According to Lietuvos Geležinkeliai head Mantas Bartuška, the changes have allowed the group to prepare for its next century of operations.
“Over the past few years, we actively sought to reflect the expectations held by society in regard to us. I believe that we have laid a firm foundation for transparent, professional and future-oriented company operation. Of course, there are still many changes ahead of us, but the results we have achieved thus far give hope that we will even surpass the expectations during the coming century,” M. Bartuška says.
101 changes in seven areas
With the group set to mark its anniversary on July 6, it has launched the website 101pokytis.lt, which displays the seven main directions of change.
According to Mantas Bartuška, Lietuvos Geležinkeliai improved operations effectiveness and invested into existing staff and attracting new talent. It also sought environmentally friendly solutions, learned to effectively cooperate with private sector companies, and actively increased travel comfort.
“Our management changes were crowned last year by completing the separation of operations. We seek to be immaculate in all our activities, and we now truly have the opportunity to do so. Passenger transport, freight transport, and infrastructure maintenance are being managed by separate, independent companies, which can focus all their attention on perfecting their operations,” M. Bartuška says.
Among the most important recent changes are annual growth of profits and dividends paid to the state, increasing volumes of freight transported, and passengers choosing rail transportation.
These improved results by Lietuvos Geležinkeliai were due to investment in not only smart technologies and modern equipment, but also a notably increased attention to the team. The group has created an incentive system to encourage staff motivation, actively seeks to increase the prestige and popularity of engineering professions, and attracted many experienced specialists from the private sector to their management and expert teams.
Expert: transparency as a priority
Company Management Institute in the Baltic States (BICG) president Rytis Ambrazevičius describes the forming of a board comprised of independent professionals, including foreign ones, as one of the most important changes accomplished by Lietuvos Geležinkeliai. According to the management expert, this is a very rare and important phenomenon in state-owned enterprises in the Baltics.
“Managerial independence is one of the core OECD recommendations for state-controlled companies. It is excellent that Lietuvos Geležinkeliai formed a board which features only one civil servant, with the rest being independent members and professionals of the highest level. Due to its independence and professionalism, the board can help create for the company and all stakeholders (shareholders, Lithuanian citizens and etc.) the greatest possible value,” R. Ambrazevičius says.
According to the BICG president, another important change was the disclosure of special commitments and their costs. This allows the Lithuanian people to know how much providing state indicated services (for example passenger transport) provision costs the company. The expert notes that in such a case, operations are transparent and everyone knows with certainty how much the company earns from other (commercial) activities and what its profits are. Lietuvos Geležinkeliai finances also became more transparent thanks to international accountancy standards employed since last year such as clear and public management and board member wage policies.
According to R. Ambrazevičius, in the coming years, Lietuvos Geležinkeliai will most importantly have to continue the process of operations refinement. According to him, it is important for the board to continue improving managerial practices.
“These past few years of intensive transformation into a modern company have demanded vast efforts from the board and management. Now comes the time when the foundations of the company’s management need to be strengthened so that the company, even upon the board changing, would continue operating based on the most advanced practices,” the BICG president assured.
