interviews with summit speakers - macedonia2025 · 2019. 6. 6. · interview with mario seric,...

INTERVIEWS WITH

SUMMIT SPEAKERS

Organizer: MACEDONIA2025

INTERVIEWS WITH SUMMIT SPEAKERS

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INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN WARNER, FOUNDER OF CELEBRITYNETWORTH, USA

1. How did you get the idea to start Celebrity Net Worth?

It was a site I wished existed. I remember back in October 2008 searching the web trying to find

how much money Jerry Seinfeld made off his TV show. There weren’t any websites that gave

anything that resembled a quality answer. I kept running into this issue until it dawned on me that

lots of other people probably feel the same exact way. And an empire was born ;)

2. Was there competition from other websites before or did Celebrity Net Worth essentially

fill in the void in that media segment?

When I launched Celebrity Net Worth in October of 2008, the only competition was Forbes. Back

then (and still today) Forbes was almost exclusively focused on the wealth of obscure billionaires

from all over the world. There was a clear void in the world of tracking the wealth of celebrities. We

eventually also branched out to cover obscure billionaires because people seem to be fascinated by

all levels of wealth even if they have never heard of the person. Today there is more competition in

the world of celebrity wealth, mainly, because people have seen how successful our site has

become. Even Forbes now covers celebrities. And I can’t say this with 100% certainty, but if

frequently feels like Forbes uses our site to “come up” with the information they report on

celebrities.

3. What is it that fascinates people about celebrities and how much money they make or

lose?

I always say it’s equal parts aspiration and motivation. Our most popular celebrities are the ones

who are rags to riches and self-made. The majority of the world’s billionaires inherited a large

portion of their wealth or at least started life with a huge financial advantage. The more interesting

story is someone like Floyd May weather who literally has used his two hands to build a $400

million personal fortune. Floyd is the most popular celebrity on our site, partly because his story is

so incredible and partly because he flaunts his massive wealth so publicly.

4. What do you think is the favorite category of celebs according to your stats?

As I said in #3, our most popular celebrities are the ones who have gone from rags to riches. For

that reason, rappers tend to be the most popular “category” of people. Most rappers have gone from

rags to riches and also happen to live rock star lives because they are some of the most famous

people on the planet.

5. Can you give us a hint what does it take Macedonia to become a ‘popular’ country?

Make a ton of money in an interesting way and spend it very publicly


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INTERVIEW WITH MARIO SERIC, OWNER AND DIRECTOR OF MARCON, CROATIA

1. You are the owner and Managing Director of MarCon. What are your business principles

and policies? How is MarCon organized? Are you operationally involved in the day-to-day

business?

After having worked for eight years with international consulting and hotel companies (Horwath

International and Marriott International), in early 2006 I set up MarCon - my own firm for tourism

and hotel consulting in the southern Croatian region of Dalmatia, with the focus on Split - the

biggest city on Croatian coast. After I established my position in Split and Dalmatia, I also started

working on projects in other destinations in the region such as in Bosnia & Herzegovina, as well as

in more distant countries such as Morocco and Kazakhstan. My mission is to create the high long-

term value for clients operating in tourism and hotel industries of emerging tourist destinations,

not only by creating competitive strategies and business plans for development of tourist

destinations and hotel projects, but also by helping my clients in various stages of development,

thus implementing certain activities that I advise. My clients are medium size hotel investors who

invest from 5 to 50 million euros, as well as public sector institutions in tourist destinations that

realize from 50 thousand up to 5 million overnight stays. I work according to international

consulting standards, quite often 24/7, mostly independently, but also in cooperation with other

selected professionals depending on the scope of the work to be done.

2. You have been also the Managing Director and a Member of the Managing Board of the

Association of Hoteliers of Split and Dalmatia. What is your strategy for promotion and

development of the tourism in Croatia and your region?

In 2008 I had talks with owners and general managers of the biggest quality hotels in Split and

Central Dalmatia (e.g. Bluesun Hotels & Resorts, Le Meridien Lav Split, and Radisson Blu Resort

Split) as well as other relevant stakeholders (e.g. City of Split and Split Airport), because they were

interested in joining forces to extend the tourism season in the area. For that purpose we created a

business club in form of an association that performed activities of joint promotion and destination

development, with the focus on development of tourist products for the spring and fall seasons (e.g.

short breaks, conferences, and events). My primary responsibility was to conduct negotiations with

selected airlines (e.g. Croatia Airlines, easyJet, Vueling, etc.) to extend the flight season on some

existing routes with the focus on London, Paris, and Munich, as well as introduce new routes such

as those from Barcelona and Madrid. The negotiations were long and tough, but overall successful

because ultimately we achieved strong expansion of flight network and increase of passenger traffic

at Split Airport, which has continued until today. We also performed very specific promotional

activities such as joint promotion at selected tourism fairs, joint hotel directory (catalogue), joint

website, joint information center at Split Airport, etc. After we realized the most important strategic

objectives related to flight connections, we closed the association and for the last few years the City

of Split has been “selling itself” thanks to very intensive activities of European airlines, global

Internet portals, and various travel organizers.


