“2021 was a good year for Schneider Electric. As a leader in power management and automation, we saw that digitization has moved up fast on the public and business agenda, with many companies looking for solutions that enabled them and their people to carry on with their activities remotely,” Lucian Enaru, Country General Manager Schneider Electric Romania told The Diplomat-Bucharest.
“The spike in utility costs that occurred at the end of 2021 and continues in 2022 is also going to lead clients towards adopting more energy efficiency solutions. We expect new projects in all our business segments.”
COMMITMENT TO PERFORMANCE | BUSINESS EVOLUTION, PROJECTS, PERFORMANCE, FIGURES
How would you describe the evolution of your company in 2021?
“2021 was a good year for Schneider Electric. As a leader in power management and automation, we saw that digitization has moved up fast on the public and business agenda, with many companies looking for solutions that enabled them and their people to carry on with their activities remotely. Our AR and VR assisted solutions gained significant traction.
We have also seen a keen interest in a more efficient, more flexible management of buildings – be it commercial buildings, hospitals, or big residential buildings. With fluctuating occupancy, increased utilities costs and reluctant tenants, the building sector is now looking for energy efficiency and automated management solutions. This has been a growth engine for us last year and most probably will continue to be one in 2022.”
STRATEGY & VISION | RETHINK STRATEGY & PRIORITIES
What challenges have you faced as a CEO/ leader during 2021?
“The second year of the pandemic gave us a bit more predictability and confirmed all the good and prompt decisions that we have made in the spring of 2020, when we moved all our operations to the WFH format. With all the solutions and processes in place, we no longer had to worry about business continuity. However, I do not think many of us expected the pandemic to last that long and to polarize the society that strongly. What we saw in 2021 was a pandemic fatigue, which determined us to consider the hybrid format of work for the future and that encouraged our colleagues from the HR department to focus strongly on our colleagues’ wellbeing and health.”
What priorities and business strategy focus do you have in 2022?
“With the increased awareness of the benefits of digitalization and automation, we are clearly positioned to capture the growth of the market this year. The spike in utility costs that occurred at the end of 2021 and continues in 2022 is also going to lead clients towards adopting more energy efficiency solutions. We expect new projects in all our business segments”
PEOPLE & COMMUNITY | FOCUS ON SAFETY, SOCIAL APPROACH, LEVERAGE THE POWER OF COMMUNITY
What initiatives & projects did the company run in 2021 in CSR and social projects?
“In our CSR strategy, we are looking for areas that would complement or highlight our core competencies. Lately, we had two major initiatives – one was a reforestation project, the other was our contribution to the hospital built by ”Dăruiește viața.”
We teamed up with “Plantăm fapte bune în Romania” to plant 1500 seedlings and we will take care of them up to maturity (3-5 years). The program managed by the NGO is a nationwide afforestation initiative, based on volunteer work under the High Patronage of Her Majesty Princess Margaret, Custodian of the Romanian Crown.
At the paediatric oncology and radiotherapy hospital built by the Daruieste Viața Association in the courtyard of the Marie Curie Paediatric Hospital, Schneider Electric has implemented an intelligent, scalable, and digital electricity distribution solution. All of the connected electrical equipment has been integrated with intelligent building management and energy management solutions that ensure easy building operation, increased energy and operational efficiency, and extend the lifetime of the equipment.”
KEEN ON GREEN | SUSTAINABLE, GREENER, COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENTALLY-FOCUS
What sustainability and green-driven initiatives & projects did the company run in 2021?
“Sustainability is an integral part of our business. When it comes to sustainability, we are not just trying to be a role model in the way we lead our own operations, we are also part of the solution around climate for many of our customers. 72 percent of the company’s revenue is green today – which includes all the technologies that you can develop to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions.”
DIGITAL DNA | GRASPING TECH, DIGITAL INNOVATION, CUSTOMER -DRIVEN, BUILDING NEW BRIDGES
Which were the major directions in your company in 2021 where digital & tech made major difference?
“Our entire business is relying, one way or another on digital & technology, so it would be difficult for me to pinpoint just a few directions. The difference in 2021 was made by the adoption rate of our digital and tech solutions – which was significantly higher and faster than before. We expect to reach a critical mass in terms of adoption of new technologies really soon and that will give us an extra momentum for our own business development.”
What trends do you anticipate for this year?
“Trends usually occur in the aftermath of big changes – what we are going to see this year is how many of the behavioural and business changes that happened during the pandemic will remain as a permanent fixture and how many will turn out to be just fads or short-term changes. We expect the hybrid work format to stay on and be adopted on a large scale. We expect a change in the way big buildings and big development projects are designed – owners will want them to be efficient and to allow for flexible usage (commercial and residential). I am sure we will see growth on the data centre and micro data centre market – with the many businesses that established their presence online during the past two years, consumers have become used to order many things from the comfort of their homes, so online commerce will grow and so will the need for data centres and cloud services.
On the consumer segment, we see a raising demand for homes and flats that are more smart, sustainable, safe, and nice. Now more people expect their homes to be interconnected across all installed technologies. To have all systems with ability to optimize its operation, easy to be controlled from anywhere anytime. Sustainability will gradually become life standard and safety should be without compromise. And all technology is expected to fit to high standard of home design.
Last but not least, with an ever-growing number of electrical vehicles on the roads, we expect the charging infrastructure to evolve now, at a much needed, faster rate.”
2021 IN 3 KEY WORDS
“Resilience, innovation, growth”
2022 IN 3 KEY WORDS
“Normalization, efficiency, growth”