Ascent Group expands regionally

Ascent Group intends to expand it’s the territorial network in 2008 by opening new branches. Within our expansion plans for next year we included the opening of 2 offices in Romania, in Timisoara and Brasov, by March 2008. Regarding the expansion abroad, our main target goes on Serbia, Russia and Ukraine. Our regional development plans are based on the opening of own offices or in association with local partners, already existent consulting companies.

Currently Ascent Group has a network of 5 offices: Bucharest and Arad in Romania, Chisinau in the Republic of Moldova, Sofia in Bulgaria and Limassol in Cyprus.

Recently, I have participated at a start course in NLP (neuro–linguistic programming). For those unfamiliar with this term, I could give one of the „definitions”, sustaining that NLP: “is the applied amount of psychology knowledge, research of mind and language, and makes possible the teaching and learning of success communication and of thinking and action oriented towards objectives for personality development.”

I can also tell you it was quite an experience that I enjoyed a lot and has proved I do not know myself that well as previously considering. It has determined to ask myself about my own person and to realize that knowing me is a laborious process, but worth every penny.

One of Ascent Group’s main concerns was always the improvement of the quality for the services we offer. This is the reason why our group has always carefully chosen top partners in all the fields of its activity.

November marks the launching in Romania of an elite company in the field of human resources services, mainly executive search, through an association between Jordan Sheppard and Ascent Group.

Jordan Sheppard is a multinational company in the field of human resources, who has chosen to launch its activity in Romania through an association with Ascent Group. The result of this partnership is Jordan Sheppard Romania.

Last week, the 2nd edition of Ascent Group Business Forum took place in Chisinau. Important moment for us. Important moment for many of the companies who attended trying to identify business partners.

I was pleasantly surprised to realize that the event was also treated very seriously by the officials of the Republic of Moldova.

I saw a very professional Minister of Economy and Commerce, Igor Dodon, who had the patience to explain to investors what are the changes in the legislation and how those will influence the economic environment of the Republic of Moldova starting next year, I saw a Vice-President of the Parliament, Iurie Rosca, who is struggling for many years to attract foreign investors into the country and a very young Mayor of Chisinau, Dorin Chirtoaca, trying to offer guaranties to the foreign investors.

Nowadays, employers together with employees confront themselves with the so-called issue of “personnel fluctuation”. Has become such an ordinary problem that we have begun to ignore it. Actually, this seeming indifference is a way of “defending” ourselves against the phenomena we do not know.

Certainly, the personnel fluctuation is a phenomenon that is extending every day. What could affect more severely, within a company, than one employee’s resignation or even more? Are we fully aware of the costs that are emphasized by this “quitting”? Much more, the negative impact they have on the other employees?

The success of the first Ascent Business Forum edition from last year, in Chisinau, determined us to continue this project that we wish to transform into a tradition. Last year, over 25 companies from Romania, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Germany, and the USA joined an idea of which we, Ascent Group, are very fond of: developing the foreign investments and intensifying the business relations in the Republic of Molova.

This year’s edition of the Ascent Business Forum will take place in the Republic of Moldova, in Chisinau, during 8th–9th of November, at the Jolly Alon Hotel. Ascent Group invites all the companies interested in the business opportunities offered by the Republic of Moldova, to take part in this forum.

Ascent Group consultants have joint together last week (08/30–09/01) in Sibiu for the 3rd “Annual meeting” of the company. The meeting was attended by all the consultants of the company from the Bucharest, Arad and Chisinau offices.

The addressed topics were the strategy of the company for the next years, regional expansion and strategic partnerships.

During the meeting training modules were held, such as: “Communication skills”, “Clients relationship management” and “Team-building”. Not last, during the meeting, working groups on consulting departments were organized.

Due to the late political and economic evolutions, the Republic of Moldova becomes more and more attractive to foreign investors. The foreign investments in the Republic of Moldova recorded an important increase in 2007, compared to 2006. The Vice-president of the Moldavian Legislative, Iurie Rosca assures that the Republic of Moldova is open to the cooperation with the foreign businessmen and has the ambition of becoming a truly functional economy.

The territorial Network of Ascent Group includes, besides the offices from Romania, (Bucharest and Arad) also offices in Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Republic of Moldova and Chisinau.

Daniela Ostafe, former coordinator of the Accounting and Finance department of Ascent Group in Bucharest was recently promoted as member of the Board of Ascent Group Romania (where the other members are Adela Cristea and Marcel Chiscan). In this position Daniela will coordinate the whole financial and accounting activity of the group in Romania.

Daniela joined the team of Ascent Group since 2005 having 5 of years experience in the fiscal and economic field, gathered in companies like Prisma and Archimedes Consulting Group.

Daniela graduated the Economic and Business Administration Faculty, with a degree in Accounting.

The first seminar for Identity Compass licensing in Romania took place in Bucharest during 2nd and 4th of March, 2007, at Novotel Hotel. On this occasion, Ascent Group has become the representative of Identity Compass in Romania. At the same time Ascent Group through its consultants has achieved the ability to licence this evaluation tool all over Romania and Republic of Moldova. Mr. Arne Maus, the founder of Identity Compass International GmbH, also attended at this seminar from Bucharest.

The Identity Compass® is an innovative personnel selection tool which uses an inventory of “thinking structures and preferences” to register how people think and make decisions in typical work situations. It points out what motivates employees, what their values and career goals are and give clear guidance as to which employees are likely to perform best in which situations and how improvement can best be achieved.

During June 6-7, 2006, Ascent Goup organized the first Ascent Business Forum in Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldavia. 24 companies from 6 countries took part in the event (Romania, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Germany and the USA) which showed interest for establishing business relations with the Republic of Moldova.

The debates were centered on the business environment problem in the Republic of Moldova and on the opportunities this environment offers. The participants appreciated that Moldova is a country with a rising potential regarding the investments and many of them showed their intention of starting businesses in this country.