The risk of attacks on entrepreneurs, as in the case of Galinec, is dramatically increasing. The cooling of the national economy, whether called a slowdown, recession, or crisis, will add fuel to the fire in business community relations.
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Written by: Miodrag Šajatović |
When bankers start to halt loans, many entrepreneurs, especially those from the ‘in-between world’, will become very nervous. There will be everything. |
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The Index Action, a police show revealing the purchase of exams at universities, whether intentional or not, has successfully pushed the beating of Josip Galinec, director of Industrogradnja, into the background. Unfortunately, the risk of attacks on entrepreneurs and managers in Croatia is dramatically increasing. Not only as a result of encouraging bullies because the state apparatus fails to find the masterminds. The cooling of the national economy, regardless of whether it is called a slowdown, recession, or crisis, will add fuel to the fire in business community relations. Rough times are coming. The crisis will make many more nervous. Many partnerships will be put to the test. Business chains will break. In recent years, only businessmen with a significant lack of ability or unfortunate ones who chose the wrong business partners ended up in blockades and bankruptcies. With the current, dramatic global processes of collapse or cleansing of the global capitalist system, the storm will reach even the remote parts of the global economy, such as Croatia. Many are deluding themselves thinking they will be able to escape the consequences. Inflation has at least temporarily been brought under control, but it has actually only changed its form – it has turned into an escalation of non-payments and illiquidity. The moment of truth has come in which the virtual part of GDP growth will have to melt away. And this will happen in the real life of entrepreneurs, not in macroeconomic models outside of time and space. A few days ago, it was announced that the Ministry of Agriculture will reprogram loans for about a hundred milk producers who were threatened with farm confiscation due to non-payment of loan installments. Dairy farmers are lucky because the Ministry protects them for political-coalition reasons. Most other entrepreneurs will not be so fortunate. Bankers are known as people ‘who give you an umbrella, and when it starts to rain – ask for it back.’ Well, now they are at the door of a time when bankers will ask for the ‘umbrella’ back. As N. Bate, author of the book Beat the Recession, conveys, it is time for quick action and tough decisions. Of course, they will try to reprogram loans for troubled entrepreneurs, but they will not be able to do so en masse and for everyone. When they press their debtors, these will start calling those who have not paid them. And thus, the nervousness will spread across Croatia. There will be those who, unfortunately, will take their own lives. Others will have to move from properties that were under activated mortgages due to dramatic family circumstances. And a third group will likely try to save themselves and others by force in despair. Now someone will say: ‘Isn’t the solution in judicial debt collection?’ Yes, but only those who do not know the state of the Croatian judiciary can believe that. The ‘entrepreneurs’ who have been used to raking in huge profits with little effort and little real business knowledge will also become increasingly nervous. Since they most often achieved this in collusion with clients through public tenders, this type of pressure will become more intense. Is there a solution? It is difficult to come by. It can be said that the peak of possibilities is controlling the damage. If there has ever been a need for national consensus, it is in these increasingly difficult times. The Croatian National Bank announces the possibility of relaxing its policy. However, signals are not coming from government circles that the situation is being taken seriously. The government has a responsibility to prevent chaos and panic among businessmen. Political pressures to return ‘unjustifiably raised prices’ are not enough. Just as the US government has a recipe for emergencies, so should Sanader’s team prepare one. They still have time. However, the best advice for the business community is to ‘gather their heads.’ If they are genuine, previous business partners will show mutual solidarity in difficult times. On the other hand, every entrepreneur needs to come to terms with themselves. As Nicholas Bate, author of the book Beat the Recession (to be published in Lider’s library in about ten days), conveys, it is time for quick action and tough decisions. Some will fail during the recession. Those who make a good business survival plan can be ready to face the end of the lean period. Everything that a businessman has done well so far must be done even better. And the mistakes they made, which were covered by good demand, are no longer permissible. |
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