S&T Live

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liveABOUT PArTnering, demOnsTrATing exPerTise And Being PAssiOnATe And innOvATive

Green House initiativeBecome socially responsible today!

X-tra Mile Championssharing expertise and emotions

interview with the Management BoardQuestions asked by you, the employees of s&T slovenia, that represent your curiosities, worries and intentions

How Cool is to Be COOldiscover the benefits and activities

July 2010

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S&T Slovenia ProjectJuly 2010

edited and written byOlga Sitnik

Co-ordination and advisory servicesTeja Breznik AlfirevDušica Pestotnik

Graphic designStudio MARS

PhotographsCOOL participants, Olga Sitnik, Nenad Vučič

ProofreadingSkrivanek

Printed byCollegium graphicum

Circulation500 copies

Publisher’s post officeSI-1000 Lljubljana

Thanks

To Teja, Dušica and Nataša for integration, support and advisory

To Robert, Nenad, Sašo and Tina for their time and thoughtful answers

To Tanja for constructive work, amazing fun and for having cabriolet

To all S&T Slovenia people who shared with me coffee time and small talks for being sincere, opened and kind

To J. Dereng for support and lomography

To O. Chung for being Canadian and first reader of my drafts

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S&T LIVEHave you ever heard of lomography? I once came across it on the web. Lo-

mography is defined as using photography as a creative approach to commu-

nicate, absorb and capture the world. Lomography differs from photography

in that it tries to capture something in the moment, the movement. This ap-

proaches pictures not as static objects, but as dynamic ones. This concept I

find very similar to that I have used when creating this magazine.

It is called S&T LIVE or, in other words, a real broadcast of live sound, live

picture, live emotions. Talking to many people from S&T Slovenia and taking

part in various events with S&T Slovenia I can feel the spirit of the company

and have gotten to know the issues employees are excited or worried about.

All of these have helped me to make this ongoing snapshot, S&T LIVE. Being

recent member of the company and coming from a different country and rea-

lity, has only helped me to make this picture even more vivid with its realistic

focus and background.

Enjoy this glimpse into how S&T Slovenia walks the talk living its values:

Partnering, demonstrating Expertise and being Passionate and Innovative.

Olga Sitnik

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REFUSE

REDUCE

REUSE

RECYCLE

don’t use

use less

use the same

thing over and

over again

What is CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)?imagine that every day each of us as an individual tries to be responsible. responsible for our families, friends and colleagues, for the environment we live in. That means we behave in certain caring ways. now think of how a company as an entity can be responsible for its stakeholders. it should behave in the same caring manner, which means running the activities that concern the different parties to make some difference in social matters.

Who or what does CSR concern?its activities concern employees of s&T slovenia, customers, the local community and business environment.

Do CSR activities bring direct profit to the company?This is the investment we make for the future. in time it brings happiness to the employees, which means greater work output leading to profit and a greater customer satisfaction. This then brings in new projects and a healthy local society, which strengthens our brand and allows us to stay ahead in the business community showing a trend created by s&T slovenia.

What CSR activities are being run right now in S&T Slovenia?Environmental activities: participation in the external program Let’s clean slovenia in one day and running the green HOUse initiative internally.

Student programs: sharing knowledge by running initiatives with the university faculties, AieseC, American Chamber of Commerce and student association management group.

Customer-focused initiative: Customer Advisory Council to involve customers more in our business.

Trend-setting business initiative: establishment of the Outsourcing institute.

How can each employee be involved in CSR activities?now you can take part in the green HOUse initiative. it allows you to make your simple everyday activities environmentallyfriendly. Try it now!

i n n O v A T i O n | C s r P r O g r A m i n s & T s L O v e n i A

quick factsabout CSR in S&T Slovenia

get to know these mysterious three letters today.

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REFUSE

REDUCE

REUSE

RECYCLE

don’t use

use less

use the same

thing over and

over again

Green House initiativeBecome socially responsible today!

i n n O v A T i O n | g r e e n H O U s e i n i T i A T i v e

The GREEN HOUSE is an initiative that helps to create a friendly environment for our planet!

Here are the 4R principles to build GREEN HOUSE:• Refuse (don’t use)• Reduce (use less)• Reuse (use the same thing

over and over again)• Recycle

How can we do this at S&T Slovenia?Waste separation – we will have bins to separate waste for further recycling (metal, glass, paper and organic).

Print less – save trees – printing on both sides of the paper or using digital materi-als to reduce paper usage.

Save electricity – switching off your PC before you go home, switching off lights in the office in the day time.

