance of team work.
 Question 16 stresses respecting privacy of subordinates.
 Question 17 lays emphasis on counseling employees to improve not only behaviour at
work place, but also their individual performance.
Questions pertaining to task orientati on
 Question 2 emphasizes completion of tasks.
 Question 3 emphasizes strict meeting of deadlines.
 Question 5 stresses the fact that tasks should be made more challenging and that
subordinates should be in a position to enjoy accomplishing them.
 Question 7 i s about incorporating minute details in a complex task.

41

 Question 8 is about the need for multi -tasking complex jobs with ease.
 Question 11 is about time management.
 Question 13 emphasizes the need to develop work specialization and its related
methods.
 Question 15 stresses the need to develop analytical skills.
 Question 18 emphasizes the need to enhance knowledge through reading and applying
the same in discharging professional commitments.
The nine questions pertaining to task orientation are plotted on th e X axis, whereas the
nine questions pertaining to people orientation are plotted on Y axis of the leadership grid.
As in Blake and Mouton, the entire grid is divided into four major quadrants, namely
the impoverished style (1.1) the country club style (1. 9) the authoritarian (9.1) and the team
management styles (9.9) on the basis of people and task orientation. The manager who scores
(5.5) has a middle of the road style, the leader, who falls into this criteria attaches equal
importance to work as well as to the welfare of his subordinates.
The respondents were required to answer the 18 questions regarding leadership styles.
The 9 questions relating to the area of people consideration are multiplied by 0.2; similarly
the remaining 9 questions relating to th e task area have been multiplied by 0.2. In the original
Blake and Mouton model, there are 5 probable leadership styles, and in order to make our
participants fall into one single leadership style the probability is 1 over 5, hence the weight
0.2. is a ssigned to each question.
4.1.3. Researched population and size of the sample
The following research was conducted upon a sample of 55 participants who fill top
leading functions in a private organization. They all have graduated university. The age
propo rtion of the respondents is illustrated in the pie chart below.

Figure 4.1 The age proportion
of interviewed leaders

42

The pro portion of respondents‘ functions in selected organiza tion are illustrated in the pie
chart below.

Fig. 4.2 The proportion of respondents’ function in selected organizations

The proportion of industries in which the respondents are operating a re illustrated in the
following pie chart.

Fig. 4.3 The proportion of industries in whic h the respondents are operating

43

4.1.4 Results of the research
a) Individual question analysis

Statement 1 : I encourage my team to participate when i t comes decision -making time and I
try to implement their ideas and suggestions.

Fig. 4.3. Chart illustrating the answers for Statement 1.
The first statement is about encouraging and motivating the subordinates so that they can
engage in the dec ision making process. Most of the respondents have chosen 4 as the optimal
answer for their participation in encouraging their team. Not even a single respondent choose
―never‖ as the best answer for this statement.
Statement 2 : Nothing is more importa nt than accomplishing a goal or task.

Fig. 4.4. Chart illustrating the answers for Statement 2.

44

Most of the respondents admit that they don‘t always attach to the importance of
accomplishing a goal or a task, giving it the score 4, while only for 1 7% of the leaders admit
that accomplishing a goal or a task is their main purpose. This result can take back to the
comparative approach between leadership culture in Romania and in USA when the results
highlighted that Romanian leaders appreciate more fam ily and other related personal values
that those goals of the company they work.
Statement 3 : I closely monitor the schedule to ensure that a task or project will be completed
in time.

Fig. 4.5. Chart illustrating the answers for Statement 3.
The statement results show that monitoring the schedule to ensure that a task or a project will
be completed in time is not on the first place. Most of the respondents evaluated themselves
with the score 4. A good explanation for this result could be the fact that leaders use to make
reassignments to other team members.
Statement 4 : I enjoy coaching people on new tasks and procedures.

Fig. 4.6. Chart illustrating
the answers
for Statement 4.

45

This statement results show that most of the interviewed leaders enjoy coaching people. This
could be a positive fact if we think that leaders are well -prepared proffesionals who
understand their mission in the organization, but could be as well a negative fact if we adopt
the idea that leaders have most of the time a bossy attitudine towards their followers. As the
table shows the rates „never, 1 and 2‖ were not selected at all by the respondents, which
means that leaders have a good impression about thir role in the organization.

Statement 5 : The more chall enging a task is, the more I enjoy it.

Fig. 4.7. Chart illustrating th e answers for Statement 5
Taking big risks is not the best shot for most of the Romania‘s leaders, but they don‘t see
themselves as too pessimistic or conservative leaders. Only 26% of the respondents admit that
they enjoy taking big risks, while 50% percent of them are not so keen to risks, but if they
would face a risky situation they won‘t step back.
Statement 6 : I encourage my employees to be creative when is comes to their job.

Fig. 4.8. Chart
illustrating
the answers f
or Statement 6.

46

When it comes to creativity and innovation most of the leaders said „yes‖. This is a
major step forward for Romania‘s business environment. That means that nowadays leaders
appreciate ne w ideans and concepts and wants to offer unique products and services. Also an
almost 17% of the leaders who chose score 2 and 3 is not a promising result because it
showing that there are companies which don‘t bet on innovation in businesses.
Statement 7: When seeing a complex task through to completion, I ensure that every detail is
accounted for.

Fig. 4.9. Chart illustrating the answers for Statement 7.
Probably this is the statement with the most diversifiend answers. The first choice of the
Romanian leaders is the third rate. Again we can think about reassignment of the tasks to
other employees, which is not a positive assumption. A high rate of respondents chose
„never‖, 1 or 2 score which means ensuring task details is not their primarly goal in
organization.
Statement 8 : I find it easy to carry out several complicated tasks at the same time.

Fig. 4.10. Chart
illustrating the
answers for Statement 8.

47

Realizing multiple tasks is not the best skill of Romanian leaders. Almost 35% of t hem scored
themselves with the rate 4, followed by 32% of respondents who rate themselves with 3. This
means that for Romanian leaders carrying aut several complicated tasks at once could be a
real problem and probably they would hire an expert to find eff icient sollutions which was
claimed also in the comparative approach presented in chapter II of this thesis.
Statement 9 : I enjoy reading articles, books, and journals about training, leadership, and
psychology; and then putting what I have read into acti on.

Fig. 4.11. Chart illustrating the answers for Statement 9.
Most of the leaders scored themselves with rate 4 at this questions. Some of them explained
their choice by the fact that they are experiencing a lack of time for this kind of activitie s.
Moreover 15% of the leaders rarely put what they read into action. Not even a single leader
responded with „never‖ at this statement.
Statement 10 : When correcting mistakes, I do not worry about jeopardizing relationships..

Fig. 4.12.
Chart illustrating
the answers fo
rStatement 10.

48

Most of the leaders are interested in creating a positive image among their followers. This is
why sometimes they avoid correcting mistakes. On the other hand, 15% of the respondents
are focusing on the requir ed tasks and they do not care about their image or their relation with
the followers. This kind of attitudine is often met at autocratic leaders.

Statement 11 : I manage my time very efficiently.

Fig. 4.13. Chart illustrating the answers for State ment 11.
The results show that only 7% of the leaders are able to manage their time properly, while
over 50% of them autoevaluate with the score 3 or 4, admitting the fact that they sometimes
face big time management problems. Also, 15% of the leaders sin cerly recognize that they
never manage their time as they would hope.
Statement 12 : I enjoy explaining the intricacies and details of a complex task or project to my
employees.

