Innovative techniques and methods in business in Macedonia
We Talk IT Innovative approach towards community building *WetalkIt appeared as an organisation before the UEFA Super Cup 2017 in Skopje as a result of the
skyrocketing prices of accommodation. Can you tell us the interesting story how one phenomenon influenced the programming community to gather and create something useful for the thousands of fans that flooded the city?* As a first project, the Super Cup Skopje platform was very straightforward. It was the first meet-up of the group when we decided that we want to put our digital and programming skills into use, creating a project that will help our society. We spotted a social problem with the skyrocketing hotel prices, we had proofs that people would want to give their bed for free and we had the skills to act. We have been all over the news, spotting Macedonia as a country that wants to make profits on the fans shoulders. This was threatening for our country visibility on international level and we wanted to fix that. It was just a 2 hour discussion, when we made the decision to create a platform for free accommodation, alike the famous couchsurfing app, and offer fans a free bad to crush. And that is how we had our first hackathon, where we built the Super Cup Skopje platform where more than 100 beds were offered, and nearly 40 people used the service. We were highlighted on Tech Crunch, Mirror and Balkan insight of how techies used their skills to make a good standing for their country internationally. *How big is the community ?* The community counts nearly 50 people, from different backgrounds in the digital and tech industry. *What innovative tools do you use to communicate with the community and create wonderful project?* We use Slack to organize teams for different projects and Meetup.com for the new members outreach. Both of them have proved as a very good tools for communication. *How easy is to manage people using tools like Slack groups* It can be challenging at the beginning, as with every tool and new organization. But, putting the basics within Slack, was very valuable for us, because people in the group had a feeling like they were having this engaging online place, where they could post ideas, discuss projects and organize tasks. Everything in one place, easy to manage and interact. That is the goal :slightly_smiling_face:
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*Who can join WeTalkIt* Although this is a tech community, we invite and welcome everyone who want to engage in activities where we use tech to solve every day problems, discuss advancements, and most importantly support and educate each other to thrive. *Few months ago you collaborated with lawyers in creating a calculator. Can you tell us more about the project itself and how did u manage to communicate you as developers on one side and the lawyers from the other?* It was very challenging at first, but, very rewarding when we finished it. It was just 3 months after our first project, where a local group called Skopje Legal Hackers suggested to collaborate on making the first online calculator for legal procedures costs in Macedonia. We were up for it, and that is how we got ourselves a second hackathon. The collaboration and team effort resulted in a beautifully designed calculator with both web and mobile version (iOS and Android) over just a week of work. Community work can do unimaginable things, and we are so proud of the effort that every member put in these projects. *What is next for wetalkIt?* We have so much in mind, but starting in September we are going to organize meetup talks and hangouts with the whole tech community to discuss ideas for next projects. Should we organize a tech conference? Or build another social project? Join us and lets discuss ideas :slightly_smiling_face:
M3DS Innovative approach in education Stefan, few years ago you were freelance 3D artists Today, you run an academy for 3D modelling, game design and a line of kids lining up to join the academy. What is M3DS, why is educational hit among high school students? 3
First of all, M3DS is an Autodesk Authorized training center for 3D and game design. This means after successfully completing the practical assignments, delivering the final project and their portfolio, each student will be able to receive an international certificate of completion from Autodesk Training Center. Beside of that, we care about our students and we offer them 24/7 support if they have difficulties with some of their assignments and we even help them with personal projects after graduating in our academy. If any student needs to skip some of the classes because of some personal reasons, we have the responsibility afterwards to keep the student on the track with the whole group, so the whole group can continue to work as a team. In our academy, we offer work station for every student and full equipment accessibility, so those thing won’t hold them back. The students can also use our 3D printers to print their models and even use them in their final graduation project. From this year, our academy is proud to announce that we now have motion capture sensors, which we implemented in our academy, so the students can gain deeper insight into the animation pipeline, and get more practical knowledge. Our program is focused on the most important stuff from the 3D pipeline and from the practical work on real projects, so because of that we offer the highest quality and specialisation in the 3D field. On the Academy Year the students learn the whole 3D process and they also have the chance to choose whether they want to become a specialist or a generalist. The great thing that we’re educational hit, not just among high school students, but among the youngest kids and the adults also, is because of our programs that are specialized for any age. 2 How big is the academy, can you give us some numbers ? In September we’re going to announce our 100th student. In the past two years we had over 80 students, that took the three month course and continued to the Academy Year, because they found themselves in the 3D field. They started working on their professional portfolio, and started chasing their dream job, that will offer them great salary, but also opportunity to reach their biggest creative potential. The number of students that come to study here is getting bigger every year, so we are hoping that the number this year will positively suprise us once again. 