“CLIMBING THE LADDER OF SUCCESS”. BE CURIOUS, PERSEVERING AND COMMITTED – THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS OF SNEZANA SAVIC-DIMOVSKA, LEGAL AFFAIRS MANAGER AT PIVARA SKOPJE

Their personal qualities brought them great professional success. Today they are members of managerial teams and are leading the most successful companies in the country. These are the stories of the successful Macedonians that we will publish in the column “Climbing the ladder of success”. Fakulteti.mk and the Educational Centre of Pivara Skopje through the training “Skills for success” show you the way to the stars.

Sometimes, at the same time, she needs to manage 50 completely different activities. She says the greater the right you enjoy in a company, the greater the obligations. But that should not scare you. On the contrary – it should motivate you to be diligent, to be interested in everything, to constantly ask, even if something is not closely related to your work.

Snezana Savic-Dimovska is a former skier and sportsperson, now a mother of two children, a spouse of a handball player, a lawyer, a master in international business law, she is at the top of the management team of one of the biggest giants in Macedonia – Pivara Skopje. Pleasant and communicative, she tells us about the path of her career. For two years already she is the legal affairs manager for the company. Behind this position, simply written in a few words, there is a long list of obligations and tasks that are her everyday activities.

Her colleagues say: “Nepotism in such a company is a luxury that we cannot afford. This working position can only be occupied by a quality person.”

In the administrative building in Pivara Skopje you pass through a reception where the security notes your data. Through the space you move along a side-marked yellow path so you do not disturb anyone in the work. Those whom you meet kindly greet you even though they do not know you. The initial picture is quite in line with the experience Snezana tells us when she became part of this family two years ago.

 Representative in the Macedonian ski team

As a child she trained skiing. She was part of the national team of Macedonia – many competitions, children’s Olympics, world championships. Until she turned 21. – I was looking to study something that would be adapted to skiing. I enrolled extraordinarily at the Faculty of Law “Iustinianus Primus” in Skopje because it was a family tradition and it came somehow natural. So by the age of 21 I was professionally engaged in skiing, as much as it can be professional in our country… Skiing is not a sport from which one can live, especially not in Macedonia, so I decided to commit and finish the faculty. The time has come to choose the professional path, so I have focused on business law. I applied and they accepted me at the University of Louvain in Belgium. I spent a year there, I returned and took an exam in industrial property representative and immediately afterwards I passed the bar examination – she says.

She said that the experience of the master studies was great, above all, in terms of leaving home. You are left alone, apart from learning, you think of food and transportation, you are organizing your time, books, lectures… She has chosen specific courses for studying – so one can apply them immediately. – Most of the courses were for intellectual property – trademarks, patents, information technology law, communications, and also those for international business law, arbitration, and the like. It was very interesting time, both in terms of education and gaining self-confidence. There was no storytelling there – but a case. You get all the laws in front of you, just like you are working in an office. You want to dig, research, do what you want to do – just solve the case. As a practice it was very nice and useful since I had no experience in that area until then. Additionally, it helps a lot in the performance, it builds the self-confidence and character. You do it all on your own, you are not working on your mother tongue, you do not know anyone, neither professors nor people, especially since there was not a single Macedonian nor many people from the Balkan countries – tells Savic-Dimovska.

At the right place at the right time

When she returned to Skopje, for some time she was part of the team of an office, so what she studied could be used specifically. She took a short break to prepare the bar exam. – Two days before the wedding we had the results for the bar exam. I told myself, what kind of wedding, I wait for the results, I am not interested in the wedding or the guests. So, all of this came to me at the same time – says Snezana.

In the following period, she was engaged in the family law office, and for a certain period she was on the Macedonia-Slovenia relation due to the engagement of her husband, the handball player Vanco Dimovski. So she became mother, first to Darjan (11), and then Filip was born (8). Like that until January 2017.

