How to improve business? Ecommerce and Digital in Serbia today – Nenad Rikić X Class – podcast

Nenade, hello, welcome

Good day, better to find you.

I am glad that we will be able to talk about these topics because they are quite important at the moment and I would say current given the events, so if someone seriously wants to deal with business, I believe that this will be of great use to them. Before we get into business topics, I have one question before business topics: when did you enter the world of business and do you remember what you wanted to be when you were little?

Let’s say when I was little, there is a story that my parents told me, that I wanted to be a director all my life.

– Here’s the answer.

Circumstances hit it, and somewhere in the more serious world of business I entered in 2006 and since then I have been present in this market in some operational and management positions.

– So since 2006. Ok, let’s get down to these business topics now. You have created a company and one of the areas you deal with is business consulting. Can you just give a little bit, can that translate to business consulting?

It can.

– Can you bring people a little closer to what it means, what you do? What are your expertise, since we’ve been hearing lately that there are business consultants, so if you could just elaborate a bit?

I can, of course. When the partner and I founded the company, we saw, we thought about how we can cover the market and what we can offer to the market. One of those things is business consulting, i.e. business consulting in the field of organization, sales, company development, establishment, planning, budgeting, establishment of KPIs… Why did we decide to take that step? We believe that the current market is such that we have a large, certain number of companies that should move to a higher level, they can achieve that higher level by bringing new people into the companies, which is a slower, longer-term and more expensive way, and to find people who can help them in all this.That way is faster, it’s cheaper, you just get some experiences that certain companies can’t pay for, let’s say, at that moment.What is good, what is the advantage, shall we say, of such a way of working? The fact that you can use that service for a few months, you can use it for a year, then you can find a consultant for another area and so on, and so it can help you further in the development of the company. It is simply necessary to create some new energy, some new critical mass of knowledge of people in the company so that it can move to a higher level.

– You include both management and operational consulting. Are all three complementary or only one type is taken and is there any difference when someone makes a choice, is only business taken or should it be strategic as well. What are some similarities, what are the differences between the three?

Essentially, we usually talk to business owners who are also directors or general managers. In the end, it ends up being a mix of everything, because as soon as we start talking about certain situations, problems arise, i.e. challenges and then we approach solving the most urgent things, and when we record a certain situation in the company and perform an analysis, we give some of our proposed solutions and a proposal of what needs to be done. If the company that hired us wants to add something to it, then we deal with it and make some kind of compromise on what is best to do in order to satisfy both parties and to reach the best solution, because in the end it has to result in some success – financial, organizational.

– When and who needs business consulting, how can people recognize that they need consulting? They think maybe, we’re doing good business and that’s it. What is a period from your experience that people need to turn to, to recognize?

Well, I will cite a few cases. Usually, as soon as you don’t have anything on paper, that’s one of the signs that you need business consulting. If you don’t have your plans on paper, you need business consulting. If you don’t compare, you don’t do reports, you don’t compare with plans, you need consulting. If there is no specific knowledge in the company that you need to improve, and you are not sure whether you need to hire new people or you are not familiar with the subject, you need business consulting. If you have a problem that you have not encountered before, then again business consulting is a good solution for you. It’s simply necessary, I look at it in such a way that we are the directors of that company and as if we are the leaders of one of the projects in that company and it should be in mutual and common interest, if such a relationship is not established then it is basically wasted time.

– So a friendly relationship, where they are not ashamed to hide information?

– Yes, often these jobs are won on trust. Conditionally speaking, some “dirty laundry” has to be aired, some problems that we may not want to discuss publicly. And when these problems are revealed, when people openly talk about the problems and when they really say what their problems are, then much better solutions can be given. Most of these things can be received

you by recording things in the company, however, not everything can. It is very important to have an open attitude, open communication with both employees and directors, and to experience that this is all for the purpose of improving business. That there is no revenge story or something, but simply that if we want to improve something, we really have to tell it like it is. Often people need to have a certain goal and want to achieve something, however they are not ready, the company is not ready at that moment.