3. At the age of 23 you are teaching people even older than you about this interesting field, you even manage to be pretty innovative when it come to making a bond with your “students”. How did you make this, everybody loves the teacher something that is unheard off in traditional education? Is not just about being great instructor, or having a great program or even to have the newest equipment in your studio. Everything is about giving the student the needed motivation and goal to reach it. You need to be the inspiration to the students, but you also need to push themharder and to believe in them and their potential. Keep 4
their interest high and give them opportunity for good development with giving them the right directions. 4. Few months ago you and another macedonian startup that we interviewed in the previous magazine SolveoorganisediTNovum 2018, can you tell us something more about the event? and how it all went? IT Novum is an educational event for young people that we organized in collaboration with Inovum, for the third time. The main goal is raising awareness and the development of computer science. The whole event took place from April 20 to May 13, 2018, where over 800 young people had the opportunity to participate in one of the biggest events in Game Design and Design Thinking in Macedonia. IT Novum was held in two locations: our M3DS Academy for 3D and Game Design and the Youth Cultural Center, Skopje (MKC). Three main events were part of this years IT Novum: Game Design How To ? , Rethink: The Creative Marathon, and the Game Day. In the Game Design trainings the participants worked in Level Design, as well as models and animations to create games and videos. M3DS as Academic Partners with Unreal Engine and Autodesk Authorized Training Center, gave the participants the chance to train in Unreal Engine and get an international certificate of Autodesk 3D Maya. After that the organized teams that created Level Designs competed with each other, and the winners were announced on the final event on May 13th. The creative marathon Re-think was a three-day event where participants worked intensively to find innovative and creative solutions using modern technology to make the city a better place to live in. During the period from May 11 to May 13, 2018 the participants from different fields (economics, computer science, architecture, design, etc.) worked in multidisciplinary teams in intensive workshops and created innovative solutions for more efficient and useful services that will improve life in the city. The Game Day was the third event that took place. It was one-day gaming event, where the participants tested their skills in the most popular board games like Warhammer, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, Hearthstone, Magic and Ravensburger Puzzles. The national championships were also organized and every winner went home with great prize. 5. How important are events such as It Novum to keep great customer relations with your students from the academies. The civic association for the IT society of Macedonia, aka iNovum from Skopje is the main organizer of this event. With our collaboration we’re bringing the Macedonian IT culture a step further than it is now, with that helping to increase the employment rate in Macedonia. Along the way, we tend to inspire, not just our students, but all the youth about the change they can bring with their hard work.
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6. You are preparing the first exhibition of 3D models created by the students of the academy. what do you expect?For the first time we’re organizing exhibition of 3D models and i’m proud of my students, that they’re working hard during the summer to complete and finish their models. We still have a lot things to do, but hopefully we’re going to finish them on time, so we can offer the audience to witness some of our professional 3D artworks made by our M3DS students. 7. What advice will you give to young entrepreneurs about starting their own business regards the importance of good customer relations? Do not be afraid. If they have clear vision and goal they want to reach, they just need to believe in themselves. They’re going to face with small failures, but that’s normal. The key is to get back on track and to keep working harder and harder. At the end all the hard work pays off. 8. What does the future hold for M3DS? We are going to keep up the good work and we tend to collaborate with other studios, to makeour work even more professional and appreciated
Fresh farm innovative approach in distribution of products Fresh farm was started as a company for production of eggs in 1982. Can you give us a short overview of the company ? The company was built with domestic capital, and the main purpose is the production of chicken eggs for consumption. The eggs are produced in controlled conditions from healthy layers (chickens) . As a subsidiary(secondary) product of the company is the breeding of chicks. (the process of keeping the chickens in special, highly controlled conditions until the time they start to lay eggs)
What are the major accomplishments in the previous more than 35 years of existence of the company? Continuous growth and expansion of production through capacity building.Improvement of working conditions, and full automation of the production process from the very beginning.
