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FROM A STARTUP TO THE LARGEST GREENFIELD INVESTMENT EVER The story of Austrian investments in our country would not be complete without mentioning Vip mobile - part of the A1 Austria Telekom Group. Apart from being the largest greenfield investment in Serbia, this company also has a particularly interesting history
DEJAN TURK
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CEO of Vip mobile and A1 Slovenia
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n just 13 years, Vip mobile has come a long way - from a startup to an operator with more than a billion euro worth of investment, 1,400 employees and over 2.3 million users. We are talking to Dejan Turk, CEO of Vip mobile and A1 Slovenia, about what this unique business adventure looked like and how much the support of the parent company, A1 Group and the support of the local team and employees meant to them during it.
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In Serbia, Vip mobile is recognized not only as the largest greenfield investment but also as a pioneer and an innovator that pushes the envelope and instigates changes in the local market for the better for all participants. Although the youngest telco operator
Focus
AUSTRIA 2020
in our country, you were also the first in many ways. How significant was the support of your parent company, A1 Group, in all this?
START
We were a group of enthusiasts ready to build a completely new brand in the market — When Vip mobile arrived in Serbia in 2007, we started with one trailer. We were a group of enthusiasts ready to build a completely new brand in the market of traditional telco operators with already
distributed and stable positions. However, as a typical startup, we knew that at the end of the day, innovations separated leaders from followers, and we saw our chance in the disruption of the existing system. This was also the strategy of the entire A1 Group, which has already begun to profile itself as one of the carriers of technological development in all countries in which it operated on the threshold of the fourth industrial revolution. Even then, we perceived innovations not as a matter of choice, but of survival. That is why Vip mobile got the Group's full support to direct all its capacities on pushing the envelope, redefining standards and improving the market for everyone, not just its customers. Relying on the best examples of practice,
