Year behind us: 2020 from the point of view of our members

Year behind us: 2020 from the point of view of our members

We are bringing to an end another year, in everything different from the others, full of challenges, crisis, but also stimulating, because in such circumstances we need to find a way to survive, work and move on. And although we want to leave it behind as soon as possible and have a new one completely different, we will look back at what we went through and experienced in it, because in addition to the pandemic and difficult moments, there were beautiful things, news, success, business and private. That is why we publish the experiences and impressions of some of our members about the year that is coming to an end, happy for their success, as well as the successes of all members of the Association of Business Women in Serbia.

MARIJA TRIFUNOVIC, Instruments MB

What made us happy and kept us on our feet in business terms was the opening of our laboratory for Calibration of temperature gauges and the relative humidity meter. Finally, at the beginning of April 2020, we received accreditation and the green light to start working. And we worked on opening the laboratory for two whole years. As the laboratory opened, we worked tirelessly… We had, thank God, work all the time. And that kept us going. We did not give up, nor did we fail, but we managed to maintain the company financially better than before, although our turnover dropped.

Also, the online shop has finally experienced its heyday. We had an online shop before, but now it has been performing its function non-stop.

NATASA PAVLOVIC BUJAS, Blumen Group

We have won again this year the international recognition IPRA Golden World Awards, precisely for activities during the state of emergency through which we helped many with direct advice and instructions to organize work in crisis, crisis communication and especially important work from home, which caught us all. Through the PRCA Communication Task force, we were in a group of 100 international experts who were pro bono available to colleagues and companies around the world.

BRANKA PUDRLJA DURBABA, Vip mobile

The introduction of a work from home for customer service has opened the door to new ways of functioning in this sector. In addition, with the launch of the first virtual store in Serbia, we started a revolution in online shopping, providing people across Serbia with a personalized user experience and more comfort during shopping.

JASMINA MARKOVIC KAROVIC, Urban Reads & Urban Books

Although this year was difficult and obscure for most industries, and therefore did not skip ours, publishing, Urban Reads managed to find a model to somehow cope with the changed way of doing business. On the one hand, we tried to transfer the majority of the audience to online shopping, and on the other – we opened our own retail facility in Vracar.

MANUELA STAMATOVIC, Puzzle Consulting

This year marked the launch of our new seminar program for small and medium enterprises – the seminar “New Normal” which we organize together with the consulting company Casa Forte and which is intended for all business people who want to strengthen their companies and continue to develop them in times of crisis. In addition to the two seminars held in 2020, due to the great interest, we plan to continue the program in 2021, which we will organize in various parts of Serbia.