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3. Are the Internet and the social media part of your strategies, both in MarCon and in the

Association? Do you think they can be helpful in promoting tourism?

Internet and social media are not part of my business strategies because for the last ten years that I

work independently I receive the projects almost exclusively through the word of mouth, i.e. thanks

to recommendations of my clients and partner firms, which is common practice for the type of work

I am doing. However, when I managed Association we did use Internet to certain extent for the

purpose of promotion of the member hotels, but our work was focused on the activities I have

mentioned before. Generally speaking about the hotel industry, Internet and social media have

become the most important techniques that hotels and other service providers are using to

promote and sell their offers, while in tourism industry various tourism organizations are also

increasing use of Internet and social media to promote their tourist destinations. Use of Internet

and social media has been increasing strongly over the last few years, particularly by travelers from

the USA, UK, Benelux, and Scandinavian countries. This trend has now conquered the entire world,

so all hotels and other service providers have been adapting to it. However, some luxury boutique

hotels catering to specific markets are still mostly using some old marketing techniques such as

direct promotion through word-of-mouth, personal letters, lifestyle magazines, and are actually

performing quite successfully. In hotel industry, selection of marketing techniques really depends

on the market concept and business strategy that owners and managers want to apply to attract

their target customers. Ultimately most of them end up using modern marketing techniques

supported by Internet because some global distribution portals such as Booking.com have become

stronger than traditional tour operators and other travel organizers.

4. Do you see touristic potential in Macedonia? What would be the most attractive and

easiest-to-sell touristic potential of Macedonia?

I do not know exactly how much tourism potential Macedonia has because to reply correctly to this

question I would need to analyze the entire tourism industry and its key stakeholders. However,

regardless the level of its tourism potential, Macedonia does have certain natural, cultural, lifestyle,

and other resources that it should use to create a few competitive tourist products. If I would be the

“owner” of Macedonian tourism industry, first I would enhance and sell what I have to improve my

position in domestic market and reinforce my position in Southeast Europe by attracting regional

markets such as Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, and Turkey, but also trying to attract some of the

most important European outbound markets such as UK and Germany. Only after I optimize the

present state of tourism industry, I would start new (greenfield) projects and depending on their

concept and scope reinforce my position in other European markets and maybe even attract some

overseas markets.

5. What is your outlook for global tourism in the following years? How will our region

compete with the rest of the world to attract tourists?

This year approximately 1,2 billion international tourists are traveling throughout the world and

this figure is expected to grow by 50% until 2030 with approximately 1,8 billion international

tourists. This global trend will benefit almost all countries worldwide regardless their development


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and marketing efforts because some people will simply come to you so every country can count on

at least some minimum growth rates.

The tourism of our region is primarily concentrated in Croatia, which records approximately 70%

of all the overnight stays in the entire area of former Yugoslavia. Croatia is becoming increasingly

competitive in the greater Mediterranean area, but it has not yet exploited all its development

opportunities so I am confident that its tourism figures will grow by at least 50% over next 15

years. The remainder of the regional tourism is shared by six other countries, of which Bosnia and

Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Macedonia have the lowest tourism figures. These countries still need to

position themselves in the market by developing competitive tourism products and creating

different images than they have today due to the political turmoil they experienced over last 25

years. Apart from Slovenia that has already reached its development potential and Croatia that will

continue its growth as I mentioned before, I see the greatest development potential in the area of

former Yugoslavia for the city destinations such as Belgrade and Sarajevo, as well as for the leisure

destinations such as Montenegrin coast and Ohrid Lake.

6. As a speaker at the Macedonia Economic Summit 2015 in Skopje, what piece of advice

would you give Macedonian tourism entrepreneurs? How about the Macedonian tourism

Associations and the Ministry in charge of tourism?

I would give the following advice to Macedonian tourism entrepreneurs: Implement international

standards in development and management of your business, focus strongly on the business that

you have as if it is the only one that will “give bread” to you and your employees paying attention to

every single detail, and join your efforts with other entrepreneurs at the destination level to create

a “greater tourism cake” which you can share in the future.

And finally I would give the following advice to Macedonian ministries and organizations

responsible for tourism: Define a simple, yet competitive strategy with specific and practical

objectives for tourism development and promotion, adapt the entire institutional framework to

support domestic and attract international tourism investors, and organically grow your tourism

industry by applying principles of sustainable tourism development and involving local

communities because the ultimate purpose of all this is to create the welfare for Macedonian

economy and its population.