Sustainable coffee-breaks – use non-disposable cups and glasses for beverages in the office, not plastic!

Contribute your other ideas for

this initiative on Socialtext!

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X-tra Mile Champions are sharing expertise and emotions

“We didn’t expect to receive the award, as

being the accounting department we fulfil

the supporting function in the company.

We felt very happy that our efforts were

recognized.”

Accounting team

What did you feel when you received this award?

“I was very much surprised! I am quite new

in the company; it’s been only a year since I

came to sales. I think this award recognized

the way I work, my attitude and passion.”

Vesna Matko

“It was a nice feeling to know that others

see the efforts you put into the work.”

Tomaž Lipovšek

“The teamwork concept was quite new for us; we were not used to working like that before. But in the end, we saw that together we can do more.”

Accounting team

What does it mean to receive the TEAM award?“It did help. We made that within synergy, I think it turned out much better than if we had done it individually.”

Vladimir Parezanović

“The challenge for me was to work in abso-

lutely new area and product, I barely knew

it then. And to close the deal and to get the

client is always the most exciting!”

Vesna Matko

What were the most challenging and most exciting moments in your path to the award?

“The main challenge was to make the final

product which will match with the needs

not only of a current customer, but can be

sold afterwards. It was exciting when we

did that.”

Tomaž Lipovšek

“The most exciting thing was that due to

my project I had a chance to travel around.

You meet a lot of new people, experience

new cities and learn a lot. The challenging

part is when you are away from the office

you are the only one to solve problems and

issues.”

Marko Ostanek

e x P e r T i s e | x T r A m i L e A w A r d C H A m P i O n s

“At that moment the award was a confirmation that I am doing a great job. That was a step up.”

Vesna Matko

What does the award mean for you personally?

Accounting team: marinka Cerar, irena Frank, Janja Troha, Blažka Kastelic, mirjana Lebar

is coordination: suzana Kosmač, Lidija Kulaš romič, martina Žitnik

Tomaž Lipovšek and vladimir Parezanović

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X-tra Mile Champions Dean RolihX-tra mile: Developed an outsourcing pro-posal that includes a detailed definition of the outsourcing concept, scope, timing, financial aspects, resourcing aspects and KPI’s for outsourcing serving offerings.

vesna Matko X-tra mile: Successful closing of two big projects - being able to perform by learning quickly and executing efficiently.

About her: She is young and very ambi-tious, always strives to achieve more, being aware of what she needs to learn and never stops.

lenart PlausteinerX-tra mile: Taking a leading role in the pre-sales phase for two projects, considering that both projects were very complicated from the technical and legal aspects.

“The teamwork concept was quite new for us; we were not used to working like that before. But in the end, we saw that together we can do more.”

Accounting team

What does it mean to receive the TEAM award?“It did help. We made that within synergy, I think it turned out much better than if we had done it individually.”


“Always remember that greatest award you

receive is the knowledge you gain from

your job.”

Accounting team

“Work hard, work out of working hours.

Even if you fail in the process, you achieve

in the end.”

Vesna Matko

What are your wishes to the future champions of X-tra mile award?

“Find the work which you enjoy doing, then

for sure you will succeed in that!”

Tomaž Lipovšek

“The best of luck!”


“I wish them to be more proactive towards

the customer, take the responsibility and

act.”

Marko Ostanek

Marko OstanekX-tra mile: Being responsible for clients’ relations from technical support develop-ment until sales negotiations.

About him: Independent and self-confi-dent, but feeling the company’s needs and ownership of its development.

iS Coordination: Suzana Kosmač, lidija Kulaš Romič, Martina ŽitnikX-tra mile: They have managed to take over delivery coordination activity from sales. Based on that, the quality of delivery improved with a high level of customer sa-tisfaction.

Accounting team: Marinka Cerar, irena Frank, Janja Troha, Blažka Kastelic, Mirjana lebarX-tra mile: Closing the financial year with the new team on the board and with inno-vated structure, procedures and reports.

About them: They came for the interview altogether. It was amazing to see how they are ready to take on initiatives as a team.

Tomaž lipovšek and vladimir ParezanovićX-tra mile: Developed a program, which al-lows connecting communications between different systems.

