Entrepreneurs Read: Dr. Kristina Šorić Recommends Barnett’s and Ziegler’s Books on Economics and Business

Even in high school, Dr. Kristina Šorić, a teacher and lecturer at RIT Croatia, fell in love with programming because creating algorithms to solve real problems was a significant challenge for her. Since there was no computer science program available when she enrolled in college, she chose the engineering track in mathematics at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics at the University of Zagreb. She could hardly wait for her third year of studies when lectures in various computer science subjects began.

Throughout her studies, she was determined to work on creating algorithms for optimizing business processes, and after graduation, she got a job at the Faculty of Economics and literally fell in love with applied mathematics in economics, specifically applied in management. Along the way, she was guided and influenced by the books ‘Applied Mathematics for Business, Economics, Life Sciences, and Social Sciences’ by Raymond A. Barnett and Michael R. Ziegler, and ‘Introduction to Operations Research’ by Frederick S. Hillier and Gerald J. Lieberman.

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The Importance of Communication

During her doctoral studies, she researched scheduling problems in production as part of combinatorial optimization, and her main guide was the book ‘Machine Scheduling Problems, Classification, Complexity and Computations’ by Alexander H. G. Rinnooy Kan. However, as her career progressed, she realized that she passionately believed in her scientific field but struggled to reach her students and clients in business practice.

– At first, I was confused that they did not share my enthusiasm and did not see the usefulness of applying mathematical methods to optimize business processes. From various ups and downs, I realized that communication is extremely important. Thus, I came across the books ‘The Celestine Prophecy’ by James Redfield, ‘Emotional Intelligence’ by Daniel Goleman, and ‘Drive’ by Daniel H. Pink. Since then, I have been working intensively on my communication skills, inner balance, and calming my ego – said Šorić.

In Love with Supply Chains

For the past ten years, she has been dealing with supply chain management issues, guided by the books ‘Designing and Managing the Supply Chain’ by David Simchi-Levi, ‘Matching Supply with Demand: An Introduction to Operations Management’ by Gerard Cachon and Christian Terwiesch, and ‘Operations and Supply Chain Management’ by F. Robert Jacobs and Richard B. Chase.

As can be seen from the above, many books have scientifically accompanied Šorić, but today she mainly reads articles on supply chain management. Her goal is to popularize the topic she has loved since her high school days. That love, evidently, has not faded to this day.