Hrvoje Balen: Local problems should be solved at the national level

'If we think locally, we are digging our own graves' are the words of Hrvoje Balen, co-founder and member of the Management Board of Algebra, the largest private educational institution in Croatia that educates IT professionals.

Balen participated in a round table titled 'How to develop competitiveness and a stimulating business environment' at today's CROWN conference in Sisak, alongside Tihomir Babić, president of the Sisak County Chamber, head of the local office of the Croatian Employment Service in Kutina Mihaela Munko, and director of EuroART93 Jurica Vuković.

The member of the Management Board of Algebra emphasized that it is currently difficult to retain highly educated individuals, which is why investing in development is very important. He also stressed the need to 'push' changes at the national level to achieve local goals, and as he stated, it is impossible to ignore demographics, highlighting the fact that Sisak-Moslavina County, like the rest of Croatia, is experiencing a significant decline in population.

The lack of quality personnel was initially a problem for EuroART, which, as Vuković stated, provided training for its employees because it was difficult to find experts in digital marketing in the Sisak area, but the situation has changed in recent years.

– We are currently working a lot from home because it was realized during the pandemic that everyone who is responsible can work remotely – said Vuković, emphasizing that EuroART has employees from various parts of Croatia.

Support measures greatly assist self-employment

Namely, Sisak-Moslavina County entered, according to statistics, into the top five Croatian counties last year in terms of the number of newly opened companies. These are exceptional figures that are certainly aided by the support for self-employment offered by the Croatian Employment Service.

– In 2021, 321 people utilized the self-employment measure in Sisak-Moslavina County, while in the previous year, 2020, 230 people were involved, which is an increase of 40 percent, with the highest number of registered business entities in construction, manufacturing, and the IT sector – said Munko, highlighting that the continuous increase in self-employment is certainly contributed to by the amounts provided by the CES, as the maximum support that a person can receive reaches up to 200,000 kuna, depending on the activity the person registers.

Such measures from institutions inevitably affect the entrepreneurial climate in Croatia, so it is no wonder that numerous projects for the development of entrepreneurship are continuously being developed. One of them is the CROWN project, which lasted two years and produced a quality business environment for the operation of startup companies, as well as created active cross-border networks that increase competitiveness in the region.

After the presentation of the project, which was discussed by Nikolina Radić, a professional associate for the implementation of programs and projects of the Development Agency SI-MO-RA, and Ana Bogdanović from the Intera Foundation for Innovation and Technological Development, Josipa Bencek, who, together with her husband Kristijan, founded the company Grow, spoke with program manager Ivana Kuzlić Matanović.

Their smart glasses for the deaf, named Voicee, are one of the winning ideas of the project, and Grow has become a recognizable brand not only in Croatia but also in the world, as the owners of this company had the opportunity to present themselves at a fair in Las Vegas.

– The idea for our smart glasses originated thanks to the establishment of our company with the help of the CES, and our idea was the development of video games within the entrepreneurial incubator Pismo, so through the very idea of technology development, we came up with the idea of building those glasses – said Bencek, also highlighting the Moopies platform, an idea that emerged through this project and achieved a successful crowdfunding campaign, and she also encouraged everyone who sees themselves in entrepreneurship to try their hand at such a project.

Intuition and courage are the foundation of entrepreneurship

The deputy director of the SI-MO-RA agency, the public institution Regional Coordinator of Sisak-Moslavina County, Andreja Šeperac, presented the entrepreneurship plan that the development agency has created.

– We cannot wait for an investor to come; we must seek them out – said Šeperac, presenting the development plan in which SI-MO-RA wants to go on an 'outreach' mission and attract investments to this area, and for that, cooperation from all parts of society is needed.

Business consultant Nikola Nikšić also spoke at the conference, presenting the current state and potential of small and medium-sized enterprises in the county, stating that intuition and courage are the foundation of entrepreneurship and that the future is never created on its own but is created by people. However, he also noted that everyone must be cautious because all the incentives currently appearing are pushing not only the young but also others to engage in entrepreneurship, which carries a certain level of stress.

– In America, bankruptcy is a normal thing; Donald Trump himself said he has several bankruptcies behind him, but he still progressed. However, here, there are significant damages for those who find themselves in such a situation, so when we talk about people in development agencies, when we talk about institutions, I think it is very important to really take care to study the profiles of people on the spectrum of whether they are entrepreneurs or not – said Nikšić.

Nikšić also presented data that there are 2,561 business entities in Sisak-Moslavina County and that the total share of exports amounts to 33 percent, which is significantly higher than what is achieved at the state level.

A great example of entrepreneurship development was presented by Aleš Pevc from the Technology Park in Ljubljana, who also noted that the most new companies in Slovenia are born in the IT sector and that they also have a lot of support systems for young entrepreneurs, which is very important for the development of new ideas.