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The main investment in the last few years is the construction of a state-of-the-art facility with all European standards for the breeding of chickens. So far, besides the production of eggs, Fresh Farm also dominates the chicken breading industry. In order to have be present on the market for so long, you must be doing something good, can you please tell us what is the special “sauce� of the longevity of Fresh Farm? We could not just single out one thing in the successful operation, so I would say that in that "special sauce" there are more ingredients. At the outset I would separate the responsible work towards both our clients and our suppliers.Here, they would also deliver their own distribution and logistics that operate at a high level, because it's about fresh food distribution should be at an enviable level and always timely. What were the innovative approaches that your company took in the way of distribution and logistics in such a traditional business as egg production? The distribution of Fresh Farm has been working for a number of years. The company owns its own vehicles (trucks and cars) with which a delivery is made on a daily basis, through the previously determined location of the companies to which the goods are delivered. The eggs are supplied fresh and submerged at the optimum temperature. What will you recommend to entrepreneurs that plan to start similar traditional business. what are the ways for success? The first thing I would recommend to all young entrepreneurs is to start their own business, to create an image, to be innovative, but above all responsible. Also my recommendation when starting a business is to make a good SWOT analysis to determine all the strengths and weaknesses but also to anticipate the possible threats and chances of the business itself. What is the future of fresh far? where do you see the company in 10 years? Our company has a vision and mission for the future and it is globalisation. With the expansion of production there is a need for new markets, and with the entry into the EU new opportunities for placement will be opened up.
Vrootok Innovative approach in marketing Teodora, last year you opened vrootok.mk as a marketing and consultancy agency to help companies and startups , can you tell us something more about Vrootok.mk? 7
Vrootok is a Macedonian based agency that helps international clients in developing and executing their marketing strategies, by using modern and creative approaches. We mostly work with clients from the blockchain industry, as well as SaaS and MedTech companies, and also modern retail companies which are somehow connected to technology. Our long-term vision is our professionalism and expertise to provide the best marketing solutions for our clients to achieve their full potential in the modern tech industry. Where did the idea for opening such a consultancy come from? As an active and very energetic person, I was always in love with marketing, since a very young age. The process of understanding what people need, their visions and goals as well as finding creative ways to help them achieve those goals through communication is a very rewarding experience for me. It might sound clichĂŠ, but it was my dream since I was 8 years old. I remember organizing events in my yard where I would invite my friends and teach them about a topic that was interesting for us as kids. Fast forward 20 years, it was a logical and natural reaction for me to step out of my comfort zone and turn my childhood dream into a reality. What I mostly love about this job is that we get to help businesses and people grow each day. By sharing our knowledge and know-how in the everyday work, we inspire them in the process and they are happy with the results. How do you see the marketing in the world? is there room for improvements and innovations? With the everyday changes in the IT industry and the fact that AI, AR and Blockchain are no longer just a talk, but a reality, we can already feel the global marketing sector being disrupted. Similarly to IT, in marketing there is always a room for improvement and innovations. I would even say that marketers are everyday innovators as they always try to find new and creative solutions for their clients. However, I do believe that globally, there is a lack of marketing knowledge that has yet to be shared. What companies can do to stay up to date with the fast-paced environment is experiment, and learn as they go. Nothing great ever came from a comfort zone, right? :) What does your agency do differently ? We step out of our comfort zones on a daily level. What I love most about my team is that none of them is ever afraid to be straightforward with our clients. We are here to help the clients achieve their goals, and sometimes we have to provide feedback which is contrary to what our clients believe. By keeping it real, we ensure that our clients always work with reliable and dedicated team of experts.
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What is innovation in the marketing field nowadays? I have 3 favorite marketing innovations for 2018. The first one is the so called “Phygital marketing”, which is marketing related to our everyday lives, it is incorporated in the physical activities that we do every day. With McDonald’s aiming to replace more than 50% of their workforce in the restaurants with order displays, it is inevitable that this trend is yet to grow. Micro influencers. Instagram profiles with paid followers are no longer “the thing”. Nowadays, it is quality vs. quantity and people want to follow brands and people they relate to. This is when the micro influencers come to stage. They are usually regular people which share their hobbies with the audience and impact their followers in a positive way. These influencers get their following naturally, and do not have bought followers. Their followers are people that love the content these influencers display, so when an influencer of this kind advertises a product, it is usually to the correct target audience, thus making the sales much more successful. People nowadays respect relevance way more than bough followers and fake built brands. Video marketing. In a few years from now SEO in the traditional sense will be a thing from the past. We have seen a rise in the sales for Alexa and Echo, which are voice search based. Because of this, the website content will change to more conversational and the SEO will change as well. We have also been witnessing many companies turning to video advertising and starting to forget about SEO. It is because you can show more emotion on video than you can express with words. Video marketing is yet to conquer the market, 2018 is just the beginning. Where is Vrootok in a couple of years from now? In a couple of years from now, Vrootok has 2 more offices, one in Europe and one in the USA, and is a leader in Blockchain marketing. What is your advice to young entrepreneurs who are now preparing their marketing plan for their startups? My advice is “Pour your emotions and your passion into your marketing plans. Don’t forget the numbers of course, but make sure your passion is felt by whoever will be reading your marketing plan. In marketing, is all about how you make people feel, and you want to make people feel happy and in love with your team, your startup, your product and your goals.” What is the one tool without which a marketing person like yourself cannot live without?
