The distinguished Founder of the Romanian-American University (RAU), Professor Ion Smedescu, did think in multiple time frames, anticipating and reacting to discontinuities, and enhancing capabilities while looking ahead, constantly challenging priorities and inspiring the entire academic family, empathizing with students, identifying and developing talent, learning to adapt and effectively address changes in the relevant market demand or competition, actively seeking to understand broader trends outside RAU, reflecting RAU values and principles in the key managerial processes, stimulating innovation and preventing generational barriers by engaging younger generations in formulating RAU policy and organizational development, managing to create RAU value and enduring through time with patience, and moving on.
Professor Ion SMEDESCU often spoke passionately about the world of human creativity and shared subjective experience, by constantly pledging for both, on one hand, a better understanding of customers’ and prospects’ needs and expectations from our University, and on the other hand, having the right message and delivering it in the right time and right place, while responsibly and accountably teaching students to adequately apply what they have learned. In the Spring of this year we have highlighted the fact that in the opinion of Professor Ion Smedescu “marketing strategy means drift refusal” was equivalent to a better understanding of today’s so-called “customer decision journey” (popularized by McKinsey) – compared to the traditional “marketing funnel” (“sales funnel”, “conversion funnel”) – seen as a new mental map to navigate the continuously changing competitive landscape.
Eight years ago, in 2008, Professor Ion Smedescu, Founding Rector of the Romanian-American University chose the 5th of October (the same day as Father Staniloaie, October 5, 1993) to step on the path of eternity, leaving as legacy the force of the feeling of solidarity in shaping minds and characters. Former student of the „Christian love Theologian” – Father Staniloaie, Professor Ion Smedescu often mentioned Father Staniloaie, speaking of the misterious beauty of a wonderful landscape and the necessity of the conscious sens of the ordinance, of the beauty, in order to perform a task the right way, in joyful communion. RAU Founding Rector (we can see below Rector Ion Smedescu next to His Beatitude Teoctist, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church on the occasion of the Consecration of the Romanian-American University Chapel, in 2007) used to state that he learned from his Great Teachers that there is always the need for moderation (as a rational attitude towards pleasure), courage (as a rational attitude towards pain), justice (as respect towards the man) and the feeling of justice, of lawfulness, education meaning first of all respect.
