by Cristina PastiaThe national company TAROM, in the past the pearl of transport services in Romania. Now, a company fallen both literally and figuratively. The pandemic only showed the deplorable state in which it is, and for some specialists it is not the reason of its decline. Just one more millstone at the “neck” of the company.
As a consequence, what did the managers and the government think of? Of a restructuring plan. They cut the numbers of employees, correct, they cut the expenses and the training of the employees, correct? and they thought of disbanding foreign branches of TAROM (in the EU), a sort of “ticket agencies abroad”. Correct. The question is this: are all these enough?
If we take the example of other situations in the field of air transport, definitely not. First of all, even only from a psychologic point of view, the “restructuring plan” should have been called (and have a solid component) “restructuring and recovery plan”. Besides the “let’s cut expenses and then we’ll see” way of doing things specific to the 60s, such a company needs much more. It’s as if you emptied the fuel tank of an aircraft before a forced landing. And you don’t know how it will end.
So, first of all, what do we want TAROM to be? Do we want to go around the world 80 times a week or just to “spread” around Romania and the neighbouring countries? Wouldn’t a “cargo” component have been appropriate? Would it have been bad to have a sort of adapted “headging” from the field of currency risk in the field of transport services, in the respect of diversifying them?
But no. We know how to cut. Just to cut. And then we watch in amazement how businesses in fields that will never “fall” fall. Because there is a market. Because the over-specialized human resource you throw away is gold to others.
(an article by Edward Pastia)