INNOVATIONS
DRIVING FORCES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
2020
INNOVATIONS
DRIVING FORCES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
WE ARE AT AN INTERESTING CROSSROADS IN HISTORY
In the future, medicine will no longer only be about curing the sick, but also about upgrading and rejuvenating the healthy, making the boundary between medicine and human enhancement more and more blurred
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or September’s special issue topic, we spoke with a medical doctor, researcher and author who specializes in health, aging and the future of medicine and biotechnology Dr. Kris Verburgh who will be one of the Keynote speakers on The 3rd Innovation week organized by AFA between September 21-25th in Belgrade. He has already written several science books—one of which, written when he was only 16, made him the youngest science author in Europe. Dr. Verburgh created a new scientific field, nutrigerontology, that studies how nutrition can accelerate or slow aging and influence the risk of aging diseases, like heart disease or dementia.
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How would you explain longevity technology? What it is all about? — Longevity technologies act on the aging process in order to extend lifespan and healthspan. We are at an interesting crossroads in history. In the past 20 years we learned more about the aging process than in the 2000 years before. Additionally, in the past years we have seen the rise of new biotechnologies that will enable scientists to impact the functioning of our cells at a molecular level. Also, recent studies in animals show that it’s possible
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D r. K R I S V E R B U RG H , M D Researcher, Free University Brussels, Faculty Member Future of Medicine and Longevity, Singularity University Benelux, Venture Partner, Longevity Vision Fund
Biotechnology is an important pillar of the new industrial revolution that is currently unfolding, together with AI, robotics, the cloud, internet of things and other technologies
not only to slow down aging, but even partially reverse the aging process. In these experiments old animals were made younger again. This shows that aging is not set in stone, but that it’s amendable for reversal. Examples of longevity technologies to impact aging are epigenetic reprogramming, gene editing, clearing away of senescent cells, or getting rid of the proteins or crosslinks that accumulate in our body during aging. What is nutrigerontology and how did your interest in longevity started? — There is a lot of enthusiasm about new high-tech biotechnologies to address aging. However, the best technology we currently have to live longer is our nutrition. What, when and how much we eat impacts the rate of aging. Already in the 1930’s scientists discovered that if animals are fed less food they live longer. Later on, it was found that the typical western diet accelerates aging and increases the risk of various aging-related diseases such as heart disease or Alzheimer’s disease. Nutrigerontology is the scientific discipline that uses knowledge of the aging process to find out what is the best food pattern or diet on the long term. That would entail a diet with less sug-
ars and starches, including bread, potatoes, pasta and rice, less red meat and more white meat and fish and vegetable protein sources, and more healthy fats such as in walnuts, avocado’s, fatty fish, olive oil and so on. How can development of disruptive technologies have economic benefits and how can they make difference to wider society? How can development of disruptive technologies make impact on healthcare and life spans? — Many people still think that aging and aging-related diseases such as heart disease or Alzheimer’s are two different things. However, in fact, the same processes that cause aging also cause heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, osteoporosis, cancer and so on. Therefore, by targeting aging, you address the root cause of all these diseases. Moreover, by addressing aging itself, you will be able to address many diseases at the same time. This insight is very important because we are facing a silver tsunami of elderly people that in the next decades could bankrupt the healthcare system of many countries, and that will substantially slow down economic growth. It’s paramount we keep elderly people healthy, active and involved. Medtech,
agingtech and longevity biotech will play pivotal role in this. Furthermore, biotechnology is an important pillar of the new industrial revolution that is currently unfolding, together with AI, robotics, the cloud, internet of things and other technologies. Any society will do good capitalizing on these developments. For example by funding research into these technologies and into aging itself. In fact, some people believe we are already engaged in some sort of cold war between the west and China: the countries that will develop the most advanced biotechnology and AI capabilities could get a big lead over other countries. But even viewed from a less dramatic geopolitical angle, it’s clear that addressing and slowing down aging itself is the best way to keep people healthy. We spend billions of euro’s to “fix” heart disease, but even if nobody would get a heart attack anymore, people would hardly life longer given they will perish from another aging-disease, like Alzheimer’s or cancer. Therefore, it’s so important to target aging itself instead of individual diseases. Most countries, pharma companies, and governments are not realizing this. Aging research is still much