Zeljko Tomic, GM at OSA Racunarski inzenjering - How did we start private business in SFRJ?

OSA Racunarski inzenjering has recently celebrated the fourth of a century of successful business and Zeljko Tomic, GM and one of the founders says that they have already been preparing 50th anniversary.

This successful company is only14 years “younger” than Microsoft and seven than Autodesk, whose distributor it is for the entire Adriatic region. During the last three years, they have been growing significantly and are announcing further expansion to SEE during 2016 and then the entire European market by 2019. It is interesting that the staff has been participating in profit share during the past three years..

In his interview for eKapija, Zeljko Tomic is speaking about the beginning of private entrepreneurship in ’89 and key moments for company development and about whether it is more difficult now or during the nineties, big work, staff motivation and about why a good businessman should go home on time.

eKapija: What decided in making decision to step into entrepreneurial field?

- At that time I was GM of one state-owned self-managing company. My partners, (Petar i Boris Damjanovic) presented me their idea so that I realized immediately that the future lied in the thing they were doing – franchising. Despite the fact that IT is a very young industrial branch, I believed that successful business could come out of that and I got into grips with it. IT is the future as the drive for economic development of each society.

eKapija: How did OSA go through the period of war and sanctions in Yugoslavia?

- Difficult, like everybody else. However, we did not give up and we split business. One segment was maintenance development in Serbia and the other providing work abroad and where it was possible to work. At that time, we had a company in Cyprus but not an off-shore company but a local company which we owned 100%. We were providing services in visualization and animation in architecture which was huge innovation during the nineties.

Works in Russia were our option in difficult times. In Siberia, we had five airports where we implemented It systems. That was big work which we succeeded in finishing thanks to our abilities and potential to adapt fast and to the fact that Russia was at that time pretty closed for the companies from the west.

eKapija: What you look behind after a quarter of the century, which moments would you set aside as crucial for development of OSA racunarski inzenjering"?

- The first job for Printing center Poste Makedonije and then Printing center "Telekom Srbija", in 2001 and 2002 was very important moment. We were already doing a number of things with the Dutch OCÉ, as their partner, but until then never in the field of production variable and print and printers with high speed. We succeeded in getting trust of the principals that we can do that job and at the same time to win strong competitors at tenders. We had difficulties then in providing banking guarantees since we had relatively modest turnover compared to the work value.
(Zeljko Tomic and Boris Damjanovic at the celebration of 25th company anniversary)

The second crucial moment, if we are speaking about expansion and growth was three years ago when OSA Racunarski inzenjering became a distributer of Autodesk software for the entire region.

eKapija: During the past three years you have been generating tremendous growth regardless of the economic crisis. Does headcount increase as well?

- In 2012 we generated growth of total profit of 70%, and income increase of 90%. In 2013 as well we generated a two-digit growth . The reason is that we are good and that physical market expansion happened. We have been stable for three years and we have some 40 people. As I said, IT are not the objective for themselves but tool to do the job with smaller number of people.

eKapija: Does it mean technology can replace a person?

- Technology can replace many things people do but people are still the most important in any work. They are irreplaceable. The essence of every good company is solely people. That is our motto from the beginning.

eKapija: Do you still believe in the sentence you said long time ago- if you cannot do your job during working hours, you should not do it at all?

(Photo: Osa)

- You can put it that way. There is a belief that a real businessman must be very busy, to work in the afternoon and at weekends, to be unavailable. On the contrary, I think that one who cannot fit his or her work during working hours has a problem. I have to admit I am “a bad businessman”, that my family did not miss me a single weekend during the past 15 years and that I usually come home on time.

eKapija: What kind of an advice would you give someone who is starting his or her business?

- I would tell he or she should be brave and decisive and to believe in himself or herself. A state or a system cannot make a man happy, only he or she can do it. There will always be obstacles therefore you need to have knowledge and faith in your ideas. And, do not be afraid to make mistakes since there is always a second chance.

Milica Stevuljevic