I have conducted a free webinar: How to Successfully Manage Your Team, for the Association of young Entrepreneurs of Serbia. Great energy, great discussion and Q&A session after the webinar.

Thanks “UMPS” team for providing me with professional support at the webinar

I conducted two more webinars together with Qatar Skills Academy team; to plan, prepare and deliverer series of webinars for their clients in Doha, Qatar.

• 15.12.2020 – Digital Transformation in B2B Business Environment
• 16.12.2020 – How to say NO to your Colleagues or Bosses?

Thank you “QSA team” for providing me with exceptional level of professional support.

Once more I was planning, preparing and delivering business skills masterclass series of webinars for Qatar Skills Academy in Doha.  Quite often we had up to 170 people watching and actively participating at the webinars.

Masterclass webinar series: Using Practical Business Tools to Maximize Efficiency at Work

• 05.10.2020 – How to handle difficult conversations at work?
• 07.10.2020 – How to improve your time management skills?
• 08.10.2020 – How to improve teamwork and collaboration skills?
• 09.10.2020 – Dealing with discipline and grievances in the workplace
• 19.10.2020 – Effect of Attitudes, Values & Emotions in Workplace

Thank you “QSA team” for providing me with exceptional level of professional support.

Once more I was working together with Qatar Skills Academy team; to plan, prepare and deliverer series of webinars for their clients in Doha, Qatar.  Quite often there were more than 100 people watching and actively participating at the webinars.

Masterclass webinar series: Maximize Efficiency in Daily Business

• 21.07.2020 – How to discover and develop your client needs?
• 22.07.2020 – How to fix the five major dysfunctions of your team?
• 23.07.2020 – How to give and receive feedback from your colleagues?

Masterclass webinar series: Using Practical Business Tools to Maximize Efficiency at Work

• 18.08.2020 – Handling objections and complaints by bosses or colleagues
• 24.08.2020 – Managing and preventing or resolving conflicts at work
• 25.08.2020 – Presenting ideas and crafting key messages to influence people

Thank you “QSA team” for providing me with exceptional level of professional support.

Leadership skills training program in Belgrade Serbia

Our Association of management Consultants of Serbia UPKS organized and delivered the second preparatory training for CMC consultants certification. CMC Global – International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI) is headquartered in Zurich and gathers the most prominent associations of business consultants around the world and its main brand is CMC – Certified Management Consultant.

Again I was one of the of CMC Preparatory Training Program trainers for “Management Consulting Process and Consulting Tools”. Because of Corona Virus outbreak we have conducted our training outside, obeying the rules of social distancing.

Management and leadership skills training program in Belgrade Serbia

On the Business Pages of Blic Newspaper there was an article on SPEED program online digital transformation  workshops I have implemented with two of my clients. This workshops were implemented through our Center for Digital Transformation consulting support program for Serbian SMEs.

On the cover page of the Special Edition of Danas Newspaper on Digital Transformation there was my picture conducting the Expert Analyses workshop in company Slovo. This workshop was implemented through our Center for Digital Transformation consulting support program for Serbian SMEs.

Leadership skills training program

On March 8th I performed Major Sales Account Strategy workshop, at STARTIT CENTRE Belgrade for ESTIEM – Academy of Modern Management and Case Study Show 2020.

ESTIEM LG Belgrade represents a Local group of ESTIEM (European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management) in Serbia.

Celebrating 16th anniversary of my company VEZA Inc. (BusinessKnowledge.biz) together with my clients.

Once more I had an opportunity to be part of Qatar Skills Academy trainers’ team; to plan, prepare and deliverer Effective Negotiation Skills training course for their clients in Doha, Qatar. The QSA team has provided me with exceptional level of professional support and hospitality.

This public training was carried out in Grand Hyatt Doha Hotel. Again, I was pleasantly surprised by my training participants’ enthusiasm and receptivity.

For the first time in Serbia, the UPKS (Association of management Consultants of Serbia) organized and delivered the preparatory training for CMC consultants certification. CMC Global – International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI) is headquartered in Zurich and gathers the most prominent associations of business consultants around the world and its main brand is CMC – Certified Management Consultant.

I was one of the of CMC Preparatory Training Program trainers for “Management Consulting Process and Tools”.

This was my  7th volunteering engagement at the Belgrade Youth Center where I held interactive workshop on career development  ”How to develop successful career?” for talented girls at the School for Talents in Belgrade Serbia.

I was participating at the conference on knowledge transfer within the project “Strengthening of excellent research infrastructure in the Danube region”. The conference was organized by RAS (Development Agency of Serbia) on 9th September at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Belgrade.

At the training within the project “Strengthening the research infrastructure in the Danube Region – RI2integrate” I have presented the Project Action Plan (where I was the co-author). The Project RI2integrate is part of the Danube Transnational Programme. The total of 17 partners are included in project realization: Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Slovakia.

For the first time in Serbia, the UPKS (Association of management Consultants of Serbia) organized and held the CMC consultants certification. CMC Global – International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI) is headquartered in Zurich and gathers the most prominent associations of business consultants around the world and its main brand is CMC – Certified Management Consultant.

I was one of the members of UPKS certification committee, who were accredited to assess, certify and re-certify Serbian CMC consultants.