underfunded, despite aging being the biggest driver of aging-related diseases, which account for around 86 percent of healthcare expenditures in most developed countries. How can technology help people to live longer and be healthier? / What kind of technologies can address the aging process in near future? — Some promising technologies in development are for example epigenetic reprogramming. The epigenome determines which genes are active or not; the older we get the more the epigenome becomes dysregulated. There are ways to reset this epigenome, with interesting results, like old organisms that become younger or damaged nerves that started to regrow. Clearing away senescent cells is another interesting avenue. The older we get, the more senescent cells arise in our body: these are cells that secrete substances that damage surrounding healthy cells. There are various different approaches in development to clear away these senescent cells. However, the best method we now have to live longer is our lifestyle: eating healthy, exercising, not smoking, sleeping well, stress reduction and so on. Is reverse aging possible and how can
By addressing aging itself, you will be able to address many diseases at the same time
we practice reverse aging in our daily lives? — Recent studies have shown that it is possible to partially reverse aging, for example through the methods I described earlier, like epigenetic reprogramming or by clearing away senescent cells. In these studies old organisms became younger, and the changes brought forward could even be seen by the naked eye: grey mice got a shiny black fur, became more active again. Additionally their organs regenerated far better again, as in young mice. We also see that starting to eat healthy and adopt a healthy lifestyle in general can partially reverse some aspects of the aging process, however much less drastically than with new biotechnologies. Whether longevity will be available only to the more privileged part of
society or there is a way to make it accessible to everyone? — We have to be careful that the current biotech revolution will not create for the first time in human history a biological aristocracy consisting of individuals who have the means to rejuvenate and upgrade their bodies using the latest new biotechnologies. With the current technology it already would be possible for example to edit genes to improve muscle mass, increase cognition, enable stronger bones or make your immune to HIV or other diseases. We have to make sure that these technologies will benefit everyone. We nonetheless see that medicine in the future will no longer only be about curing the sick, but also about upgrading and rejuvenating the healthy, making the boundary between medicine and human enhancement more and more blurred.
INTEREST IN LONGEVITY My interest in longevity started since a young age: I wanted to know why aging exists and what happens in our body that causes us to age, and one day to perish. I also wanted to know why a mouse lives for only two years, while some whales can live for centuries, and some jellyfish and polyps seem to be immortal. Additionally, as a medical student I quickly realised that most diseases that afflict our society are caused by aging. So finding ways to slow down or mitigate aging is the best method to keep people healthy for the longest time possible.
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INNOVATIONS CLICK ON ICON
DRIVING FORCES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
CRISIS CAN DEFINITELY BE A GENERATOR OF OUTOF-BOX THINKING
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As a technology company, we’re at a unique position to partner with public sector, financial institutions, retail, telcos, SMEs etc. in joint efforts to create sustainable growth for local communities
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J E L E NA R I ST I Ć
midst an incredibly challenging time for individuals, communities and businesses, we’re seeing sparks of change brought upon by the growth of digital-savvy consumers and businesses. Cashless has been on a steep rise during the pandemic. We are there for our stakeholders every step of the way and we’ll continue with education and collaboration to make sure each party gets the most out of the digital shopping experience”, said Mastercard`s Country Manager, Jelena Ristić, in an interview for special supplement of September`s issue of Diplomacy&Commerce magazine.
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There’s the impression that the pandemic has influenced us all to boost our knowledge when it comes to paying with cards and using new technologies. What are the trends when
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it comes to cashless payments in Serbia during this year, taking the corona crisis into consideration? — This impression is certainly a correct one as cashless has been on a steep rise during the pandemic. With COVID-19 imposing constraints on our daily lives, consumers are moving away from cash and opting for contactless and digital payments – and they do not expect to go back. Two notable trends emerge – the first one shows that in store, there is a massive move away from cash with almost seven in 10 consumers globally saying their shift to digital payments will likely be permanent. When it comes to contactless in Serbia, limit for paying without PIN was increased to 4,000 RSD as of April 15 as a way to give consumers more ease, speed and peace of mind in a fast changing world. At the same time, merchants are prompting their in-store custom-
Country Manager, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mastercard