About them: They two complement each other very much, as in a real team.

e x P e r T i s e | x T r A m i L e A w A r d C H A m P i O n s

marko Ostanek dean rolih

Lenart Plausteiner

vesna matko

and their miles

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Interview with the

Management Board

Management Board – the core of execu-

tive decision making, establishing strat-

egy and creating the direction for orga-

nizational development. All of you know

these people, but in our day-to-day work-

ing hours we might often wonder why

we do things a certain way or why the

decision we are to follow was made. The

following interview is based on the ques-

tions asked by you, the employees of

S&T. They represent your curiosity, wor-

ries and intentions. Robert, Nenad, Tina

and Sašo found time to answer them.

e x P e r T i s e | i n T e r v i e w w i T H T H e m A n A g e m e n T B O A r d

S&T LIVE: S&T in Slovenia is now the leader among other countries of the S&T group. What is the back story? How did you arrive at this success?

Robert: The S&T group consists of countries that developed in very different ways. And Slovenia is one of the countries, in which S&T group invested a lot, buy-ing around five companies in Slovenia. Of course the growth after the initial invest-ments is different in different countries and Slovenia has been successful in recent years and that also helps for sure. A much more important measurement is the market share of certain local S&T members where Slovenia is absolutely the winner within the group, because we have something like a 12% market share. If we had a 12% of mar-ket share in each and every S&T country we would be 50 times bigger, as a group.

S&T LIVE: Everyone knows that these are not the best times in business, because of crisis. What is the main strategy you have chosen to overcome this?

Robert: Well, the crisis it is more a marketing and PR issue, than the real is-sue. You always have to be better than the competitors, to strive to improve yourself. The crisis is visible, of course, in terms of reduced economic activities, markets and investments. When the crisis was official-ly declared, we didn’t change our tactics much. We just executed them even more aggressively concerning our current activi-ties. And we tried on one hand of course to watch very carefully our profitability strategy, so the value added per employee had to go up. On the other hand, we never forgot about our growth strategy. And we have our growth strategy even in these times when it is difficult to grow.

Nenad: The key strategy is to work well with our customer base. This is the basis for success, especially in this crisis situation. The second is to act as we did before: in terms of being fast, efficient and cost-effec-tive. And the third is to develop business, new solutions and follow or sometimes lead the market with these solutions.

S&T LIVE: Now there is a very intensive “letting-people-go” policy in the place. How will it influence S&T Slovenia in the long term?

Robert: It will affect S&T in such a way that we are more profitable, that we have better skills set and that we have stronger internal culture. We cut the number of peo-ple this year, the same as we did in 2008, which was still a good year, as we did in 2009. This reduction is not a consequence of the crisis; this reduction is the conse-quence of the fact that we had too many people and we had people with the wrong skills. So if there hadn’t been any crisis we would have done the same.

Sašo: Let me give you a bit of financial perspective. We as a company were one step ahead of the crisis. We started to adjust the number of employees before the crisis started. I always treat employees as key assets. We changed the structure, refocused on the market, cleared the portfolio and op-timized the structure of the company. In the long term, it will give even more results. In

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the terms of the number of employees, we have reached the bottom; for this volume of revenue, the amount of employees and knowledge now is optimal.

S&T LIVE: Recently S&T had a rebrand-ing and became a consulting company as well. What will be the main source for consultants who have knowledge in diverse industries where you operate and /or what is the strategy to educate current employees to become real con-sultants?

Robert: The best way to get them is to develop and educate our own people. Because they have certain knowledge, ex-pertise, history and they know their custo-mers; nevertheless we strongly believe as a company that personal development is ac-tually the ultimate motivation for people.

So, now when we have the opportunity and need to develop something new of course the development of our own people is the first thing to do… it is the first strat-egy. Then again, sometimes when you don’t have the right candidates internally, when you need some skills very fast, in such cas-es, you simply go out and bring in people who have the required skills.

Tina: Consulting is one of our key stra-tegic initiatives, since we believe that IT so-lutions can be sold and delivered to clients only in combination with consulting. To become a good consultant several years of experience are needed. Besides that proac-tivity and self-learning are crucial as well. Our employees also participate in selected training programs, where consulting skills can be learned.

Nenad: We have to go to a higher level in terms of knowledge and our solutions. Because providing business, IT or infra-structure solutions means that we need to behave differently. To be able to propose relevant products on the market, the same questions now require different answers than few years ago. Currently we need to train ourselves, we have external trainings, and we have to provide the information to people all the time. But we sometimes need to bring new people who have experi-ence in certain business areas. We have to change. Now we have to be experts in busi-ness and to act faster.

S&T LIVE: Is there some strategy now in the company, which allows discove ring the top talents in S&T Slovenia, using their potential 100% and ensuring they will not leave the company?

