What kept Coman at Tenaris was a culture of mentorship and continuous learning. Tenaris
Mariana Coman almost left Tenaris in her first month. "I said, OK, it's not for me," she recalled. "I thought I'd stay maybe six months until I found another job." Twenty years later, she is Administration and Finance Director for Tenaris in Romania. She leads a team that has largely stayed together for more than a decade, and her PhD research uses the company as a case study.
Coman studied economics in Cluj-Napoca and worked for two years at a local Romanian company before joining Tenaris's operations in Romania as a cost analyst. A year later, she was promoted to a manager position.
What kept her, she said, was the culture: an open environment and the chance to learn new systems and ways of working as a young professional. Silcotub joined Tenaris in 2004, and colleagues from other countries were helping bring the Romanian operations into Tenaris's global industrial system. "Working with Italy and other Tenaris companies was new for us, and that was very attractive," she said.
Coman credits Mihaela Popescu, now President of Tenaris for Eastern Europe, the North Sea and Sub-Saharan Africa, as her mentor. "She was my champion from the start. I learned a lot from her, and I'm still learning."
Coman's experience across the technical and social spectrum of management taught her that while she can learn through colleagues' technical experiences, people change everyday. Tenaris
Managing people: the hardest part of the job
Over the years, Coman has worked through mergers, system implementations, and economic crises, but for her, the technical challenges were never the hardest part. "You talk to colleagues with experience across Tenaris and learn how they've done it," she explained. "But people are different, and they change."
Early in her career, she said, she was very blunt, sometimes too blunt, but experience changed that. Today, most of her direct reports either started with her or were hired by her more than 10 years ago. She attributes that to open conversations and honest feedback. "I don't want to hear praise. I want a team that can approach me easily and discuss things beyond our day-to-day work."
Beyond her industry experience, Coman delved into academia to complement the lessons learnt from years at Tenaris. Tenaris
A PhD in sustainability reporting, with Tenaris as a case study
About five years ago, after many years in the same position, Coman saw an opportunity to learn something new. "I'm not someone who waits for others to decide my next step," she said. She started a PhD on non-financial reporting, looking at how integrated thinking and reporting can support sustainable development. Her case study was Tenaris’s facility in Zalau, Romania.
Researchers rarely get to study a company from the inside, and that gave her work a practical angle. "It allowed me to connect academic concepts with actual business experience," she said.
Combining work and academia wasn't easy. At her first academic conference, in Italy, her hands were shaking as she presented to a committee of professors. "Every project is tough at the beginning. But this experience gave me a new energy, also for my work. Honestly, after this, I feel I can do anything."
Twenty years in, her motivation hasn't changed. "I often tell my team that you can't wait for others to create opportunities for you. You're the driver of your own career."
Learn more about Tenaris in Romania and careers at Tenaris.