Instead of merely supporting physical cards with digital experiences, we’ve been designing digital products from the ground up, with the physical card optional
ers to opt for cashless and even better – contactless in a risk-minimizing effort, all of which is complementary to the cashless recommendations of the World Health Organization. The second trend refers to a sharp increase in e-commerce, and locally, data of eCommerce association of Serbia indicate that food purchases online grew by 200% and food purchases by 100%. The on-going shift from physical to online commerce is also due to the fact that traditional merchants want to capitalize on the potential e-commerce offers in terms of broader scope and greater compatibility of user experience to the current pandemic landscape. Even before the pandemic, mobile devices were our primary source of communication, information and, increasingly, commerce. That’s why, instead of merely supporting physical cards with digital experiences, we’ve been designing digital products from the ground up, with the physical card optional. On that note, we recently launched Apple Pay service for mobile contactless payments, currently available to Mastercard cardholders from ProCredit and OTP banks, which fits in well with the
people’s needs to be able to pay anytime and anywhere, and with the peace of mind that they and their payment data are safe. Is the crisis now a generator of innovations? — Crisis can definitely be a generator of out-of-box thinking. Amidst an incredibly challenging time for individuals, communities and businesses, we’re seeing sparks of change brought upon by the growth of digital-savvy consumers and businesses. As a technology company, we’re at a unique position to partner with public sector, financial institutions, retail, telcos, SMEs etc. in joint efforts to create sustainable growth for local communities. I’d like to share one truly inspiring project that comes from the UK – the Leave Nobody in the Dark campaign. Namely, Mastercard and several community organizations formed a coalition to offer immediate support to digitally and financially excluded people in the UK, with a focus on those in poverty hit hardest by the impact of COVID-19. The coalition addresses this challenge by offering practical help, as well as bringing general awareness over the issue. In concrete figures, an estimated 6 million people who have already fallen behind with their household bills due to Corona might benefit from online educations, engagement with free, trusted financial advisors, and practical money help. The coalition aims to support the nation to become financially prepared following the econom-
For years now, our technology, insights and global knowhow have been changing the local FinTech landscape for better – education and partnerships have been and remain our forte in the process
ic effects of COVID-19, as there’s never been a more crucial time to ensure people have access to digital services and resources they need. What do you think awaits us in 2021, and can modern payment solutions contribute to the economic development, especially in our country? — At this stage, no one has a definite answer to that question, but in FinTech, 2021 will demand higher flexibility and higher reliance on technologies. If the current trends in usage of electronic means of payment continue, we expect further acceleration of cash digitalization by converting everyday persistent low-ticket cash to card, bringing in new digital payment users and digitization of merchants. All stakeholders will be at win – consumers by enjoying safer, faster and more convenient payments with minimum exposure to the virus; financial institutions will benefit from a more streamlined process, merchants from higher business volumes, and last but not the least, the state from higher tax revenues resulting from recorded financial flows. E-commerce is developing quickly in Serbia and is introducing new habits. What can we expect from Mastercard in terms of education of all participants in the market, both cardholders and merchants? — Given the circumstantial push toward ecommerce, there is a need to keep educating cardholders on safely navigating
online shopping – from paying safely to eliminating friction of re-entering data enabled by credential-on-file solution, from recognizing credible merchants to knowing their consumer rights. At the same time, merchants who do not currently offer online payments need to introduce them so as not to fall off the shoppers’ radar, but they also need to excel at their end-to-end customer service to stand out from the competition. These are challenges that cardholders and merchants can overcome only if they receive proper, timely and educated support. For years now, our technology, insights and global know-how have been changing the local FinTech landscape for better – education and partnerships have been and remain our forte in the process. Mastercard is strongly aligned to partners throughout the commercial ecosystem – the latest examples of our cooperation include liaison with USAID on the development of the Guide for safe and secure online shopping, upcoming SurfShop intensive online program for 100 merchants we undertake with the Association of young businessmen of Serbia and Shopen start-up, collaboration with the eCommerce Association, e-commerce on-boarding support for existing and new online shops we offer in partnership with OTP bank, and many more. We are there for our stakeholders every step of the way and we’ll continue with education and collaboration to make sure each party gets the most out of the digital shopping experience.
