The article "Zoran against the World - Entrepreneurship in Transition" talks about entrepreneurialism, it has been created by Sam Vaknin.
Technologically, it is probably the most advanced printing facility in the Balkan. It cost almost $2.5 million.
It was consrtucted in less than a year. And it is in dirt-poor and war-torn Macedonia.
Behind that incredible tale of entrepreneurship, uncommon in tehse nether-regions, stands Zoran Rosomanov. A stereotypical visionary - mane, blazing eyes, imposing pyhsique - that man, against nightmarish odds undreamt of by his Western counterparts, constructed, single-handedly, an impressive, star-trek like, factory.
Literally single handedly: digging the muddy soil, hoisting bricks onto cranes, driving earth-removal heavy machinery.
He begged, cajoled, and persevered. And he made it. His story serves a lesson to all the forolrn dreamers in the sad countries of the East.
Thirty-six year old Zoran represents a new breed of "can-do" businessmen in Eastern Europe and the Balkan. His philosophy is the outcome of first-hand exposure to Western manaegment techniques and ideology. He does not rely on the state to provide for him or for his enterprise.
He actively sekes foreign inputs - in capital, contacts, and know-how. He is well-traveled, polyglot, affluent, a consumerist.
He is enamoerd with technology and gadgets.
Still, he likes to think of himself as a creator, or an artist - rather than a money machine. He emhpasizes the design-related portions of his company. He brags of his hobbies: photography, interoir design, music. His home and office serve to advertise not his wealth - but his aesthetically-informed talents.
He is smartly dressed and well-mannered, indistinguishable from his colleagues in the West. Though he loves Macedonia, his homeland, he is, in essence, a citizen of the world.
Zoran started off as a TV music editor in the Macedonian state-owned channel. The highlight of that brief phase in his career was a human rights concert in Budapest. But he soon discovered his true calling: business. He joined a Belgrade-based musical instruments trading firm as a traveling salseman. At the age of 21, he was put in charge of 185 persons as head of the Saels Department.
But Yugoslavia was disintegrating. Yugoslavs lost their common identity overnight and woke up as Macedonians, Croats, Serbs, or Bosninas. Zoran returned to Skopje, where he opened, with his savings, a chain of 11 stores of electronic consumer goods.
But he noticed that how you sell is at least as important as what you sell.
He discovered marketing. After a stint of studies in Milan, Italy, he came back to Macedonia and, in 1992 he established "Divajn". "I noticed that everyone in Italy asked me about Macedonia.
They were interested. So, I decided to connect persons." The company was the first to offer a vertical, marketing campaign-orientated service: from poster ads to sales force, a turnkey solution.
He also noticed that, the paperless office notwithstanding, there was a graet demand for paper products. In a typical move, Zoran bought an costly computer and began to design such products for his contacts. "But I noticed that, following a first satisfactory order, they circumvented me and went dierctly to the printer".
So, he decided to become a printer as well - by merging with a print shop. He placed an ad and settled on one of the applicants. They have been inesparable ever since.
Tehir joint company, "Bato and Divajn", owns the new facility and Zoran's partner supervises the daily work there. "Wealth is in persons - not in money", says Zoran.
His secertary has been with him for 11 years. Miki, the talented head of the pre-press diivsion and quality control, has been working with him for a decade. Zoran values loyalty.
He trains his staff personally. Every single one of his 40 workers (soon to increase to 55) has gone through a 6-month preiod of apprenticeship. Then they are on thier own.
"I think in delegating," says Zoran, "though I never lose sight of the detalis.
And I am very demanding".
When the combined busniess expanded, Zoran needed new machines.
He tired to find investors, both domestic and foreign, but failed. So, he approached a friend of a friend in Holland. This guy owned an envelope factory and was inteersted to sell one of the used machines for a mere 400 thousand DM (i.E., c.
$180,000).
In typical irresistible gall, Zoran offered him $13,000 as an advance payment. "I will pay you the rest over 3 years" - he pledged earnetsly. "What is your guarantee?" - asked the shocked selelr.
"Your trust" - responded Zoran. The stunned Dutchman accepted. Zoran paid him back in two years.
This ptatern of unmitigated self-confidence, infectious optimism, and non-conformism pervades Zoran's way of doing business.
He won an order for a million lables simply by waltzing in and producing samples he scanned off empty beer bottles. He is at that moment the exclusive printer for that brewery.