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One? Add a zero next to that and make it a 10. :) I can’t live without Slack, Trello, my notebook where I scribble random creative ideas, and my Calendar. Oh, and my bike is my tool as well, a tool that keeps me healthy.
Termin.mk innovative approach to betting the competition Filip, you and your co-foudner started a online booking business 3 years ago. Why, what was the drive to start your own business? There are several main motives that drove me me to start my own company. Firstly, one of my biggest drives for starting my own company was – instead of seeking for a job on the market and work for someone else, I wanted to create my own digital product/service that will solve real market problem. In the same time, using my potential and realise my professional goals not someone’s. This idea was solving one of my biggest problems – how to find a perfect time slot in sports venues for recreational sports and activities . When i realised that other people have the same problem as myself I decided to open the business.
In 2-3 words what is termin.mk doing? We help future wedding couple, parents and event organizers to find a time slot in their perfect wedding venue, children’s room, and any type of event house, with only 3 web clicks. Also we provide a web platform where our collaborators could easily promote their services.
Before termin.mk appeared on the Macedonian startup system, there were similar providers of restaurant booking businesses, what management tools did termin.mk use to beat the competitors? In the beginning with had only one serious indirect competitor. Firstly, we did comprehensive analyse on their advantages and disadvantages and then we created an improved system. What we did: • We added extra value to our web platform • We used creative approaches in promoting our brand • We paid special attention and care to our clients/collaborators and customers After 3 years you are rebuilding the web platform for reservations. Why now and can you give us overview how the whole process of rebranding goes? At the very beginning this whole project was something new for the whole market and it was very difficult to change the way how the venues were operating before, and how the customers were searching the dates. Even one of our original features - “Sports” didn’t succeed. We are very happy right now to announce that most of our collaborators (restaurants and children’s room) are using our app as their organizing tool and the 10
customers are using our web as a service. Unfortunately, we still have some difficulties, firstly because of the culture, and secondly because of the level of education of our market, but we are doing our best to improve the service – by working on our new mobile app + some improvements on the web. What did you learn in the whole process of re-branding/repolishingtermin.mk? Loading‌ (We are still working on it) đ&#x;˜Š I would just add – it is very difficult to work with developers in Macedonia :D. Find your CTO, build a relationship and stick to him :D What innovative resources can entrepreneurs use in Macedonia to get to more clients?
There are much more business events, services and funds nowadays who stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit in my country, compared to the days when I was starting my business. The access to resources is much easier nowadays. Moreover, social media played big role in connecting people with similar interests. However, there is still space for improvement, especially in the segment – access to finance and quality of labour. what is the future, the team behind Termin.mk is preparing some interesting new innovative product, can you give as a quick pick? Currently we are finishing our re-design. It will bring several new features that we realized are unnecessary for growing our business. Also, we are working on our mobile app which will improve the whole process of managing our clients’ dates. As soon as we finished our technical improvements, our plan is the try again to expand our business to the Serbian market. Oh yes, I haven’t mention before, we had one unsuccessful story in the Serbian market with our startup‌ after six months we closed it. I hope this time we learned from our mistakes đ&#x;˜Š
Week.end innovative approach to community management What is week.end? 11
-Week.End is an inovative platform for promotion of events, musical artists and venues and reservations of the same ones. The platform also holds a system for arranging reservations and helping the management of the venues understand and get to know their clients better
You launched week.end some weeks ago. Can you tell me how did the promotion go? The promotion went really fun, we made a party out of it. We switched few types of music, held a short presentation of the platform, gave people free booze and made them register on Week.End before they go :) where did the idea /the concept for innovative service like week.end come from -The idea for Week.End came from everyday situations. We just listed the problems our community is having and started finding ways to solve them. Starting from problems such as non-listed options of places to visit, non-listed events and the main one getting a table in the club :) You were part of pre-acceleration program, how important is external help and tutoring for entrepreneurs and startups? -External help and tutoring is very important for any entrepreneur. Making the right choice for your business is quite a challenge especially if this is your first start up, the lack of experience can be very well balanced with knowledge from pre-acceleration programs. Is the future of night life digital? Definatly, in a way it already is. Just go in to a club and look. People are already on their phones. Taking photos and videos,sharing how their night is going, talking to friends. Taking in consideration how much the digital era itself has stroke us, I do believe that we slowly come to a place where the whole process of going out is getting digitalized
Some people are asking is this concept viable in the Balkan countries, what has your research showed till now? -Our research has shown that this is going to be a viable concept. It might take time and hard work, but digitalization is a process we must fall Into. Our research has shown that especially on the Balkan there is a great percentage of people who look for ways to simplify their life, and this concept is all about simplifying options Working with restaurants and coffee bars can be tiering, do they understand the innovation in change that is happening? 12
-Some people do, while some people are still sceptics and need educating so they can actually trust the process. Thankfully, their clients have embraced the innovation and saw the need of it and we all want to give the best to our clients. Is now the time to start your own business, what will you recommend to young people around Europe? -Honestly yes. It is the time to start your own business. It will not be easy, but it will be worth it because at the end of the day If you don’t build your dream someone will hire you to help them build theirs.
