I’VE GROWN UP WITH ALMA

I saw billboards for the first time in the 1990’s and I was not thrilled. They were annoying as they were blocking the view.

However, life brings various challenges to expand our views. After 3 years in “Nedeljni telegraph” (Weekly Telegraph), in 2000 I got a job as a business secretary of Alma Quattro’s general manager.

There were few employees.  The company had premises only on the third floor, in a salon (exclusive)  apartment, while there was no 4th floor at all. The fourth floor was constructed as an addition later, as the team significantly expanded.  

Probably like every person of barely 23, I was confused when I came to this company, and there was a lot of work.

At that time the business secretary’s job description included everything from making coffee, invoicing, going to the Social Accounting Service (there was no e-payment then), answering the phone…  There was no finance department as such. 

Sanja Pešić probably doesn’t remember, but she helped me a great deal in those moments.  Whenever I was asked to bring a contract ASAP, and nobody could say anything about the location, town, payment orders …. Sanja would say: “Don’t worry” and  instructed me where I could find what I needed. It was very confusing to me, but my resourcefulness helped me go forward.

I was happy when Sanja became the CEO, since we all know that she is  oriented towards innovations and changes and, on the other hand, she has been with us for a long time and knows well our work system and the staff.  I knew from the beginning that it would be good for our company.

The very good thing about Alma Quattro is that you can advance and progress, in other words, you can further focus and develop based on what you have learnt.

When the Finance Department was formed in 2002, I got promoted.  I had always seen myself in finance and, therefore, I was very pleased.

When I worked as the business secretary of Kosanče Dimitrijević (the former CEO whom we call Sanče), he shared the office with the representative of Alma Media Group, Zizic Kalamantis, a Greek.

That wonderful man helped me learn English by refusing to communicate with me in Serbian.

He taught me to make a coffee just the way he liked it, and we call it now Zic’s Nescafé. Even today, wherever he sees me, Dejan Petrović (who founded Alma Quattro) asks me to make him coffee the way I do. 

I remember that Sanče had his own ritual: in the morning he wanted a coffee and Cedevita (vitamin drink) on his desk. Later he made these drinks himself.

We became friends and in a way equal, so that hierarchy and strict business relationship have faded. However, respect has remained.

Alma is a good and healthy environment, but I was young and I found it difficult to separate my personal and professional life.  It was like that until Sanče gave me a piece of advice:

"When you leave Alma Quattro, forget the job. Go home, go to your family.  If we brought our stuff from home to work and vice versa, nobody would be able to survive".

I still follow his advice. Like everybody else in the company,  I always had a nice and correct relationship with him. Sanče is a born executive, a gentleman, always composed, he is still on a last-name basis with everybody.  I asked him several times to stop being “per vous” with me, but he would always say: “Please, Mrs. Bajić, don’t ask this from me.” Even today he often tells me never to lose my positivity and smile.

I am a positive person, but I am also working on it, since I noticed that my positivity affected others too.

On the other hand, my cheerfulness was sometimes funny, but I never gave up.  For example, instead of time cards, we wrote our names on the list. We, from the finance department, would come first to work and we would draw some hearts, sun, etc.  Eventually, Sanče asked us not to register.

When everybody is in a bad mood, I  often send some funny photos. 

My relationship with Dejan Petrović is also full of respect.  He has always been very protective to all of us. Once he asked me: “What’s going on, what’s happening to you “?.

I could not explain that nothing was going on and that nothing was happening and that I was OK, until I told him I was pregnant.  After that we both burst out laughing and, of course, he wished me luck.

What I like about him is that when we work, we do work, but when we have fun, we have fun indeed.

If something is set and defined, it has to be that way.  To the last detail.

I also see things that way, to some extent.   

I have always seen myself in a company with defined work hours and stability, the company I can be proud of  and in which there is a good atmosphere.

I have achieved that.

What makes Alma Quattro different are not only the things I have mentioned, but also the fact that we are aware we are part of something valuable and that we do not compromise it.

I have grown up with Alma, from a young girl to a woman who is happy, successful, married with two wonderful kids.  I am grateful for the given opportunity, and for almost two decades of my work, I have made all my efforts and done my best to justify the given trust.