Angelica Barbu, communication and marketing director: putting things into perspective at CEZ

In the past 13 years, her name has always been linked to the utility services field, with a short outing in the financial industry along the way.

Angelica Barbu, currently managing the communication and marketing department at Czech energy group CEZ, joined the company as a communication specialist 13 years ago and ever since, she has checked into all the departments connected to internal and external communication.

Currently, Barbu runs the Communication and Marketing Division of CEZ Group in Romania and develops the brand and marketing strategy of the Group. She coordinated both brand campaigns of the Group in Romania (2015 and 2018) and several product campaigns. Also, Angelica managed an internationally and nationally awarded campaign (“Biblioteca de Energie”) bringing the first EMEA SABRE Award in the national electricity sector. She is also certified in management by Open University and in team coaching by Spoluprace s.r.o.

The life promise of Angelica is to stay true to herself and her values, and most of all – as a manager – to never negotiate on the authenticity in her profession

Barbu relates: “Working in a utility company for almost 13 years now was a key factor in shaping my operational and managerial experience in communication. I had the chance of implementing 360 degrees, as well as targeted communication projects. As I grew professionally mature, my role has become strategic. It is my big dream of bringing out the best in people and the brand that have led me to this point and, hopefully, will lead me forward.”

For Angelica, according to her previous statements, one of her biggest challenges has been the coordination of brand identity for CEZ, the company currently present in Romania with eight components operating in different sectors.

Putting into perspective of the personal brand as a communication specialist, CEZ’s communication manager is mostly triggered by the energy within:

“Pushing the limit higher and receiving the satisfaction of motivating people to be their best version is what keeps me going every day. I believe in real conversation, meaningful content, authenticity in business and in life and in people’s power of changing things for the better. There is no stopping when you believe there is always a way of making things better.”

The metrics of Angelica’s work envision the whole picture and add more soft elements to the overall equation. The share of emotion in the process of building a communication strategy is constantly growing.

“As a specialist,” she explains, “my results were often tightly compressed into the classic communication metrics. As important as they may seem on the hard surface, the truth is they never tell the whole story and may easily mislead the decision makers into incomplete or erroneous conclusions. Nowadays, I’d rather focus on the whole picture and add more soft elements to the overall equation: my team’s overall climate, the organization’s level of optimism, the individuals’ positioning towards challenges – actually, the metrics related rather to the root causes and less to the effects.

“In the brands I represent, the share of emotion is constantly growing to the point where it will become the essence of the strategic construction. As channels and environments tend to become instant and universal, it will all be about the emotion you create when you are perceived and remembered by the public. It doesn’t mean that brand building will become a mainly philosophical approach, but the emotion will have a significantly higher role as an objective, implementation route and result altogether.”

Energy comes from the people and this is the most treasured value proposition of CEZ for Angelica. The manager has big hopes for the entire marcom industry in Romania, which sometimes, are also the red flags.

“As a communicator, I am in the privileged case when I fully share my organization’s value proposition: Energy comes from the people. And I could repeat that years and years from now. The communication and marketing industries should address the matters of  relevance, transparency, and involvement. I hope the Romanian marcom industry won’t hesitate to address the real needs and issues of the community in a responsible and transparent manner, as we see great examples happening worldwide. It is the only way we can truly change our world for the better.

“As a child, I was told that if I feel like lying about something, it means it’s not the right thing to do. So, I’ve never been willing to – fortunately neither have I had to – negotiate on authenticity in my profession.”

Angelica Barbu takes pride in many projects run with CEZ, with the most recent one being the Marathon runner’s gene (Maratonul Olteniei), CEZenification – 100 days of wellbeing, and CEZ Professional Outfits – Made in Romania for CEZ Romania; all three projects having been mentioned and awarded within Romanian PR Awards categories.

(From the print edition)