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INNOVATIONS
DRIVING FORCES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
A MISSION-LED INNOVATION IS A DRIVING FORCE FOR BOTH ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
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Innovation is a “massive collective effort” (Mariana Mazzucato). It is also a “team sport” and it is needed to create national innovative ecosystems and encourage and acknowledge thousands of trial-and-error experiments, since innovation is not about one eureka moment
COM M E N T
he best way to explain what innovation does is to compare a life of an American men in 1900s who usually started to work on average at the age of 14, used to spend 25% of his life in backbreaking work and died at the age of 47. This man’s modern equivalent man spends half of his time in education or retirement, works just 10% of his “hours on earth” and dies at the age of 80. The mentioned change is almost entirely due to the “wonders of innovation”, as journalist Matt Ridley points out in his book “How innovation works“. In our era of disruptive technology innovations, that improve the quality of our lives, one of the paramount challenges is to further extend healthy life span and slowing down aging. “Can Google solve death? “was the astonishing Time’s cover page in 2013 when “Alphabet” company was
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launched, with the mission to help people live healthier and longer lives. The first baby who has been born last year could live to be 142 years old. Possibility that we live on a verge of “eternal life” discovery due to longevity technology are best expressed in former president of Google Ventures Bill Maris’s words “I just hope to live long enough not to die “. Innovation is an extremely powerful force for positive change and the main driving force for the economy and society progress and people’s wellbeing, but also trigger for economic divide and inequality, which will be translated, for the first time in history, from economic to biological inequality, says Yuval Noah Harari, historian and futurologist. One of the most difficult and demanding challenges of our times will be how to protect vital society interests without restrain and stifling in-
Ž A K L I NA N I KO L I Ć KUŠ I Ć Founder and Program Director of Innovation Week
Internet as revolutionary technology encourage a new wave of radical innovations in almost every field
novation, assessing their impact on the future more accurately. Covid 19 pandemic, a new urgent grand global challenge, accelerated global digital transformations of economy and society in all aspects, from education, healthcare, retail, transport, changing radically the way we work, connect, live. Internet has become “the cornerstone of the global economy “according to James Ball (“The System”) but also critical global infrastructure, used by half of world’s population through 25bn-30bn connected devices. Internet as revolutionary technology encourage a new wave of radical innovations in almost every field, but due to astonishing rapid growth left unchecked and unregulated, it is turning also into an instrument of control and monopoly of few big companies. Professor Shosana Zubbof in her book called “The age of Surveillance “ explains how human experience data has been misused as free raw material for translation into behavioural data and fabricated not just into prediction products -antici-
pate what you will do now, soon, and later traded in a new kind of marketplace for behavioural predictions, but also shape our behaviour at scale -behavioural modification. Governments, regulators and civil organisations have an essential roll, responsibility and a legitimate right to follow more strictly how some innovations are used and their overall impact and implication on economy, environment, society and humanity. Despite the fact that Europe has more software developers than the United States (5.7 million vs 4.4 million) 5 of the world’s leading research institutions, 26 of the world’s top 100 engineering and technology universities, posses 95 percent of the value of luxury brands globally, Europe has been lagging behind China and United States, especially in digital technologies and in areas such as genomics, quantum computing and AI, crucial for the next wave of automatization and productivity growth. China, especially United States, with Silicon Valley the leading innovation and start-up ecosystem, created the new global technology giants in recent decades and group of superstar companies and unicorns, while Innovating at scale has been a challenge for European economies. United States has a good and prov-
en model for public sector support of innovation at scale, especially through defence and public sector with systematical investment in technology innovation. One of the most often cited example of mission led innovation at scale is the US mission to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, that required more than 20,000 companies and other institutions to work toward a common objective, cross-sector investments, disruptive innovation in aerospace and numerous other sectors, that also generated many unexpected and important spin-offs, inventions to improve flight control, food safety, clothing and hearing aids. To maintain American leadership in space, today thirteen US companies, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX venture, have been partnering with NASA with strategic mission to put a human on Mars by 2040. According to Professor Mazzucato “A mission, has the power to unite different stakeholders to work together with a joint purpose and inspire broad collaboration between business leaders and public sectors. But Professor Mazzucato also adds that ” Societal challenges are complex. More complex than going to the moon, which was mainly a technical feat. To solve those challenges, requires attention to the ways in which socio-economic is-
One of the most difficult and demanding challenges of our times will be how to protect vital society interests without restrain and stifling innovation, assessing their impact on the future more accurately
sues interact with politics and technology, to the need for smart regulation and to the critical feedback processes that take place across the entire innovation chain. It also requires stronger civic engagement.“ Today’s most urgent global challenges, such as COVID 19, cancer, climate change, healthy oceans, climate-neutral cities, and healthy soil, requires collaborative leadership, public-private partnership and clear, ambitious mission. A recent McKinsey opinion survey in 5 key European countries, showed that European citizens expect business taking the lead on innovation around critical societal challenges such as environmental sustainability, fairness of pay and wealth, training and qualification for future jobs, digital competitiveness, and speed of innovation. Unfortunately, majority of citizens had little or no trust that business will act in the interest of society, so business leaders have opportunities to deliver on this expectation and rebuild public trust. Purpose-led organisation that clearly demonstrate mission, tangible societal benefits, will inspire citizens and generate public support, fostering collaboration within and across industries and with public sector, stimulating innovation at scale for broad benefits to the economy and society.
