Romanian companies are reacting “in a state of emergency” in the current context, with one in three reporting a severe economic impact, investments postponed and decisions suspended, according to a study conducted in July by a market research company among employees in the private sector.

Thus, 89% of companies are feeling a negative impact: 33% describe the situation as ‘very strong’, and 56% talk about a moderate but constant impact, which affects their plans and consumes their internal resources. Only 11% say they are relatively unaffected – especially smaller companies or managers who do not directly manage financial pressures.

“Faced with an unpredictable economic context, private companies are reacting promptly – but tactically rather than strategically. The most frequent responses indicate an accelerated repositioning in the area of efficiency, not growth: cost optimization, adjusting the commercial strategy and renegotiating contracts become immediate priorities,” reveals the study conducted by Reveal Marketing Research, Agerpres reads.

The most common measures reported are: 67% focused more on operational efficiency; 48% rethought their sales and marketing strategy; 39% reduced fixed costs or renegotiated contracts; 18% reoriented towards lower-cost products and services; 16% suspended growth plans. Only 12% said they had not changed their initial directions.

‘The alarm signal is clear: only 1 in 10 companies says they have not changed anything, the rest are already in an adjustment process – but without a long-term vision. Brands feel huge pressure to be relevant ‘here and now’, not necessarily sustainable over time,’ the authors of the paper draw attention to.

In their opinion, investments are the first to be cut, given that ‘you survive, not build’.

In the current climate of uncertainty, private companies conserve their resources and avoid any move that does not guarantee an immediate return. Thus, 30% have postponed investments in equipment or infrastructure, 18% have suspended expansion plans in new markets, 14% have put digitalization or IT projects on hold.

Perhaps the most serious signal comes from the human resources area, given that 52% of companies have postponed hiring or team expansion – a figure that suggests not only caution, but a severe brake on development.

‘We no longer invest in anything that does not bring immediate returns,’ said an operational manager, FMCG sector, participating in the study.

This reactive approach confirms the general tendency to ‘live from one month to the next’, without appetite for risk or strategic construction, warn the study’s authors.

According to the cited source, in an economic context dominated by uncertainty, companies choose efficiency over innovation, adaptation over expansion, and empathetic communication over ambitious promises. From the answers provided, a preservation instinct clearly emerges: to deliver what is required, to clearly state what we can do, to keep the team motivated.

Practically, 66% of companies rely on the rapid adaptation of offers to market demand, 45% emphasize transparent communication with customers and partners (in an unstable climate, sincerity becomes a competitive asset), 44% invest in motivating and training the team. Although hiring is blocked in 52% of companies, those who remain must be supported. In the absence of external resources, human capital becomes the main engine of adaptation.

Also, despite the difficult climate, only 16% of companies explicitly mention the need for financial solutions (loans, leasing, factoring), not because they do not need support, but because the priority is no longer rescue, but ‘lucid navigation’.

In contrast, 59% rely on networking and strategic partnerships, signaling that the way out of the crisis can no longer be individual, but collaborative, and 45% request market information and sector studies, in the hope that they will be able to make correct decisions, based on reality, not instinct.

“The results of this study are an alarm signal that can no longer be ignored: the private sector in Romania is operating today in a failure mode, not a development mode. The numbers are clear – 89% of companies are affected, and over half are postponing their essential investments, including in digitalization, expansion and team. We are living in a period in which the instinct for preservation has replaced strategic planning, and priorities have shifted from construction to survival. As leaders in the economy, we have a responsibility to look beyond quick reactions and cultivate a mindset of clarity, collaboration and long-term orientation. It is clear that the solution no longer lies in additional capital, but in access to relevant data, smart partnerships and the ability to transform uncertainty into an engine of lucid adaptation. If we want to break out of this systemic blockage, we need to move the conversation from ‘how we are surviving today’ to ‘where we want to be tomorrow”, says Marius Luican, CEO of Reveal Marketing Research.