Fig. 4.14. Chart illustrating the answers for Statement 12.

49

When it c omes to show who is the leader none of the respondents would say „no‖. As the
graph shows over 60% of the leaders enjoy explaining „how to do something‖ to their
followers. Only 2% of the respondents admit that they dislike explaining a task detail to
followers.
Statement 13 : Breaking large projects into small manageable tasks is second nature to me.

Fig. 4.15 Chart illustrating the answers for Statement 13.
Over 50% of the leaders say that this is their second nature which means that most of the m
belive about themselve that they are capable to share tasks efficiently. An interesting fact is
that only 2% of the respondents autoevaluated with the rate 1 and 2. Probably those ones are
often facing this problem of breaking large projects into smal l manageable tasks but they
avoid admitting it and autoevaluate with „never‖.
Statement 14 : Nothing is more important than building a great team.

Fig. 4.16.
Chart illustrating
the answers for
statement 14.

50

When it comes to have an efficient team most of the leaders agree. Analyzing the answers we
can suppose that those 5% who rated 1 and 2 are the autocratic style leaders, whyle the others
are more team -oriented and democratic.
Statement 15 : I enjoy analyzing problems.

Fig. 4.17. Cha rt illustrating the answers for Statement 15.
More than 50% of the leaders admit that they don‘t like so often to analyze problems, while
almost 30% of them enjoy doing this task. As the graph shows, leaders see analyzing
problems as one of their major res ponsability, but they would prefer not to do that if it could
be possible.
Statement 16 : I honor other people's boundaries.

Fig. 4.18. Chart illustrating the answers for Statement 17.

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The graph shows that in most of the cases leaders (almost 65% of them) honor and respect
other people‘s boundaries, while 26% of them do this, but not so often as it should be done.
We can suppose that last ones are the workaholic kind of leader who expect their followers to
work as much as he or she does.
Stateme nt 17 : Counseling my employees to improve their performance or behavior is second
nature to me.

Fig. 4. 19. Chart illustrating the answers for Statement 17.
Again, when it comes to show who the boss is, most of the leaders say that they are often or
always counseling their followers to correct or improve their performance or behavoir.
Generally leaders love to counsel their employees on various issues, but usually employees
don‘t feel comfortable with this attitude.
Statement 18 : I enjoy reading articles, books, and trade journals about my profession; and
then implementing the new procedures I have learned.

Fig. 4.20. Chart illustrating the answers for Statement 18.

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If this is true, most of the leaders enjoy reading articles about their pr offesion even though
they don‘t have much time as it was presented in the previous results and moreover they love
implementing what thet read. As a comparison, selected leaders enjoy reading about their
proffesion but they experience a lack of time when it comes to reading about related subjects
that could be connected to their business field.
Analyzing the additional question : How do you intend to prepare for the challeges that you
could face as a leader?Select the answer that fits you best .

Fig. 4.21. Chart analyzing the answers for the 19th question of the questionnaire.
I believe that this question is neccesary in order to see in which direction are heading
Romanian leaders. Analyzing the chart we can see that 11% of the leaders have to inte ntion to
prepare somehow or to learn something more about how to be effective as a leader which is a
worrying rate. On the other hand, 45% of the respondents say that they will prefer informal
education, while only 10% (which means 5 -6 persons out of 55) w ill choose formal education.
A little bit more than 20% will read business related materials and 13% are willing to study
and maybe conceivably copy other leading examples.

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4.1.5. Realizing Blake & Mouton managerial grid

After I calculated the final score for evey respondent I obtained the managerial grid
listed below. Thus it can be concluded the Romanian leader characteristics. I observe a
tenseness between an auhoritarian style and liberal style that involves empowering
subordinates.

Fig.4.22. The obtained Blake & Mouton managerial grid

4.1.6. Interpretation of the results and limitations of the research

Most of the scores incorporated the team lider style. This type of person leads by
positive example and endeavors to foster a te am environment in which all team members can
reach their highest potential, both as team members and as people. They encourage the team
to reach team goals as effectively as possible, while also working tirelessly to strengthen the
bonds among the various members. They normally form and lead some of the most productive
teams. Most of the top level executives see themselves as having crossed the threshold of

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middle of the road approach with the exception of only seven persons and out of them four
rate poorly on the task management style (produce or perish) and another three rate poorly on
the impoverished leadership style
Five persons are on the boundary between country club leading style and team –
oriented. This type of leaders use predominantly rewards powe r to maintain discipline and to
encourage the team to accomplish its goals. Conversely, they are almost incapable of
employing the more punitive coercive and legitimate powers. This inability results from fear
that using such powers could jeopardize relati onships with the other team members.
The four persons whose results fit the authoritarian leader (produce or perish style) are
very much task oriented and are hard on their workers (autocratic). There is little or no
allowance for cooperation or collaborat ion. Heavily task oriented people display these
characteristics: they are very strong on schedules; they expect people to do what they are told
without question or debate; when something goes wrong they tend to focus on who is to
blame rather than concentr ate on exactly what is wrong and how to prevent it; they are
intolerant of what they see as dissent (it may just be someone's creativity), so it is difficult for
their subordinates to contribute or develop.
Two out of 55 respondents obtained their result r elated to impovrished leading style.
Those two are leaders who use a "delegate and disappear" management style. Since they are
not committed to either task accomplishment or maintenance; they essentially allow their
team to do whatever it wishes and prefer to detach themselves from the team process by
allowing the team to suffer from a series of power struggles.
Most of the respondents are interested in performance and getting results, rather than
maintaining positive relations in the working environment. M ost of the leaders see themselve
as direct responsably for controlling ever detail of a project and all of them are willing to
develop their career but they are not forward to invest time and enrich their proffesional
education.
The initial hypothesis tha t most of Romanian leaders are autocratic didn‘t authenticate,
but after analyzing the managerial grid and each statement‘s rates I can conclude that
Romanian leaders are incliened towards a less involvement of subordinates and frequently
retain the final decisions. However time has changed and leaders apparently started to see the
virtues of democracy in leadership. Probably in the future Romanian leaders will all move to
team -leader oriented style of leadership.

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A valid criticism of the Blake & Mouton mo del is that it is a weak indicator for
judging managerial behaviour or style of leadership, because the results solely rest upon
filling out a simple questionnaire without using other sophisticated research instruments, so
anyone can deceive the researcher by filling out the questionnaire, citing all the examples and
traits which point to the welfare of people, and project himself as a ―people – oriented leader‖
Answers to the questionnaire, reflect only the self -perception of the respondents and are not,
therefore, an objective assessment of their managerial characteristics.
According to Blake & Mouton, although most managers admire and see themselves as
operationalizing a team management style, this style is not easily achievable in practice. There
have be en instances in the past, where leaders have attained the team management styles in
their respective organizations, but were unable to sustain them over the long run.
Blake and Mouton‘s Managerial Grid (1964) still serves as the basis for research in the
areas of leadership studies because the pivotal point in leadership studies is the determination
of leadership styles, and the focus is often on determining to what extent a leader adjusts his
style to changing situations and circumstances.
The managerial g rid is widely used to gauge leadership effectiveness and it has been
adopted extensively by several major industrial organizations throughout the world in order to
improve interpersonal effectiveness and develop leadership skills.

