It was when company 3ap discovered potential in Serbia beyond the confines of the country’s known “IT Hubs” that it came up with its “Micro Offices” concept. This resulted in 3ap opening its first micro-office in Kruševac – as kind of a first mover in the area
A s 3ap CEO Aleksandar Milošević explains for this CorD Magazine special, supporting people who want to be closer to their homes correlates with the company’s approach of being close to both talents and clients. And by working in such a way, these people can help their “homes”.
What is at the foundation of your ideology of IT decentralisation in Serbia?
Our thinking about “decentralisation” generally started five years ago, when we made the strategic decision to be close to both clients and talents. If there is a concept in place COVID-19 has proven, even to the greatest doubters, that results can also be achieved by working remotely, and our “Start-up in a Box®” addresses exactly this. Talented people can be located anywhere, as our results are mostly digital.
They only need to be well-educated and close to the “digital” world. Education will happen from anywhere in the future, and again COVID-19 has shown options in this regard.
Why do you think decentralisation is important for this region?
From an employee perspective, why would you want to spend time on public transport if you can reach your work space within minutes? In the case of families, how can you make sure you spend more time with your kids and be successful in your profession? It is important that you have flexibility, and you decide whether you use it or not. During the past, especially in the Balkans, people had to move to other cities, away from “home”, due to different reasons, such as education, conflicts, factories etc. The IT industry can support people, especially in the Balkans, who want to be closer to their home, and this correlates with our approach of being close to talents and clients.
Our first office beyond Belgrade is in Kruševac, and our plan is to grow further across Serbia for sure
How much of an impact did the pandemic situation have on your decision?
COVID-19 has just proven that our concepts – like “Micro Offices”, or our Start-up in a Box® approach, which methodically drives a vision of a solution to a scalable version – and the importance of company culture are right. It underlined what we believe.
How do you plan to execute your decentralisation strategy and do you already have some locations in mind? We want to support people who want to move “back home” or who want more flexibility in their work. We just need to make sure that the internet connection is top notch. Our first office beyond Belgrade is in Kruševac, and we would like to grow there for sure. For the approach to select a location, we rely on just two to three people who are in that city. That’s it. Our People and Culture team takes care of the How much of anrest and as a company we have our “Platform in a Box” to provide amazing experiences.
Do you see something as a challenge for this mission?
Infrastructure is a key to success. Thankfully, Serbia is investing in this area. We saw during this pandemic, when everybody was at home, that actively engaging our teams is also key, and by doing so we lifted the happiness of our colleagues, which was already at a high level, even higher. So, we ended up having part of the team in the same office, while the remaining colleagues of the same team were at home, in a kind of a hybrid model. With all that we saw, we used our own methods to explore this challenge and will soon release our first app that will drive the cohesiveness of teams distributed around the world. Stay tuned.