Robert: A structured approach which is needed, when you have a certain program

at a company level which ensures that this process of selecting, working with and re-taining key employees is followed. This process is not yet in the place, but it will be kicked off on the 1st of September 2010. Another thing is that talent management is one of the key tasks of every manager. If you don’t know how, don’t have a feeling, don’t care about your talent’s development and motivation, how they see themselves in this company in the future, then you are not doing your job as a manager.

Nenad: For sure we recognize and re-spect top talents. We include them in train-ings, we have the X-tra mile award, and they get some other recognition from their supervisors. Also, we send such people to various external initiatives, which enable their development; for example, we have been sending people to participate in Amer-ican Chamber Young Professionals project.

“We strongly believe as a company that personal development is actually

the ultimate motivation for people in S&T Slovenia.”

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S&T LIVE: Is there some strategy in the company, which ensures the transfer and sharing of knowledge from people on senior positions with the young em-ployees?

Robert: From the formalized processes, we have mentoring, coaching and shadow-ing. All these are running much better, than they used to in the past. But I cannot say we are absolutely happy with today’s knowledge transfer in the company. Now we have more than 50 people who are an-nually involved into one of these processes. However, where I am absolutely not happy is the lack of initiative from the employees. People participate more because they see there is this program and they can apply, or there will be their own desires in that. At least this is my impression and this is something we should work on.


>> Find the extended version of interview with the management Board on intranet.

Tina: Our business is very much a peo-ple business and the know-how develop-ment of our employees is a key to success. All our new employees are participating in mentoring programs; furthermore that team work is a strong element of know-ledge transfer.

S&T LIVE: We already have mentioned above, that the business going through a crisis times. What type of leadership do you think is now required for the com-pany and for business as a whole in such a situation?

Tina: As I see it, here we need leader-ship with a clear strategy, professional exe-cution of it and a readiness for constant change.

Nenad: I have always been a represen-tative of the democratic leadership style, which is close to people. When we all can discuss and together decide what the best solution is and go for it. We have people on the board who know a lot, who are smart. And of course we should work together with them.

Sašo: For me the key word here is com-munication. Proper communication chan-nels built on all levels. To empower employ-ees to make some decisions on their own and this will keep them motivated as well.

Robert: Flexibility is something that I think management should be chosen for. At the same time, in crisis times when people are under greater pressure, a leader should be more hands on than a dreamer or a stra-tegist.

“Our business is very much a people business and the know-how development of our employees is a key to

success.”

S&T LIVE: What do you enjoy the most, being on Management Board?

Sašo: There is faster approach to infor-mation and the possibility of reacting and to changing something. Of course this in-volves a lot of responsibility, but also the privilege to have influence at that level.

Tina: The most I enjoy when I see how our employees grow, excel and deliver out-standing results.

Nenad: It is important for me to provide my view on the way we should go and how we should get there. And, of course, I very much enjoy working with good people in the company.

Robert: One thing is to see progress, to take the company, the employees and myself from one point to another. Progress gives me the utmost satisfaction. Another thing I like very much is seeing people de-veloping themselves in the process.

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Young Professionals in the business American Chamber helps to discover

How should the gurus of business, exe-cutives and senior managers react to, inter-act with and take into consideration these young entrepreneurs, who will succeed them tomorrow?

S&T Slovenia together with AmCham (American Chamber) in Slovenia are sup-porting a program that helps to create a network of young professionals from many Slovene companies that builds the dialog and knowledge-sharing among both them-selves and senior managers. So it serves not only to exchange contacts, but to capture their best qualities, developing them and helping them to make a step towards their future career. S&T Slovenia have sent three representatives to participate in this Am-Cham initiative. We asked them about their impressions of the first AmCham Young Professionals event and perceptions of the role of young people in corporate business.

S&T Slovenia developing and sharing knowledge with AieSeC

What is this partnership about? S&T Slovenia takes part in AIESEC‘s global ex-change program and receives interns in its office to join the team and work on diverse projects in different departments.

Olga from Russia is the first AIESEC in-tern in S&T Slovenia. Olga Sitnik is an in-tern in the marketing and HR departments. Her main responsibility was to release the magazine you are reading right now! Ad-ditionally she was helping in organisation of different events for S&T Slovenia. It was an outstanding experience for her to have a chance to get to know the company from

P A r T n e r s H i P | s & T s L O v e n i A A n d A i e s e C

Pioneers of innovation, ambition, over exaggeration, challengers of the status quo, users of non-formal approaches and tireless workers. Who are they? These are young professionals in business. Maybe due to their age or due to being fresh in the business they are always full of ideas and can’t wait to implement them.