4.2 TRAKING A STRATEGIC LEADER’S VISION:
SC ARGUS OPTIK SRL – 10 YEARS OF GERMAN QUALITY IN ROMANIA

Due to the overthrow of the communist regime in late 1989, Romania went through a
decade of economic instability and decline, caused by an obsolete industrial base and a lack of
structural reform.
However, since 2000, the Romanian economy was transformed into an economy based
on relative macroeconomic stability, characterized by high growth, low unemployment and an
inflation rate falling. After a series of privatizations and reforms that took place in the late
1990s and early 2000s, the participation of the government in enhancing the economy of
Romania was in somewhat lower than in other European economies.
In 2005 , the government replac ed Romania's progressive ta x system with a flat tax
of 16% , applicable both for personal income and corporate profit if , as a result of which

56
Romania has become the country with the lowest tax burden within the European Union , a
factor which has contribut ed to th e growth of the private sector.
After 1990 many young and motivated people have speculated the future
development of the Romanians in purchasing various goods for their own interest and
comfort, which was unexplainable before 1989. Most inspired of the young entrepreneurs,
even though the concept was almost a mystery in that period of time, choose to start various
businesses related to the ―retail‖ concept and have relied on importing low prices goods that
after selling to the curious people will permit a rapidly profit growth.
The following case study is realized at SC Argus Optik SRL, located in Cluj –
Napoca, having the CAEN code 4774. This is a retail company specialized in selling medical
equipment related only to ophthalmology field. In fa ct, this case study is not at all about
Argus Optik SRL. This case study is following the evolution of a strategic leader, a man who
built a successful company out of nothing – Roland Bagossy, CEO of Argus Optik SRL.

4.2.1 . Creating a company
1990s fo und Roland B. in a not very good situation. Born in Cluj -Napoca, with a
trouble family situation, after their natural parents‘ divorce, he moved with his father and his
step-mother in Azuga, Prahova County when he was 14. He graduated Azuga High School
and without a real financial possibility to continue his studies, the young man seen himself in
a position to do ―something‖ in order to win some money that will allow him self -support. He
speculated the interest of inhabitants from Azuga for products made in Germany and because
that area it was a vacation land, he created some relationships among German truck drivers
who transported merchandise. Thus began his first business actions. He was buying products
from the German truck drivers and sell them forward. The profit began to increase slightly
easier, but also his obligations. After few more years his only son was born and ―the retail
trade -up‖ gave off no longer considering the easier acces of goods of population. Thus in
1997 he was forced to look for a re al job and because of his poor professional training the
only job he found was as a driver for a company that was selling glasses and sun glasses. The
monthly wage allowed him only survival. He moved back to Cluj where he was living in a
rented apartment a nd problems seemed to have no solution. In 2003 a friend asked him a
favor to pick up a German guy from Bucharest airport and take him to Iasi to his girlfriend.
On the way to Iasi knowing German language from his father, Roland B. started a
conversation w ith the German guy and he found out that the German owned a company

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specialized in selling professional products for eye care, named Argus. Argus Company was
in the process of dissolution and for avoiding some – I will call them problems – with the
German state, the guy had to get rid of a big amount of products. From Bucharest to Iasi,
Roland B. made a deal. Roland B. has committed to take the products from Germany and
bring them to Romania. How Roland B. did this it is a well -kept secret. In a few weeks
Roland had almost 24 functional eye care technology (the initial amount was more than 50,
but a lot of them were severe damaged and couldn‘t been fixed). Because of his job as a driver
for a company that was selling eyeglasses he already knew a lot of peopl e from
ophthalmology field so he started to sell the products. In less than three months all the product
were sold out. He recovered his initial investment and he was able to count some profit. That
was the moment when he realized that this niche of ophtha lmologists, opticians and
optometrists it‘s a cash cow. 2000s it was a period when the idea of entrepreneurship was
flourishing. A lot of young ophthalmologists took the decision to open their own cabinet
delighted of the idea of being their own bosses. Th at was the period when medical optics
started to appear at every corner.
So in 2005 Roland B. officially registered Argus Optik SRL (the company name
signifies appreciation for the man who paved his way). Roland had a vision: to sell ―German
quality‖ prof essional eye care technology at a competitive price. He wanted to bring
innovation for the Romanian ophthalmology field, from o ther developed West countries.

4.2.2 The man behind the vision
Already knowing enough people from this medical field things st arted to work. Roland
resigned from his workplace as a driver and started his own business. With this new begging
he started to read and learn how to sell his products, how to convince his clients that he
delivers quality and how to realize good business r elations.
Using his first earned money he boughy a book that even now is in his office from Cluj –
Napoca – a conversational guide in English. His second book that he remembers was called
―How to run a business‖. Having 29 years old, Roland B. was starting a new life totally
different from the one before. ―I had to learn how to dress to impress, how to talk and how to
behave properly in a business environment. I felt like a newborn.‖ he says now, after 10 years
since the company was registred.

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Roland B. inv ested almost 2 years in his preparation for what was to follow next. An old
highschool collegue, a salesman in the food industry, joined him in this trip, becoming the
first officialy employee of Argus Optik Company. They both learned about the technology
from the Ophtalmology field, studing the market and the purchasing power of the new
entrepreneurs – young ophthalmology doctors who wanted to became their own bosses.
Knewing his liminations and his products better than any ophthalmologist from Romania,
Roland B. staked that the acquisitions for technology in the ophthalmology field will explode
in the next 5 years. The two friends entered into a completely unknowm world and the only
way to succes was providing quality products and excellent services. Chari sma and a vertical
character helped Roland to succed. In fact, in that time he was just a simple driver who
opened his own business, no other appreciation without a solid background. Even now,
Roland B. feels a little bit shy when business parteners and cl ients see him as a strategic
leader for Romania‘s ophthalmology field. After few more years, in 2008, Roland B. realized
that his living room was innapropriate due to the large amount of orders that he was receiving.
That was the moment when Roland B. fou nded the headquarter of his company in
Cluj-Napoca which included a secretary – his wife –, an official phone number and an
electronic ingineer fresh out of college and willing to work hard. Roland was intelligent and
invested in the company‘s image. He wa s the company‘s image in the first years of activity.
Roland was participating at every medical event for ophtalmologists, at every ophtalmological
congress or conference. Slightly easy he became the man with the innovation. He always had
a good product to present, a good idea for helping ophthalmic phisicians to equip their
practice. Roland was present at any ophtalmological nature event and he was inspiring the
phisicians. He was always bringing a booklet, a presentation of a new product or a case study
from his business partners about ocular diseases, translated from English or German by
himself. Roland was seen by the doctors as ―that salesguy with good quality products‖. In the
first years, doctors found out about Argus Optik only when they received the invoice for the
purchased products. All the phisicians knew about Roland who was selling ophtalmological
equiptment made by well -know manufacturers around the world – that products that were
seen in the live surgery sessions from the West. This is how Rol and has won his customers:
he was presenting good -quality medical equipment that allowed an ophthalmic practice same
as in the West. In that period of time it was a national trend to go abroad and make different
medical interventions. This trend was follow ed especially by the rich ones becaouse in
Romania there were good phisicians, but it was a lack of modern technology and those ones
who had acces to that equipment were having enourmous prices. Roland wanted to bring