– It was literally to be at the right place at the right time. And so I came to Pivara Skopje. And I wasn’t wrong. I found what I wanted to do. That’s why I tell the young practitioners: “While you are at home and you do not entirely depend on your salary, go as much as you can to different practices. Only like that you will find what you like. Because the law faculty gives many opportunities. You may change four or five places, so you will find what fills you. “I got to the right place in the second attempt – she explains.

In the meantime, for four years, she lectured business law at American College to students of the first year in the English group. This experience was very interesting for her.
– It’s good to always have the opportunity to work with young people. You see other perspectives. It is a good thing for a person to convey knowledge, but not only doing that verbally, but through the experience of practitioners. This exciting period did not continue because of the big obligations there, the pace of the work in Pivara Skopje and the family obligations – says Snezana.

Big cultural shock in the giant Pivara Skopje

At the beginning of the new work engagement she said she experienced a great cultural shock. Everything was very different from her previous work experiences. She only knew few of the people on the team.
– But I’m an open and communicative person, and somehow they accepted me quickly. As part of the system of work we have sessions to which we are commenting, we give remarks about each other. The colleagues say I quickly fitted into the team. However, you need to be adaptive and open. There were situations when the colleagues did not assume that something is unclear to me because it is part of their 15-year routine, and yet it is very specific. At such moments the new must take the initiative and ask. I went to everyone in the offices, I asked, I searched for information… And generally, everyone here has a lot of work and everyone is very busy. It is normal that the initiative must begin with you. Everyone I have asked for help and consultation, have helped me and have been open about it,” she says about the beginnings of Pivara Skopje.

There are nine sectors in the company, however as much as you know the job, every company is a story for itself and it has its own rules. The college Lambro Patce gradually brought her into the work because he was responsible for public relations, he spent 17 years in the company and he knows exactly what and how it works.

– But I have such a karma, everything I touch is most complicated. So, ten days after I arrived, I came across big disruptions, literally I got into the fire, one big thing that happened in Pivara Skopje. I reacted calmly, to see what is happening and how. My colleagues from the team helped me a lot – what should I do, how to implement it, to whom I should say what, because there are very strict procedures here and when something happens, there is a protocol. Here my colleagues helped me a lot. I paid attention to the legal part, and with the others we coordinated what to do next – tells Savic-Dimovska.

 The list of her tasks is long

The Legal Department consists of a Legal Affairs Manager and a Legal Advisor and it is part of the nine departments of the company. That is the management team headed by the General Manager. Snezana’s obligations do not end there.

– As a member of the management team, we participate in all larger company events that go beyond the operations of one sector. We run the company in the management part. That’s my only role. We determine the future of the company, strategy, challenges, we do everything together – she explains.

Part two is the legal part. There are two persons in this sector – they serve 377 employees and all the other eight sectors on a daily basis.

– They are like our internal parties, in addition to the external parties – the buyers. Everything that goes inside the company, all documents, agreements, licenses, trainings, laws, compliance with laws, all cases that go to the lawyers, trainings of code of conduct, competition, everything goes through us. At the same time, we are also an office (according to the functions) of the General Manager. We run the Shareholder’s Assembly and prepare the Board of Directors. We check the entire marketing material that goes for the buyers on the market, prizewinning games, sponsorships, donations. From the marketing department, everything that goes on the market goes through us, all product labels, literally everything you see from this company, all sales and purchase agreements, for business cooperation from sales, it all passes through us. Everything that we acquire from third-party companies from the supply department (hops, sugars, machines) is first coordinated with us, and then it proceeds further – explains Snezana.

Besides all this, she is also a member of the IMCR (Incident Management and Crisis Resolution). It is known exactly what people belong to this team and each of them is trained to do what needs to be done and how to act in a crisis situation. – This is a core team, the core, and whatever happens, not only from a legal nature, we need to collect and have exactly set out procedures on how to act. What to do, how to prevent, how to proceed. The goal is unique – to defend the health and safety of employees, the community or the reputation of the company. This is a rather stressful part of the job because it can happen at the end of the day or in the middle of the night. And our obligation is to react immediately – explains Savic-Dimovska.