– She will, but she is not ready.

It is, and then we have to take them back a step or two or three and say what are the prerequisites for us to be able to deal with some things at all.

-How many people are ready to take a step back in order to go forward?

It depends from person to person, but it’s 50:50. Someone insists that we should deal with certain goals and problems defined by him, and someone accepts all suggestions. Of course, sometimes we don’t even reach an agreement because we simply think that the way he wants to achieve it, on the contrary, is not the normal sequence of things.

– What are some of the biggest misconceptions when hiring business consulting or someone who needs to help you, how do people from the outside view you?

Well, the biggest misconceptions are if there is no political will in the company to complete a project. Sometimes the owner is declaratively in favor of changing things, but it does not go down further because there is no energy in the company to make changes. On the other hand, you always have problems that people don’t accept new things and then they have to see some value in your work to think with themselves and say “hey, this makes sense” basically this makes it easier for us and so on. They must not see negative things, they must not experience that someone has come to burden them with additional work. Rather, employees are often surprised by the solutions where they say, “Well, now you have said many things that we essentially know, but we didn’t dare and didn’t know how to say, we didn’t know how to fight for certain things”. As the company develops, people deal with work in such a way that everyone deals with everything, everything is a priority and everything is chaos. However, this can be done to a certain extent, to a certain degree of development, but then there must be a division of tasks and it must be clearly communicated to those people what is expected of them. Until 12.15

– Then you need to have a lot of experience to be able to “open their eyes” to be their friend, support and be there for them. What was your experience before business consulting? You worked in a couple of companies, how much did that experience help you, of course it did, but what do you see as having the most impact on your current job? If you can cover the positions you’ve all been in?

What is important about a young man is that at the beginning of my career, I was also engaged in all possible jobs. From physics to some organizational things.

– Is it better to start from the lowest position or from the top?

I can’t say if it’s better, I went that way. I think it’s wrong to say that everyone has to start from scratch, but what’s the point of all that? It is important that you understand how some things work. Those practical things that you did and jobs that other people might not do, I did them and I’m grateful for that and I learned a lot of things, why? I have, on several occasions, been a mentor to people, both officially and unofficially, in the companies where I worked, and I say it is very important if you are in a leadership position for people to understand that you don’t talk nonsense, conditionally speaking, why? Because if I give someone a task and he tells me it takes three days for it, and he finishes it in two hours, I agree to all that and he says “this guy really doesn’t understand what he’s talking about” and after that it’s very difficult to fight for your credibility and get them to listen to what you’re saying. I worked in the sports industry in the furniture industry, on several projects and related to fashion and so on. All those jobs helped me develop. The biggest problem is because people don’t learn from all people. I think we should learn every day from all people. You’d be surprised how many practical things you can learn.

– You are probably a supporter that a person should not specialize in one industry, but should have broad knowledge and be able to work in several industries, learn from several people and be able to implement further.
– To be a specialist in one thing or to know many things?

Let’s put it this way: I’m in favor of knowing more things, but my positions were like that. I was the general manager or deputy manager and then I had to understand all the processes in the company. I would say that, let’s say, for my profile that the person who is in that position must have the highest average of knowledge. I don’t know sales or marketing or finance the best, but in the company where I am the director my average is the highest; someone knows marketing but doesn’t know finance or vice versa etc. It is very important to be able to see all the processes, because if you as a manager do not know the cause-and-effect relationships of a decision or how things are going, you simply do not control the situation, and as soon as you do not control the situation, you do not know what can happen.

– So you have to hold all the strings in your hands?

Well yes. You just have to act like you own a business Whether you own a small store or a large company you have to hold the strings and levers of management in your own hands.

-Which is easier or harder, being the director of a large company or leading a team of 5-10 people?

