In 2019, 25 years after the opening of its subsidiary in Romania, Bosch continues to consolidate its solid position in the country and seeks to expand its operations, while taking into account the growing challenges in the economic environment.
“We built in Blaj a new office and laboratory building that will host about 250 associates,” according to Mihai Boldijar, CEO Bosch Romania. “Also this year, the plant relocated its warehouse to a new logistics center of over 20,000 square meters,” he tells The Diplomat – Bucharest. “Also the Bosch Automotive Electronics plant in Cluj expanded its production capacity and product portfolio to meet customers demand.”
Bosch Romania is focusing this year on growing in market share, expanding production and services sites in Cluj, Blaj and Timisoara, setting up a local Bosch Romania Foundation, that will give the right framework to enhance their charitable activities.
“We are proud to be in top ten Romania’s most desired employers in 2019 and we plan to keep our position,” says Boldijar. “For next year, we have several projects going on, one of them being the opening of the first R&D campus in Cluj.”
Boldijar goes on to say that Bosch is on a transformation journey towards a IoT company and everything “we will do is paving our path to a digital world, being autonomous driving, connected products and devices, digital services, connected industry, connected homes or connected mobility. And all this under the aim of a CO2 neutrality across the company until 2020!”
Bosch is a leader in connected industry solutions. Industry 4.0 is an integral part of Bosch’s corporate strategy. The company is digitizing its data and connecting its plants and those of its customers. Bosch projects show that connected solutions can boost productivity at individual sites by up to 25 percent and reduce inventories by as much as 30 percent.
Boldijar explains: “The company’s strategy is paying off: over the past four years, Industry 4.0 applications have generated total sales of more than 1.5 billion euros for Bosch. As early as 2022, Bosch aims to generate annual sales of over one billion euros in this area. We do see challenges mostly in the labour market, legal predictability, technology limitations, but we think this is the future and we would like to have a valuable contribution in shaping tomorrow’s world.”
Mihai Boldijar calls for an open, transparent, consistent and constructive dialogue between authorities and the business community, a newly designed learning curriculum aligned with the future economic needs, a modern social dialog and programs, a digitization of the administration and decrease of bureaucracy, a real support for local small and medium-sized enterprises, and a predictable social, political and economic environment.
He expects a tumultuous, rough and uncertain business year in all sectors and regions: “This creates also the prerequisites for finding new opportunities, as smart leaders will always see chances in challenging times.”
His message for its business peers is: “Lead wise and innovate, keep focus and prioritize, get rid of waste and self-sufficiency, take risks and find opportunities… and be humble!”
(From the print edition)
