“Our clients are companies that believe that investing in people is the most cost-efficient investment.” Z. Radovanović

Choose The Job You Like...

Executive search and selection, recruiting, outsourcing, HR consulting, business management and development of individuals and teams are their main job.

Link Consultantsis an international HR Partner and Recruitment Company based in London and it is present in the markets of the European Union, Switzerland and West Balkans.

They managed to form a team of highly qualified professionals who are always ready to meet clients’ specific requirements and, at the same time, ensure their complete discretion.

“This is all I know to do, and I am happy since only 3% of people in the world does the job they like… and I am one of them!” says the founder and the leader of this great team, Mr. Zoran Radovanović, whom we interviewed today.

He does not measure his success with the number of employed managers but with the results they have achieved within their new organizations. He believes that the training, both of a team and of an individual, is a crucially important part of success. For this reason, nowadays, he spends most of his time on education, particularly Top Management, through his other company “Dale Carnegie”.

We had the pleasure to have an exclusive interview for the PROFIT magazine with Mr. Zoran Radovanović, CEO at Link Consultants/Dale Carnegie.

1. Mr. Radovanović, where were you born, and where did you grow up and go to school?

I was born in Belgrade; I grew up here, graduated from the high school, and then went to Cyprus. Later, I graduated from a college in the States. I have been in the business of Executive Search for almost 16 years now. It all started in Cyprus with the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which was followed by New York, Switzerland, and Monaco. In the last two years I worked a lot in Belarus and Russia, and the success I made there is particularly important for me. I have all my simpaties for people of Belarus. I gained great experience and made lot of friends there.

2. How did you get your way around the richest island in Europe, in Cyprus? How did your career progress?

Moving to Cyprus was a matter of circumstances. Cyprus was the only country that did not require an entry visa at that time. Namely, in late 1992, I waited for 6 hours in front of the Dafiment Bank to raise my 5 DM of savings. Then it occurred to me that, if I stay one more day in Serbia, I will go insane. I went to Cyprus via Sofia (there were no flights from Belgrade due to sanctions), with borrowed 1000 Deutsche Marks. This is how it all started. When you start from the bottom, there is no way back.

We are running 4 leading regional HR companies from Belgrade.“Link Consultants” deals with executive searchand our daughter company “Link Partners” deals with HR consulting and outsourcing of HR functions and employees. “Dale Carnegie” is the world’s largest training company and we also have the “St. Michael’s” Foundation which deals with the education and employment of young people.

4. Who are your clients in Serbia, how do you find people you employ? What have been your most successful tasks so far?

Clients are from the whole Western Balkans. We do service over 200 different businesses, ranging from leading banks to multinational corporations.

They appreciate our methodology and selection of people and we are honoured to be working with such reputable clients.

5. In what countries you have offices? How many employees does “Link Consultants” have?

“Link Consultants” was founded in London, and we also have companies in Cyprus and in Serbia. “Dale Carnegie” has its offices in over 80 countries and over 2000 employees, and, currently, this is world’s largest training company. We are proud that we are ISO certified and that Dale Carnegie programs are recognised by the American Council of Education, and some programs are thought at internationally recognised universities.

6. Do you plan to open new offices somewhere else in the world?

We are in process of initiating „Link Consultants” offices in Montenegro sometime in March, that would provide support to the existing clients there. Montenegro is alredy 10% of our portfolio.

7. In your opinion, what is the current situation in Serbian labour market in Serbia? What possibly needs to be changed or improved in order to keep up with rest of Europe?

Obvious crises in the last few years, is due to the current economic situation. What we need in Serbia is the strategy concerning education and employment, and to re-establish proper system of values. The main question is what we want to be as a society? This is the core of the problem. I still do not understand what is our goal as a country and as well as a society?

On the other hand, our education system in schools is a disaster. I remember, when I was a child, the first thing I learned was that we beat the Germans in 1945, and that we were very rich country. In time, I started to lie to my parents to get some pocket money, I started to copy in school to get better grades, and then I faked and pretended in front of the girls to get them to kiss me. In the end, a young man coming from such a system becomes an emotionaly disabled and with no clear focus.Still, with our bless and ability to survive when things become difficult, we got Novak Đoković and people similar to him, which all of us, plain and boring people, makes a Novak.

8. In what way the global economic crisis affected the HR sector in Europe?

Between 2008 -2010, HR industry almost disappeared in Europe. To be more specific, the world economy is led by dinosaurs that understood globalisation as merchandiseof “Big Mac”, which is not exactly the case. Due to the not restructured financial system, the whole world has collapsed. Countries are going bankrupt and companies are closing down.

