WHEN YOU CARE YOU CAN SOLVE EVERY PROBLEM EVEN WITH ICE CREAM

1. EXTENSIVE PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

I was born in 1956 in Gračac, Lika. With a degree from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Belgrade, I started my career in “Rade Končar” factory in Zagreb. During my career I worked in many companies on a large number of projects, among other things, I was in charge of the entire vehicle fleet of Elektroistok company, but driven by circumstances, I also worked in a footwear factory. I am a proud father of two children. My daughter has a university degree in pharmacy and my son has a Ph.D. degree in molecular biology and chemistry and he works as a researcher at Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences. They wanted to study, I saw that they were good at what they were doing, so I provided education for them working several jobs at the same time. Because of my work I couldn’t even think about a hobby. But I remember that I liked bowling when I was young. On the other hand, I have many anecdotes from various work-related situations.

I am looking forward to my retirement, because I hope that this would be a vacancy for one young man, as it should be.

2. SANTA CLAUS IN JULY

My career in outdoor advertising began in 2003. At that time Alma worked on expanding it's network and the biggest challenge for the field personnel was to replace the formats without disturbing the life of citizens.

It means that a person working on the spot must be quick-witted, resourceful, empathic, and skilful at communicating with people of all temperament types.

I solved every problem by talking to people and I am a strong opponent of aggression.

I will mention one anecdote that my colleagues like to retell and that’s a situation in which I was an ice cream man.

It happened in July 2008, around 10 a.m., in front of Voždovac cinema. Our task was to replace the entire billboard. Instead of an old billboard with pasted posters we were installing a new backlit billboard. We knew that we needed to park a mobile crane that would block one part of the tramway tracks. Traffic disturbance was inevitable and that’s why we decided to do the work on Saturday at 10 a.m., because we were informed that it was the perfect time.

For instance, that’s not the case anymore. Difference between traffic intensity during the day and the night has become smaller over time, but we can manage under present conditions as well.

So, there was no traffic, we quickly dismantled the existing billboard and started installing the new backlit billboard. But we didn’t know that a couple of hours earlier there had been traffic congestion in Banjica and that 3 trams departed towards the city centre at the same time. We needed 20 more minutes to finish the work and there were 3 trams with unhappy passengers. Having realised the situation, I gave assignments to the boys so that they could proceed with the work and I went to explain the situation to drivers and passengers in order to avoid the escalation. In the first tram the driver did not complain, but passengers were nervous and they didn’t hesitate to express their complaints out loud. The same situation was with other 2 trams, each carrying 7 or 8 passengers.

I felt that the situation would escalate: the day was hot, they were already annoyed, and I knew that I had to do something. But, what should I do?

I could understand their annoyance, but the work had to be done.

At that moment I saw a kiosk with an ice cream freezer across the street. I said to the boys to continue with their work, rushed to the kiosk and bought 30 ice creams. Like Santa Claus in the summer outfit and with hands full of ice cream, I got on every tram and this time I tried to “cool” the situation down. Passengers were delighted and, eventually, they even thanked us for our attention and care.

When you show them that you care, there isn’t a problem you can’t solve, maybe even with ice cream.