Goran Bozic, Chief Executive of CommPlus - Always connected

(Goran Bozic)

Somebody has already lived our lives. For thousands of years in the past, relations, emotions and people's thoughts been constant. Everything is same, only technology changes. Globalization and telecommunications have erased all boundaries, time and spatial differences. Wherever you are, miles and time zones away, you are only a second or two away from each others, Goran Bozic, the Chief Executive of CommPlus, says at the beginning of his story for eKapija.

As a young engineer, about twenty years ago, Mr. Bozic took part in "the creation of a mobile revolution in Serbia".

While still a student, he worked for BelPagette, which was the first company in Serbia to use wireless telecommunication for commercial purposes. Thanks to that, the owners of expensive gadgets were able to receive text messages through a paging system.

Some of these text messages, sent in the early 1990s, are still being retold, while the message "Son, call home, you have forgotten the pager" have even become an urban legend.

- I was lucky to work in my profession even when I was still a student of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences. I was carrying a pager to classes, which was a status symbol at the time, and the messages I received were usually sent by the employer, informing me on my work shift and assignments. I started off as a call operator and ended up as the Paging Center Director at BelPagette. The network was then big enough for 25,000 users, while the number of messages sent on a daily basis amounted 54,000, which was a big success at the time. Today, 54,000 text messages are sent and delivered in the matter of minutes - our interlocutor explains and remembers that his pager number was 224.

About only fifteen years ago, a mobile phone cost an incredible DEM 13,000.

- Mobtel first created a network for 40,000 users, while now that number equals the number of new users an operator gets over the period of about twenty days. There are over 8 million SIM cards in use in Serbia. Our neighbors in Montenegro are absolute champions when it comes to the number of SIM cards per capita – says our interlocutor who participated in the installation of the first mobile telephone network in Serbia.

(Mr. Bozic with associates in Africa)

He says he may sound pretentious, but even as a boy he believed that he would be exceptionally successful at his work. He started off as an engineer apprentice at Mobtel and assumed the position of Mobtel Deputy Director when he was only 30.

When Telekom Srbija acquired the mobile operator in the Republic of Srpska, Goran Bozic was appointed as the Marketing and Sales Director of the new company in Banja Luka.

- As far as the company in Banja Luka is concerned, my greatest success is the expansion of the market to include all entities.

Remembering the projects leading to the establishment of a mobile telephone network in our country, Mr. Bozic points to several projects - mobile charging, missed calls message, and the notification of calls missed while you were on the phone.

CommPlus in Africa and United Arab Emirates

As an experienced engineer, Goran Bozic later started his own business and set up the company CommPlus, which he still runs.

- We started off in Dubai, and we have also implemented projects in Kongo, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Niger, Rwanda. We are specialized in network installation, marketing, brand positioning, etc.

He says that one can realize how similar all people are when starts traveling the world. You survive a war in your own country and then you go to Rwanda and find one of the scariest museums of genocide, says our interlocutor.

- It is in human nature to always repress ugly things and rejoice the life. All people in Rwanda are smiling, even the poorest ones. It seems that even children don't cry. They hang out and help each others. It is not important if they belong to Tutsis or Hutus. The last Saturday of every month is the time for Umuganda in Rwanda. On that occasion, the capital city of Kigali is completely blocked and nobody can leave the city because everybody must clean their houses or help their neighbors. The spirit of solidarity is highly expressed.

(from a concert in Kigali)

The last big project successfully implemented by a team of experts of CommPlus involved consulting and interim management activities at the company Interaktivnii Tehnologi in Bulgaria. The company Interaktivnii Tehnologi (ITV partner) is the second largest satellite television provider in Bulgaria and it was taken over in 2009 by Serbian company SBB - Srpske Kablovske Mreze (Serbian Cable Networks), thus becoming a part of the regional satellite platform under the brand name of Total TV.

- CommPlus took part in the processes of reorganization and restructuring of the company in different fields of corporate operations: finance and accounting, HR and administration, sales and marketing, IT and technology, logistics and warehouse management, and "customer care".

Study, my son, in order not to work

Our interlocutor says he spends his little leisure time with his friends and at Ada Ciganlija, while surplus money is spent on travels. He loves Bahus restaurant on the Danube in Belgrade the most because it reminds him of his childhood in Split. He was born in that biggest city in Dalmatia and, in addition to the Adriatic Sea and beaches, chocolates Braco and Seka are also still in his memory.

He says he is fascinated by Serbian brainchildren and one of his favorites is: "Study, my son, in order not to work!"

- Although this saying is about physical work, I often think that I would rest by doing a physical work.

He is one of those who would change the life in the capital city for the life in a province. He also considers moving to a ranch. The only thing he misses is Internet. While still a telecommunication dream for Serbia, it is a new task for Mr. Bozic.

M.K.