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advanced ophthalmic equipment in Roman ia in order to diversify the medical market and he
was willing to see ordinary pacients that can afford a laser surgery or a modern treatment for
their diseases. Thus Argus Optik built its name and popularity.
Roland B. is that kind of leader who will pic k up his phone at any time of the day no
matter if he knows the caller or not. He doesn‘t like to stand out becaouse of his great
business story. Almost always he avoids talking about his begginings.
Roland hates self -complimenting and bossy or superior a ttitude that he sees at many
leaders. He is not an authoritarian leader, but he wants only one thing from his employees: to
respect his vision and values in doing business. Roland B. is a laissez -faire leader. The most
important thing for him is builing lo yal and well -prepared employees. He pay for his sales
team twice a years specialized trainings all around Europe, making sure that the employees
are learning from the best. Roland is inspiring his team and he is investing lot of financial
resources to trai n them and to maintain their business style in trend within the market
requests. Definetly on the first place for Roland B. are people becaouse he convinced himself
that without people a business can not exists. Being a red -tape character, but not a fanati cal
one, Roland wanted company‘s operations to be realized only following a strong based
protocol and a set of values. He induced the desire for the employees to perform his requests
without imposing it. Due to his attitude, not even a single member of the sales agents team left
the company since their employement. Roland B. motivate and respect the work of his team
becaouse he is conscious that he need people in order to accomplish his mission – to be a long
term business partner for ophthalmic phisicians, providing innovation and the highest level of
services. Until now he is reaching year by year his purpose. In the present time Argus Optik
company is having customer portofolio of over 800 state -owned and privat organizations.
Roland B. achieved this p erformance in only 10 years of activity only following his
strong values:
 Professionalism – through a dynamic attitude we invest energy to propose viable
solutions and to provide guaranteed quality for our products and services.
 Responsibility – continuous ly act in order to bring more profitability to any
business partener;
 Respect – every client of our is our long -term business partner;
 We cultivate business trust – grinding every business relationship that we form
emphatyng with our customer‘s needs;

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 Cust omers are on the 1st place – appreciate the uniqueness of each client and we
supporting them, encouraging the spirit of enterpreneurship and initiative. We
react quickly and with maximum flexibility to the market demands;
 Integrity – we operate ethically a nd reponsabilly approaching our business
partners and colleagues in order to create value for all of us;
 Valuing team work is an essential factor for gaining succes. Every opinion counts
and we built for our our employees a motivating working environment w hich is
reflected in our customers satisfaction and in quality of services.
Source: Argus Optik SRL
In his office Roland is keeping a picture illustrating these essential values for his
company. He is still following them like he was doing 10 years ago.
He travels a lot worldwide; he reads a lot and most of the time he is on the phone. 4
days out of 7 he is outside the country dealing with business partners. He is a living notebook,
never forgets anything. Roland B. is always with a step forward when it comes to bringing
new ophtalmological equipment in Romania and so it is his sales team. Each and every week
he has a meeting with the sales and marketing manager explaining them what they have to do
in order to succed. He is permanently searching for new technological equipment to bring it to
Romanian market and he is the first person from the company who knows a new product in
the smallest detail becoming the first trainer for the team. His influencing power is real and
accepted by all the company members . Roland B. uses few words, but his message is always
received correctly and efficiently. Always wearing his suit and tie, Roland became a real
standard for modern business people. The young leader bet on innovation and flowless
services and he won. In onl y 5 years he managed to raise Argus Optik in the top of the
ophthalmologic equipment retail companies from Romania. The company motto is best
illustrating his vision: ―Inovation for development. Service excellence.‖ Thus the ordinary
driver became a leader for ophthalmic phisicians in Romania.

4.2.3. Developing business environment
After Roland figured out what this business means, in 2005 he contacted two of the
biggest ophthalmic equipment manufactureers, but which from various reasons couldn‘t
penetra te the Romanian market. Those two companiei were Huvitz brand owned by South –
coreens and CSO brand, an intalian company which at that time was only producing furniture
for medical purposes. These were the first stepts that Roland B. made when he started hi s

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business. Being an anonymous for the theo two international companies, Roland B. was
forced to purchase two products from each brand, in order to creat a long term partnership.
The risk that he was taking was huge at that time, but the products were sold in less than a
month and the feedback was positive and so the demand. So, Roland B. decided that he must
make ―something‖ in order to make his own stock of ophthalmic equipment. Becaouse he was
not the best client to obtain a bank loan, Roland B. decided to sell his father‘s flat from
Azuga, Prahova County. Using that money he made his own stock of ophtalmic technology:
refractors, tonometres, perimetry and topography equipment. With that stock, the operations
just started to flow.
Argus Optik Company has become omnipresent in Romanian Ophtalmic landscape
and all the phisicians knew about the young antrepreneur who was selling the latest
technology equipment in the field with convenient payment opportunities. 2009 started with
the acquisition of exclusive selling licenses for two premium brands of Argus Optik: Optos
and Oculus both situated in Germany, two of the world‘s giants in the field of ophthalmic
medical equipment. The acquisition of these two brands was followed by introducing in
Romania of the fir st completely innovative product, a retinal imaging technology for scanning
the retina, at a price not lower than 250 000 euros. This product was the market bomb of that
period. It was a great period for this kind of business. The phisicians were continuou sly
investing in medical equipment especially after Romania‘s EU integration when they were
having possibility of accesing European funds. So the expensive imaginisting device was sold
and all the doctors were talking about this.
It is important to mentio n that Roland B. wanted exclusivity selling licence for
Romania from the manufacturing companies and those agreed to the extent that Roland will
comply with an annual sales plan. Acquisitions followed Pricon brand, Takagi and Heine after
Roland visited the headquarters of these ones in Taiwan, China and Singapore.
Each and every year since 2008 Roland B. is representing his company at the world‘s
ophthalmological and optical congress which is taking place at different premium locations
around the world. Ro land B. is near his strategic parteners presenting his business model and
he become an exemple of ―you can do it‖ – it is possible to sell expensive medical equipment
in market constrained by financial incapability.
In 2011 Roland B. realized another succe sful partnership between Argus Optik
Romania and the manufacturer HTS from USA. ―The American dream‖ was brought in
Romania. Roland B had the idea to bring together the most competent and important
phisicians from Romania an make a life ophthalmic session introducing a pair of glasses that

62
treats cross -eye deasise and ptosis. No physician believed that this therapy could work.
Roland presented the manufacturer clinical studies about the new technology and also a live
demonstration of ―how to deal with‖ the product, but the phisicians were giggleing. During
their medical preparation, phisicians learned that cross -eye disease could be resurgent only for
early age pacients and the innovative product was promising an efficient treatment for
pacients over 30 year s. Seeing doctors rigidity to accept a new technology, Roland had the
ideea to organize a quick raffle. All the phisicians wrote their name of pieces of paper and the
president of Romanian Ophtalmic Associaton drow 10 winners out of 79 phisicians which
were present at the demonstration. Those winners received completely free the new
technology and so Roland started a national program for following the results obtained by
using HTS therapy for treating cross -eye. For one year doctors had to record the produ ct
results and if there was no clinical positive effects they would pay no money for the device.
HTS follow up programme was a succes. The therapy works and the demand for this new
innovative technology is increasing every year, especially after lauching a new soft version
for using it at home. Leading the market through innovation was again a good strategy for
Argus Optik, implemented by the man who had the business vision, Roland B.
Since the company was founded there was no ophthalmic congress that Argu s Optik
didn‘t attent and present new equipment. Moreover, since 2008 Argus Optik developed the
servicing department being the only company from Romania which is allowed to fix the
medical equipment from manufactureers like Oculus, Lightmed, Heine, Optos o r HTS. Thus
Roland established an all -in-one company system for the Romanian ophtalmologists.
Year 2014 finds Argus Optik as a market leader for retailers of ophthalmic equipment,
everything after 10 years of hard working that followed a well defined miss ion and vision.
Romanian ophtalmologists know one thing: Argus Optik is selling exceptional quality
innovative products at competitive prices offering the possibility of payment in installments
which determine the customers to make continuously acquisition s.