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INNOVATIONS
DRIVING FORCES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
INNOVATION IN THE SERVICE OF HUMAN RESOURCES
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The speed of digitization is enormous, and no formal education system in the world can adapt to that
he crisis caused by the global pandemic is unusual in that, unlike the previous crisis, which was a financial one, it has exposed the relationship between the employee and the employer much more, in several different aspects - from how employers or managers treat the company and the employees in terms of employee health to the health of the company and the business”, said Aleksandar Hangimana, Managing Director- Balkans at ManpowerGroup, in an interview for special supplement of September`s issue of Diplomacy&Commerce magazine.
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One of the key issues related to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic is preventing layoffs. How did companies react in terms of human resources, and do you have predictions of what will happen by the year-end? — I am encouraged by the latest trend of economic growth similar to that before March this year. Certainly, the last quarter will be an indicator of the impact that the crisis has had on the labour market. The moratorium will be abolished, as will the obligation to not lay off workers in companies that have taken state aid. The last quarter of this year will show whether we can quickly return to the pre-COVID-19 growth phase next year. Certainly, the growth of the German economy should not be forgotten, because the demand and supply in our region indirectly and mostly depend on Germany. Negative forecasts regarding the fall of GDP and the economy always go hand-in-hand with massive layoffs.
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Will the labour market and job supply change, and can we expect a bigger offer of part-time jobs in Serbia, as in Germany, for example, with people working between 25 or 30 hours a week? — The state of the pandemic has certainly brought new insights into how work is organized in companies, first of all from the expected growing trend of switching to more flexible work models and out-of-office work to the fact that work can be segmented into reduced working hours, shift or part-time work depending on industry and type of work. The introduction of more flexible forms of work organization such as part-time would certainly bring an improvement in terms of better employment. As an example, I would like to mention the Netherlands, which, a few years ago, formalized flexible forms of part-time employment, which led to a better balance in the labour market, hiring hard-to-employ groups of people and achieving a good work-life balance, especially for single parents and other population segments who are working part-time due to personal obligations. New occupations are emerging as a result of the development of new technologies and the growth of trade, especially this year. Are education and retraining of the workforce keeping up with the pace of innovation? — We are talking about two parallel processes here - on the one hand, the rise of new technologies, such as e-commerce, reduces the need for classic sales channels and physical points of retail, and thus the number of employees. On the other hand, technology is further
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A L E K SA N DA R H A N G I M A NA Managing Director - Balkans at ManpowerGroup
EduTech is predicted to be one of the most important industries in the very near future
digitized in combination with robotics, big data analytics and AI, which reduces the need for the human factor in traditional occupations. This creates the need for new specialized and profiled occupations and functions that can be complementary to the processes of automation, AI, big data, but also for certain types of craft workers who are becoming increasingly in demand. We should not forget that the demand for jobs such as artisan, service, technical maintenance, and installation staff, etc., is increasing globally. People must make good and smart career and professional changes. Of course, this requires an adequate social framework for such transitional changes. What do you think about the impact of changes on the way education works and is it possible for the current education system to be sustainable? — The speed of digitization is enormous, and no formal education system in the world can adapt to that. Although there is still room for non-formal education, there has to be a more practical, easier and faster way to adapt to global change. A person can work on their core skills and know-how through various forms of education, as well as on their soft skills with the help of non-formal education. EduTech is predicted to be one of the most important industries in the very near future.
PREPARING STUDENTS FOR THE FUTURE; IT’S NOT ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY...