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INTERVIEW WITH METODIJA PAPAZOSKI, VICE PRESIDENT, EMBS GROUP

1. Mr. Papazoski, as it is announced, at the upcoming Economic Summit to be held in Skopje

from November 18 - 20 and organized by Macedonia 2025, you will be talking about

Macedonia’s potentials to become an outsourcing center following Poland’s successful

example. Tell us, please, what Macedonia’s potentials really are, having in mind that this

activity is very scarce in the country?

The biggest potential that one country possesses for becoming an outsourcing hub is the human

capital. The target employees for these centers (Business Process Outsourcing and Shared Service

Centers excluding the IT sector) are young people fresh out of University with no special skills. We

have to admit, we have plenty of those. In many cases the candidates need to speak a language

other than English, but I do not think this will be a major obstacle. The mobility of the students

nowadays has increased significantly and there are more and more young people speaking other

languages. This is a labor intensive industry and for sure it will help to decrease the extremely high

unemployment rate among the young people in the country. Just to give you an idea about the sheer

size of the industry in Poland, only Krakow employs more than 30,000 people in the sector, while

Poland as a whole over 150,000. Average number of people employed in one center is 230 people.

The vast majority of employed people are young people. It has to be emphasized that this group of

people is the most vulnerable and these are the people that after failing to find a decent job in

Macedonia, leave the country for good. Thus, the potential is there, it just has to be realized.

2. Pundits would say that there is an ongoing trend of moving the outsourcing centers from

Asia to southeastern Europe, and many such centers are already operative in the regional

countries. What could Macedonia, according to you, do to attract large international

companies specialized in this activity?

I would rather say that there is a trend of diversification between Asia and CEE and SEE lately. The

companies have realized that in many cases it does not make sense to establish BPO and especially

SSC Centers in South East Asia. The financial costs are just one piece of the puzzle and companies

take this into consideration more and more. Cultural differences, work ethics and time differences

are also being analyzed and in many cases these factors outweigh the savings in money. This is the

reason that many companies have decided to invest in such centers in CEE. On another hand, I

believe there will be a trend where these centers will slowly move from more advanced CEE

countries like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland mainly because these countries are becoming

more and more expensive in terms of salaries (which is the biggest cost of an outsourcing center),

to countries in SEE like Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and hopefully Macedonia. What Macedonia needs

to do, is be more aggressive in promotion and not allow this trend to just pass us by. Preparation of

a detailed strategy is a must. Macedonia should target both professional BPO companies, and at the

same time go after the SSC segment, initially through companies that have already presence in

Macedonia, and later expanding the promotion to other companies as well. It has to be stated that

the costs for investing in a SCC center are much lower than investing into production facility, thus in

theory, the decision making process is much shorter.


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3. You are a founder and a chairman of the EMBS Group, a company based in Poland, and you

have over 10 years of experience in strategic counseling and business consulting projects.

Could you tell us something about your beginnings, how did you come to the idea to become

a co-founder of a company in Poland, what exactly is your field of work and what are your

plans for the future?

EMBS Group has been on the market for the last four and a half years. Before that I was working for

a British – American business consulting company for over six years. After becoming the Head of

Consulting, I decided that it is a good time to try to build something from scratch and together with

two other senior managers from the company we started EMBS. I was already located in Poland,

thus it felt natural that the company remains in Krakow. Currently, we work on projects in Europe

and the CIS countries, mostly for global companies, or as a regional partner to other consultancies.

The scope of our work is related to strategy, competitive intelligence, market studies, commercial

due diligence and similar, although it is very difficult to generalize, due to the fact that each project

is tailored made and based on the specific needs of the client. The plan for the future is to take

EMBS Group to the next level, i.e. from mostly European company to become a global player in the

consulting world where we will be able to compete and win projects head to head with other major

players in the industry.

4. How much are you able to follow the developments in Macedonia, especially the economic

ones? How would you assess the business climate in Macedonia and do you have contacts

with Macedonian companies?

I go to Macedonia few times each year and I try to follow the situation on regular basis. There have

been some encouraging signs coming from Macedonia, like the increased inflow of FDI and decrease

in the unemployment rate recently. On the other hand the country remains very unstable politically,

which does not help the business climate and for sure will have big impact on the economy. When it

comes to contacts with Macedonian companies, I have some from time to time, depending on a

project.

5. Do you have plans to invest in Macedonia, or to mediate an investment by Polish

companies or investors from the European countries with whom you have good business

relations?

It has to be stated that we do not work on many projects that involve direct investment. Such

projects are usually carried out by the national investment agencies that do this work for free. We

rather work on M&A projects, supply chain optimization and similar. I try to promote Macedonia as

much as I can, however, when working for a specific client, we take their interest above everything

else. I will only advise the client to invest in Macedonia, if that is in their best interest.

In the past, I have provided work for several Macedonian companies involved in industrial

production, as well as was involved in few M&A transactions. What will the future bring, it is


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difficult to say, but I hope there will be more and more opportunities to involve Macedonia and

Macedonian companies in our projects.