The bigger challenges are when you are the director of a large company. The challenges are much greater, the degree of learning is much greater, the degree of stress is greater. Those are some things that are important. However, when you work in a company, there are two problems; basically you don’t know if you were lucky or if you really deserved to advance in that company with your knowledge – simply if you have the knowledge to manage anywhere in the company. Another thing, your contribution in a large company can sometimes be difficult to measure; you get a job in a big company and how do you measure your contribution in a big company. I prefer to start, if you can choose, to start in the company, to be able to go through different things, to find yourself in all that, to see what suits you best and to see what it is made of. Because not all of us want to be managers, someone wants to do jobs without stress, someone wants to work from 8 to 4 or from 9 to 5, and that’s totally ok.

– Can you turn off your brain now that you are the director of your company, to give yourself a breather?

I’m giving myself a break, it’s not exactly like that, because I just wanted to create a current situation for myself in the company so that I could behave like that. Of course, a person thinks about work, looks at some things that can improve work, but it is not something that prevents you from functioning normally.

– Is it most important to create a system that does not depend on one person?

Well, it is, if not the most important, then it is very important. The system must work without that person. We often think “without this everything would fail”, but it is not so essential. Business has to function and it adapts to all the changes that happen, either willingly or unwillingly. Whether wanted or unwanted, he simply adapts to the new situation and simply continues to work like that.

-Many things are happening now, it is quite dynamic and it is impossible to predict what will happen next, or in a few days. What does it look like when someone wants to hire you, what does your work process look like, your evaluations, if you can get closer to some people who might want to hire you.

Usually people have a request, if they come through a recommendation or through an advertisement we place or they heard about us in some third way. They usually have a request they would like to discuss. The more specific the request, the easier it is to answer. However, we are guided by the fact that we want to look at the situation a little more broadly to see if that request is justified. Quite often people say “I want to advertise” and that’s it. Essentially if you judge that it makes sense to make sense, then that’s ok. Sometimes we say it’s ok, but we need to make certain preparations. When we come to a meeting, we first analyze what we see from the user’s side, conduct a meeting, if necessary, perform additional analyses, discuss and define the way we operate. People are often surprised and tell us “for the first time we understand people who are talking to us about some things” because we talk to them in a practical and logical way, we don’t talk in a way that is incomprehensible to them.

-People often think they are more experts if they use terms that are incomprehensible to them.

Yes, I am an advocate of speaking as simply as possible so that people can understand you. Sometimes it is more complex, if we do some education, some professional terms need to be explained, but in the vast majority of cases business owners do not need that. He wants to understand, to believe in what you say, to explain to him in a simple way what he will get. Why can’t something, if it can’t. After all, these are people who are successful, because of vanity. Then you explain to him and he says “okay, thanks, now I’ve learned something” or simply doesn’t want to go into the further process. There is everything in working with people. It’s just that when you do this work, it’s stupid to do it in a way that makes you feel ashamed afterwards. So if we do something, we cannot do it wrong. No matter what the client’s wish may be.We say that we can do it in one way or another, make certain compromises, but we can’t do everything, it’s not natural and we don’t want to allow ourselves to do that.

– Well, in the end they are your reference, your praise or criticism for the future.

– Can you give me some specific examples of how you helped someone, what the process looks like when it starts and when you finish, is that vigilance in money, is it in better exposure, what are some concrete examples.

As for e-commerce solutions, people think that if they get a good platform, that will solve everything. However, they have a platform, i.e. they have a tool that can sell well, but that tool is not used adequately and then people come and say “I want to invest” a certain amount of money in advertising and so on and we then explain

