Romania Firm Benefits From Valley Advisor

The Romanian engineer-turned-entrepreneur was a gracious host, sharing a bottle of wine with his American visitor after work. He had big dreams--a new car, plans for a new house.

But one night he summed up his business education.

“He learned everything about business principally from watching ‘Dallas,’ ” said Robert J. Wilkinson, 37, an independent business consultant from Northridge. “I about fell out of my seat when I heard him say that.”

Wilkinson spent six weeks in Romania in January and February as a volunteer business advisor with Citizens Democracy Corps, a Washington, D.C.-based group that sends such volunteers to former Communist nations in Central Europe to help them develop a free-market economy.

Since the fall of communism in 1989, American culture has flooded into Romania, Wilkinson found. Reruns of old TV shows are beamed into the country by satellite. Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls, and other American icons are popular in the country where people still tell stories of the struggle under communism and proudly show visitors the landmarks of their revolution.

“They are eager to embrace anything American,” Wilkinson said.

But while Wilkinson was welcome in the city of Targu-Mures in the Transylvania region, he had to win over his hosts.

He spent five weeks as a consultant with Mariantex, a manufacturer of aluminum-framed glass walls, doors and windows. He helped the company develop long-term expansion plans and worked with them to put together a loan application to the Romanian-American Fund, set up by the U.S. Congress to help Romanian businesses.

At first, the owner suspected Wilkinson was just there to make a report to the fund operators. Eventually, though, Wilkinson earned his trust with humor and an encouraging friendliness. “I did what I could to make myself a little less intimidating,” he said.

As they worked together to apply for a $150,000 loan, company employees started to compare themselves to the legend of St. George and the Dragon. To them, Wilkinson was St. George, the fund was the dragon.

“After that, it was us against the fund,” Wilkinson said. He was given a piece of artwork depicting St. George and the dragon as a farewell gift. The company is still waiting to hear if the loan was approved.

But another enemy for the company was inflation. In the six weeks that Wilkinson was in Romania, the price of bread doubled.

Businesses often feel compelled to buy inventory as soon as money is available, even if there are other bills to pay and they don’t need the supplies.

Wilkinson worked to change habits based on a planned, government-controlled economy by teaching the basics of budgeting and long-term planning.

The Romanians understood the bottom-line mentality of American business, but that didn’t explain why Wilkinson was there.

“Maybe because of the fact that I went over there on my time and on my dime--that was a big issue with them,” he said. “They couldn’t figure out my motivation.”

The payoff was simple, Wilkinson said. “It’s good to be able to teach what you know.”

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