In early 90’s and with the first Dot.Com. boom appeared various constraints, both in the banking sector and in countries’ economies. In particular, in the banking system this started with the Basel I, II and III and spread to the restrictions of various export-import quotas within the EU countries.You should not complain if you agree to restrictions.

Restrictions are an excuse for someone’s actions, and life should not have limits. In the end, everything collapsed and disappeared. People lost their jobs, retired people lost their pensions, and however same people that help us get in crises are doing “restructuring” of countries and economies. The question is, if they are so experienced, how did the crisis happen then?

9. What are new trends in the HR sector at the global level? What profile of people are companies looking for now? What skills and abilities, in addition to education, a top manager must possess today to be shortlisted for a job in large companies?

Top managers are always “in”. What are particularly important for us at “Link Consultants” are the previous career stability, success and achievements in his or her business, and that he or she gives priority to the career rather then money when changing a job.

However, things have changed in general. In every country, including Serbia, a manager today needs to have flexibility, modern style, to adopt quickly, to work 5 times more, and to count on less money than before.

The only principle that we need to follow is that - there is no principles, since many things today do not depend on you and your performance.

If you believe that the Director of the Maintenance Department in the US Steel Smederevo, who worked 12 hours a day, with great achievements is to be responsible for closing down company in Serbia- you are wrong.

10. What are top managers like in Serbia in comparison to world’s or European top managers? What do they lack, and what do they have extra of?

Our managers posses strong skills, good knowledge and corporate culture values and the only thing they lack off in comparison to managers in other Euroepan countries is the level of salary they earn in the West Balkans .

Until a few years ago, the most wanted people in Serbia were Mladić, Karadžić and financial managers, and today, all three of them were found.

Our people were born in crisis because that living without crises does not suits are history. There is no problem we have not faced with in our humble lives. We are eager for success and we are motivated to provide for our children tomorrow a better life from the one they live now. The good thing is that we started from the bottom and that we never want to go back there.

11. The Labour Law in Serbia is still being harmonised with European standards. How close or how far are we from Europe in terms of this Law? In your opinion, what needs to be changed to ensure better labour market that would satisfy both workers and employers?

The Labour Laws in the EU and in the USA are not much different. The laws are very similar in different countries with some exceptions mostly related to labour rights, social issues and social contributions.

In the last 70 years we have been living in the country where there is no “labour law” but “the law that makes labour more difficult” for both employers and employees, and for us managers.

The Law limits us in terms of any form of normal relation and in terms of a possibility to develop a corporate culture of the rewarding system and other things. The Labour Law of the Republic of Serbia is a post-socialist document that was amended in accordance with wishes and requests, which complicated things even more. There are many issues related to the Labour Law which most of my colleagues agree about, starting from the part-time work, full-time work, agency agreements, non-agency agreements, work-for-hire agreements, and “student agencies”as undefined legal entities existing only in North Korea and some countries of the former SFRY as a model for legal non-payment of both social contributions and VAT, which is the greatest loss for our country and our people.

Oscar Wild said “The hardest thing is to be simple”, and our “labour law” is anything but that. The question is simple and straightforward: “Can we provide a solution to this issue for our country?”

The answer is simple: ”YES”. There are qualified and experienced professionals in our country with an international experience that can provide a solution to this problem and not only to criticise in the media.

12. Your other company is Dale Carnegie. You have a licence for the whole region and, basically, you are engaged in the education of employees. Since when have you started operating on the Serbian market and what else does this company deal with?

Dale Carnegie is the largest training company in the world. It was established in 1912 on Dale Carnegie principles that served as the basis of the American civil society. Dale Carnegie deals with the development of individuals within a community. Programs are customised and designed for every corporation separately, placing an emphasis on the coherence between individual’s and company’s wishes. We are proud to be doing business in over 80 countries with over 2000 certified trainers. Dale Carnegie programs are available in Serbia and Montenegro, and in the beginning of March, we will have the honour to host colleagues from Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania in Belgrade, at the first Dale Carnegie Academy outside the territory of the States. Dale Carnegie Serbia has a large role in the development of the overall business model in the Eastern Europe.

13. Who are your clients and what results have you achieved so far?

All our clients are VIP and we are proud of clients’ portfolios. In the past 5 years, over 900 managers found their chance for a new career through Link Consultants. Our biggest success is that all of them are satisfied today, and, more importantly, they achieved goals within new organizations.

Our success is not measured by the number of employed managers, but by the results of their work in a year or two.

14. CSR is an important part of your business. Currently, you are working on the project for the education of children from homes for children without parental care. What exactly is this about? Who are your partners in this project? Did the government take part in this project?