we know what we need to do, let’s organize the entire offer that is on the website, on the e-commerce platform, then help them with the classification, that is, with the attributes of the solution itself, and then when people see that it starts to return money, that it makes sense, then they are encouraged and lower their guard and it is no longer there and they accept new ideas. For each of these problems there are several aspects, the technical aspect, whether it is well connected to erp, whether it is connected to the courier service, whether it is connected to the bank, to analytics or fb. These are technical things. A banal example, people give money for advertising, but they don’t have google analytics or fb pixel connected and you simply don’t have the possibility to draw some conclusions based on some information. And the essence of digital marketing is that everything is measurable and that everything has its own traceability. On the other hand, people do everything well, say, however, since it is direct sales, let’s say they put inexperienced salespeople in a call center that can carry 30-50% of sales depending on the industry. That salesperson must be the best in the company, he must sell over the phone. It’s easier for him to sell in the store when he sees a person, now it depends how much harder it is over the phone. And then they are surprised in such a way. Simply, people become aware and we explain to them in a practical and logical way what their problems are and what should be the focus.

-Do you also help them in sales?

Of course, we act as the leaders of that project, we observe their sales performance, what they advertise, how they advertise, where it is in relation to the competition, what is good, what they should show on certain items when they sell them. You would be surprised when you see how in a serious company organizational units do not work, everyone works for himself. In the end, you get a solution that has nothing to do with it.

– So cooperation is very important?

Cooperation and timing.

– What else do you notice that is bad about the companies you cooperate with? I guess with digital marketing, everyone thinks marketing is – you give money, you make an ad and that’s it. They expect money. Where else do you see that people can improve, where they make mistakes, and that it is relatively easy to improve, that they can do it themselves. And what is your expertise?

Let’s say people don’t realize when we have e-commerce and digital marketing, one segment we’re talking about is sales and that for a company that can reach saturation on the market, it has stores all over Serbia, the question is when that e-commerce sales can exceed 20% and all the predictions are that it can hardly pass 20% of the total turnover in such companies. However, what everyone forgets is that e-commerce and digital marketing, as a whole, affects the business for sure in an estimate of 40-60% depending on the industry. What does that mean? This means that for every 100 customers we have in a retail store, depending on the branch, but conditionally speaking, 40-60% come because of what they saw on the Internet. On fb, insta, google and so on, and on our website and so on and that’s why they buy. Such a situation has simply arisen that if you want to inquire about something, your choice is narrowed, and then the influence of a well-established e-commerce solution, well-placed digital marketing, methods of advertising, information that is obtained, information that is placed in that domain can even be significantly greater than the contribution through e-commerce itself. It’s something that many companies don’t experience that way, but everyone does.

– Need to stand out in some way?

Of course, sometimes some techniques don’t work like that anymore, people deal with it, make catalogs, flyers and so on, where you can’t react so quickly to changes in the market, they require certain preparation, certain financial resources and we advise them to direct that money into digital channels, digital marketing, where in the end they can measure whether it pays off or not.

– Why do people deal with those old methods, flyers, newspapers, and not turn to digital marketing, especially now that everything is turning online? Are they not ready for changes, do they not understand?

There can be several reasons, one of the reasons is that it goes by default, it goes from month to month, the budget is divided, it is divided into catalogs, press and so on. The second reason is that if these people are dominant in the company, it simply remains like that, as a nailed-down version, and the third reason is that there are not enough people to provide good quality solutions in the field of digital marketing. It seems to you that everyone is doing it, but it is like sales to you, everyone is doing sales, but there are not many successful and good companies when it comes to sales. And then there is a demand in the market even when there are people who know the business, he has this problem of convincing someone to change everything in the company to provide him with the means to work, that’s maybe the hardest part. There must be political will in the company, that the project leader is someone who can change things. If we employ a person who deals with it and who is excellent and comes to the company to work, but this way he cannot change things in the company, if he cannot change the marketing budget, if he cannot change the importance of that project in the company, then it remains a dead letter on paper and works with 100-200-300 e budget on a monthly basis and cannot change anything important.

– So a lot depends on the people, you give them everything and again someone needs to do it, of course.