6. What are your expectations from the Economic Summit in Skopje?

I see the Summit as great opportunity to exchange ideas that will hopefully turn into specific actions

which will contribute to the development of Macedonia. Macedonia 2025 is doing excellent work,

and I am happy to be part of it!

INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP NORDFELDT,

AVIATION EXPERT AND FOUNDER OF DATA TALKS, SWEDEN

1. Which qualities should the successful sales person have especially in the aviation

industry?

Traditionally most of the sales have gone through travel agents, and the relationship toward this

distribution channel has been important. However, given the low margins in the aviation industry –

sales efficiency is a key factor. Therefore a high degree of automation is needed. That is why the

online channel is growing, and will be even more important in the future. Airlines need to become

better at using new technology, to get closer to the individual customer. This needs to be done in an

efficient manner in order to keep cost down. The potential here is huge, as the online sales share is

only between 20-40%, there is a lot of room for improvement!

2. Is there a universal tool for good sales activity?

No, it´s a combination of tools, but the digital tools we see today, like i.e. the Internet of things,

Social media and marketing automation are for sure growing in importance. Also, what needs to be

mentioned is data. Just look at all the data that is generated today and the capabilities to collect and

then derive insights from the data to better target your customers. Look how fast companies in the

sharing economy have developed and grown into global companies like Über and airbnb.

3. How can we achieve a greater company value and generate lower costs at the same time?

Through the smart implementation and use of technology to help us use the data I mentioned,

better. Today only a minority of the available data is used in a smart way.

4. How can Data Talks help your clients to build a good sales strategy?

By implementing technology to automate as many parts of the sales process as possible. Today it is

possible to come closer to customers by personalizing your offer, by combining data from your

CRM, from the actual purchasing history and from real time behavior from the customer’s web

behavior or from his or her mobile. For example based on where, geographically, the customer is

and what they are interested in, what have they been browsing on your homepage the past 2 days,

we can trigger communication with relevant offers, right there and then.

5. Your motto is that sales never end. Do companies pay attention to the post-sales activities?


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Of course they are – just look at all loyalty programs. And besides, you always want your customer

to come back and buy more from you

INTERVIEW WITH PHILIPPE MUGNIER, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF ATTRACT, FRANCE

1. Mr. Mugnier, when you say "Macedonia" in France right now, what type of association does

it bring up regarding tourism?

French citizen would spontaneously associate the word “Macedonia” with a creamy and vegetable

salad they had all eaten at school canteen during their childhood... The most cultivated persons

would associate the country with the Alexander the Great saga and some very few others would

have a knowledge about Ohrid. The capital city of Skopje has today low notoriety and no image yet.

Good point is that Macedonia had till recently globally no image and possible bad prejudice

associated - we can consequently build it our way - this is a wonderful and rare opportunity! Also,

before Kumanovo events and migrants issues which were massively broadcasted on French TV,

most of the French were not been able to precisely put the country on a map and for some were

even not aware that an independent country with such a name was existing. Curiously, recent

drama accelerated the process of revealing the existence of the country and putting it precisely on a

map of Europe…and as every country in the world – France included - is facing various

dramas…bad recent images would rapidly disappear in French people’s mind, new notoriety of the

country will remain. We must build from that situation.

2. The government has invested significantly in promoting Macedonia as a tourism

destination abroad. How far has it gone in making it a tourism brand?

Clearly, Macedonia as a possible destination did not exist in French people’s mind before our first

promotional activities that started in 2014. It is true that significant marketing efforts have been

made these recent years to introduce Macedonia in the international competition playground. But

these significant investments have to be put into perspective with competitive destinations that are

already proactively and massively present in international markets since years if not many decades.

In some markets like France where over 150 countries are competing with strong promotion

budgets, Macedonia counts among new comers and latest arrived. Building a position in new

markets requires time but the fact to be a brand new destination can be a key asset to go faster and

more efficiently in building awareness in consumers’mind. French travelers are in real search of

new destinations that are less 3 hours flight from their home. The situation around the

Mediterranean where traditional destinations for the French are collapsing is strengthening their

immediate need for alternative countries of vacation for 2016

3. How do you think that Macedonia needs to develop as a brand name internationally?

Branding is not the essential – products and services adapted to each international different

clienteles are the first keys to consider. Also, the quick emergence of a new destination requires

service orientated and creative incoming industry with a fine knowledge of their international

competitors and clienteles expectations, strong political ambitions for tourism, accurate strategy


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adapted to each market, adequate public/private financial investment and commitment in

promotion, highly skilled promoters, strong branding policy, permanent and proactive marketing

presence in outgoing markets. International competition in tourism has never been so tough. Do not

believe that Macedonia competitors are Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia…On some segments of clienteles

and products, our competitors in France can be Peru, Scotland, Georgia…and France itself!