What is a sentence that motivates you on daily basis? When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it -Henry Ford
Summary Innovation approaches in doing business is always difficult to quantify, and thats why you never know if something that you have made is worth the trouble or not. In the previous interviews we saw many small details that Macedonian entrepreneurs did and that lead to their employees to think out of the box in solving work related problems. This approaches ranged from small things such as having cooking days at the office to making the office virtual/remote. In the more traditional business we saw some innovative approaches in distribution and way we do our finances. We might not know what the future holds but for sure it will not be a something that we expect. At the beginning I wanted to make this ending a summary of what all entrepreneurs said about the innovative approaches they took in running their companies, discussing sales deals, doing their numbers, but I realised that I will just put things into a box and loose the innovative perspective I wanted to have when I did the interviews with them. Instead I decided to summarise all that is said, put some theory in context and create 6 thinking points that can be a good starting point and good help for any entrepreneurs that wants to add innovative approaches in doing business. Nevertheless there is tons of material that can help you think of better ways to make innovative changes in your organisation, I am just touching few of them. 6 ways to boost innovative thinking in your company 1. Rearrange working hours - remember how in the interview Adeva told as that they started doing remote working and started using the office just as a focal point for meetings or where people can pop up, well maybe that is the future. Wired.com, PwC, Telenor, NASA, Forbes among others estimate that by 2025 up to 50% of all the world workforce will be freelancers, solopreneurs, independent contractors or remote workers, so the faster you bring this kind of innovative approach to doing business the better. Think of it this 13
way, millennials want their freedom and more and more of them will do everything but the normal 9 - 5 work hours. Maybe approach like remote Friday, or working from your favourite restaurant or bar with the team one day per week can be a good start. 2. Make Mistakes and don’t fear them- From early age we are thought not to make mistakes and mistakes are bad. But this behaviour in organisation can bring everything except innovation and betterment. There should be balance of course and distinction between reckless behaviour and unintended mistakes but we want people to work outside their confront zones and they will do mistakes when are faced with the unknown. A good start to having this approach can be having weekly meetings where you discuss with your employees what mistakes they made in the previous period and what they will do to avoid them in the future. Speaking out loud about your mistakes can bring positive change in the way team members think about the mistakes. 3. Bring your Ideas to work - create idea challenges where employees can freely talk about their ideas and ways they can improve the working of the company. Have this every month or as often as you can. There is an old saying that many head think better than one. 4. Leverage technology - During the interview with the representative with WetalkIt, a communal organisation that arranges various events and meetups for IT guys in Macedonia, we found out that they use extensively Slack to communicate to their members. Arguably the most important aspect of developing innovation in the 21 century for every manager/entrepreneur will be their skill to leverage technology. If a entrepreneur truly wants to take an innovative approach in business, technology must be involved, either be applications, software or hardware or process of optimising tools. For example, an innovative entrepreneur nowadays will focus on social media marketing in order to communicate to it’s stakeholders opposite to traditional marketing management channels. Also this manager will carry a book written by social media influencer how to get more followers on his/her personal blog and social media profiles. 5. Make it to stick - There is a great book that i recommend to everybody called “Made to stick” by Like Chip and Dan Heath. A key concept of the book is to tell you how to make ideas into viable businesses. They basically say to making an idea sticky is to tell it as a story. Stories encourage a kind of mental simulation in humans and encourages participation of the listener and almost instant action. Think of it this way for example a learning language is way better by speaking it than learning it via flash cards. Create story about your company that everybody in the firm knows it. Tell your employees your intend and where you see the company in period of time. Don’t give them day task give them the vision that they need to follow, don’t put them in a box just give them a canvas on which they can draw on. 6. Be different - In the intro to this magazine I wrote that people change bosses they don’t change jobs . Be better person and first and foremost leader and employees will cherish you and come up with ideas and approaches to solving problems that you never though of.
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