Malisa Grujic, General Manager at Trenkwalder for Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia - Thousands kilometers to success

(Malisa Grujic)

If you asked him where he currently lives, he could hardly answer, because, as he says, "he himself does not know that." He spends working days in Belgrade and other cities in the region, he is in Vienna his family lives every second weekend, while he spends other weekends in his place of birth, Pozarevac. As he says, he travels 60,000 kilometers per year by car and the same mileage by plane.

And until he goes to the Canary Islands where he plans to spend retirement, Malisa Grujic, CEO at Trenkwalder Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia, is heading for his business goals, and some of them he discovered in an interview for eKapija.

Untried football player

One of the top people in Germany-Austrian company, Trenkwalder, was born in 1960 in Pozarevac, he completed his elementary school in a small place at Kucevo, he attended the technical high school in Kostolac and he returned as a mechanical technician to Kucevo where he worked for three years.

He played football from his earliest childhood and that is why in 1985 he went to Vienna to continue his football career. Although in the meantime, he received "papers for Switzerland," where he was supposed to play for the local football club, Grujic decided to devote himself to work in his profession.

- I got a job in 1986 in Trenkwalder, which at that time was a technical office for designing as a designer of steel structures and I was employed at that position for a full decade - Malisa Grujic says.

As of 1993, the company began to deal with leasing workforce, and two years later, Grujic shifted to that area.

- I went step by step and so I came to the position of the Regional Manager for Vienna. As the company was expanding its operations to other countries, in 2005 it opened a branch office in Serbia, and I came to Belgrade next year when we only had one branch office and two internal employees – our collocutor remembers.

Persistence – a key to success

Today, Trenkwalder on the territory of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia has a total of 18 branch offices, 60 internal and 5,000 external staff.

- When I came to this position, I said I would leave when we reach 5,000 external employees in the former Yugoslavia, but now that we have reached that goal, I want 10,000 people and it is my motivation to continue. I think we will be proud of that number in the next two years - Grujic is optimistic although it remembers that there were days when things did not go easily, and when he worked day and night.

He used to spend 14 hours a day in the office at that time and there were situations when he spent at work literally" his days and nights."

- Once we had to finish the project by Wednesday and we started at 6 am on Sunday, and worked up to 11 on Wednesday without stopping, we slept for an hour at a table in the office, but we were persistent and successfully completed the project - Grujic remembers the day when Trenkwalder in Austria was starting operations, which at that time was a pioneer, and today the company has offices in 19 countries, 80,000 employees and 350 offices across Europe.

When he came to Serbia, it was very difficult because, as he says, he had to start all over again.

- It was hard work. We are looking for clients on our own, I have travelled 70,000 kilometers per year in order to explain people who we are, what we do and what are the advantages of working with us.

In those early years, he was always asked the same question - “what does your company do?”.

- Trenkwalder deals with brokering in employment for all profiles which means that on behalf of its clients our firm carries out selection, testing and proposing of candidates. Then, there is staff leasing, which means that customers borrow workers, and later, if they are satisfied, they can take them over and employ them in their company. Also, Trenkwalder has a team of psychologists who does workforce screening, testing and training, and we also do administration and consulting - Grujic explains.

It is hard to find the right workers

While in Serbia, everybody complains there are no jobs, our source says that it is difficult to find the right candidates.

- We have about 25,000 people in our database, but for some specific occupations or top managers, there is almost no staff, they either do not have enough experience or education, or thery not meet the criteria for that position - Grujic says.

That is why they are constantly looking for quality staff, and are always open to new customers. In all European countries, Trenkwalder has significant references and in Serbia only some of them are NIS, EPS, Telenor, VIP, Porsche leasing, Soko Stark, Grand coffee, Bambi , Fiat, all banks, Dr. Oertker, Huawei, Idea, LG, Samsung, Atlantic Group...

- We work in accordance with our 3 P rule, which means that we do business – in a partnership manner, professionally and profitablly, and when that triangle is closed, we are satisfied. Since our customers’ satisfaction and employees comes first, we are available 24 hours a day for them- a collocutor of eKapija points out.

Director`s open door

Dedication, constant striving to meet the needs of customers, employees, deadlines, reflected in Grujic’s health so disease of a modern man did not bypass him. A few years ago, when he lost two clients, it was the trigger to realize that he got a “manager’s disease," which affects 80% of people in leadership positions because of the "burnout at work" due to the constant pressure and stress.

- Since then, I slowed down a bit, but everyday stress is inevitable when you know that the decisions you make affect the lives of your staff and their families, so I`m dreaming of having a day at work without having anything to do – he says jokingly.

Not only that there is always something to do, but daily and diverse training is an imperative in today`s business world, Grujic says.

- I am from an mechanical field of work, but I learned along the way about marketing, finance, and I want to share my experience with young colleagues, but I am learning a lot from them also.

Grujic says that he is trying to share "positive energy" to his colleagues most of whome have been here from the first day and they are not planning to leave. He believes it is important indicator in company success.

- It has been scientifically proven that people get tired from their job in the period 3-5 years, so they need motivation. Cash incentives are good, but short-term. It is necessary to enable employees to constantly advance and improve, give them chance to show both to you and himself what and how much he or she can, reward him, but punish him or her as well when they deserve and you will keep your staff. Of course, salaries should be aligned with the effort and work.

Our interlocutor is trying everything to provide all that to his staff and that is why there is 5% fluctuation rate in internal staff number in "Trenkwalder

- We have customers and employees’ satisfaction annual survey. According to the latest survey, 85% - 90% of the staff are satisfied with the work in our company - Grujic said, adding that it is very important that the director is always open to talk to his employees and therefore his " the door is always open" both for internal and external employees.

Football – eternal love

Even though he continued his career far away from the playground, during all these years, "the most important second thing in the world" remained his great love which he did not neglect.

- With a team made up of former football professionals and team of sports journalists of the Austrian public service, I play football and almost every Saturday is "ours", and we visited 20 cities in Europe and at least once a year, we play a match in some city such as London, Paris, Barcelona - Grujic is enthusiastic.

. (Daughters, sons-in-law, son)

Daughter-allies

On the road to success, family was the biggest support for Grujic. Wife, two daughters, a son, two grandchildren are his most valuable asset, and when he knows his children are successful, it gives him strength to persevere and this is where he gets the energy from.

- My family suffered a lot because of my job, my wife the most, because I was practically a guest in the house, and she was the one who brought up our children who grew up and educated in Austria, graduated, work and speak four languages ​​– Grujic is proudly speaking.

Since they solved all problems by talking and made all decisions by “democratic vote at the residents’ committee” the Grujic family maintained its harmony.

- This was also the situation in 2006 when we were deciding whether to continue a career in Belgrade. Although the son and wife were against my coming to Serbian capital, daughters were my allies, and we outvoted the rest of the family at the home council – he says, laughingly.

Atlantic for the retirement days

No matter how busy they are, the Grujic must set aside time for travelling and to commit themselves absolutely to each other. During 27 years of marriage, Grujić with his wife visited 41 countries.

- We visited a number of destinations, and transferred that to children as well. We are now preparing for a trip to Italy where we will go all "together", daughters, sons-in law, grandchildren, a son and a wife, and after that my wife and I are travelling to Cuba alone.

Of all the European, American, African countries that he visited, Grujic picked up the Canary Islands as a place where he wants to spend the days when he finishes his career.

- I am planning to work another 5, 6 years, and then I will dedicate myself only to journeys and the Canary Islands will be my base because of the "eternal spring".

Irina Milosevic