Author: Cristian Borozan

Introduction:

 I am Cristian Borozan, a practicing professional in the field of project management and a member of PMI Romania for 20 years! After many years of passive participation in the life of the organization (attendance at organized events), I started to get more involved in the life of the organization, in 2019, as a speaker at two events/workshops organized in June and October. Soon after, I decided to take my involvement to the next level, applying for the role of Director of Membership and Recruitment, which I fulfilled in 2020. Then, at the end of 2020, I successfully ran for the role of president of the association, a role I fulfilled during the years 2021–2024. And now, I am at the time of the assessment, given that, currently, there is a new leadership team installed and fully functional, aimed at taking the organization to a new level of performance, visibility and impact.

Context and Objectives:

Given the specific context of 2020 (the first of the pandemic) and the vacancy of several Board positions, I was practically the “de facto” president of the association. It was, by far, the most difficult period of my involvement, having to face the greatest challenges from a legal, financial and operational point of view. With a legal status in the process of being updated – this being years in arrears, with blocked bank accounts, current expenses to cover and debts to suppliers – all this under the conditions of an “interim” and informal presidential mandate, the situation was similar to sailing on a stormy sea, with an incomplete crew, without a map and supplies. At the beginning of my first term as president (2021–2022), the BRYX team (Bring Your Expertise: https://www.bryx.ro/) conducted a start-of-term interview with me, as is their tradition, which can be viewed and read here: https://www.bryx.ro/2021/01/despre-pmi-romania-cu-presedintele-pmi-romania-cristian-borozan/I highly recommend reading this article, as it very succinctly captures both the context at the time, as well as the objectives and vision of my beginning journey within the organization.

Majore Accomplishements:

• My main achievement was that, despite some major challenges that the association had to face – especially in the first years (2020 and 2021) – I managed to maintain the functioning of the association (“keep the light on“), but, above all, to maintain the cohesion of the team (its hard core), in conditions where losing motivation to continue was very tempting.
• Then, the legal status of the association was regulated, after many years of uncertain and precarious situation, updating the composition of the management team (legal representatives) with respect to the Romanian authorities (Register of Associations and Foundations). As a consequence of this update, we managed to unblock the bank accounts and normalize the operational status of the association.
• Very important and relevant for those uncertain years was maintaining the level of services offered to the association’s members at a reasonable value, given the context. The move on-line, determined by the pandemic, gave us the opportunity to launch a “product” that proved successful (MarathonPM) and, therefore, entered the series of recurring events, being held every year, even in bi-annual editions. Within these, dozens of themes, with as many local and international speakers, delivered hundreds of hours of presentations and debates on topics in the area of ​​project management and even beyond it (neuroscience, PMO, Change Management, Disciplined Agile, AI).
• Maintaining the annual election process on a permanent basis was one of the priorities, ensuring a continuous renewal of the composition of the management committee, in accordance with the requirements mentioned in the association’s statute.
• The renewal of the PMI Romania charter authorization has been continuously ensured over these years, representing, at the same time, proof that the association has achieved its objectives stipulated in the Annual Action Plan, as well as the fulfillment of financial and operational indicators.
• The reconstruction of the PMI Romania association website was one of the major projects of 2021; its success gave us the comfort of maintaining an efficient communication channel with our members, to inform them with priority about relevant events in the life of the organization (statute, elections, events, newsletter, volunteering, etc.)
• We, in turn, provided support to refugees from Ukraine by sponsoring the MagiCAMP ASSOCIATION in the difficult year of 2022.
• In recent years (2023–2024), the keywords that characterized the evolution of the association were: growth, maturation and raising our members to a new level of satisfaction. These aspects materialized through a sustained increase in the number of members – from 270 at the end of 2020, to 412 at the end of 2024. We resumed the tradition of organizing national project management conferences under the aegis of PMI Romania. The three conferences in 2022 (IamRomanianPM), 2023 (PM Perspectives) and 2024 (PM of the Future) enjoyed a real success, which was confirmed by the sponsors attracted and the feedback from the participants.
• The launch of PMCafe, a casual meeting and socializing format, in Bucharest and several cities across the country, was an opportunity to maintain ongoing relationships with members of the organization, supporters, as well as representatives of our regional/local partners.
• We also attracted valuable sponsors (OMV Petrom) and concluded collaboration agreements with academic institutions (SNSPA), which lay the foundation for organizing future impactful events, both for the business and academic communities.
• The launch of the “Project Kids Adventures Series” (the “Books”) promises to be a successful project in the educational and academic area, with long-term impact on the education of the younger generation, in the spirit of good project management practices.