4.2.4. Dealing with competit ors
When Roland B. founded Argus Optik , Romanian ophtalmologists were purchaising
their medical ecquipment only through the only existing retail company: Zeiss Meditec
located in Bucharest. Zeiss Meditec was selling expen sive technology without the possibility
of installements, so the customers were disadvantaged. In 2005 there were only a few big
ophthalmic clinics in Romania which had the financial possibily to invenst in new medical

63
equipment. Most of them were purchasi ng second -hand technology from Hungary. The period
when Roland B. lauched Argus Optik was favourable for this business segment because he
was dealing with only one main competitor – Zeiss Meditec Company. Even though his main
competitor, the franchise Zeis s Meditec Romania was selling quality ophthalmic ecquipment
they had a small range of products designed for ophthalmic use only.
In 2014 there were only 3 important competitors for Argus Optik: Zeiss Meditec
Romania, Essilor Company and Optimed Brasov, bu t only Argus Optik is specialized on
selling only ophthalmic medical equipment. After Romania‘s EU integration a lot of small
entrepreneurs were willing to lauch new businesses in this field and most of them tried to
obtain Argus Optik‘s selling liceses fr om the main manufactureers and they faild becaouse
Roland B. created a business environment with his suppliers based on trust and
professionalism, promptitude and equity.
In 2010 Roland B. took the decision to sell the company‘s product indirectly, to ot her
new companies available on the market. Instead of dealing aggressively with his competitors
Roland become interested in their activity and agreed to sell the products with a smaller trade
margin than the company was using for direct trade. Through this strategic move Argus Optik
is still rulling the market, conserving its top position.

4.2.5 Creating eyewear collections
In 2011 Argus Optik was 6 -years old. The company‘s products were most prefferend
by the Romanian phisicians, the demand was huge and the orders were flooding in. Argus
Optik was having 30 employees in 2011. The profit was bigger enough for extending the
company‘s portofolio.
When Roland B. is not travelling, each and every morning at 7 a.m. he goes to the
company main office in Cluj -Napoca, being the first person that enters the door. In a Monday
morning a young man came to let his CV hoping for a job. Roland was in office so he
received the young man and started to talk with him. The young man belived that Roland was
an ordinary emplo yee and started to talk about him who is and what he wants. Fresh out of
highschool, very talented drawer, the young man was looking for a job because his parents
couldn‘t assure him financial support for continuing his studies. Roland saw his drawings and
asked him if he can draw eyewear frames. The man said deffinitelly yes and Roland informed
him that he will be contacted as soon as a new job will be available. That was the moment
when Roland B. started to think about production of an eyewear collection branded Argus. In

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2011 the eyewear frame market in Romania was repleted with different retail companies that
were selling eyewear frames made by international designers and also, made in china products
having low quality standards, but an affordable price. There were a lot of medical optics that
couldn‘t sell premium eyewear for ordinary patients with small budget. At that time the
eyewear market was rulled by AMC Com pany21, headquartered in Brasov . This company held
the licence to exclusively sell products from well -known brands like Police, Dior, Givency,
Valentino, Dolce&Cabanna and others but the prices were excessively high for a pacient with
small and medium earnings.
Roland‘s strategy was to produce low -cost eyewear frames, but with a single eye for
quality standards. In order to fulfill his objective he started to look after a cheap producer
from China. In two weeks he had a meeting in China with the producer and the deal was
concluded. In less than 6 months was available for selling the new eyewear c ollection made
by Argus. The young man was contacted and employeed and he started to create eyewear
frames drawings following Roland‘s instructions.
In 2012 was lauched the first eyewear collection branded Argus distributed by the
sales agents in optical and ophtalmological offices being a suitable alternative for patients
without sufficient financial resources to buy products from famous brands.
Even though Argus Eyewear collections are made in China, they combine quality
materials with affordable prices and placing them on the Romanian market was a real succes
strategic movement. Although initially Roland was willing for diversification of his
company‘s services and didn‘t relied on a substantial gain things have proven to work and
buyers become visibly i nterested of the new eyewear brand. So Roland opened a new
company named Rida S SRL which have the object of selling eyewear frame and also a
second showroom in Bucharest. With a new opened company and new showroom, Roland
had to look for a new eyewear sup plier, different from what other companies on the market
were offering. He set an exclusively contract with Optim Company headquartered in
Germany which hold the licenses to sell eyewear brands made by French, Spanish or Italian
designer such as Guy Laroc he, Adolfo Dominguez, Victorio&Lucchino, Agatha Ruiz de la
Prada and others. Doing this strategic movement, Roland B. increased his company‘s
portofolio, selling high quality eyewear frames at affordable prices. If when talking about
eyewear collections ma de by international fashion houses selling them was not so easy to
achieve and moreover, recovering the money from the customers was a long process, when it

21 More about AMC company in Bacanu, B. – Tehnici de analiza in managementul strategic. Polirom.2007. p.
275

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comes to Argus eyewear collections and brands the turnover was obvious reliable. The sales
agents f rom Rida S are distributing the frames to phisicians while those last ones selling the
products to pacients who appreciate the modern design, the price and the quality. It was an
unique selling proposition to offer 2 years guarantee when achieving frames d istributed by a
low-cost eyewear retailer.
Since 2012, twice a year Argus launches his own eyewear collection starting the
preordering process two months before. Once more, the initial commintment to the
company‘s mission, vision and values was followed.
Even if Rida S is not the first retail company specialized in selling eyewear
collections, it is appreciated by the customers who became more attracted of Argus Optik
products.

4.2.6. The marketing vision as a strategic leader: “ playing in the big leag ue”
From the very first day of Argus Optik and Rida S existence, Roland B. relied on
marketing and on the power of this instrument to influence customer‘s opinion. Both Roland‘s
companies have adopted a differenciation strategy and their positioning on the market was
based on the benefits of company‘s portofolio products. Roland wanted to penetratate the
market highlighting only his product attributes, not fighting against competitors.
As the years passed by, Roland knew that maintaining his companies ali gned to the market
trends and obtaining customers loyalty were essential. But the main issue is that generally
doctors are very difficult characters. Roland B observed the negative reaction of phisicians
when it comes to a new company and new products avai lable on the market. If in 2005 the
phisicians interest was obviously high in seeing new products and new ophthalmic
technology, in 2013 or 2014 becouse of overcrowding of the market doctors become annoyed.
This is one of the reasons why only few compan ies managed to enter this business field.
In 2013 Argus Optik and Rida S were selling the products using the personal way. The sales
agents knew very well all the phisicians. If a doctor wated to open a new eye clinic, the sales
agents knew this with at l east 6 months before. In 2013 Argus Optik Romania was having
almost 1000 active clients who were buying both eyewear frames and ophthalmic equipment.
It was almost imposible for the sales agents to keep ―an army‖ of customers updated to the
latest eyewear collections or medical equipment. Having a website didn‘t help a lot this
business because doctors want to see live the products. At the beginning of 2014 sales agents
were following the execution of the requests from customers demand. Employing new ones it

