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A child at home, a colleague at work
Imagine that you are the owner of an electric car. You are driving home, your house knows that you are coming, the garage doors open upon your arrival, and the music you listened to on the car radio continues to play in the house, which has probably just been ventilated. You connect your car to the network and go for lunch,” begins the narrative of Filip Remškar, co-owner of Smart Com, which he manages together with his brother Jure. From the sale of simple cabling, to an interactive television that allows the viewer to intervene in what is happening on the screen, this family-owned business has been successfully linking networks into systems and setting new smart grid benchmarks for the past 26 years. The sale of their first modem in 1990 provided a foundation for Zdenka and Filip Sr. to establish their business, which in turn, today generates new companies from its products. Their two sons Jure and Filip are successfully continuing the family tradition. “My brother and I each have our own responsibilities, based on our individual competences in areas where we have acknowledged each other’s expertise,” reveals Jure on how the two were able to efficiently assume management of the company, which today provides solutions to businesses worldwide - even in distant Mongolia.
The right vision that came to life in a new company
In 1989, Zdenka’s husband, Filip Remškar Sr., presented his business plan and vision to the Director of Iskra, a company for which, during the previous 15 years, he had been in charge of representing foreign companies. This vision painted no bright picture of the future of the representation and instead, he suggested a focus on integration, which was rejected. Since Filip’s parents were both entrepreneurs, his father engaged in refrigerators and his mother a designer with a fashionable gallery in the Slon, he followed their restless entrepreneurial spirit and in 1990 founded his own communications and information systems company - Smart Com. “When he began the sale of modems, he only had an office and a typewriter. Since we already had a family, we had to be prudent and he decided on a probationary period of one year. If during that time he did not succeed, he would find himself an ordinary job,” reminisces wife Zdenka about their entrepreneurial beginnings. His great advantage was knowledge of the domestic market and the technology that was on offer abroad. After one month, he hired his first employee and by the end of the year, the business employed five staff. The following year, the company already had nine employees in total. After three years, Zdenka also joined the company: “I want to change my job. Will you employ me?” I asked. Initially he had some concerns about the involvement of marriage in the business, but decided to put me on three months’ probation. I felt that I had to work harder than I had ever done before, so I hired a professor to be my mentor in finance and assumed my first task.” How was the combination of marriage and business? “From the first day, our attitude to business was just that - business-like. He managed the company and was responsible for the market and new products, while I was responsible for everything else. The business ran extremely well until the very last day we worked together,” says Zdenka proudly.
Provide knowledge and create a need
“My husband was a visionary. In those early years we educated the market and thus opened up the possibility of building the first backbone networks on the market,” continues Zdenka, about Smart Com. In the 1990s, the company worked according to the principle of offering knowledge first and then equipment. They organized educational workshops on technology and complementary knowledge about finance, project management and other skills necessary for their business. Today, Smart Com is the parent company of a group, which also includes the three spin-off companies: DSC, Beenius and Optisis. Two of their subsidiaries have businesses abroad: one in Bulgaria and the other in Austria. At the group level, they cover distribution, system integration and development, all in the field of information and communications technology (ICT). The Smart Com Group employs 70 associates. Of those, 30 to 35 (mainly programmers and some electrical engineers) work in the field of development. “We are enthusiastic, have an abundance of energy and are aiming to strengthen the group and further divert to foreign markets with higher added value,” says the elder son Jure.
Taking a family trip accompanied by business partners
“A company and a young family both require a certain amount of time.We were always able to integrate the two and at times business partners joined the family outings. When family needed our specific attention, we dedicated our time to the family needs; if it was the company, we focused on the company; however, the boys were always present,” remembers Zdenka. The two sons performed their first paid summer jobs when they helped during the company’s move. “At the time I was at secondary school, while Filip was still in elementary school. Soon we got our first tasks in the company: I worked in administration and Filip in the service workshop. Even then it was clear that we were different, each with our own preferences,” continues Jure. Both the brothers were in their early 20s when they got involved. Jure, a lawyer by profession, began in 2004, when he joined the Smart Inkubator to promote internal entrepreneurship. Three years later, after he graduated from the Faculty of Economics, Filip also followed in his brother’s steps and joined the family business, taking over the responsibilities and tasks of a salesperson, while Jure worked in procurement. “Irrespective of whether a colleague is a member of the family or not, he or she should excel at their job. As soon as your child starts work, he becomes your colleague. There is no other way to look at it and people are aware of this,” explains Zdenka.
To facilitate understanding and cooperation when working in the company, they underwent joint training of managerial skills. In addition to learning about leadership skills and competencies, the main purpose of the training was to accept your child or a parent as a business colleague. “My brother and I were lucky to be invited by a colleague to join the association of family businesses. This has widened our horizons and ever since we see family business in a different light,” recalls Filip. To ensure that they continued to run the business as equal partners, they had to first define relationships and establish mechanisms for successful intergenerational cooperation. This took the form of a kind of corporate governance of the family business with elements of a family charter. “Eventually we gained more knowledge about family business, which we have transferred to the company to facilitate the formalization of the transfer of ownership and management,” explains Jure and admits that while over the years family members had different views, these never led to conflicts. Although Zdenka retired in 2012, she remains the co-owner of the company, but leaves all the decisions to her two sons. As Jure explains, this can also be a double-edged sword: “When you are young and fairly inexperienced, this can prove rather difficult. It would be much easier if someone told you what to do, but eventually you are happy to have the freedom to implement your own vision.”
Licensed in Mongolia
When developing new products, they focus on interactive television, smart grids and the Internet of things, where they are currently developing a platform that enables mapping of analogue data into digital. In 2013, they received the EuroCloud Slovenia award for the best service in the cloud.
Their product “Beenius” eventually became so advanced that it literally went “its own way” by becoming a business in its own right and today, it offers software solutions for interactive television on the global market. Around 60% of the revenue is generated in foreign markets. The revenue that is linked to distribution and sales has a relatively small margin, while the sale of Beenius licenses generates a much higher margin. In terms of revenue, their strongest markets are those of the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Austria, and to a lesser extent also Poland, Hungary, Albania, Germany and Switzerland. “Beenius has projects in 20 countries around the world, including Latin America, Africa, Mongolia and the Middle East. In a way, the entire world is our market,” proudly explains Jure. Their ambition is to make this suggestion indisputable.
To be brought up and grow with an entrepreneurial spirit
“Our business is impacted by project dynamics. Last year, the company recorded major growth in revenue. This year the revenue will be slightly lower, around €30 million, compared to €32 million last year. The medium-term plans show higher growth particularly in 2017 and 2018,” predicts Jure of their bright outlook. “Each company must accept new challenges and be able to adapt to change. If you fail to understand this in terms of education, then you are looking for a job where all processes are well-known and defined daily. Otherwise, sooner or later you find a gem which you can call your company,” says Zdenka, sharing her thoughts.
“A large part of the economy is represented by family businesses, so it is very important to continue to evolve in the future. In particular, we are entering an interesting period in the Slovenian family entrepreneurship, with the first transfers of ownership. We need to stick together,” thinks Filip, while Jure explains: “The essence of entrepreneurship is instilling entrepreneurial business in your children.”
Summary
Smart Com in a nutshell: entrepreneurial spirit, development, technology, challenges, family.
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