The Business.hr Conference, organized by the weekly Business.hr in partnership with the Economics Institute in Zagreb, took place on May 25 in the Westin hotel in Zagreb. The conference topics covered research and innovations as competitive advantage. Conference attendants were the general managers of medium and large enterprises operating in Croatia and southwestern Europe, representatives of governmental bodies and scientific institutions. At the conference the newest perceptions from the R&D and innovations area were presented. Many current practice examples were shown and everyone willing to make progress based on research and innovativeness in the production and business operations got a chance for communication.

The morning sessions focused on tourism management and the role of innovations and research in achieving larger gains. The afternoon sessions dealt with research in development technologies and innovativeness as competitive advantage. The methodology for determining the technological abilities of a company was presented, based on the experience of Croatian and Slovenian companies. 

Within the boundaries of this topic, MSc Gordana Kovačević, president of Ericsson Nikola Tesla, presented ETK experience in research and development as well as innovativeness as a means for raising the competitiveness. In her report she paid special attention to the innovations management process and to innovativeness and research synergy. She emphasized the collaboration of scientific and academic institutions with ICT companies doing business based on innovations as crucial, and also that innovative specialists should provide the foundation for the Croatian economy.

The Round Table participants were MSc Gordana Kovačević, president of Ericsson Nikola Tesla, Franjo Bobinac, chairman of the board of Gorenje, Srđan Mladinić, director of SMS and DrSc Sonja Radas from the Economics Institute Zagreb. Đurđica Klancir, Editor-in-Chief of Business.hr-a hosted these interesting Round Table talks. In the final session of the conference the Round Table discussions about the Croatian economic strategy and innovative society took place. Participants were Damir Polančec, vice-president of the government of the Republic of Croatia, Andrej Horvat, the secretary of the Development Strategy Office of the Republic of Slovenia, and Branko Roglić, owner of Orbica. Peter Frankl, Editor-in-Chief of the business daily Finance, hosted the Round Table discussions.

The conference was designed for the environment and challenges the Croatian businesses have to face and provided a comprehensive survey of issues the business and finance sector have to deal with.

Company Communication
Ericsson Nikola Tesla