Our Group of Companies also includes the St Michale’s Foundation which deals with the education and employment of young people. It gives me a great pleasure to say that we launched the project of “Social Inclusion” to help young people without parental care under the auspices of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

This program is part of DALE CARNEGIE and our St Michael’s Foundation which has been implemented in the whole territory of the Republic of Serbia. Each student undergoes the whole program which implies continuous work for twelve months and regular monitoring of student’s progress.

Advantage is given to the children from homes for children without parental care on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, because they need the help most. The Program is entirely supported by funds from the St Michael’s Foundation without the help from the budget funds.

According to the Center for Social Work, in Serbia currently live 6,400 children without parental care. The Government accommodated most of them in foster families (5,736) and about 700 of them are spending their childhood in homes for children without parental care. The Program “Social Inclusion” applies to the children or young people aged 15, 16 and 17, who spend their last year in a home and then begin an independent life. According to official statistics, only 3% of them complete higher education. The objective of this project is to increase employment opportunities for this group of young people after one year of education, and to increase their interest in further education. This clearly indicates to the fact that children or young people leave homes unprepared, and that their opportunities for successful inclusion in the society are significantly limited. The objective of our program is to enable the young people without parental care to, at least, partially compensate their shortcomings that are caused by growing up in alien communities or without a family. The program is aimed at the preparation of young people for the challenges they will face in the modern world.

We would like to emphasise that DALE CARNEGIE programs are regularly applied in the EU countries, mostly in the UK, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and France. In the region, DALE CARNEGIE programs are regularly applied in Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia. In the Republic of Serbia, DALE CARNEGIE projects have been implemented with 1370 students in the first two years of company’s operation.

The Program “Social Inclusion” by DALE CARNEGIE is being implemented worldwide with over 7 million young people, in the countries like the USA, Thailand, Japan and other countries, as part of their contribution to the social development. We hereby emphasise that Dale Carnegie Program is ISO 9001 standardised, recognised and approved by the American Council of Education (ACE).

These types of projects are the most important investment in children and young people who are the future of our society.

15. Two years ago, you said in one interview that Cyprus is the most beautiful place to live, and that you get enough of Serbia for seven days in a month! A couple of months ago you became Serbian citizen again. Why Serbia again?

Cyprus, for me, is the most beautiful place to live.

Cyprus is the most beautiful place to live. I have been living there for 19 years, but I also yearn for a dynamic life. Dale Carnegie said that the best way to cope with challenges is to indulge them. Since I left Belgrade, I wanted to come back. This is my country and my home. I have an experience of many markets and I have a wish for my son, who was born in Cyprus, to live in a better society in Serbia one day.

I believe that the darkness will not disappear if we close our eyes.

I came back to fight.

I believe that, with my experience, I can contribute a lot to the development of, not only my company, but of our society as such. On the other hand, I would not like to judge myself one day for not trying.

Our life is defined by opportunities, even by those we do not make use of. Generally speaking, I believe that nothing is difficult in life – it all depends from the position you observes the world around.

16. How stressful is the job you are doing and how do you manage to overcome the daily stress?

My job is my life. I do not have work hours and I am not employed. Life is not stressful. Stress is the highway at which you start by hitchhiking and then you try hard to get into a fastest car.

The worst thing is when the best part of your job is your holiday. Something is wrong then.

17. How do you spend your free time in Belgrade? Do you have favourite places?

Privately I consider myself as boring person. Couch potato! I can sit all day in front of a TV and watch football. I like having coffees and discussing about sports and politics with my friends on weekends. I only watch and read news concerning business, like your magazine, for example. I rarely go out late at night because I like waking up early, and I am always afraid that I will miss something if I wake up late in the morning. Usually I sleep 5 to 6 hours.

18. What are real life values for you?

Power destroys those who do not have much. Therefore, always give more than you really can, and do not expect anything in return. Believe in the family and respect differences. Do not let your whole life pass in waiting for the end of the working hours.

Do what you can to be good for yourself and this will make you different from others. Each of us is an important factor in the society: the one that cleans streets, the one that sits in a bank, and the one that works in a factory. We all need to be individually successful to make our society a success.

In Japan, a big hit are holographic concerts; you come to a concert where a band is playing live, the place is full, dancing girls are performing; everything is real, except there is no singer. She is a holographic presentation... And people pay to see “Shakira”, “Rihanna” or ”Kemiš”, and they are happy. All of us are some kind of a holographic presentation of our emotions and people see us the way we see ourselves. Let’s help each other, do not hate others because they are happy, let’s love everyone’s success and let’s enjoy in ours.

19. If you had a chance, what would you change in your career?

I do not have a sense of time because then I separate the past from the future, and this way, I only have the future and some smiles from the past. Honestly, I would not change much. I am only 40 and I would never like to go back when I was 30. I have plenty of ideas and I would like to carry them through.