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World Class Teachers, World Class Students, World Class Community C O R P O R AT E
t the International School of Belgrade, we are not just integrating technology, we are innovating with technology. Technology integration plays a vital role in creating engaging learning environments and preparing students for their future academic pursuits. But as global issues become more complex, and learners face increasing demands, what we as educators now know is this: technology integration simply isn’t good enough anymore. For years, schools have struggled to integrate technology into education. But, as global connectivity and competition becomes increasingly more important, simply ‘integrating’ technology is no longer good enough. Too many schools are trying to catch up with a technology integration program that was already out of date years ago. Our children deserve and need better than this. Students of today need to be globally connected, they need to learn entrepreneurial skills and they need to know how to use technology as a tool to drive their own learning in a fast-changing, complex and ambiguous world. At the International School of Belgrade, our new ‘virtual students’ help to ensure that every student can participate in authentic, meaningful experiences no matter where they are. Learning spaces are equipped with large screens, camer-
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as and microphones to facilitate interaction between all participants in the learning environment. Including every student in a way that meets both their learning and well-being needs is a huge step forward for our school community. Google Suite and an endless choice of Chrome Extensions have given students an increased sense of autonomy. Students can choose from a variety of media to evaluate and demonstrate their own learning, including screencasts, website development, vlogs and interactive presentations. Our technology allows us to prioritize creativity over compliance, and to make learning relevant and personal for each and every student. Remote learning has taught us many things, including the importance of maintaining social relationships. Increased WIFI connectivity in outdoor learning spaces and tools such as Nearpod, Google Meet and FlipGrid allow students to collaborate both near and far. We may need to maintain physical distance, but innovative use of technology helps to bring learners, and their ideas, together. What school looks and feels like has been completely reimagined. It’s an exciting time to be a part of a school community that embraces these challenges, and utilizes technology in ways that inspire personal and meaningful learning. The International School of Bel-
C H E RY L H I C K M A N Science Teacher at the International School of Belgrade
To find out more about what makes our school so special, please contact our admissions team at admissions@isb.rs and take a look at our website www.isb.rs
grade has been the leading light in international education in Belgrade for over 70 years. ISB is a remarkable school by any measure, preparing our students to be successful wherever they go in the world. We are ambitious and strive for them to make exceptional progress at all ages. Our IB results are consistently among the best in the world and our graduates go on to study at some of the world’s finest universities. But this is only part of the story; at the same time, we prepare our students with the contemporary skills, attributes and concepts that prepare them for their fast-changing, globally connected, technology-rich future. We are a fully authorized IB World School and our Diploma, Middle Years and Primary Years programmes are designed to offer the right balance of challenge and support through a truly global perspective. With a diverse student body including 45 nationalities, students at ISB learn to interact with people who are different from themselves resulting in intercultural understanding and respect. Our teachers are dedicated professionals, a majority holding multiple or masters degrees in their areas of specialization. They purposefully create inspiring, student-centered and personalized learning environments designed to address each student’s unique approach to their learning.
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INNOVATIONS
DRIVING FORCES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
WE CONTINUE TO ADVANCE IN EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES ACROSS ORACLE CLOUD The nature of the change is more gradual and evolving then disruptive, but nevertheless significant and with increasing momentum READ THIS ON WEB
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n important element of Oracle's cloud expansion is also the roadmap to building a network of cloud data center regions equipped with the latest version of the Oracle’s cloud platform. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure was launched in late 2016 with a single region and a few core services across compute, storage, database and networking. Since then, Oracle Cloud has expanded to over a hundred services available in 29 cloud regions worldwide with a plan to reach 40 regions by the end of 2020.
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In an interview you gave us last year, you talked about how Oracle invests a lot in the development of new cloud services. How far have you come with the projects one year later, and what would you like to point out in particular? — Oracle is working on innovative technologies all the time and especially recently we had the opportunity to present a series of truly groundbreaking solutions. One of them in autonomous technology which is one of the most important announcements in IT and Oracle history. What makes Oracle Autonomous Database so innovative are its core features we talked already a year
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ago. Since then, two key versions of the solution have appeared. The first is the autonomous data warehouse, which allows our customers to deploy net new or move existing data marts, data lakes, and data warehouses to the cloud. The second is autonomous transaction processing which is designed for high-performance, mission-critical databases and mixed workloads. The second area that needs to be mentioned is a set of cloud-based business applications. Our flagship products of Oracle ERP / EPM / SCM Cloud, Oracle HCM Cloud and Oracle CX Cloud have been distinguished in several subsequent Gartner reports, covering both ERP, EPM, SCM, HCM and CX systems. We are very proud of our apps cloud suite which, thanks to its unique functionality and ease of use, is taking the market by storm. The system supports all ERP areas: from finance, through supply chain management, planning, production, to business analytics, with the use of modern and user-friendly technologies - all equipped with advanced mechanisms of AI and builtin multi-dimensional analytical tools. Has the COVID-19 crisis caused a faster development of new technologies
VLADIMIR KNEŽEVIĆ Country Managing Director at Oracle Serbia & Montenegro
Oracle has embedded innovative technologies into its business applications and extended these new capabilities into the platform so customers can build upon them
in some fields, and what is Oracle’s response to the crisis, globally and locally? — Recent months have demonstrated the need for organizations to accelerate their digital transformation, gain the flexibility and agility to adapt to changing market conditions. This can be done by using cloud-based solutions and Oracle’s focus is to be very close to its customers to help them accelerate their digital transformation journeys with our innovative technologies. Our autonomous database and cloud applications are designed specifically for our customers’ success in responding to growing demands, efficiently redesigning operations or developing new business models. With more than a thousand business applications in the cloud, we are proud to operate the most complete and innovative set of application cloud services in the world. This puts us in a unique position to deliver the business innovation and resilience our customers need today. Regarding the COVID-19 crisis, Oracle's top management has issued a special statement to its customers: wherever we can, we are trying in the best and most effective way to help businesses and institutions in a crisis. At the same
SaaS applications wherever they need them – in the cloud, on premises or via this dedicated region.