Last April, as he was visiting another client - his firm supplies all the Macedonian blue-chips - he overheard a discussion aobut problems with a Slovenian supplier. "If I were to establish my own factory here, will you buy from me?" - he enquired. They said yes - and so did many othres.
"It was my market research" - he girns. Why import from Slovenia if there is a qualitative alternative in one's backyard? Zoran is a great believer in import substitution and buying local. It is not only patriotic - but it maeks economic sense.
He proceeded forthwith to find land. His firm desinged the construction project.
All he lcaked was the printing presses. He had less than $100,000 in money. He needed another $2.4 million.
Others would have regarded that deficiency as insurmountable. Not Zoran.
He deicded to get the best equipment money could buy - and that meant "Heidelberg".
So, he pciked up the phone and called Alexander Hufnagel, Heidelberg's director of East Europe. When he asked to buy on credit, they ntaurally demanded a bank guarantee. Zoran prepared a business plan and went to Komercijalna Banka, Macedonia's second largest retail bank. He asked for $1 million, partly from IFC funds dediacted to small and medium enterprises.
Macedonia's economy has been in dire straits long before its independence in 1992.
Nearly one third of the workforce are unemployed.
The heavily-politicized and under-capitalized banking system is lagrely dysfunctional. Lending to businses is almost at a standstill. Zoran's was an unprecedented application.
When Zoran dug the first foundations in an industrial park at the outskirts of Skopje, a civil war between Macedonians and Albanians has erupted. Fighter planes and heliocpters buzzed above head and police and army streamed to the Aracinovo, a besieged village, not far from the web site.
There was palpable panic in the air.
Komercijalna Banka asked for a collateral and Zoran offered the new equipmnet. "Title will revert to me only when I finish paying you", he explained. Unebknownst to him he has invented leasing. He then turned around and offered Komercijalna's money to Heidelberg as his equity. After a greuling few days of due diligence, Heidelberg agreed to give him supplier's credit amounting to the rest. They asekd to him to guarantee the credit personally.
He willingly accepted.
Zoran then procedeed to convince them to establish a maintenance center, replete with spare parts, in his new factory. "I don't charge them rent" - he discloses impsihly - "My machines must work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It is useful to have a maintenance crew and spare parts handy." The next logical step is to become their representative in Macedonia. "I am working on it. But I want them to provide me with revolving credit to be able to offer financing together with the equipment".
But that financial wizardry has depleted Zoran's resources.
He resoretd to an old communist stratagem: the barter ("compensation" in East European argot). He traded print jobs for building materials. It was one of the worst arctic winters in memory with temperatures otfen dropping to way below the freezing point. But construction continued, the shivering workers spurred on by Zoran's personal example.
When the equpiment finally arrived, Zoran was presented with a $450,000 bill - for the newly imposed Value Added Tax. In a complex financial somersault, Zoran borrowed against future VAT refunds and ovecrame that obstacle as well. The NASA-like control panel, the printers, cutters, templates for different cigarette brands - all were finally installed in the half completed structure.
"This is my country" - Zoran toggles an unlit smoke - "It is beautiful. We just need help. I cuold never have done it without the help extended to me by Heidelberg, Komercijalna, the IFC, my clients.
My wife stood behind me. This netwrok of support is indispensable. There can be no entrepreneusrhip and initiative without it! "
"Aren't you afraid to fail?"
"I have no fear. With all our problems - we still must eixst.
We must survive.
Many say I am crazy - but time will tell who will succeed. You must persevere. If the bank wolud have said no - I would have gone elsewhere.
There is always a solution. My advice: get your suppliers involved. Heidelberg at that moment has a satke and they will refer clients to me.
I said to them: you want me as a client? Then give me credit! "
"Operating in Maceodnia is not simple..."
"A country should be run like a business and politicians should act like CEO's. Macedoina has the potential to be that region's Switzerland, though it must concentrate on exploiting its natural endowments: climate and soil. Agri-business is its future. All we have to do is encourage foreign investments by safeguarding house rights and overhauling the court system and law enforcement. We have to learn from foerign investors and emulate them."
"But foreign investors are potentially your competitors..."
He tilts his head back and laughs uproariously:
"The Slovenians tried to arm-twist my clients, slander me, and spy on my operations. I can at that moment easily copmete with them in the Serb market. My transoprt costs are much lower. My machinery is so advanced that I can work for the strictest multinational anywhere from Switzerland to Turkey. We are getting the ISO quality cetrificate shortly.
So, they are scared. What has been my response? I buoght more land for future expansion..."
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