Part of the global brands Coca Cola and Heineken

Additional weight, but also an advantage is that this company is not only Pivara Skopje, but behind it are two huge, world-famous companies – Coca Cola Hellenic, as an owner, and Heineken – as an owner. And everything that happens should be coordinated with everyone. For example, one statement that needs to be published in the media must sometimes be seen by 50 people.

– We should always react very quickly. We have had such situations and we have successfully resolved them. The hardest part is that as a core team we are often the only ones that know what is happening. And while we solve a crisis situation that we sometimes can last, at the same time we have everyday demands from the rest that are part of the whole process of work. It can sometimes create a lot of pressure, it can be both physically and mentally tense. But we are all prepared, in principle we know how to deal with it – explains Snezana.

In such situations, they joke a lot with the colleagues in order to reduce the stress. Also the physical activity helps – she exercises three times a week, or runs on a quay, trying to release herself from the stress. At home she further relaxes by committing herself to the family and the family responsibilities. Her husband Vanco Dimovski is a professional handball player. Snezana says that the professional turn in her life happened when her husband withdrew from active play.

– Then conditions were created to start looking for another area. Previously, life was very intense. Realistically, two parents with such an engagement, ambition and absence from home, that is hard. However, the family must have some balance – she says.

The industry in which she works is fast moving. Things happen very quickly. On the other hand, they have a lot of support, knowledge and resources because they have huge support from the two world brands.

– You say that you are working in Pivara Skopje, but here are also Coca Cola and Heineken. There is no man in the world who has not heard about them and the feeling is very nice. These companies invest heavily in people, software, resources. We get it from both sides, and we can combine ideas. In terms of the daily work, apart from our laws that we respect, we have many rules in the company that are sometimes stricter than our laws. So we’re always saying: “If you do not know what you’re doing, follow the rules of Coca-Cola, you have no chance to make a mistake,” says Savic-Dimovska.

She lives the professional dream

She now lives her professional dream. She said it was an ideal opportunity because she immediately came to a place that is high in the company and which suddenly gives many opportunities.

– But everything is right and an obligation. The more rights you get, the more your obligations grow. There is a huge difference between a small and a big collective. Here things are much more complicated. It is a complex system. No one can decide for himself, you always need knowledge from someone else. It has a special company culture that is the epitome of all of us and we constantly work on it,” says Snezana.

In the company, each employee prepares a profile for himself, indicating which side of his character is good and which one is bad. In this way, everyone discovers something that he is not aware of, that he is good at something and can use it, or he discovers something in which he is weaker, so he can find a way to develop it. Asked what would she advise the young people who dream to work in these companies, Savic-Dimovska says: – When they finish the studies, they should try to work in several areas. You never know what awaits you. It may seem good, but you will not really like it. Or something that you do not suppose, it will be interesting and you will find a challenge in that. If you are in a company like ours, be open to learning. Do not just do that which is required of you. Be interested in everything, because everything is connected and you can only gain with it. Do not be afraid to make a mistake. No one came here fully prepared. Do not be afraid to make a mistake, so it to be a reason not to try. Try it once, twice, five times… Be interested in how the product is made, why it is done, how it is placed, how financial statements are read… We, as management, we see the figures for the whole sale. It’s not a legal matter, but I have to understand it. Do not limit yourself to a particular area. We are managers, the whole sector. I work all day, when it is needed I also scan and I make copies. Be diligent. Sometimes my computer gets blocked due to the open tasks I run in parallel. Success today requires serious multitasking – Snezana is decisive.

She still does not give up on what she was doing when she was a child. She uses every free opportunity to ski. With her husband they took the children to the snow when they were small so they can get used to the skiing and to the snow. – Well, that is cleaning of the brain. Too bad it cannot be done all year long – says Snezana.