Ziarul Financiar, ZF Live 2016: the specialist deficit, concept people and services
Topics: Engineering talent and education
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Watch the episode on Ziarul Financiar ↗Video ZF Live. Marius Hanganu, managing partener al Tremend: Statisticile arată că piaţa ar avea nevoie de aproximativ 12.000 de specialişti pe an, dar facultăţile oferă doar 7.000 de IT-işti
ZF Live video interview, October 2016. I was then co-founder and managing partner of Tremend. Topics: the gap between the IT specialists the market needed and those schools supplied, the concept and product people Romania lacked, services around a product, an IoT application built for a US client.
Tremend: expected revenue of up to 3.6 million euros in 2016, up from 2.2 million euros in 2015, about 60% of it from clients in Romania. 37th in Deloitte CE Technology Fast 50 for growth between 2012 and 2015.
12,000 needed a year, about 7,000 supplied
“Statistics show that the market would need about 12,000 specialists a year, and educational institutions supply about 7,000. That means we have a deficit of 5,000 specialists, for whom alternative methods are being sought.” („Statisticile arată că piaţa ar avea nevoie de aproximativ 12.000 de specialişti pe an, iar instituţiile de învâţământ oferă aproximativ 7.000. Înseamnă că avem un deficit de 5.000 de specialişti, pentru care se caută metode alterntive.”)
What clients wanted: “Our clients generally look for the most advanced technical skills possible.” („Clienţii noştri caută în general competenţe tehnice cât mai avansate.”) In Romania a client’s idea was put into practice in a few months, in other European countries it took longer, and “the concentration of technical people is sensational” („concentraţia de oameni tehnici este senzaţională”). The recruitment pool had, unfortunately, started to shrink noticeably. The figures are 2016 statistics, as I cited them.
Very good engineers, few concept people
“As weak points I would mention that we do not have people who think everything through, from the idea to putting it into practice. We need concept people. Things will surely settle in time and we will see in Romania not only very good engineers, but also product people.” („Ca puncte slabe aş menţiona faptul că nu avem oameni care să gândească totul, de la idee până la punerea în practică a acesteia. Avem nevoie de oameni de concept. Cu siguranţă lucrurile se vor aşeza în timp şi vom vedea în România nu doar ingineri foarte buni, ci şi oameni de produs.”)
Strengths of Romanian specialists: very good engineers, and a cultural closeness to the main regions of Europe and to America. More on Romania’s engineers: the Business Magazin 2017 and 20 Minute Leaders 2021 pages.
Elsewhere. Business Magazin, 2017: “What will matter is that, in the coming years, we have our say in innovation, by growing the number of start-ups and products.” („Important va fi ca, în următorii ani, să ne spunem cuvântul în ceea ce priveşte inovaţia, prin creşterea numărului de start-up-uri şi produse.”)
Services around the product
“Licences bring value to revenue, but very often the services you offer around the products can be even more substantial in the revenue achieved. The combination of services and products is a very good mix.” („Licenţele aduc valoare în cifra de afaceri, dar de foarte multe ori serviciile pe care le oferi în jurul produselor pot fi chiar mai consistente în cifra de afaceri realizată. Combinaţia între servicii şi produse reprezintă un mix foarte bun.”)
Products: a very good driver of revenue growth. Services beside them: extremely important.
An irrigation app at the top of Amazon
“We have solutions that we have been building and maintaining for more than four years. For example, we have a smart irrigation solution. The application, developed for a client in America, is in first place on Amazon in the irrigation solutions category, being also one of the few IoT solutions that, apparently, manage to be viable.” („Avem soluţii pe care le construim şi le menţinem de mai bine de patru ani. De exemplu, avem o soluţie de irigat inteligent. Aplicaţia care a fost dezvoltată pentru un client din America se află pe primul loc pe Amazon la categoria soluţii de irigat, fiind şi una dintre puţinele soluţii IoT care, aparent, reuşesc să fie viabile.”)
Tremend was investing heavily in the Internet of Things as a direction of development.
Elsewhere. Business Magazin, 2017: “We have been developing IoT solutions since 2007 and we want to use this advantage.” („Dezvoltăm soluţii IoT încă din 2007 şi vrem să folosim acest avantaj.”)
Watch the episode on Ziarul Financiar ↗
A summary of an external interview or article. Quotes are my words as published or spoken; the original is the reference.