4. You are a partner of “Macedonia Agency for Promotion & Support of Tourism". What are

the results of the partnership so far and what lays ahead?

Our efficient collaboration that started one year ago allowed in this short time to convince through

various media trips more than 30 key selected and influent French opinion leaders to discover the

country assets and write about them. As a result, we already got more than 50 Print, web, radio and

TV very positive tourism reportages with a cumulated audience of over 30 million people. This free

press coverage represents an advertising equivalent value of over 1 million € ! We succeeded with

relatively modest means to start building an image and tell the French why to consider Macedonia

for their future vacations. This proactive PR approach that grows the consumer demand as well

with our first presence ever on trade travel show Top Resa in Paris this September has already

convinced new tour-operators to introduce the destination in their brochures. This first year of

activities has proven the high potential of the French market for Macedonia, the interest of opinion

leaders and travel industry decision makers for the destination and the adequacy of some

Macedonia product and services to meet French clientele requirements. Now comes the time for

being more aggressive and ambitious in market to capture all this potential for the direct benefit of

Macedonian stakeholders (hotels, restaurants...). Today, all key ingredients for the success of

Macedonia are in place. A new area can open to cook the good recipe before savor our efforts.

5. You are one of the key speakers of this year's Macedonia 2025 Economic Summit. What

messages will you be delivering and what kind of discussion are you hoping to create?

One of my key message will be “Now is the time!”. Because Macedonia is ready - the outgoing

markets are in need for new destinations and products - and some of our competitors are declining.

There is a strong strategic opportunity to consider for 2016. My invitation will be also to pay a

higher attention to best practice of competitors and a finest approach in the knowledge of potential

clienteles needs. This made, there is no reason for not building a real success story of Macedonia

internationally.


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INTERVIEW WITH PETAR KAJEVSKI, DIRECTOR, INSIGHT AND CUSTOMER

STRATEGY AT ORACLE, AUSTRIA

You founded and ran (2004-2011) the search engine “Najdi”, which focused on searching

Macedonian media. How did you get the idea for developing “Najdi”?

As is often the case, I got the idea for the Macedonian media search engine Najdi (active until 2011)

as result of a very specific need – I was trying in vain to access again an op-ed posted on the site of a

Macedonian daily, but neither the search engines nor site’s internal search function were of much

help. So, I decided to automatically download all pages from the op-ed section of the site, and search

for the op-ed on my computer. And if I was downloading all op-eds, why not all articles, maybe I’d

need to find a different article later on. And why stop at a single site? Somewhere along the process,

I realized that I can’t be the only person needing an easy way to find Macedonian media articles,

and thus the idea for Najdi was born.

2. What was the biggest technical challenge in your career so far? What advice would you

give to somebody who just started studying computer science?

It was really only in the beginning of my career that I mostly dealt with primarily technical topics.

The most challenging task I had was probably introducing a code version control process in a large

e-commerce project – the project had been running for a year, and I was just an intern when I

joined it. To succeed, I did do a couple of interesting technical things, but the main reason for

succeeding where others have failed before was that I spent a lot of time talking to the various team

members. This helped understand their needs and sell them the idea to use the version control

system. So, that would be my advice for people who are studying technical topics – for most career

paths in IT, non-technical skills are just as important or even more important than technical skills.

3. What are your thoughts on the IT talent pool in Macedonia?

On one hand, the IT industry has been a beneficiary of the decades long problems with the

Macedonian economy – due to the better job prospects, IT has and is attracting a larger share of

people with aptitude for science and technology than it is the case in many other countries. So, the

basic capabilities are there. On the other hand, the state of the economy has been a limiting factor in

having people develop into top senior professionals, especially in roles requiring more

management or business expertise. The significant immigration with very few cases of people

returning to Macedonia further limits the number of senior people.

So overall, the situation is not bad, but a lot will need to be improved if the IT is to take the role as

one of the leading industries supporting the development of the Macedonian economy.


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4. Can you share some experience, do other countries with similar economy stimulate

domestic IT companies in order for them to be more competitive on the market?

Government startup accelerators, cheaper offices, knowledge sharing training, moderating

communication between institutions and universities for bridging the gap... ect.

In my opinion, the most useful thing the government can do is to improve on things which the

government is supposed to do anyhow – stable legal and tax system, effective labor relations

framework, educational system helping students get good work habits and ability to think through

problems. Most of these things would be helpful for any industry, really. What would require

balancing between the needs of IT and the other industries is the labor framework right, as the IT

labor market in Macedonia differs so much than that in other industries.

Some investment in things like incubators or training programs can help, but overall I think that

there are better uses for public funds.

5. What do you think the next big thing in technology will be?

Looking at the wider picture, I’d agree with the opinions that the next big thing in technology would

come in the areas of bio- and medical technology.

INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT DELONG,

INTERNET ENTREPRENEUR AND FOUNDER OF VIRAL NOVA, USA

1. Is there a formula to your success?

While it varies slightly from market to market, there is one thing that remains true: content is king.