S&T LIVE: What are your impressions from the AmCham event?

Slavko Ovčina: It was on the 19th of May. That was the first introductory meet-ing, so basically we had the get to know ac-tivities. In the future we are going to have some meetings or workshops scheduled with the senior managers. We were near 80-90 people from different companies with diverse profile: IT, accounting, consulting, pharmacy, others.

This is the nice platform, where we – young professionals from different indus-tries – can come together, exchange opi-nions, and build the network for the future. There will be senior managers transferring knowledge to us; maybe they will provide us with some actual cases to solve, so we can learn from their previous experience.

S&T LIVE: Does this initiative contribute to your future career?

Tomaž Kužnik: Sure. For a sales person knowing many external people is crucial. I see myself developing in sales, taking leadership positions, managing projects at a higher level. It is beneficial, because you interact with the customer on the same level.

S&T LIVE: How do you see the role of young professionals in corporate busi-ness?

Marko Ostanek: The fact that an initia-tive like this exists tells that the role we play is important. We have the opportunity and space to meet, to build relationships which will help to create new opportunities on the market in the future.

inside and to write her views on that for employees. Another intern is coming to work in the SAP department.

Their mentorship program is another ini-tiative, which S&T Slovenia participates in with AIESEC: members of our Management Board act as mentors of AIESEC’s leaders. This program is valuable for both sides, Robert Trnovec, a mentor, shares “Know-ledge is not really the privilege of older people. My benefit and value is of course that I am learning in the process together with my mentee”. For representatives of AIESEC, the mentees, this is also the highly

significant experience for development. Žiga Klajnšek explains “I hope it will help me in finding out what I want to do next in my life, in my future professional career. I haven’t made concrete decisions yet, but for sure one day I want to be as cool and as successful as Robert”.

Currently in this program there are two mentorship pairs: Robert and Tina are men-tors from S&T Slovenia.

P A r T n e r s H i P | A m C H A m Y O U n g P r O F e s s i O n A L s i n i T i A T i v e

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Running its CSR initiatives and enabling students and recent graduates, S&T Slovenia made a partnership with AIESEC – the largest youth-run organization in the world.

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P A s s i O n | i s C O O L

i am playing football with COOL people all

year round!

i participated in Ljubljana

marathon, Tek trojk, radenci ...

i have discounts in fitness clubs, cause

i’m with COOL!

i love walking up the hill with my COOL buddies!

i play badminton in the winter time

on a court!

i love taking pictures! in COOL i met people with the same passion!

i am into the city cycling! i took part in marathon Franja and Poli marathon.

i am into mountain biking! i like

to go to Šmarna gora, Toško čelo

and Krim. Furth

er away from

Ljubljana to nanos and vršič.

i adore playing beach volleyball in the

summer! i participated in volleyball tournament

last year!

my kids are enjoying different workshops together with COOL!

i enjoy my leisure time playing board

games and organizing events for other COOL

participants!

i pla

y ba

sket

ball in

the winter time!

How cool is to be

CO li’ve reached the peak of mt. Triglav (2864 m) as a member of the mountain COOL

section.

What is needed to be part of COOL?

50 euro per year.

What will I get?

Access to all COOL activities for me and my kids. more

importantly access to a healthy and active way of life!

Who is already COOL?

75 people, 52 s&T slovenia employees are among them.

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S&T Slovenia Passion event4th of June. On that day many things happened – S&T Slovenia employees were singing, dancing, shooting movies,

performing on stage, taking part in the contest for the best song about S&T Slovenia, chilling and partying together.

First place went to the Dilbert team, while the South Park followed in second.

You can watch videos of all teams and leave your comments on Socialtext!

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S&T Slovenia on NT ConferenceSpreading the PASSiON with Charlie’s iT Angels!

Four days to go! Attending trainings and lectures for some people, working

on the company stand for others and hanging around for someone else … or

for everyone? ;)

My type of badge gave me access to only certain areas and they were places

of leisure, entertainment and positive image building, which were our work.

The S&T Slovenia stand was the spot with so much PASSION! Everyone could

take a picture on a fancy motorbike with passionate Charlie’s IT angels, our

hostesses. All visitors were awarded with something special from S&T Slo-

venia – a t-shirt (majica!), a cloth for wiping glasses, a badge holder or they

could try the passion fruit (passionka!) and feel very special!

The Portorož seaside. The 15th NT Conference, organized by Microsoft.

2500 delegates. 35 S&T representatives.

S&T Live

Documents

Transcript of S&T Live