Sure, maybe a cliché, but people really are the most important resource. Why? There is a chronic shortage of quality people. As there is a chronic shortage of companies that can adequately respond to your requirements. Sometimes it’s because people are simply not visible on the market, you can’t reach them, and sometimes it’s because people think it’s enough to be active on the networks on fb, insta, to have those profiles and that’s enough to engage in digital marketing, that’s an extremely simplified opinion, but it’s very common. I have a little one who has a really good profile, he keeps it up for me and so on. If everything worked like that, then we would never have to pay others, we could do everything ourselves.

– Yes, both in our country and abroad, it will always be run by a small person, those networks. But is the situation changing now, when we are all moving online, I should say that it will probably continue to progress. What are some of your predictions for the future and what do you see slowly starting to grow that will be a big thing or a trend that you find interesting?

Surely things are changing for the better, surely these unforeseen circumstances for covid accelerated all those changes and I think that we are all at the beginning of a further development, because e-commerce is yet to show its capacity. We believe that the Serbian market is at a very low level as far as the development of e-commerce is concerned, it works at a high speed, but these are still small numbers. What can be expected to happen for sure is the growth of e-commerce, but what carries all this is that these are not simple and cheap and simple solutions. It used to be enough to have a large number of followers on facebook and instagram, and without any paid advertisements you could do a certain job. Now it is almost impossible. No paid ads, no real platform, no automation of the system, no connection with the bank, erp, courier service… simply the performance has to change, as I explained everything that is not good comes out online. Everything that we did not do well in the classification, design, description of those products, sales process, after sales, comes out online and sometimes the comments of people who are dissatisfied online, have a great influence on all that.

– So they are dissatisfied, they don’t even know why, and then you bring them solutions, to open their eyes a little. What are some tricks, regarding digital marketing, that people can somehow improve themselves, and only then call you, what is relatively simple that can be done now?

Well, yes, there are some practical things that we tell clients, if you make some posts on social networks, that means that post must have some call to action, it must have some time frame for which it applies, there should be some link to that product, if we sell it, there must be some price that communicates or an advantage for the customer and we should use some # important for that. They can be generic for the company, they can be a promotion, a discount or so on or a related product. And that is enough for everyone to look forward to their own posts, whether I have a call to action, whether I have a deadline, what is the saving for the customer, whether the graphics are in line with that, a graphic solution and a link to that product. And then if you’re already doing it, that’s the first and basic step to at least have all the elements. People often mistake, say, 10-15,000 different products and then create an action and put a link that leads to the homepage, and that’s a big problem. Now a man needs to find it. Or they don’t put a link. Either they don’t limit the time or they don’t call for action. And then problems arise where a person comes and says he has an action on fb, but it expired yesterday, and nowhere does it say that it expired yesterday.

– How to make an offer, since the price is important to everyone, how to present to them what we have as a product or service so that the price does not play the main role that it is the value they get. How can the price not be the main thing for them?

There are maybe two segments, one thing is when we sell items that others have. So then the price is very important, extremely important, but I would say another thing. The discount that is communicated is even more important.

-Is that so?

Yes.

So if you have something that is 100 euros and you communicate with 100 euros that it is a 10% discount and that is 90 euros, and the competition has a fictitious price of 150 euros and communicates 40%, in this case it will sell much better and much more than in the first case. So this market is sensitive to the discount, it’s sensitive to the ouch, I’ll miss out today 40%, last item. It is, so that’s just the way it is.

– So it works?

It works, yes. So it’s for articles that others have as well, it’s like that, let’s say specific. For items that no one else has, that are unique, conditionally speaking, or that people cannot compare, then it is necessary to build a story honestly around all of that. It’s not enough. It costs 300, 500, 800 e to advertise only and say this. We need to create a story around it all so that people are confident when they buy it so they can be sure they won’t be scammed. That’s why it plays a big role if the business that deals with the brick and mortar segment is developed so that when people can visually see the shops, they are visually sure about the purchase.

– Are we still in that awareness that we have to see, to touch?

