Exhaustion Game Against the Opponent?

Conversations with about twenty domestic entrepreneurs and managers reveal that survival will go to those who are stronger, tougher, more liquid, and have more of their own capital. The situation is particularly dramatic in the service sector, where prices are being slashed multiple times to retain clients.

Can we trust analysts who missed the mark in 2009?, asks Gordana Gelenčer. Next year looks somewhat better for us. Analysts predict stagnation or a slight decline. For this year, which ends with a GDP decline of approximately six percent, they mainly predicted growth!?

Pension funds are waiting for the end of the recession to approach so they can invest the remaining free funds in the stock market. Their inclination towards this was recently demonstrated when some of them appeared as potential investors in the Immunological Institute, which planned to offer its shares to the public. More in Amir Kulenović’s story ‘Permission to Invest in Another 13 Shares Can Bring Higher Returns with Higher Risk’.

In negotiations about extending old contracts and concluding new ones, the scene is a game of exhausting the ‘opponent’, and the annual contracts will show how harsh the reality is in which entrepreneurs live. Likewise, the state will receive a signal whether we are threatened by dangerous deflation. Conversations with about twenty domestic entrepreneurs and managers reveal that survival will go to those who are stronger, tougher, more liquid, and have more of their own capital. The situation is particularly dramatic in the service sector, where prices are being slashed multiple times to retain clients. The negotiation rules that have been used in Croatia at a relatively primitive level are now reduced to the principle of ‘take it or leave it’, and it is much more common to come to the negotiating table with a fig in your pocket. The worst are, of course, negotiators from companies that hold a monopoly. More in the issue’s theme from the pen of Matilda Bačelić and Antonija Knežević.

Why Novi Spa Hotels & Resort Can Endanger the Entire Business of Bruno Orešar is revealed by the entrepreneur himself in an interview with Lider. Namely, there has been talk for some time about the decline of the business empire of former tennis player, now entrepreneur Bruno Orešar, who has found himself in an awkward situation. Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank did not fully comply with the financing of the Novi Spa Hotels & Resort, leaving the project without sufficient funds for normal business continuation.

The good old saying ‘as long as you keep pedaling, you won’t fall’ has been applied to their business by media publishers who decided to end this difficult year with new projects. Sandra Babić writes about publishing and projects that are a real surprise in a crisis. Namely, it seems that domestic media see the way out of the crisis primarily in specialization, which could encourage advertisers to continue their marketing activities and thus save jobs and ensure revenue inflow.

They are physically present, exist somewhere, but are invisible at levels of participation in society. We have called ‘the people who are not there’ those in important and responsible positions in government services, but completely or partially unknown to the public. Who these invisible powers are is revealed to us by Željka Laslavić.

The revenues of Slavena Žužul’s company have increased 37 times, and profits 68 times in five years. She did not need money for expansion, so she has about a hundred million kuna in deposits in just one bank. And then the fairy tale was abruptly interrupted by the opening of an investigation due to scandals in HAC. How the fairy tale of Skladgradnja turned into a nightmare is revealed to us by Amir Kulenović.

Our regular advisor, mr. sc. Marija Zuber writes about why there is no avoiding the payment of VAT at 23 percent due to a previously paid advance. If an entrepreneur calculated VAT at a rate of 22 percent after receiving the advance, and delivered the product after it increased to 23 percent, they must report a higher VAT obligation for the total amount. Which contractual party will bear the burden of the increased VAT is resolved mutually by the seller and the buyer.

In Business Knowledge, read about managerial diseases and what needs to be pledged for a managerial contract. Besides the well-known stress, one of the main risks of managerial work, and the risk of heart diseases, loneliness as a result of prolonged work is a new problem. American scientists have proven that chronically lonely individuals are more likely to suffer from infections, high blood pressure, insomnia, arthritis…

The serial is dedicated to Martin Winterkorn, Porsche’s new chief who marked the end of the legendary brand’s independence. At the beginning of the year, Porsche hoped to end the year with a profit. However, the end turned out to be very unpleasant: the announcement of a 4.4 billion euro loss and a debt of 11.4 billion euros. The icon of luxury automotive found itself in the midst of Volkswagen’s ‘brotherly’ attack, or the intention to buy 49 percent of shares in Porsche with the agreement that the two companies would fully merge by 2011. The icing on the cake is the appointment of Martin Winterkorn, VW’s leader, as head of Porsche. (G. J.)