Slovenian Business Report
Slovenean Stories are published by courtesy of the Slovenian Business Report - a quarterly must for those who want to do business in Slovenia. More about the magazine: www.sbr.si
IT is About People
Oria Computers has only 52 employees yet is regarded as one of the most innovative companies in Slovenia.Starting as a hardware provider 18 years ago, the company has made a remarkable transformation into the IT solutions business. It not only holds a number of business innovation awards, but is also respected for the results of its innovative management. It seems that the company combines the best of the two worlds: the entrepreneurial
and the managerial one. »We have introduced the organisational solutions which are typical for the larger systems, already as a small-size firm. This approach has enabled us to take advantages of the dynamic market development and to focus on this rather than organisational adaptations,« explains Sonja Klopčič, general manager of Oria Computers. more »
Letting Innovation Happen
Violeta Bulc is one of the leading Slovenian business consultants. Her specialty is innovation and its ‘drivers’ within the business environment. Her company, Vibacom, which has received a number of innovation awards, is living proof of her teachings and methods. more »We are small, we are niche players and occasionally we attack i-Tunes.
Slovenia’s infotech and telecommunication companies are mostly very small. Could that change soon? Take Webteh, a small Slovenian software company. Its present revenues are to small for the company to be included on the list of the 50 largest ICT companies. Yet its multimedia BS.Player is a global success. Its author Boris Voglar wrote the first version of BS Player five years ago . simply because he couldn’t find a software that would allow him to watch his favorite movies without fuss. The result was a simple and very practical small player now used by some 60 million users all over the world.
A Slovenian Dream
Ljubljana's BTC shopping complex offers everything a 21st century consumer might need: shopping, entertainment, sports and even its own spas. And it’s huge.
Just two decades ago the BTC company was a successful warehouser and distributor, running the largest inland terminal in Europe. Yet its leading market position wasn’t an excuse to rest on its laurels. In 1990 the management started an ambitious restructuring process, converting 200,000 square meters of warehouse space into a new business model of property management, ultimately creating perhaps the largest business, shopping, entertainment and cultural center in Europe. Today BTC City can boast over 365,000 square meters of space containing over 400 stores, with 18.5 million visitors per year.
more »A Turbine Producer Makes a New Turn
Litostroj Foundry is an example of a world-class company rising from the ashes of a former giant of heavy industry.
Not too many years ago Litostroj’s agony seemed to go on forever. Employees of the industrial complex were depressed, as not many opportunities could be seen at the end of a very long and dark tunnel. But Litostroj Foundry grew on the ashes of former giant of heavy industry. As with elsewhere in Slovenia, the problems started with the completely loss of the external and most of the internal market. But executives and employees were persistent – and they survived.
A World (Cup) In High Definition
Slovenia’s leading internet provider recently allowed Slovenian football fans to watch this year’s World Cup in high definition TV – creating a new market opportunityThis year's football world cup brought much of the planet into a unique state of euphoria. Some claim it was the most important event of 2006; even without the hype, it can certainly be argued that it delivered some interesting side-effects, some of them almost unnoticed. One of them was surely the introduction of High Definition Television (HDTV), which used to be one of the Europe’s technological weak points.
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