Aleksandar Marinkovic, Country Leader ASEE Serbia – There Is Always a Well-Oiled Team Behind a Good Leader

The company Asseco SEE (ASEE) operates in 23 countries throughout the world, numbering around 2,700 employees. The team in Serbia consists of 500 professionals who actively work on leading regional projects in artificial intelligence. Aleksandar Marinkovic has been in the Country Leader position since recently, and the experience that he had been acquiring for years in various sectors of the company helped him understand the functioning of the IT market in Serbia and the region.

In his interview for eKapija, he reveals which challenges he has faced and which characteristics make someone a successful manager. Also, we talked to Marinkovic about the AI projects that ASEE develops and the company’s plans for the upcoming period.

– I personally chose the IT industry even before I came to ASEE. I have to admit that a young man does not only need the desire, the will and the energy, but also a lot of work with those who have acquired plenty of experience and those who have a vision and passion for the job they do. I was lucky to truly go through every step in our company and I am sure that being familiar with the system has contributed to my being confident in the decisions I make. If you want to lead people and manage processes, you first need to make the decision to work for the company’s future as if you’ll never work elsewhere. It is only that kind of dedication that can, first, motivate others, but also bring security to yourself. Decision-making is an integral part of my work day and no decision has ever been made merely to overcome that day’s challenge, but also to be just as successful in ten years.

Which challenges have you faced and which characteristics, according to your opinion, make someone a successful manager?

– When I started working at ASEE, after only a few months I could no longer imagine working in any less dynamic sector. You learn the fastest when you have to act fast, and this industry promises development and a young man simply cannot resist it. Basic human values are at the foundations of it all – honesty, straightforwardness and confidence. It is very important to live the values you are promoting. My door is always open to all the employees and it is only together that we can build ASEE in the environment in which we want to work. Equally important for a manager is the distribution of responsibility, which is imperative at ASEE. One man can never solve everything or be everywhere. Being a good manager and then a leader is conditioned on the team that is behind you. There is no good leader who has not been built by an efficient and well-oiled team.

What makes a company successful? How is ASEE managing to follow the market trends?

– Our company operates in 23 countries of the world and has around 2,700 employees, exactly 500 of which work for ASEE Serbia. You can only imagine how much knowledge, practice and solutions to the challenges which occur in various markets are accumulated within our system. When you want to offer the latest technology, combined with the experience and the breadth of an international system to people who are looking to change their jobs or start their careers, you have an advantage in the labor market. It is then that you can get the best staff. People who want to work and share their ideas, visions and expertise in the long term within a system are the ticket for the future. Our current formula looks very simple – the vision, the employees, the international system and the latest technology, but it took us 30 years of quite a turbulent journey to get to that formula. With our development center with over 40 projects being realized, not only are we following the market trends, but we are also taking active part in creating market trends. With acquisitions such as Thing Solver, we are also quickly absorbing AI knowledge.

You are especially focused on AI development, both individually and within your existing platforms. In what way is added value created for the users?

– Serbia is not lagging behind any developed country, and I hope that, soon, we will be one of the top countries which are over 90% digitized, which means that nearly all the citizens are digitally literate. Our biggest driving force behind the development of AI used to be banks, which were among the first ones to recognize the need for a personalized service, and the implementation of AI in the payment sector brought the most innovations. In order to boost our capacities as soon as possible, our company’s decision was to orient toward the local startups which had already developed their own solutions. One such company was Things Solver, which joined ASEE Serbia a year ago and continued developing in the field of artificial intelligence. We recognized them as good partners for the era that lies ahead of us. We are fully behind them and their solutions, which are simple, easy to implement in the existing system, which save funds and most importantly – provide security, reducing the possibility of error to zero, which is our working principle. They are just one of the companies that have joined our system. The responsibility of big companies in a state is to act as mentors toward the startups that need help to develop, so that they would save time on going from the idea to the realization and offer solutions outside our country as well.

The lack of qualified staff is often cited as a problem in the industry, however, it seems that ASEE has no difficulty forming an expert team. How do you do it?

– We are witnesses to the fact that the state has opted for a quick digital transformation and I am sure that the possibilities in the IT industry are yet to open for young people. Although it is noticeable that our experts are leaving the country, I am sure that we can stop that process precisely by investing in the development of our industry. One of the negative sides of each business can be the routine, which we at ASEE want to reduce to a minimum. Many colleagues at the company have therefore had the possibility of working on various projects for a long time now, which is rare in our industry. They cite that possibility as an advantage of ASEE. There are fluctuations, as everywhere, but I glad to see that young people are increasingly interested in working at our company. That means that we have things to offer.

According to your experience, has the pandemic accelerated the development of the industry? If it has, how has it done so?

– We first need to ask ourselves why the IT industry exists in the first place, why is it developing so fast, what are the expectations from our industry? There’s a single answer – to facilitate life and increase the possibilities for us all. No one in the world was ready for the pandemic and its consequences and no one could predict its development and duration. However, the time of the pandemic has shown that the IT industry is the most adaptable to the changes and the crises and that it is precisely investing in innovations that makes sense, because many solutions which were supposed to be implemented in the next five years, especially in banks – were implemented much earlier. With our innovative, simple and easy-to-implement solutions, we have helped citizens, banks and other industries to continue with their lives and business operations without a problem and we thereby also supported the economy during the most sensitive period.

What are the biggest challenges in the local IT market?

– Primarily, it was a battle for the best experts and a race against time. Tomorrow, it is the expertise that will set us all apart in the market – and with that the innovative properties of teams, but also the time period in which we can implement such solutions. Safety and quality are not in question when it comes to cooperating with our company.

What are the company’s plans for the upcoming period?

– There is no development without investments in innovations. Our plan is to additionally invest in people, technology and local startups. The development of several AI project which will set the company apart and position it as number one in the local market, but also the markets of the region, is planned as well.

ASEE Solutions doo Beograd

Asseco SEE

ASEE Serbia

Aleksandar Marinković

artificial intelligence

IT industry

Things Solver

digital transformation

pandemic

IT experts