The success of all of my Web businesses has been a combination of great content and proper

marketing. Too many aspiring entrepreneurs go into their business with a money-first mentality

instead of a user-first mentality. If you take care of the user and give them what they want, you’ll

see success.

2. Was it always your intention to make ViralNova so massive?

No. Prior to ViralNova, I had sold a large video Web site and planned on traveling. I lived in Spain

for about 6 months and got really bored without a business to focus on. I thought perhaps

ViralNova could do a couple million visits a month and be something fun to focus on. But in the Fall

of 2013, it absolutely exploded. The timing was right as Facebook had begun really pushing

publishers (the marketing piece of my formula) and the content was inspiring and fun, something

many users hadn’t really seen before. Most publications seemed to report on “bad” stuff, so this

was a welcomed change. Of course now it’s much more common to focus on happy, inspirational

pieces.


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3. What is the most important lesson you have learned from being a successful

entrepreneur?

The most important lesson I’ve learned is that it’s very difficult to be successful without an

obsession for your business. You have to think about it all the time. There is no such thing as

remaining steady in business – you’re either growing or falling behind. On a more personal note,

I’ve also learned that success doesn’t always mean happiness. At the end of the day, it’s not business

or money that really makes a person happy.

4. What advice would you give to people of your age in Macedonia who want to start

something and be their own boss?

The Internet has really evened the playing field. 15 years ago, it was really difficult to start a

business because it cost so much money to do so. Now, you can start a business with a $10 domain

and a Facebook page. The key is to read everything you can about successful individuals online and

always keep your eyes open for the next opportunity. On the Internet, things move very quickly,

and I see many people trying a business idea that doesn’t really even work anymore. You have to

jump on trends quickly and always find your own unique way to do it.

INTERVIEW WITH SONJA SMUC,

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF MANAGERS ASSOCIATION OF SLOVENIA

1. What are the challenges and difficulties that small economies of the former Yugoslavia,

including Slovenia and Macedonia face?

Slovenia and Macedonia, we are both new kids on the block with all the enthusiasm and problems

that come with it. Although being small can be an advantage, and new seems interesting, in the

world of global economy and politics the combination of small and new is a tricky one and usually

means less influence on global market and policy. Therefore small countries have to develop special

strategies, some call it 'size-strategies' to be successful in modern world and to become brands in

its own right. I believe that both Slovenia and Macedonia are still figuring out these strategies.

While joining EU, NATO and Euro zone was a good move for Slovenia, last decade proved that that

is just not enough. To be recognized as an attractive, export-oriented economy small countries have

to work on their strengths – education, geographical position, infrastructure, connections, nature ...

- and be very smart in tailoring competitive business conditions. Usually it is difficult to 'sell' this

philosophy in our countries since the results would be seen in 3-10 years time and parties that

would push in this direction would, at least in Slovenia, not have much chances of being reelected.

To help in developing this longer term view and pulling strengths form our recourses inciatives as

Macedonia 2025 and Summit100 business leaders of SEE come along.

On the other hand luckily not everything depends on politics and economic policy, so in both our

countries we have great companies that thrive through specialization on niche markets.


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2. What are the advantages of the Slovenian economy compared with the other countries

from the region and member states of European Union?

Investors report about loyal and skilled work force, innovativeness, infrastructure

(http://www.investslovenia.org/why-slovenia/). Slovenia is also among best in literacy, road-

transport-density, international trade, rate of tourism growth, quality of education, perservance of

nature ...

3. What is business ethics and is it used by managers today in managing their companies?

We went through hell regarding business ethics. Some managers that were considered heroes 10

years ago have vanished from business circles due to their misconduct. Era of growth boom, almost

unlimited money for rent and people's belief that sun will always shine, along with incompetent

supervisory mechanisms have caused a lot of headache to our economy and a lot of heartache to

many families that were victims of - not global crises but - misdeeds of top management and

owners. It is a shameful period of our history. But I believe we have learned a lot. Discussions about

business ethics are not rare among managers and integrity of a person, especially if you recruit for

top management, has become an important part of the process. Managers Association of Slovenia

has played a crucial role in this development. Our code of ethics is our constitution that we use to

measure deed of our members when a problem arises – and we have excluded 6 members on this

ground; last year we have contributed to Slovene Principles of Corporate Integrity that where

signed by over 80 companies.

4. Your specialization is women’s management. Can you explain what that means and

whether the region has successful women managers?

Talent is a starting point for every nation. Fact is that talents are equally distributed among men

and women, and yet women in top positions – be it business, academia or politics - are rarely seen.

It makes me sad to see such a waste of talent. Women simply don't get the same amount of

opportunities in which their talents could grow and be recognized. They are also not trained or

raised in the same way as men on how to make such opportunities for themselves. If we use only

half of our capabilities we will never get as far as we could. In many ways our region has a better

starting point then many other European countries to leap forward in this regard.