66
wasn‘t an efficient idea neither because both Argus Optik and Rida S covered sush a rich
portofolio that a new employee would have learned the products in months. In the case of new
customers, if you were not near them at the time they wanted and respon d to their request in a
timely manner, they would redirect their options.
Roland B. has learned an important thing that he always reminds it to his collegues (ne
always names his employees ―collegues‖): doctors, generally speaking, represent a different
kind of people. If ordinary people have a well -defined limit of patience, when it comes to
doctors their patience is 100 times smaller. Doctors wants all they need here and now, they
want to be quickly informed by the sales agents when they request a piece of information, but
they also are long in coming when they have to provide something.
Because sales agents didn‘t have time to go through all the customer data base, looses
were felt especially when is comes to eyewear. Most of the pshisicians wanted to see or touch
the frames before purchasing them. So at the beginning of 2014 Roland wanted to find a
suitable tool to keep customers constanly informed about the newest eyewear collections and
the latest trends but he also relied on informing all the Romani an ophthalmic specialists about
the newest releases of medical equipment. Thus was born Spektrum Optik, a magazine
dedicated to vision and healthy of the eye, non -profit, having the main objective to inform and
promote Argus Optik and Rida S products. Rola nd‘s strategy was simple. All Romanian
ophtalmologists should have access to this journal. This is a long term strategy to attract new
customers and to retain the existing ones. The magazine is sent to 2000 ophtalmic specialists,
without any cost, directly to their post office box. In the first months Roland was directly
responsabile of the magazine accomplishment. Roland realized a partnership with the
Romanian Society of Ophtalmology to create a high credibility rate for the magazine. The
trade was a fair one. Romanian Society of Ophtalmology had to acknowledge the utility of
this magazine, while Spektrum Optik had to promote all the ophthalmology events from the
country. Roland was the one who led the graphic designers‘ team to realize the magazine. He
wanted an unconventional medical publication, a glossy one. Everybody was tired of that kind
of medical journals presenting heavy articles and always the same concepts – cross -eye
disease, cataract surgery and recovery and myopia. He knew that another medic al publication
with the same characteristics won‘t impress the phisicians and the project probably would fail.
He bet on a new concept for medical publications, a completely new one for Romania. Roland
wanted that the experience of reading the magazine to be a relaxing, not a boring one. Of
course it was possible that the doctors hardness to beat off the magazine, but he risked again a

67
big mounthly investment for a marketing department of a SMM company. After the first
edition it was no significant feedback and he decided to continue publishing the magazine.
Only after the second month the visible improved magazine aroused the doctors curiosity. The
fact that Argus Optik was realizing the magazine wasn‘t highlited aggressively. The main
ideea was that docto rs to be first delighted by the products and after that to find out that they
can find those items at Argus Optik and Rida S. Spektrum Optik represented an innovation for
the medical field. The magazine is an easy reading and relaxing material. Even Romani an
Society of Ophtalmology borrowed Roland‘s concept and created their own magazine name
―Oftalmologia‖ in the same manner (this magazine is realized only once a year for the great
Romanian ophthalmic congress).
After the first semester of 2014, Argus Opti k recorded a 40% growth in relation to the
previous year. Customers demands have evolved, the ophthalmic ecquipment market has
developed and finally Romania aligned with the medical procedures and technology from
abroad. In this business area customers mu st be kept very close using different loyality
methods. It is not a mistery that pharma companies, medical equipment retailers and other
companies involved in medical business field, use to offer expensive gifts to the customers. A
customer who purchases t echnology worth 200 000 euros/year can not become loyal to a
single provider with a SPA voucher or a lunch at a fancy restaurant. Roland B. speculated the
phisicians desire to benefit of some advantages or let‘t call those gifts after they choose a
unique medical equipment provider.
Roland wanted to gratify the customers‘ loyalty with something big. He asked the
marketing department to think a huge campaign and so he received. Roland wanted that kind
of marketing campaign that customers would talk about in the next 3 years. Thus was born the
campaign ―Argus Optik and Rida S sent you on vacation‖. The strategy is simple. For a 1 –
year period each acquisition of 5000 euros will receive a voucher for participating in the big
raffle which will take place in Octo ber 2015. The prises are straight to the shape – a group 10 –
days vacation, all -inclusive for 24 lucky clients and for Argus Optik and Rida S employees.
As customers will make bigger acquisitions they will receive more vouchers to participate at
the raffle. The marketing campaing is a bomb for Romanian ophtalmologists world. At the
end of 2014, the sales growth rate was 52% bigger than in 2013.

68
4.2.7. Counting the results
Table 4.1. Financial analysis of Argus Optik SRL
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
BALANCE SHEET
INDEXES K RON K RON K RON K RON K RON K RON
TOTAL ASSETS: 3654,262 3444,837 4085,274 5635,288 6717,645 7238,319
Fixed assets
TOTAL 228,724 156,258 277,35 201,69 626,768 579,618
Current assets
TOTAL: 3.42 5,538 3288,579 3807,924 5433,598 6090,877 6658,701
-stocks 1816,686 1718,775 2947,567 4216,482 4492,139 4628,687
-cash in hand 1287,853 1375,025 761,646 908,432 1343,269 1848,925
-customers and similar
accounts 320,999 194,779 98,711 308,684 255,469 181,089
TOTAL LIABILITIES:
Shareholders' equity,
2079,017 2096,249 2366,021 2706,672 3227,017 3335,087 TOTAL, hence:
– shareholders' equity 36 36 36 36 36 36
subscribed capital paid 36 36 36 36 36 36
provisions for risk and
charges
Liabilities, TOTAL 1575,245 1348,588 1719,253 2928,616 3490,628 3903,232
PROFIT AND LOSS
ACCOUNT INDEXES
Net turnover 4795,816 3980,293 3520,442 4154,186 7202,953 7226,704
Total revenues 4836,029 4001,287 3559,519 4205,617 7222,871 7234,237
Total expenses 3157,675 3975,446 3241,725 3751,235 6586,771 7059,735
Gross profit for the
financial year 1678,354 25,841 3177,94 454,382 636,1 174,502
Net profit of the given
period 1406,115 17,233 269,771 340,678 520,345 108,069
INDICATORS OF
INFORMATIVE DAT A
Medium no of
employees 19 22 24 28 29 29

Source: www. mfinante.ro/contribuabili

The evolution of net turnover shows that Argus Optik Company has grown up. The
financial table shows that the company is going on sustainable growth supported by the
enrichement of the products portofolio. The evolution of the number of employees suggests
nothing else than company‘s development and, moreover, we are talking about the same
people that put the bases of the company in 2005. Not even a single sales agent left the

69
company since his employeent which means that Argus Optik offers a healty working
environment based on respect and appreciation of the team work.
Roland‘s business vision translated in availability to the customers demand objectifies
in a h igh level of stocks. This occurs as a resul of how relationships with external suppliers
are conducted, particularly those in Germany, South Koreea or China. With the increasing of
company‘s portofolio, the current assets grew too. Investments in opening a new showroom in
Bucharest and in purchasing new vehicles for the sales agents were noticeable in the last two
years and probably will continue in the next future.
On the other hand, expenses increased also mostly because of rents, bank rates and
expensive marketing campaigns of over 150 000 euros. Giving the current cash -flow exists
the possibility of some strategic movements that could reorganize the company‘s structure by
adding additional components or attracting new companies or investors.