We didn’t, we got out of it. We are making progress, we are learning very quickly, but it is not fast enough, it can always be faster, especially now in the age of corona. We now have clients with whom we work – with whom we worked, before, during and after the corona. There was an exponential growth during the corona, but there was also an exponential growth in advertising costs. So advertising costs jumped 300-400% during the pandemic for the same things we were communicating before. Everything must be online and a good platform and good project management and a good offer and good communication and a good post hall.

– And when someone doesn’t have a big enough budget, what is the first thing you advise them to pay attention to, to be a little stronger than the others, and then to improve?

It largely depends on the industry, for example you have some industries that are not visible, but require huge costs. Let’s say, for cleaning the premises, you need 1000e to be on the first page of Google search. That’s serious money. We advise some other channels of communication, I advise optimization of the site so that it is visible, to communicate in another way what wants to be communicated, to target people with remarketing if there is data, this means that analytics, social networks, fb pixel must be connected in order to be able to work. In principle, everything depends on supply and demand, because we usually advise people to start social networks because it is a good generator of traffic to the site. For Google to take a smaller business segment, to see how it reacts in their case. If it’s technology, then let’s try something for white goods or for TV, so that they are encouraged a little.

-Which platform do you favor? Is it equally fb, insta, linkedin. Do you specialize in all or just one type of platform?

We handle more or less all platforms, but it depends a lot on the product itself. If it is more related to a visual story and so on, then it is Instagram that has proven to be a better solution. Depending on the target group, if the target group is a bit older then Facebook is a better platform. Whereas if they are younger, then it is Instagram, they are just the kind of people who are on those social networks, but you definitely have to get a feeling, so to speak, and get feedback.

Although there used to be campaigns, you are not sure if this is the right result, because they have certain flaws, shortcomings, like ours, which we will do tomorrow, but when you get the information, you can simply work and target some narrower segments. You have some exceptions, because almost all technology is mostly chosen by women, men pay except for TV. For televisions, 90% are men. And so for each branch you have a segment that is specific.

-So when a person comes to you, you propose a platform, a plan, a sale, a target group, based on their needs. I can’t make a generalized offer now. Are women the main buyers?

Women are the decision makers, who is the buyer is debatable, but basically they consume a lot of content and they largely decide on the purchase. It is difficult to say who pays and who buys. But they all influence the purchase. If you sell children’s clothes, you are addressing women, parents. Either way when you draw a line, it’s divided.

– What are the examples of good practice in our country and abroad, and maybe some of your campaigns that you did?

I will start from the second part. We launched an Instagram shop for one of our clients, I think it’s one of the first Instagram shops here. It’s a good thing for people to see that we follow the trends and it’s a good indicator that the system is well setup and that upgrades can be done easily, they can be done automatically or semi-automatically. When the system is not optimized up to that part, you more or less have to do everything manually, and then every part is a pain.

– So the seriousness of the company can be seen more or less in automation and customer experience?

Yes, what do people overlook? People pay attention to the cost of the platform, they pay attention to the consultant, but they do not pay attention to one aspect, which is the most important to them, and that is the indirect cost. When you get a platform, and you get more manual work, if it is not well optimized, one man, one administrator whose salary is 400e AND taxes AND contributions it is somewhere around 700e. That’s on an annual basis, that person costs you 8400e. And you have never seen that expense. And it is only one in question. Imagine when you have licenses for certain software that are expensive, such as SAP and so on, so you have 5 extra people who have to do some things manually, and you spend 30-40-50,000 euros on those people, and you have taken a solution that is 5-10,000 euros cheaper than another solution. And just for one you lose 40-50,000 euros a year. That’s something people have to pay attention to, that indirect cost. They can hardly get that information in their company. Difficult without some people who understand that process, who explain to them the difference between solution A and solution B. The essence is in the indirect cost

-When you work with someone, do you explain this to them, do you also educate them?