5. Which way can every individual lobby for the interest of their own economy?

Lobbying is an art. In my naive opinion one should only lobby when the interests that you are

arrgumenting are not only in your self-interest but can be also useful to others or at least would not

hurt. In small countries an individual has more opportunity for influencing and with that also bigger

responsibility. We can not just sit back and blame others, we have to take part if we want better

future. And we also have to learn how to appreciate and champion good ideas and deed of others.

http://www.investslovenia.org/why-slovenia/


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INTERVIEW WITH TOMI T. AHONEN, MOBILE TECHNOLOGY EXPERT, HONG KONG

1. You have traveled around the world advising governments and talking about mobile

technology. What would you say a small country like Macedonia needs to do to create jobs in

this field?

First thing to bear in mind is that being small doesn't really matter. Finland is a country only of 5

million people as is Norway. Both have held a consistent lead in mobile innovations for more than

20 years. Estonia is only 1.3 million people and they have taken a strong lead worldwide in areas of

digital identity and mobile payments. In an Asian context, Singapore with 3 million people also has

had a disproportionate impact on areas like mobile media from gaming to news. Size is not a

limiting factor. But for a small country, it is far more important to approach a global economic

opportunity such as mobile, in a very sensible way. So it usually is best if industry, government and

education come together in a rapidly-evolving area like mobile. So we need young educated

employees fresh out of university, not tired old 50-year old employees who are nearing their

retirement. The legislation should be fast-tracked to support those areas that are critical to the

government's digital mission. We saw this very clearly in South Korea so they had things like

privacy laws, copyright laws, digital money laws etc all implemented long before most countries, to

enable a rapid growth in the industry. And education and government can't actually make the jobs

and economic growth, for that you need private industry. So a healthy entrepreneurial business

environment should be there too. Here again, government can help by securing start-up loans and

funds to help companies and entrepreneurs start ventures.

2. What kind of services can Macedonia export to the global marketplace?

The easy part of mobile is that most of mobile value is digital content and services, not hardware. So

differing from say the car industry or say clothing industry, in mobile very much can be done by

software and/or services and thus almost anything done in Macedonia can technically be exported

digitally, instantly and almost without transportation costs anywhere. But of course there are real

issues of languages, alphabets, currencies, local laws etc. But if we look at services, games are a

good example, they come from all around the world. Or it could be support infrastructure such as

say a billing system or money-transfer mechanism, or identity-verification system or anti-virus or

whatever; these can be built in one country from the software point of view, and then deployed

globally. It doesn't have to be the consumer-facing side like say a music service or video sharing

service, it can also be the 'back end' side that is sold business-to-business. But most of the 1.6

Trillion dollar industry of mobile is software and services, only one quarter of the money is in

hardware. That would be more difficult to get into at this stage, either competing with Samsung

selling phones or competing with Ericsson selling telecoms infrastructure.

3. Do you see the world flattening in terms of mobile telephony expenses?

Yes gradually and at differing speeds in differing parts of the world. As every phone becomes a

smartphone, most of the current high-value services, international voice calls, SMS and MMS mobile

messages, will be gone as a profit engine. Their prices have to adjust to competition such as Skype


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for international calls and Whatsapp for messaging etc. Meanwhile new profit opportunities arise

especially at the new areas of the industry from mobile payments to Augmented Reality. It will be

mixture of some areas getting more flat, while other new profit opportunities will arise.

4. Is it possible that you can make a phone call from Macedonia to Hong Kong on your flat

rate, without using Skype or Viber?

Eventually yes but the industry is not there yet. We have such plans on a regional basis as you

know. It will then be first the most popular and most open competition markets who get added, so

lets say European Union and USA might get into such plans, with a few select other countries (like

Canada,

Australia) joining. But simultaneously we can have another economic opportunity with Asia say

between Japan, South Korea and a handful other Asian nations, etc. Eventually it will be the whole

world.

5. We have big data and the Internet of Things now. How do you see these interlacing in the

future to bring us the next big trend or infrastructure?

The Internet of Things is a driving force for mobile, and mobile is an one of the enabling

technologies for Internet of Things. It will accelerate the change. Meanwhile Big Data, it will be

primarily driven by mobile. Its impact is likely largest for the business of mobile and digital going

into the future.

6. Do you think self-driving cars will replace conventional ones in the next 20 years?

Oh definitely in 20 years for new car sales. Probably well before that, I'd say they will be commonly

sold already in 10 years, and you know what will be pushing it? The insurance industry. The

moment we have the data that self-driving cars are more safe than human drivers, the insurance

companies will make them cheaper - and human-driven cars more expensive to insure.

They will also have measurements so we know when and how much the humans drive their self-

driving cars, to make sure the consumers are not taking advantage of the insurance prices.