4.2.7 Creating vision for the future
The future sounds good for Roland B. and his companies. Having a succesfull project,
Spektrum Optik magazine, Roland is planning to expand the concept and his vision is to
create a magazine related with ophthalmology, but for t he pacients, following some german
made publications. Roland is willing to set up a new company especially for this publishing
activity. He wants to become the new media center related to ophthalmology from Romania.
Also Roland wants to attract customers who would buy advertising spaces in the magazine.
Probably in the next future Spektrum Optik won‘t be anymore a non -profit publication, but to
be an efficient business object which will externalize in satisfacatory financial results. Thus
Roland is inspiri ng the vision of an ophthalmology related magazine for Romanian phisicians
and also for other companies from this business field to promote their products and services.
The demand for this business segment is promising and the future forecasts are positive .
Moreover, Roland‘s intentions to purchase new premium brands of ophthalmic
equipments and eyewear collections is real being already embodied through exclusiveness
contracts between Argus Optik and nord -europeean companies located in Sweden or
Denmark.
Another big project that Roland is following is the opening of a new eye -care clinic in
Brasov, his soul city, by 2017. He wants for Brasov to become ―the technological center‖ of
the most innovative and developed ophthalmic equipments from Romania, bringin g together
qualified ophtalmologists and the newest technology from abroad.

70
With a highly developed spirit of analyzing and forecasting the Romanian market
when it comes to technology, Roland will definitely be able to be one step ahead his
competitors a nd moreover transform this stressful part of the business environment in an
advantage for developing efficiently his businesses.
Although there is no clear statistics related to this market segmentation, analyzing the
financial results and the consumer‘s choice is reasonable the statement that Argus Optik
represents the most important national distributor of ophthalmic equipment and other
accessories related to ophthalmology field.
Finally it can be concluded that the success of Argus Optik and also Rida S companies
is the result of a well -defined strategic vision based on the desire to align Romania to the
Western technological evolution offering innovation and exceptional quality of services and
products.
All this was achieved through a single person wh o knew how to prize the most
valuable characteristics that a premium consumer would want: trust, flexibility, realiability
and quality. Roland‘s business model is a classic – a young entrepreneur whithout any formal
education in the business field who mana ge to conduct efficiently a succesfull company and
to climb to the top through hard work and continuous involvement. A story that can inspire
young entrepreneurs…

71
5. CONCLUSIONS AND PROPOSALS

Nowadays, people seem to be more confident and more will ing to be independent, to
be on their own. A proper solution for being able to coordinate yourself and to build a solid
path to the future is to start doing something feasible, which can have direct follows. Making
your own business represents a great oppo rtunity to evolve as human being, but any business
must start with the vision of a leader. A person who has the ability to influence others in
making day -to-day decisions that lead to the organizatio‘s long term growth and maintain its
short -term financial health it is colled a strategic leader.
Writing this paper I have realized that being a strategic leader or in general a leader
must not be seen as a gift, but as a huge responsibility for the person in charge. The strategic
leader must represent for his or her followers a source of entrepreneurilar skills and
innovation.
From the various definitions of strategic leadership presented in literature, the
outstanding dimension is that of looking ahead in the future or using another modern concept,
envisionin g. Literature also strongly suggests that a vision should be the starting point of any
organizational change and must underpin any business strategy. Sadly only a small part of the
companies start their activity with a well -defined vision of the strategic leader.
Analyzing the results of the second chapter I can conclude that Romanian business
environment is not properly developed for the strategic leadership concept. After comparing
the leadership culture between USA and Romania and the mentality of Roman ian leaders I
can state that in Romania is more present the concept of management rather that leadership
approaches which means that probably only in the next future Romanians will properly
understand the importance of strategic leaders in an organization. Practically we can talk
about modern leadership in Romania only after 1990 when alongside the newly free economic
market, foreign business came in. The market required at that time special development and
entrepreneurial abilities for the new born leaders . The instability of that period, different
Romanian‘s habits and social and political factors made the Romanian leaders facing a new
challenging approach of doing businesses. As I read in the international media, Romanian
leaders are seen as doing busine ss from nothing, but only a few Romanians are seen as real
strategic leaders. Most of the well -experienced Romanian leaders were formed under
extremely demanding conditions because of the economic instability after 1989 and because
the atypical market wher e the know -how brought by international experts was limited to an

72
old school mentality of custumers. Thus living in comunism before 1990 affected Romanian‘s
conception about leadership and also strategic leadership.
Realizing the third chapter of this the sis made me seen that it is a real gap in
knowledge and practice of strategic leadership. A lot of leaders think about themselv that they
are strategic leaders but only a few know exactly what this means. It requires a belief that
strategic leadership is a process not a position, demands the involvement of many and calls
for a commitment to learning. Making the change is neither easy nor quick, but when
individuals and teams enact strategic leadership the outcome is sustainable competitive
advantage for the organization. Usually because of a mistunderstanding of concepts, strategic
leaders fail in their actions. This could be explained with a flawed executive mindsets that
throw off a company‘s perception of reality or some delusional attitudes that act to k eep
inaccurate realities in place. Also the third chapter reveals that leadership process has a lot of
conceptual limitations that can be misleading.
However, one of the main finding of my research regarding the leadership styles in
Romania is that organi zations give less attention to envision but rather spend more time
implementing strategies. It can then be questioned whether this strategies being implemented
are well informed with the market trends in respect of their future dynamics. I believe that
Rom anian leaders have to think more strategically and to realize their business plan for a
long-term period. Also, it is essentially for Romanian leaders to have a long term vision in
order to make a difference to their company‘s performance.
The CEO ‘s and l eaders that were interviewed all acknowledged the importance of
personality characteristics in strategic leadership and leadership in general. Using the Blake
and Mouton managerial grid explicit personal experiences were shared, especially with
reference t o inherent personality traits, which were also traced to their historical backgrounds.
However, it was found that certain behaviors are largely dictated by the nature of the leader or
of the CEO.
Also, the cultural approach plays an important role in unde rstanding the future
leadership tendencies for Romania and also globally. Especially for Romanian leaders they
should take into consideration that only understanding the leadership cultures of other
developed business environments will obtain the necessary skills in order to inspire followers.
Analyzing the company SC Argus Optik SRL and especially its strategic leader I saw that it
is not so easy to determine employees to build a vision or a mission. After I tracked the
company‘s business development I re alized the importance of strategic leadership. The
company‘s strategic leader bet on knowledge as the primary organizational asset. Moreover,

