Traditionally, the Serbian Association of Managers organised the June Get-Together of Managers, the highly appreciated and recognised event in its six-year work, this year again.
Together with its members, the Association summarised the successful first half of the year, results, contribution and support to the business community and environment. Events and projects planned for this year were also presented to guests, members, partners and associates.
With a reference to the macroeconomic business conditions affected by the ongoing global political and economic developments, SAM presented numerous activities focused on improving the environment, exchanging know-how, connecting people from the business world, and strengthening mutual support and collaboration. The first generation successfully completed the first SAM Academy last year, with the second generation enrolled this April and already attending this exclusive educational program. One of the most distinguished initiatives is the EXPAT program, launched in order to connect our managers abroad. This year again, young managers are provided with the opportunity to grow with accomplished leaders via the Mentor Program, which enrolled its 7th generation.
We often talk about Serbia lacking a high-quality workforce and being impacted by brain drain and circular migrations, and that is our reality. What we from the business community can do is to provide our employees and youth with good and high-quality conditions for development and advancement and thus support them. If we do that in our companies and wider, within our environment, we can hope that we will provide a good example for others, inspiring them to create together an environment that will motivate youth to stay here and those who left to come back to Serbia after acquiring knowledge and experience abroad,” said Dragoljub Damljanović, SAM President. He also led a highly relevant activity this year, a visit to the National Data Centre in Kragujevac, organised in collaboration with the Office for IT and eGovernment. The delegation included representatives of 20+ companies, and Damljanović noted that similar activities were planned in Niš, Subotica, Aranđelovac and other parts of Serbia by the end of the year.
Serbian Association of Managers continues to focus on investing efforts in the business community development, contribution to its expansion, strengthening and improvement, with one of the goals being the expansion, namely regionalisation of its work. The Association will work and connect with partners and other business people across the region in the coming period as well.
The guests were also addressed by Mihailo Janković, CEO, MK Group, the winner of the renowned Serbian Association of Managers’ “Employer of the Year 2021” Award. Mihailo pointed out the importance of employees in companies. “Employees are the biggest asset and the largest investment of companies,” said Janković, adding that investment in employees safely leads to continuous development.
Jelena Bulatović, SAM Executive Director, also addressed the guests.
“It is a great satisfaction to see members, partners and associates at this event every year, when we look back at the year behind us and everything it brought, as well as everything we achieved. While closely monitoring changes around us, our plans are to continue providing contributions to the development of businesses and the education of managers at all levels. After two years of operations in the pandemic conditions, we are still under volatile global economic and political circumstances and, above all, we need continuous exchange of information, advice and mutual support and solidarity. That is why it is exceptionally important for you to know that we are here for you,” said Jelena.
Improvement and contribution to the growth of the business sphere and community by sharing know-how and experience, monitoring and processing ongoing trends and topics dominating the market and their presentation to the wider business and social community via dynamic formats remain the vision and goals of the Serbian Association of Managers, which successfully completed the first half of 2022 with 460 members.