TIPS HOW TO LEAD A SUCCESSFUL COMPANY IN MACEDONIA

1. Design your long term vision and act upon

For a manager of a company, one critical point always stays central: where do you see your company and its success in the future. When you envision the future of your company and you visualize success, always be bold, and put a vision that will reflect your aspirations for the future and what would you like your company to become in front of you. If you are No.1 on the market, dream of cementing this position and increasing your performance across all areas towards becoming undisputable leader. If you are present on the market, though not yet there in performance, envision your company of becoming the No. 1 player. You can also consider your scope of business, imagine expanding this scope towards additional products and services, other markets. Think big!

Once you have a clear and bold vision, act upon it. You need a strategic framework defining your key strategies how to reach your vision. Think of your big bets and define clear milestones. To compliment the strategy you need a set of organizational principles and values for guiding the organizational behavior for achieving your vision. Set up the standards what the desired organizational behavior is and be consistent in its implementation. Values-based and principles-led behavior will bring you to your final destination in a sustainable way.

For measuring how successful your company is in achieving its vision, set clear goals and objectives and measure progress continuously. Celebrate each step or milestone towards achieving your vision, constantly reminding your organization what your destination is.

Sometimes you will not manage to reach some of the milestones in some areas, but do not allow this to discourage you, take it from here, design contingency plans and catch up with resilience. Daily tasks and small obstacles must not distract your organization from always having in mind the big picture and what your vision for success is.

2. Invest in your people, build strong teams, people make companies great

It is important to remember that companies are what people make out of them. People dream of visions, people design strategic frameworks and people execute strategies. Finding the right people with right competencies is not an easy job to do, especially on a smaller market like ours. In many cases, in Pivara Skopje we have identified talents and potentials and we have helped them develop in house. It is worthwhile looking for people that are willing to grow, to continuously learn and to go that extra mile. Never satisfy with the average. People are the most valuable investment of your business. Once you find a great potential, invest in the development. Fuel the growth of your people with on-the-job learning, mentorship, trainings. As an employer, ensure safe, but ambitious working environment. Make your people feel appreciated and valuable every day. As a leader, I am committed to inspiring team spirit and collaborative behavior. Together, people will achieve the vision easier and faster. Speed to market is very important in doing business today, so togetherness and performing as one is critical in achieving this.

3. Live and breathe customer and consumer needs

Companies are connected to the market. The more you understand your market and your company, the better the results. And never think you got it all at some point, as today’s market is very dynamic, things change overnight. To create sustainable business results, partner with your customers. Winning together is the only way you can progress. Be open to your customers, share your views, concerns and most of all, listen to them. Understand their point of view, as many of the answers will come from there. I am spending valuable time on the market, each day more and more, and I never feel I am doing it enough. There is always extra opportunity for inspirational conversations that give me a different perspective of matters than the one I originally had. Talking to our customers always provides food for thoughts I take very seriously.

The same applies to consumers, being the end users of the products and services we offer. They determine if our business grows or not. Listen to your consumers what they need now and create new needs for them to upscale the way of living and for convenience. Building a long-term relationship with consumers means trust and commitment.

Customers’ and consumers’ approval and acceptance of your products and services give you the right to exist to the market. The organization must not ever forget to see the perspective through the lenses of the customers and the consumers, and never the other way around.

4. Innovate, with high quality and speed to market

With the digitalization and social media era, consumers become informed and connected as never before. Our citizens become global citizens. Following global trends on the local market is a must. Consumers on the Macedonian market become more open to changes, and accept different alternatives much faster than previously. It is not any more only about satisfying consumer needs, it is also about understanding their lifestyles and creating new needs that will further improve and enhance their way of living. When innovating, the main objective is to stay ahead of consumer expectations. Always overdeliver versus overpromise. Innovations became normal way of doing business. If you want to grow, you need to innovate and offer differentiated, and with this, more competitive options. It often means taking calculated risks, which will be quite beneficial for the business at the end.

Your investment in innovations goes along with investments in quality. One is complementary to the other. New things require standard quality immediately, as the lifecycle of the innovations is much shorter nowadays. Consumers need to experience standard quality from the beginning; you do not have room to improvise with quality. And you need to innovate fast. Not only because there are other companies innovating as well, but much more because consumers’ lifestyle changes and consumers adapt fast, what might be interesting today will be old news tomorrow. I will give you the example of SKOPSKO dark: we launched this brand extension in November 2014, and it is the first and only dark beer produced locally on the Macedonian market. Not only that we entered a completely new beer segment, but it goes without saying that we went with standard quality right the first time. Preparing the winning recipe of dark, by complying with the standard quality SKOPSKO has maintained for almost a century, is crucial in our winning formula.

It is also worthwhile remembering that innovations are not only about products, but consider innovations in everything we do. Processes, platforms, tools, activation and all other areas where we can improve as a business and do things differently for the sake of satisfying market needs better and setting new trends.

5. Focus on Sustainable growth and development

Finally, whatever you do, always ensure you grow and develop in a sustainable way. Prioritize the long-term perspective over short tactical wins and always have in mind the impact you create with your business activity not only on the local market, but also to the overall community.

All companies create a specific impact on the socio – economic environment through the jobs they create, the taxes they pay and the additional value that companies generate for the local economy. For example, Pivara Skopje is an important contributor to the national economy from that aspect. As a leader of such company, it is important to understand that the more the impact you make, the bigger the responsibility you have for the future.

Safety always comes first. Providing healthy and safe working environment is mandatory. The way how you operate is also important for the long run, how responsible you are with the management of natural resources, and do you identify alternative resources. Not only that thinking and acting positively in this way protects the environment, but it also drives usage efficiency up and brings cost down.

What I find especially relevant is ensuring that all of the business activities resonate with our community’s interests and needs through searching for viable ways how the organization can interlink and drive together those which are aligned with company’s objectives. For me, winning sustainability means also committing to, and conducting the role of a responsible corporate citizen. And the more authentic approach you apply, the better the results.

Overall, the sustainable growth and development are very much linked to your company’s vision and its execution cannot go one without the other. That is why I always say that in order to achieve business success, one need to always think big, to think on a long run and for the benefit of all stakeholders.