time, we do not want to use the pandemic for business or marketing gain. On the other hand, we have developed a wide information campaign in the media, trying to influence the market as a trusted advisor in this indirect way. Oracle is strongly present in the public and private sector in our country. What are the innovations that companies and state administration can expect, and which product would you like to single out? — Providing organizations with the transformational tools they need to embrace innovation, Oracle lately announced continued advancements in emerging technologies across Oracle Cloud, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, IoT, and human interfaces. Oracle’s strategy is to make emerging technologies pervasive throughout its cloud offerings. To help customers more easily take advantage of these technologies as part of their digital transformation, Oracle has embedded innovative technologies into its business applications and extended these new capabilities into the platform so customers
can build upon them. Also disrupting technologies serve as a foundation of a sophisticated COVID-19 Therapeutic Learning System that allows physicians and patients to record the effectiveness of promising COVID-19 drug therapies. The System is the result of the collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Department of Health and Human Services. About two months ago, Oracle announced a very exciting new initiative: Dedicated Region Cloud at Customer which offers customers a slice of its public cloud infrastructure into customer data centers with no changes and the same level of cybersecurity protection. Industry-first fully-managed cloud region brings all of Oracle’s second-generation cloud services including the secure autonomous database. With the dedicated Cloud Region Cloud at Customer, Oracle is making all of its cloud services available on-premises so enterprises can use Oracle’s cloud services, Oracle Autonomous Database and
How would you rate the Serbian market in regard to the Public Cloud solutions and in general when it comes to innovations? Are innovations the driving force of the economy? — Adoption of public cloud in Serbia is increasing for enterprise companies, midmarket and small businesses. There is a need to reduce the cost and shorten the time-to-market to remain competitive. Still, enterprise and public sector organizations often encounter roadblocks for public cloud adoption like data sovereignty, security and connectivity. Oracle recognized that and we offer Oracle Cloud@Customer that brings Oracle’s complete portfolio of public cloud infrastructure, fully managed cloud services, and Oracle Fusion SaaS applications into a customer data center. What we see, is higher adoption of Public Cloud Solutions in Financial Institutions, Public Administration and Manufacturing Industry. This trend will continue especially during the COVID-19 because companies are trying to mitigate the disruptive economic situation. Areas where we see a bigger expansion of AI and Machine Learning solutions are in the field of Chat Bots, Digital Assistants, Policies Automation etc.
Providing organizations with the transformational tools they need to embrace innovation, Oracle lately announced continued advancements in emerging technologies across Oracle Cloud
Is Serbia ready for technological development (when we say Serbia, we mean companies and the public sector)? — Yes, I think it is ready. We have strong vendor and IT ecosystem that can support this growth. There are many University Programs, and we have an increasing number of young people interested in Computer Science and IT. On the other side, we see enormous growth and modernization of public cloud services for citizens through the Office for IT (Kancelarija za IT). This gives a great platform for additional technical development in the Republic of Serbia. On the other side, many international companies have representative offices and outsourced centers in our country, and technology-wise, we can compare with many countries in Western Europe. We see a large number of e-Services in both public and commercial sector and adoption of new technologies. The nature of the change is more gradual and evolving then disruptive, but nevertheless significant and with increasing momentum.
