Monica Tatoiu, managing director of Cosmetics Oriflame Romania, one of the leading players of the local beauty product industry, has decided to delay the departure from the post she has held for the last 15 years due to the economic context.

We’ve seen the first signs of financial crisis in October

The first two quarters of 2008 were ‘spectacular’ for Oriflame Romania, while the last quarter was ‘disastrous’, said Monica Tatoiu (photo) in an interview to Wall-Street.

“Our company is tightly connected to the economic environment, and the Romanian economy started to crack in October. We got hit by the ‘tsunami’ in December, when we had a 15% decline in sales which compensated a very good first quarter. However, we’ve talked to some of our colleagues in pharmaceutical, food or clothing industry, and the sales were 10-15% lower than in the year-ago period”, said Monica Tatoiu.

Although she was on the brink of stepping down as managing director after 15 years, Tatoiu decided to remain at the helm of Oriflame Romania until end-2010 due to the financial crisis.

“I was thinking about leaving at the end of 2008. When you build a company from zero, it is unfair and immoral to abandon it in stormy times. A genuine leader leaves something clean and flawless behind, not something defective or damaged. Therefore, I’ve decided to stay until the end of 2010 as managing director, and as of 2011 I will remain in the board of directors”, said Monica Tatoiu.

There are two candidates, she added, running for managing director position, two women who work in the company.

“I disagree with the idea of an outsider running the company. An insider however, has a formed insight and he doesn’t need any further training sessions. The future managing director has to be a clone of Monica Tatoiu. The core values of the company mustn’t change or break”, Tatoiu