IF THE FINANCIAL ASPECT IS THE ONLY BENEFIT OR ADVANTAGE, WORK WILL VERY SOON BECOME UNBEARABLE

1. EPISODE: MILITARY ACADEMY

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to work in the army and to be an officer. If you ask me why, I’m not sure that I could provide a reasonable explanation. I think that I was attracted by the idea of the system in which everything is in order.

I am a graduate economist with major in finance. I finished the five-year programme of the Military Academy in 4 years, and in 2000 I joined the academic staff as a teaching fellow and a commander in charge of about 20 students.

My teaching experience acquired at the Academy was useful later, during my work in a small audit company, when my task was to train younger colleagues and prepare them for work.

After about 4 years I wanted to pursue my further development focusing on the practical segment of my profession and, therefore, I accepted an opportunity to work 8 months in the Ministry of Defence. Again it was a system with specific hierarchy and rules.

I became more and more interested in the corporate world, as well as in auditing, and in 2005 I started working in Deloitte audit company.

All large-scale systems have the structure similar to the military structure and my career in the corporate world was like a natural order of things. If there is no order, then anarchy follows, and that’s why all large-scale organisations are based on the military model. They are simply too big to function in a different way.

To be an auditor means to have a large number of clients from various industries, from different legal entities and forms, which provides versatility.

2. WHY DO PEOPLE STAY IN ALMA?

When I came to Alma in 2008, the biggest change for me was just the fact that I was finally carrying out one specific activity, one segment of the economy i.e. business.

At that time it was interesting to me to deal with specific stuff.

My position of the financial controller means that I am in charge of the company’s finance, money spending for specific purposes within the budget realisation, and reporting to government authorities and the group we are part of.

As far as the personnel is concerned, from my point of view Alma is the first company in which I work, and one of only few I know, which has low personnel fluctuation.

During my employment in the company, only 6 people left Alma, and three of them retired.

I had an opportunity to experience and notice that the material (financial) aspect is not the one that makes people choose the same employer year after year.

If this is the only benefit or advantage, work soon becomes unbearable.

The short-term incentive methods cannot keep employees in the long run if there is no adequate treatment of employees by the employer as well as mutual respect of personnel members resulting in joint activities and projects.

One of such nice experiences was a competition organised by the Association of Authentic Hedonists, in which the selected team from Alma Quattro called “Vamos Almos” took part. We divided as to maximally use our talents: Zole is a master of choosing the right meal, Igor and I are good at preparing it, and our colleagues from the sales department are perfect to present it. We won the first prize for the most delicious meal and also had fun.

In Alma there is mutual respect and agreement that prevents business disagreements grow into personal ones, and vice versa. Every employee perceives the company as his or her Alma (they all refer to it as “my Alma”) and you can see that from their conduct at work.

From the business aspect, Alma stands out with its financial stability, which is a characteristic of only 2.15% of Serbian companies. Since 2014 until today, we have been the holders of the Gold Certificate of financial excellence with the highest grade - AAA.

I would like to mention that this certificate is awarded based on the identical criteria as in the European Union, and it puts us side by side with the most successful business companies in the entire Europe.

Even in 2009, when we were hit by the economic crisis, we managed to remain stable with regard to financing, liquidity as well as sales.

We didn’t have losses at any moment, even though the profit rate varied.

3. ENVIRONMENTALLY AND FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS OPERATIONS

The project of lighting replacement on our media was essentially “pushed” by the finance as something feasible and environmentally justified.

I am talking about the project of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development mainly intended for manufacturing companies, which encourages the replacement of lighting in manufacturing processes with the lighting that consumes less electricity and, as a result, reduces CO2 emissions.

From the standpoint of financial viability, we would certainly face the light replacement on all the media. In this case, we would not only reduce electricity consumption in the future, but also have 10% return on investment after the project completion.

In manufacturing industries, which are the target group of such incentives and projects, 10% reduction of electricity consumption is considered a significant achievement.

We reduced electricity consumption and CO2 emissions by 62,75%!

We expect that the lighting on the complete network will be replaced by the end of September this year.

The pleasure of working in Alma is having the support to contribute to the wellbeing of the community, through this as well as other projects.