Challenges and Lessons learned

As in any project, participants learn new lessons or it is desirable to do so. As president and member of the PMI Romania Board, I have had several occasions to note that two things are essential in such a mission: Role objectives – these define the parameters of the mission; you are there to achieve those objectives, which you must know and assume. My objective was to stabilize and normalize the association’s activity in a first phase and, subsequently, to move to the maturation and growth phase, thus helping the organization reach a higher level of maturity in delivering services and benefits to its members and to the project management community in Romania. I believe that I have succeeded in this, to a large extent, even if there is still room for growth in the development area, especially in the context of the accelerated growth of the number of members foreseen for 2025 and the following years. A periodic reading of the PMI Ro statute, of the own Job Description, as well as of the Action Plan for the current year, would be a good practice to remain well anchored in the specific context of the assumed role, thus guiding the appropriate action and attitude of each board member. The leadership team – without a highly motivated team, things don’t happen and everything slips into derision and mediocrity. Personal motivation is the critical factor for each team member and it is not easy to maintain at a high level in a non-for-profit NGO nowadays, when each of us has a job, a family and many other personal goals. From this point of view, I believe that it would be beneficial to better inform candidates about the roles and responsibilities that will fall to them, as well as the amount of real effort they will have to allocate, if elected – so that they are fully aware of the mission they are committing to and assuming when they apply. I also believe that a better balance of interests, benefits and rewards between roles would be useful, so that there is less potential for conflicts and tensions between them. In this sense, I would recommend a better delimitation of roles and responsibilities in the area of ​​event organization, to avoid the situation where all board members want to organize events, given that they offer more visibility to those involved. I would also suggest creating new roles within the board, e.g. Director for IT and Web Develoment (like our colleagues in Bg) or VP for Volunteering (like our colleagues in Hu) or PMI Ro Branch Manager type roles (like Cluj could be).  

Conclusions and Reflections

• PMI Romania is today probably in its best shape in many years– both in terms of membership numbers and satisfaction, as well as in terms of public image, financial and legal situation. For all this, I am deeply satisfied with the performance of the management team and feel that I have come out of this role with a peaceful heart.
• The organization remained in very good hands, both with the new board of PMI Romania (which began its activity on January 1, 2025), and with a consolidated group of active volunteers, in whom I have great confidence that they will continue this journey and make it even more beautiful.
• I will remain, with mind, body and soul, alongside PMI Romania (#Together We Can)!
• I will continue to contribute, with everything I can, to the development of the project management community in Romania – our main mission .

Thanks and Gratitude:

• Obviously, nothing can be achieved without people animated by a common goal. The constantly renewed leadership team of PMI Romania has made it possible not only to keep this community of project management professionals alive, but also to increase its visibility and impact in the business community, academia, the public sector and society as a whole. For all this, I thank from the bottom of my heart everyone who has been involved in all these years! Without them, nothing would have been possible. The achievements mentioned above are, in fact, those of the leadership team and active volunteers. I have only helped, guided, supported and sometimes mediated some conflicts.
• I want to thank each and every one of the team members from the bottom of my heart for this wonderful journey we have been on together. It has always been an honor and, often, a real pleasure to work alongside them. Together, we have achieved concrete things, we have gone through both pleasant and tense moments, and we have gone through turbulent, sometimes difficult periods. But here we are now: the ship has arrived in port, with the “cargo” in good condition, with all the members on board and with great projects (destinations) for the years to come. Good luck and “bon voyage“! 😊