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COVID-19 CRISIS ADDITIONALLY DEEPENED THE CRISIS OF TALENTS No one can predict how long these austerity measures will be in force, and it is estimated that the advertising industry will return to normal only in the second quarter of 2022. As numerous researches predict, next year will be a year of saving and survival
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n the occasion of the COVID-19 crisis, the Marketing Network (Marketing mreža) conducted a survey on the topic of internal communications and employee care, on a sample of 150 companies operating in Serbia. The research was conducted in two waves - in April during the state of emergency and in early August this year, which showed that 73% of respondents believe that internal communications are very important for the company's business during the pandemic. As many as 51% of respondents said that they had a clearly developed internal communications strategy during the state of emergency, while only 17% stated that they would work intensively on drafting an HR strategy in the coming months with a focus on redesigning the organizational structure and introducing new ways of working. It is interesting to note that 56% of company representatives pointed out that during the state of emergency and work from home they communicated very intensively with their employees, while 6% were in contact with them only once during the pandemic. Respondents point out e-mail (41%), video calls (40%) and intranet (11%) as the most efficient communication channels. Returning to offices, after several
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months of work from home, was difficult for half of the respondents, while 27% still have the opportunity to decide whether to work from home or from work. When it comes to changes in the number of employees, in April, 36% of surveyed companies have already reduced the number of employees, and that number increased further to 47% in August. Only 11% of the surveyed companies stated that, by August this year, they had increased their team and hired new colleagues. In addition, 59% of respondents stopped their employer branding campaigns by the end of the year. That the post-covid period brings concern is also shown by the fact that as many as 37% of respondents expressed fear that by the end of the year they will be forced to lay off a significant percentage of employees and that the departure of talented people will greatly jeopardize their business. When it comes to employee motivation by the end of 2020, 56% of respondents said they would offer their colleagues the opportunity for additional education, acquisition of new knowledge and skills, but also retraining, while 27% would offer a flexible job place and time. Only 7% will provide employees with bonuses, promotions and salary increases.
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I VA NA PA RČ E T I Ć MITIĆ Founder and CEO, Marketing Network
When it comes to agencies that operate in the market of marketing communications, the situation is more than alarming, and the most endangered are agencies for organizing events, fairs and BTL activities
ALARMING SITUATION IN ADVERTISING AGENCIES AS WELL When it comes to agencies that operate in the market of marketing communications, the situation is more than alarming, and the most endangered are agencies for organizing events, fairs and BTL activities. The Agency Report study, conducted by the Marketing Network for the third year in a row, showed that 34% of agencies operating in Serbia will focus on providing liquidity and maintaining the number of employees by the end of 2020. When it comes to the biggest problems of agencies at the moment, 47% said that it is the payment of salaries to employees, taxes and contributions, and 24% that it is the payment of VAT. By August this year, as many as 37% of agencies had been forced to lay off one percent of their employees, and 61% of agencies said they had already reduced the salaries of their colleagues. It is estimated that these percentages will increase significantly unless the market stabilizes and the COVID-19 crisis occurs. Also, no one can predict how long these austerity measures will be in force, and it is estimated that the advertising industry will return to normal only in the second quarter of 2022. As numerous researches predict, next year will be a year of saving and survival.
UNIQUE IN BEING DIFFERENT The sixth national festival of integrated communications KAKTUS 2020, organized by the Marketing Network, will be held on November 3 and 4 in Belgrade, under the slogan "Unique in being different". This year, the emphasis of the festival is on people who work in the advertising industry, regardless of whether they are on the side of an agency or a company, and who build their profession every day and leave a mark in society with their works. The new visual identity in the collage technique is a real refreshment in the communication of the CACTUS festival, which is already traditionally signed by the Ovation BBDO agency. "Advertising is the PEOPLE who work in this profession. This year, the CACTUS 2020 festival is just celebrating people, individuals and teams, their diversity, talents, interests, expertise, creativity and ability. We celebrate people who write the history of the advertising industry in Serbia every day and leave an indelible mark on society. This year is especially difficult for our industry and the people who work in it, so we believe that it is important to support them in this way and highlight their potential, "said Ivana Parcetic Mitic, founder and CEO, Marketing Network. As in previous years, CACTUS 2020 will offer participants a quality and diverse program from various areas of integrated communications, and the world's largest creatives and the most influential individuals in the communications industry have already confirmed their participation. This year, the traditional CACTUS awards will be given to companies and agencies for the best and most professional individual and integrated campaigns in the past year, and the competition is open until September 20. In addition, we will award young talents, within the humanitarian competition CACTUS Talents (powered by Delta Holding). The CACTUS 2020 festival was supported by over 45 media houses from the entire region, as well as the companies Mercator S, Apatinska pivara, Pepsico - Marbo Product and Jaffa Crvenka. The gold sponsor of the festival is Delta Holding, the silver sponsor is Forma Ideale, while this year the bronze sponsor is Mastercard. The partners of the festival are the agencies - Direct Media United Solutions, Ovation BBDO, Headline, Degordian, Info Media Group, Alma Quattro and DPC Group. The festival was also supported by Nova Communications, Digital Element, Chameleon Ruma, Propix and the Serbian Association of Managers.
INNOVATIONS
DRIVING FORCES OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
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