Of course, we do education in the call center, we do education for people who work in the community, and we even do education for people who are in charge of offers, for that sales part. Why? Because they are not used to that pace, something has to be constantly happening online, to be thrown out, and he is used to giving them an action once a month in the store and that’s it. And you have to explain why that, why that is important, why your competitor has an announcement every day, and you have one every 10 days. Someone who keeps coming out of one company will naturally go to them to take a look than to us. We try to act as if it is our business. And then whoever needs education we educate him, whoever needs practical training we show him how to work. Who needs us to explain how to change the process, we do it and optimize the solution. In this way, people are satisfied because we take care of all business segments that are essential for an e-commerce solution.

– Are you with them every step of the way?

Yes, according to us, it is our advantage and uniqueness on the market.

– You mentioned the Instagram shop, it came to us relatively recently?

Yes, literally a few days ago.

-Can you give us some details, if you have studied the details, what will it change and what will it bring?

Essentially, it’s about making online shopping easier for you, so that everything is just a click away. Now that you have an Instagram shop installed, when you go to a post, you can tag items and tag several items on the post. You can look at that item directly from the picture and order it afterwards. And that greatly facilitates the process, because a large number of purchases happen on impulse. When everything is just a click away, it’s easy to grab a t-shirt at 30% off. It is something that is being worked on, we did not invent it, there is a whole science of neuromarketing, how people accept messages, how they process them. Why are they more responsive to a bigger discount than the price.

– I think we could talk about this for a long time, we are slowly approaching the end, what are your predictions for e-commerce in the next 3-5 years? Here and abroad, what do you see happening?

The trend will be the exponential growth of e-commerce in this part of the Balkans. I mean Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia. Where we think they will understand the value of e-commerce as such for the promotion of their products, as a support for brick and mortar business, offline business And where we as a company will show our full potential in the coming period, because our way of working where we combine a 360 approach: from platform, e-commerce, digital marketing, to management and education to technical and organizational problems I think is unique and it is already giving results and I am sure that it will give even more results in the future.

– Considering the direction you’re going, I’m sure it will be a real hit. Now we will some more informal topics, if you agree?

It can.

-Youtube channel you follow?

All about fishing.

– Passionate fisherman means. Is it some kind of relaxation? Where is your favorite fishing spot?

Yes, the Danube, around Hotel Yugoslavia.

– The book you have read the most times?

Lots of books on management, now I’m reading sapiens for example. I often change my reading and I don’t read the same book more than once.

-A new habit for productivity

What can I tell you, write everything, set reminders, I wouldn’t be able to function without active collab. He is more than something to remember, he unmistakably reminds you of what you need to do.

-Do you have a motto that is close to you?

I have, I often use the word struggle Both when it’s good and when it’s bad, often people like to say that you should believe in yourself, but I have one addition, and it’s justified. Why? Because some people don’t try to achieve some things And then like me, I have genetics to be fast, but there is no need to train, I will succeed. You have to work hard to fight to succeed And then you have the basis to know that you can achieve something.

-You are there if someone needs help, as trainers?

Some perceive us as trainers, some as partners, but we are here to help them because we have been through similar situations many times and we believe that with our knowledge and experience and the practical approach we advocate, we can respond in an adequate way. Also, Alta is surrounded by about 10 partners from areas that we cannot cover in the same way, and this is what gives us an advantage, because simply if we do not know a certain segment, we are not right enough, we need help with the contract, help with the financial side, we have companies that help us with that, so we always give a recommendation and our opinion, so that people get the right service. We saw that when we were developing business in other countries how expensive it is when you make a mistake, when you choose a bad partner, when you choose a bad solution, that’s tens of thousands of euros. And then when someone gives you a well-intentioned solution with people who are actually in the business, that’s priceless.

-The mission you want to achieve with your work?

We want some things that are not, as I would say, close to people, such as new technologies, e-commerce, digital, are not close to many people, we want to bring them closer, to explain to them, to implement them in a logical, practical way, so that it is clear to them basically how they can create a business around it. And not to give them theories that it can happen. We explain to them in a really practical way and show them how it can work and of course we do it so that they can see that it is possible

Author: Nenad Rikić, Senior Partner and Managing Director