At the award ceremony in Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, at the Center for Digital Transformation in Belgrade, I have received IT Security and GDPR Data Protection Expert Certificate issued by by Austrian Chambers of Commerce – WIFI – WKO

The Training and certification of second group of consultants was organized by CDT Center for Digital Transformation in Belgrade on 13-15 April and 11-13 May 2019. I was one of the Digital Transformation trainers under mentoring of trainers from WIFI, certification competence center of the Wirtschaftskammer Österreich (WKÖ). The second module was the training for Certified Digital Transformation Experts for IT security, data protection and GDPR.

Last year, my company VEZA d.o.o. Business Knowledge, in cooperation with Poslovni Softver company implemented a project to support the development of private sector in Serbia “Private Sector Development” PSD. We researched and analyzed the preparedness of Serbian enterprises for digital transformation and digitization. This project was implemented by the Development Agency of Serbia RAS in cooperation with the USAID United States Agency for International Development. During the research, the following questions were asked:

• How much are you using business software solutions and digital business models?
• What is the level of preparedness at your company for digital transformation?
• What are the problems when using digital technologies and what are your needs?
• What needs to be done to speed up digital transformation so you can have visible benefits?
• The survey was conducted in the period February-March 2018. The research involved 27 companies.

Research analyses of the state of digitization in Serbia These are some of the research results:

• A survey on the use of computers in Serbian companies shows that 100% of companies use a computer, regardless of the size, activity or location of the company. However, the percentage of employees who use the computer every day is significantly lower compared to the EU countries.
• The percentage of IT resource allocation for Serbian companies (on average 0.5% of revenue) is several times lower than the EU average (4.0%).
• It is encouraging to note that 100% of surveyed firms have a good connection with the Internet. It is mainly about broadband internet access. Most of the companies use cable networks (63%), followed by ADSL internet access (40.7%).
• All surveyed companies reported individual IT budgets of less than € 5,000 per year, so that the combined (joint) budget of all companies is only about € 50,000 per year. On the other hand, the estimated business revenues of the surveyed companies amount to about EUR 20 million, so IT budget share in total company revenues is, on average, less than 0.25%.
• Only two companies out of 27 respondents said they had their own server, which indicates low LAN network coverage and poor connectivity of their computers.
• The analysis shows that only 4 companies (14.8%) electronically sell to other companies, 4 companies receive orders through a website or mobile application (14.8%), while only 2 companies or 7, 4% have Business 2 Business web portal.

What is the conclusion of this research and analysis? The good news is that the digital transformation of companies in the south of Serbia has already begun. Of course, even without this research, we know that they have just begun their journey to reach the level of digitization in advanced Western countries. There is a huge space for the improvement and full implementation of digital technologies and business models. Recently, global digital disruption and increased competition has forced Serbian companies of all sizes, especially SME-s, to start working on improving their competitiveness, most often by digitally transforming their businesses. What are the challenges of digitization in Serbia? At our most recent CDT digital transformation project in December 2018, while working with four Serbian SME-s, I have discovered that their biggest challenge is to change their perception that digitization is only the use and application of software. Unfortunately, when buying a business software package, most Serbian companies treat the procurement and implementation like they are purchasing “toilet paper”. For them, it is only important that the software is purchased, installed on computers, or on the local networks, and then it is forgotten. They do not see that installing software is just the first step and its application and use the next more important step. I witnessed that in some companies the use of the Google Calendar had a much greater impact on improving organisation and efficiency than the implementation of some very expensive and sophisticated software solutions. The conclusion is that most Serbian companies that have already implemented some of the very best software solutions do not use them well. Their employees do not want to use them, or those who want to use them do not use them properly. Unfortunately, they do not realize that the installation and implementation of software solution does not automatically implies its successful exploitation. As we know in practice, the application issue is never a question that can be answered with YES or NO. It is always a certain % of performance (which is usually in a range of 30% to 70%). Also, to create a masterpiece you do need good tools (software), but much more than that you need a master craftsman (motivated employees). The most difficult task of a digital transformation consultant is not to determine which software is needed and how to install it, but how to get it accepted and used by all employees. How much are companies in Serbia prepared for digitization? The main problem is that their current business models and business processes are not optimized for the use of sophisticated software solutions, and very often they do not have the effect of improvement for which they are applied. They need to understand that digital transformation is not an application, but a change (transformation), and we know very well how “easy” is to make any changes in Serbia. Nowadays this is often called “lipstick on a pig” phenomenon. Many companies in Serbia believe they are successfully implementing digital transformation, but in reality they are not prepared for it and they are using it as a makeup, just to hide their weaknesses. This is also the problem of the best and most advanced companies in the world, and Bill Gates himself said about it:

1. Automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency.
2. Automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

Meaning: First, optimize your business models and business processes, and then install and use software solutions. The best software in the World will not help you if your business models are not effective and if your business processes are not efficient, or if your employees do not: “Do the right things at the right time, in the right place and in the right way”.

“Given a bad start, trouble will increase at an exponential rate” – Parouzzi’s principle

At the Center for Digital Transformation d.o.o. (CDT) In November and December 2018 together with Tijana Sekulic I have implemented digital transformation project – consulting / interactive workshops for Serbian SMEs: Mokrin House doo www.mokrinhouse.com, Slovo doo www.slovo.co.rs, Aledjo doo www.aledjo.rs, Panon doo www.kolysocks.com, facilitating digital transformation, creating digital road map, digital strategy and implementation action plans as part of the GIZ program – German Organization for International Cooperation, mentored by Austrian Chambers of Commerce – WKO https://www.wko.at/

This was my 6th volunteering engagement at the Belgrade Youth Center where I held interactive workshop on career development  ”How to build successful career?” for talented girls at the School for Talents in Belgrade Serbia.