Delta Holding

Sava Centre: Reconstructing Beauty

Katarina Gajić, Director For Design And Construction, Delta Real Estate, Serbia

The real estate business is often perceived as an engineeing and managerial job. Fortunately, everything isn’t like that, because it gives me the kind of opportunity that I think every woman would like: to make and leave behind something beautiful. That is certainly the case with Belgrade’s Sava Centre. We plan to engage world-renowned architects from the field of congress tourism who will help us modernise the space and the concept of the facility itself. We believe that we will launch works as early as June next year.

The Sava Centre is a true landmark of the city of Belgrade, and for us it is also strategically important. It is designed to represent a functional whole, along with our Crowne Plaza hotel.

For us the Sava Centre is an important detail in the congress tourism business, but also a place that we are all attached to sentimentally. As a company that happily applies innovations, we are ready to add something completely new to the old beauty that’s carried by the Sava Centre. Belgrade will receive the most modern and largest congress centre in the region, which will place our capital city on the map of the most important congress destinations in Europe. Following reconstruction, the Sava Centre will glisten with a new gloss and reopen its doors to major international cultural events, economic gatherings, fairs and festivals. We will add contents that Belgrade doesn’t currently have to the complete offer, but let’s allow some of that remain a surprise, for the moment when we enter the refreshed, spruced-up, functional Sava Centre.

Empathy – Skill For The 21st Century

Tanja Vasojević, Communications Director, Delta Holding

The job of us communicators, today perhaps more than ever, is to convey emotion and show empathy. That has always been the most powerful message! The specificity of today’s juncture is life in digital times, in which our communications don’t know either spatial or temporal boundaries, and with all of that we are also being joined by new generations who are talking/watching each other almost exclusively on screens.

All of that is communication, with only the channels changing! That chameleon’s characteristic is its strength, and that’s why it’s essential to show that online communication really can and should be emotional.

When we add to this the fact that the Coronavirus pandemic has physically (and by no means socially) distanced us from one another, that it has introduced various forms of unrest or anxiety to us, then the work of those of us in the communications sector is even more important. It is important as people, but also as brands and as companies, to communicate with emotion, with empathy, positively and motivationally. And in order for us to be successful in that we also have to master the most important communication skill – listening.

Knowledge Strengthens Ourselves And Others

Tijana Koprivica, Chief Business Sustainability Officer, Delta Holding

I like the pace of work at the company, the changes, and that I’m at the source of important information and knowledge. On the other hand, I also have the opportunity to be in business, but in the non-profit sector, which makes the job even more challenging, because it isn’t easy to prove the impact of a non-financial business on the basis of results.

My job allows me to not sit in one place. I enjoy touring farms, orchards, hotels and distribution centres, and talking with colleagues. These are all opportunities to learn and socialise. Apart from that, it is also nice that I have the opportunity to work with people from other companies, on our socially responsible projects and within the framework of organisations like the Forum for Responsible Business, GCUN, SAM, CANSEE…

All of the Sustainable Development Goals have been woven into our operations for as long as the company has existed. We contribute to reducing inequality between people not only by employing people with disabilities, women in key positions and the like, but also by equally valuing the work of all colleagues, regardless of their differences. With the project “Strengthening the Family”, we give an equal chance to achieve economic and psychological empowerment for families at risk of separation.

We gladly adopt and share knowledge, thus making it available to employees, young people, subcontractors, suppliers and farmers. Our projects are “Young Leaders”, “Delta Business Incubator”, “Our Village”, “Plantation for the Future” and “Fund for the Future” and the transfer of our knowhow represents the foundation of each of these projects. I’m proud of the way we do business and all our projects, because they are well conceived, strategically set and contribute to the continuous improvement of quality of life among those for whom they are intended. Among them are always children, women, families, people living with disabilities etc.

Right Person In The Right Place

Monika Pejčić, HR Director, Delta Holding

A person’s ability to respond to the demands of a given job is a key characteristic that determines whether a woman or a man will be employed in a position within the scope of Delta Holding. So, gender has absolutely no influence on who will do what, provided they show the skills necessary for success in a certain job. Delta’s corporate culture is such that it encourages the progress of employees who have great potential, and very quickly dismisses those who fail to fit in. Opportunities are given equally to women and men, and jobs are divided into those that require sophistication and analytics and those that require endurance – both physical and mental.

The terms leader and manager don’t recognise divisions based on gender. In that sense, it is only important that the right person is in the right place. In accordance with that, it isn’t important for Delta whether someone wears gloves and a hat, rather it is important that they wear them with a smile, to mutual satisfaction.

We’re Changing Ourselves And The Company

Aleksandra Đuđević, CEO, Delta Auto

I spent a year at the Faculty of Philosophy providing exercises for students, convinced that I would deal with scientific research and remain working at the faculty. However, working on dynamic and demanding projects in the NGO sector revealed to me that I was born to do business.

I’m primarily at Delta because I received the opportunity and support to show my potential, and to remain that which I am. That’s because the company is itself open to change and is flexible, it allows its people to change it, and changes with them. That is extremely rare, valuable and beautiful, and is what distinguishes excellent companies from others.

When I talk with friends, they are more envious that I have the opportunity to test the latest and most attractive BMW models than the job itself, so we often joke about that. I admit that this is a really exclusive and adventurous side of my job that I enjoy endlessly. I have the opportunity to drive everything from electric vehicles to the most powerful M models, from the lively MINI Cooper to the powerful BMW X7. It is a special pleasure for me to occasionally test technologies that still await us in the future. The opportunity to cooperate with experts from BMW, MINI and Honda is very valuable for me, as is being with the world’s leading brands in the field of business.

On the other hand, as a woman I don’t feel like there is any envy at work. I surround myself with strong men and women with whom I cooperate well, but also from whom I can learn a lot. When we listen to one another, understand and support each other, any kind of envy is excluded. I don’t see myself as a woman in a male world, nor do I behave that way. That’s probably because that division of “worlds” never had any significance to me. At Delta, where I grew up in a business sense, it is irrelevant to the job whether you are a man or a woman.