73
achieving knowledge has become his most desirable objective in order to obtain the necessary
skills for both strat egy formulation and implementation. Initiation of change, being innovative
and with a steps forward the market demands seems essential for having success in business.
Maybe Argus Optik SRL was not the best choice for analyzing a strategic leader because i t is
not a big corporation, but I really saw there a person who is inspiring others to work together
for honoring his vision and also the company‘s mission and values.
A proposal that I have for the company‘s strategic leader is to be more careful when it
comes to employees because his excessive laissez -faire leading style or team -oriented style
could fail when is meeting wrong people that put their personal interests above company‘s
objectives.
Also, another proposal that I have for the company is to deve lop its corporate social
responsibility area. A lot of out -of-date but still functional medical equipment is wasted and
instead of doing that they could donate the technology to medicine universities or to rural area
hospitals. The out -of-date ophthalmolog y equipment could represent an important resource
for students who follow medicine courses. Some of the products like tonometers or manual
refraction glasses could be used as practice equipment for young optometry students.
Talking about human resources I believe that motivating the sales agents through
monthly or yearly programs like ―the sales agent of the month/year‖ will increase
competitivity between them and they would want to have better results. Even though ―the
prize‖ for this kind of internal p rogramme could be more than 3000 euros, the sales will
probably increase 5 times better. During my internship at this company I observed that
employees work a lot, even in weekends and sometimes they not have even a single day off. I
propose a monthly prog ram for those employees consisting of 2 -3 days of short vacation. This
program may have reduced costs becaouse the company already signed a partnership with a
tourism agency for the campaign ―Argus Optik and Rida S sent you on vacation‖.
Also, the cost o f travel and accommodation for sales agents cost s a lot and I propose
realizing a barter agreement with a hotel chain from Romania like Ibis, Ramada or RIN
Hotels. The selected hotel chain could promote its services in Spektrum Optik magazine in
exchange o f offering accommodation for Argus Optik‘s sales agents. This agreement could be
very efficient taking into consideration that the target is a premium one formed especially of
medical personnel who travels a lot around the country and need accommodation. M oreover
this kind of agreement could be externalized to other transport and logistics companies such
DHL or Cargus. I observed that transporting medical equipment from the supplier to Argus
Optik costs a lot. Also there is a significant cost with the trans portation of medical equipment

74
inside Romania‘s borders. If a barter agreement with a transportation company could cover at
least 25% of the total cost I believe it would be an efficient and sustainable strategy.
When it comes to eyewear collections, I s trongly suggest creating a website for selling
these frames directly to the final consumer -the patients. In order to not conflict with the
physicians the online prices for the eyewear collections could be 20% higher (including
transportation to the client) than prices used by physicians. In this way the company will
assure that doctors won‘t buy the frames online and those patients who are interested and they
don‘t have time to visit an eye -care clinic could purchase their wanted products without a
major co st addition.
Importing crystalline is would be another efficient movement for the company taking
into consideration that a lot or ophthalmic surgeons are clients of Argus Optik. If the
company‘s mission will be respected and Argus Optik will deliver high quality products I
believe that increasing the company‘s portfolio with this kind of products it will be a success.
Talking about Spektrum Optik magazine I believe this project it will be more
sustainable if physicians would publish more articles in this . Also, allowing to other
competitors to publish their advertisements inside the magazine will create a more dynamic
and transparent competitive environment, will increase the returns and the monthly cost with
the printing of the magazine will be smaller. Also registering the name of the magazine at
OSIM it definitely should be the next move because there will surely exists some people that
will want ―to borrow‖ the idea.
As a final conclusion about the choosen theme of this paper, I would like to say tha t
having this experience and working inside Argus Optik Company helped me a lot in
understanding what a business really means and moreover how a strategic leadership process
influences a company‘s succes. During this internship period I realized that the q uestion
„Why our performance is so bad if we are doing so great?‖ asked by a lot of companies could
have only one possible answer: a vicious leadership process or a lack of strategic leadership
thinking. As a founder of a company of a CEO it is essentially to have a vision for the future
and to be able to transmit efficiently that vision to your followers in order to succesfully
accomplish your mission and objectives.
If most of the Romanian leaders, not only the strategic ones, will understand in the
next future that their position represents a huge responsability, not a gift , probably we will
witness a major change in the business climate. Until then we could only hope and learn from
the others.

75
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Websites:

***Michael Porter. The Internet. Volvo Trucks (A): Penetrating the U.S. Market Harvard
Business Online – February 2002) http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu
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Yourself http://ezinearticles.com/?Leadership -Through -Being -Yourself &id=210438
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77
ANNEXES

Annex 1 – Table illustrating the participating companies at the presented research from
Chapter 4.
INDUSTRY COMPANY
BANKING AND
FINANCIAL
SERVICES PORSCHE LEASING ROMANIA IFN SA – ILFOV
TRANSILVANIA LEASING IFN SA – BRASOV
UNICREDIT TIRIAC BANK SA – CLUJ NAPOCA BRANCH
CONSTRUCTIONS/
REAL ESTATE INOLEX SRL – BRASOV
MAURER IMOBILIARE SRL – BRASOV
FOOD AND
BAVERAGE ARTHUR'S PUB SRL – BRASOV
MUSIC MIX SRL – BRASOV
SEDO ZONE SRL – BRASOV
TOTAL INTERNATIONAL COMPANY SRL – BRASOV
INDUSTRY/
MANUFACTURING DIP&GIP SRL – BRASOV
HEINEN&HOPMAN MAR SRL – GALATI
IT MAGNA CONSULTING SRL – CLUJ
NEXIO WEB SRL – BRASOV
TRANSART SRL – CLUJ
PHARMACEUTICALS/
HEALTHCARE ASI OPTIC SRL – IASI
BETA OPTIKON SRL – GALATI
CENTRUL O FTALMOLOGIC ALPHA IASI SRL – IASI
CHROMO OPTIC SRL – BRAILA
FOCUS OPTIC SRL – SUCEAVA
GAMA OPTIC SMART SRL – CLUJ
HOLLSIM SRL – CLUJ
INFOSAN SRL BUCURESTI
LASER OPTICA SRL – BACAU
OFTACONSULT SRL – CLUJ
OPTIC LAND SRL – BUCURESTI
OPTICA C ENTER SRL – NEAMT
OPTIGAMA SRL – IASI
OPTIKO SRL – SATU MARE
OPTIROMA CLINIC SRL – BUCURESTI
PIOMEX SRL – OLT
SPECTRA VISION SRL – BUCURESTI
ZONEMED BIOMETRIX SRL – TIMISOARA
EDITURI/PUBLISHING BV TOURIST CARD SRL – BRASOV
CONPHYS SRL – VALCEA
NOVAPRINT MANAGEMENT SRL – MURES
ZILE SI NOPTI MEDIA SHOP SRL – BUCURESTI
RETAIL AND
WHOLESALE TRADE ACS OPTIC 2014 SRL – GORJ
CMB MARKETPLACE SRL – BUCURESTI
LIRAN TIM SRL – TIMISOARA
PRO ALPINE IMPORT SRL – BRASOV
SERVICE S AFACERI PROSPERE SRL – BRASOV
BUENO TECH SRL – LUJ
CENTURY IMAGE SRL – BRASOV

78
EFFETMARK SRL – GALATI
EUROMASTER TYRE&SERVICES ROMANIA SA – CLUJ –
NAPOCA BRANCH
LATINA STAR 2007 SRL – BRASOV
ROSAL GRUP SA – CLUJ
TSI CONSULTANTA &TRAINING S. R.L.
TELECOM/MEDIA ARVATO SERVICES SRL – BRASOV
RCS RDS SA – SUCURSALA BRASOV
TOURISM MONDIAL AIR SRL – CLUJ
TRANSPORTATION/
LOGISTICS CARGUS INTERNATIONAL SA – SUCURSALA CLUJ
DAFO LOGISTICS SRL – CLUJ
DHL LOGISTICS SRL – BUCURESTI
FAN COURIER INTERNATIONAL – SUCURSALA GALATI