Our company’s development path – from a small-scale production house to conquering the very demanding and selective EU and global market owing to our hard work – was a decisive factor for the jury to give us this award.
Termovent Komerc d.o.o. employees deserve all the credit for the company’s success, which is also attributed to the constant expansion and increase of our product range and gaining a strategic advantage by offering more than our competitors. Our technology and steady quality in dealing with every individual client are also exceptionally important for our stable operations, which are constantly improved.
Earlier this year, you received the 2015 Entrepreneur of the Year Award. What were the most decisive factors that made the jury give the award to you among 30 other candidates?
I am very honoured to have been unanimously chosen as the winner of the 2015 Entrepreneur of the Year Award by a jury comprised of our most renowned business people. I also have to say that the auditing & consulting company Ernst & Young flawlessly organized the awards ceremony.
We are currently working for the biggest global companies like Pfizer, Pharmasyntez and Purna Pharmaceuticals, and we are proud of the fact that we are exporting our products to Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the Russian Federation.
Termovent has concluded two five-year contracts with Pfizer, and we are the only Serbian company from this branch to have its products sold in India. We have built our own production equipment, which is best suited to fulfil the needs of microelectronic, pharmaceutical and other demanding segments. All of this has certainly left a positive and probably decisive impression on the jury.
What is Termovent Komerc comprised of and what principles do you apply to accomplish such excellent results in the country and abroad?
The Termovent Company is a modern facility, organized in line with the latest business practices, and it has the production programme, staff and technology to implement highly specialized and demanding pharmaceutical projects, as well as to produce microelectronic parts and sterile segments for healthcare facilities. The fact that we are constantly investing in our staff, particularly in the younger workers, providing them with on-going training with the best engineering companies in the EU and the world, getting them certified and creating a positive working environment have all contributed to our company’s very stable foundation.
Significant and positive changes were made in our company when my sons Miloš and Andrija, both mechanical engineers, came to work for us and took over the management of very important and demanding segments of the company.
The fact that they are closer to the age of our younger workers has created a work atmosphere that resulted in an extended production programme, breaking into new markets, better promotion and a brand new brochure about the company. Also, we carried out numerous other very important activities.
Termovent Komerc cooperates with many respectable companies abroad. To what extent are their standards and procedures compatible with yours?
Every company with which we cooperate has clearly defined standards, mostly based on the GMP or FDA regulation, pursuant to the CFR21 part 11. Termovent had to get thoroughly acquainted with every single of these standards and to fully master them, which was quite complicated. This implied educating our project design, production and implementation staff so that our equipment could meet the strict requirements for the pharmaceutical industry. This only validates what I said earlier: that our staff is the driving force behind our company and that we are constantly investing in our workers who are highly efficient as a result of it.
I think that ministries should often talk to and exchange of experiences with successful business people. They should also use these successful examples both as models and basic guidelines for their actions and strategies
Generally speaking, our knowledge and qualifications, adapted as they are to every single segment, had to be absolutely compatible with the procedures in every company for which we work because that is the main prerequisite of our cooperation.
My teams must possess flawless knowledge of the main GMP or FDA regulation and to harmonize them fully with client demand. My teams have to be competent enough for clients to choose us over someone else. So far, we have been very successful at that.
What reforms should the state conduct in order to facilitate faster growth of Termovent Komerc and other similar companies in Serbia?
I am not the one to teach the government how to do its job and tell them what they need to do to boost the success of companies. My personal success and the success of my company is partly due to a positive environment that the Serbian government and its line ministries have created. However, I would like to mention once again the resources that were fundamental to the success of my company, and they are our workers and organized teamwork.
The staff at the ministries and at the basic cells of the state system, which are local self-governments, have to be able to recognize a very complex systemic activity that is successful entrepreneurship and provide the maximum support and help through various forms, establishing links between regions and all other countries.
The activities instigated by the government and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce on organizing meetings between business people at different state levels, and presenting Serbia’s economy and our economic potential are certainly positive developments. However, I think that the companies chosen to represent our economy are inadequate because the results of this poor or incompetent representation or the presented range of products are inadequate. In any case, this is not enough and the expected effects are not there.
This ought to be changed. Business people with good business programmes, that can produce quality accepted in the EU and other countries, and that possess all the relevant certificates for the offered product and a lot of references for the products they export, should represent the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. I am confident that this would make the Serbian business offer much more believable and that the economic effects would be better.
The government, ministries, the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, reputable and successful business owners and their companies can give their recommendations to potential investors in Serbia, as well as provide help in selling the products and services manufactured or rendered by Serbian companies. This would certainly be very beneficial both for the entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in Serbia. The most important thing is that business people should not feel left alone but rather enjoy the support of a strong system that can propose solutions to problems at any given time.
Government officials and ministries should visit successful companies and maybe even be present at the signing of important contracts with the clients for whom they work. This will send a strong signal to the other side that businesses enjoy state support.