By Ives Brant, Tornado-Insider

Daniela Florea CEO, Geo Strategies

The CEO of Transylvania-based digital mapping company Geo Strategies is an unusual individual in several respects. Despite growing up under Communism, she turned out to be a natural entrepreneur. She also chose to study English and geography at the University of Bucharest - curious in a country where Russian was the preferred second language, and maps were not freely available.

How does one teach geography without maps? "Very difficult, but we had very simple, descriptive maps without coordinates; they were just drawings. There were three one for Romania, one for Europe and another for the world." Florea was invited in 1991 to teach geography in the UK. "It was a culture shock to see that anyone could have a map. There I saw a contour map for the first time. In the Communist world, altitude and height were sensitive information."

Florea also discovered that in the west, geographic data was used as a decision-making tool. That set her thinking. She took courses to learn data processing and network administration and by the time she returned home, "I didn't know what I was going to do, but I was prepared emotionally to do something new."

While in the UK, she had also received training from Laser-Scan of Cambridge, known for its GIS and mapping solutions, and managed to pick up training and teach hers about the MapInfo products. These two companies later became significant Geo Strategies customers.

After starting Geo Strategies in 1993 with modest aspirations, she adopted a consulting and reselling approach but customers did not come quickly. "I realized this soft-start method wouldn't work, and that we needed our own product and skills." Breaking the mold for IT companies in Romania, Geo Strategies undertook "speculative" product development, creating the first digital maps of the country's terrain.

Connex and Dialog, the two mobile operators currently dueling for the Romanian market, have been her largest sources of revenue. Florea's ambitions grew with initial success, and she went after multinational companies, mainly global telecom providers, because "only by competing in the world market could we maintain world-class standards, and for straightforward fiscal reasons, because being an international player allowed us to expand." Thus she focused on mapping Eastern Europe, Asia Minor and Northern Africa, avoiding competitive pressures.

What led this 36-year-old mother of two into business? "I had always wanted that. It's hard to explain, I had no reference for private entrepreneurship, but I always knew I could do something else." By pure luck, while she was a student in the 1980s, Florea met British IT consultant Bill Metcalf. Once Romania's severe restrictions on communicating with foreigners were tossed out, she began corresponding with Metcalf, and he provided the initial funding for Geo Strategies, which has since grown to employ 65.

"WE NEVER HESITATED, AND WE NEVER LOOKED BACK."

We are the largest private contributor to the budget of our county," says Florea, "and we are proud that we reached our current capitalization of over $1 million through organic growth."

This is our victory, our data and base of skills. Although we are a producer, our message is one of capability."Geo Strategies acts as the Romanian partner for numerous foreign firms such as Laser-Scan and MapInfo. Florea notes that it has been tougher to establish credibility with Romanian firms than foreign customers. "They tend to doubt the local product. You know the saying, "You cannot be a prophet in your own land", and they aren't used to a non-technologist leading a software company." She laughs and notes that Geo Strategies sells to local skeptics through international resellers.

Within the IT industry, her company is well respected, however. "Geo Strategies is a solid, serious company that as far as I know has never failed in any of its engagements," said Vlad-Florian Tepelea, president of the Romanian Software Industry Association. "Florea is an energetic, marketing-oriented entrepreneur who doesn't hesitate to tell anyone, whether they're an ambassador or president, about what her company is offering."

Florea has a pet project for the months ahead: finishing her log cabin at the base in the Transylvanian Alps and finding time for skiing. "We contemplate getting Geo Strategies into bigger hands when the time is right." She's not waiting for a suitor to show up, because Florea believes she is sitting on a major opportunity with the clock ticking relentlessly. "We have created so many products and so much intellectual property that we have to exploit them quickly."

While she won't disclose current revenues, she estimates that Geo Strategies can derive up to $4 million in additional licensing revenue by wringing the most from its map inventory. "We would not have been where we are today if we waited for customers to come and ask for our product. We have product and we have to get out there and demonstrate it. Now, we travel the world marketing."

Florea believes that the future of business geography is not with small software companies, which lack the necessary clout to capture the opportunities. They are too software-oriented." She believes in working with database companies such as Oracle, and intends to continue Geo Strategies' varied approach to digital map production, offering value added skills such as interpretation of satellite imagery as a differentiator. She views alliances with the database heavyweights as "the key to putting geography to work in every company." Given the spatial models available for new Oracle databases, she expects to "go with Oracle into our customer base."

Geo Strategies, both a showcase and an anomaly, is anything but a typical employer in Romania. "Everybody we hire goes through a culture shock," says Florea. "We don't recruit on the basis of technical skills, because they wouldn't be the people we need. I recruit directly from the university, people with very little exposure to any other working environment. It's the attitude that is key." Determined attitude certainly played a part in Florea's career. "Ye went straight for decisions instead of avoiding them." "Geo Strategies is a solid, serious company that as far as I know has never failed in any of its engagements," said Vlad-Florian Tepelea, president ofthe Romanian Software Industry Association. "Florea is an energetic, marketing-oriented entrepreneur who doesn't hesitate to tell anyone, whether they're an ambassador or president, about what her company is offering."

TORNADO-INSIDER.com November 1999