INTERVIEW WITH VIKTOR GRUEV, UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR AND RESEARCHER OF SENSORY

SYSTEMS, USA

1. You have received a number of awards? Which fields of research do these awards belong

to?

My research includes electronics, nanotechnology, sensors, algorithm and bio-medical instruments.

The group of students with whom I work and myself have received several awards- best paper and

best live demo at the IEEE conference, several best papers in electronics and biomedical journals

and magazines, award for innovating in the field of medicine, etc.


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2. Where do you get your inspiration for the research that you do?

Simply said, I have child-like curiosity for science. I am interested to know why nature functions the

way it does. I am interested in biology as well as the nature of other organisms that absorb

information in a simple manner. I want to know how can we copy nature and paste it into the

laboratory and create nature-stimulated sensors along the way. By achieving that we can create

news sensors that would allow us to discover things that we could not have by now. Basically, I

want to do the things that we used to consider were impossible to do.

3. At this year’s Macedonia Economic Summit you will talk about sensory technology and its

use in medicine. Can you tell us few things about that?

I will talk about a new technology that is based on the eyes of a butterfly, which can see a wider

spectrum of colors than the human eye. According to that we developed a camera that mimics the

eyes of a butterfly. These cameras are integrated with goggles that can view cells that are

cancerogenous. We are in the process of commercializing this new revolutionary technology by

implementing it at our hospital in Saint Louis.

4. As a researcher and professor focused on medical technologies, how do you use your

achievements in practice?

The end-goal with the technologies that we are developing in my lab is to make it useful in every-

day medicine. It is very important the work that is being done to make an impact in medicine. I

work on technologies that are used on every-day basis and my focus is on inventions that are cheap

and useful that can be used all over the world and in places that have limited resources.

INTERVIEW WITH JASMINA KNEZEVIC, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF BEL MEDIC,

SERBIA

1. Dear Mrs. Knezevic, will you please give us a brief overview of your company and tell us

more about your success in transforming Bel Medic in the leading private hospital in the

country?

Bel Medic is a leader in the field of private medicine for 20 years, with very good reputation, with

luxury facilities, and the best health care professionals. With general hospital and out-patient clinic,

Bel Medic can provide quick, efficient and high-quality primary and secondary health care. Bel

Medic Hospital is the first and the only private hospital accredited by the Agency for Accreditation

of Health Care Institutions of Serbia since 2011 and has ISO quality standards since 2003. Most of

the staff is well trained and English speaking. Medical and dental services are available 24 hours.

The hospital was expanded in 2015 with a new wing. Bel Medic currently occupies about 2800

square meters, employs 223 full –time employees and more than 350 consulting doctors have

contract with Bel Medic. Private medicine is a very young industrial sector, until 1989 our laws in

former Yugoslavia didn’t allow private practice. After that we had much turbulence in the region.

We now have many private hospitals, which improve the public service when it comes to the


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relationship with patients. We now have good medical services and low prices compared with west

Europe. We owe our success to the strategy dedicated to patients, which is recognized by European

business awards, and we became a National champion in the category of relationships with

patients. It is one of the most prestigious pan-European awards, whose main principles are success,

innovation and ethics. By obtaining this award Bel Medic entered the world of renowned European

companies.

2. Any enterprise who wants to get good development must go through many trials and

tribulations. I think Bel Medic is with no exception. Would you please tell us about how your

company overcomes difficulties to pursuit steady development?

It was a very difficult period for Serbia and SEE region in past 25 years. First of all I would like to

say that the entrepreneurial energy was locomotive for steady development. That means absolute

dedication to work, constant innovation and flexibility to various situations.

3. Nowadays, the competition in this industry is becoming fiercer and fiercer. What do you

think are your advantages?

Having competition is good, because that makes your company be more innovative. Quality

management is the most competitive advantage that we have. We developed a whole methodology

for quality management in our hospital. Monitoring-controlling, education, improvement are crucial

elements for success. We have a multi sector approach where all departments work together.

4. Could you please share some advice on how to become a successful business woman?

These days it is easier than 20 years ago. Now we have more women in business. But it remains

very difficult, you need to be strong, pragmatic, innovative and most important you need to have an

entrepreneurial spirit. When you build a team with people who have good personalities, strong

women for example, then you learn from each other and go forward. Continuous education is very

important, when you want to become a business woman. We are living in fast times, every day you

have something new, new methodology, new medical approach, new procedure. You need to be

flexible. When you set up your brain to change as a satisfaction rather than unpleasant habit, you

will win.

5. Would you please tell us about how you balance your life and your work?

When you are a good in managing your time, you can do everything. I love work; it is a very

important part of my life. But I also love to spend time with my husband, family and I enjoy

traveling a lot. Traveling is important part of my work and it is very often an inspiration for new

ideas.

interviews with summit speakers - macedonia2025 · 2019. 6. 6. · interview with mario seric,...

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