Exclusive    Mona Nicolici, Petrom: "The idea that ‘one automatically deserves some things’ is a mentality I fight against"

A shift in Petrom’s CSR strategy is the main challenge for Mona Nicolici (photo), Community Relations and Social Affairs Manager at Petrom. In an exclusive interview she told The Diplomat – Bucharest about the new focus and the main challenges when dealing with corporate social responsibility.

2012-06-11 13:33:54

How much is Petrom’s CSR budget and how was it divided?

If we speak about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the size of our budget has remained relatively constant since 2007, when we started this social responsibility strategy. It is around EUR 5 million per year. So far, our approach has been based on the fact that we are the largest oil company in Romania, with the largest number of employees, and so we have a big responsibility to the national issues. We ran very large national programs, along with educating people in the company to behave responsibly.

What has changed in your approach?

While nationally, with the major projects, the results were very visible and very good, things move more slowly inside the company, as far as CSR is concerned. This is logical, because it is hard to get a message like this, involving a change of mentality, across to more than 20,000 or 25,000 people. It is something that takes years. About a year and a half ago we changed direction and we started to focus more on our business impact.   We expanded the team; we realized that without some local teams, without people to carry our messages  we cannot cover  over than 300 communities and a high number of employees. Returning to the budget structure, besides the amounts allocated to national programs which starting this year will focus on the communities where Petrom operates, there are locally in each division that Petrom has, people and budgets for CSR activities. In this way we managed to find a synergy between what the corporate team was doing and what our employees in the field do. The results began to appear. But the road is very long.

What are the priorities in these communities?

Starting this year the group strategy has changed. The strategy is in the area of ​​sustainability and it’s all about resourcefulness. It is based on the idea of ​​using resources that we as an oil and gas company use responsibly, be they natural resources, human or financial. Petrom’s main direction this year is community development where we have operations because it somehow connects business activity and people from our business to the business strategy. We go further on this path because we want to educate our people in business to understand that they are   part of these communities and thus to be more responsible when we talk about our business impact. We hope to make this change in mentalities and in the community.

What are the main problems, apart from this mentality?

As mentioned, the biggest challenge is to choose from over 300 communities of interest to us. We actually created a risks map of communities in which we operate, mainly on the exploration and production, where Petrom has the highest impact. With local teams we have considered several important criteria to get an analysis of potential risks. We also put on the map areas where living standards are low, so people are more at risk. Great support has come from our colleagues in OMV Vienna. The group sent a very important message to the local management. Not to mention the fact that Mariana Gheorghe, the company’s CEO, is a supporter and was the CSR driver in Petrom. She managed to bring all the top management "on board" in this area. The CSR is not just “a nice thing to have”, as happens in many other companies.

What is your main goal for 2012 in CSR?

Our goal is to follow the new strategy focusing on shared value in the communities where we operate other than through sponsorship. Sponsorship is not a long-term solution. It is only a sticking plaster. We have adopted the idea of teaching people and communities to be self-supporting. The focus is to assist local authorities to access funds from other sources, to help people to create small businesses and become entrepreneurs in order to add value in their own communities.

How many projects does Petrom cover yearly? Has there been an increase?

It`s difficult to give a certain number because we are talking about more than 70 initiatives yearly managed at local level and at corporate level we are developing every year big national programs. Moreover, there are other CSR related activities within our company that need support from our side. People's interest in CSR grew and the mentality began to change, which slightly increased the number of support requests and consequently the number of projects.

When can you say that a project has reached its target?

From my point of view it is a process. Others say I have achieved the goal, the indicators are correct, the project has ended.  Personally, I believe it is a long process and the results are seen only after many years. They are also difficult to measure. Take the simplest example of planting trees, which became fashionable in Romania at one point. But it is not enough to plant. It is important to see what happens to that little forest over the years and that requires a big investment of human and financial resources.  We have planted in many places in Romania. The challenge is to involve authorities or other partners so they have a responsibility and see the trees that create the forest. This means that someone must pay to clean up and to replant. This year, as a solution that ticks all the sustainability boxes, we are trying to find people in the communities in which  we planted to take care of the trees,  creating  at the same time jobs opportunities and making sure that the  investment it is not lost in a year. 

What barriers are there to CSR?

The idea that, “one automatically deserves some things”, is a mentality that I struggle with and I would like to see less and less Romanians thinking like that. . We can`t just stay and wait for things to come from others without us making any effort.   In my opinion this is why there is a principle of balance. Besides this we – as a country – should get involved. We often see people saying, “It's not my job to do something, or complaining that they were born in Romania, or why do we have such politicians and mayors. I think that  we should avoid being passive, doing nothing, asking others.  And I believe that Romanians need to fight more for their rights but with the right balance to bring results.

What are the trends in CSR in Romania? Has the crisis made ​​its mark?

Yes, the crisis has had an impact on corporate responsibility projects. I think that companies who understand that they benefit from CSR, who see it as a strategic direction, and who acknowledge that something needs to change in their business, have continued to invest. Those who used it to boost their PR have finally given up.