The 3^rd Business Intelligence Forum – Business Outlook 2024

BUSINESS OUTLOOK 2024, the annual forum organized by the Business Intelligence Institute (BII), was held at the Metropol Hotel on December 13^th in the presence of business leaders from Serbia and abroad.

Thematically, the Forum was divided into several sections: LEADER OF THE FUTURE, LIQUID LEADERSHIP, SMART MONEY INVESTOR, FUTURE OF (INVESTMENT) BANKING, CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGIES, a section dedicated to innovative technologies and energy efficiency as well as the importance of data in the AI age.

After the official opening of the Forum, interview with one of our most famous businessmen, the owner of Comtrade Group, Mr. Veselin Jevrosimović was conducted by Aleksandar Plavšin, director of the Business Intelligence Institute. He talked with Mr. Jevrosimović about what a leader of the future should be, as Mr. Jevrosimović very often says for himself that he is a futurologist, which he has proven many times with great business ventures and the results of his group. How do leaders use intuition and their experience, are leaders recognized for their charisma, emotional intelligence, what do they think about in their “backstage” were only some of the topics of this interesting and inspiring interview. They also talked about the way how to turn experience, development chances and opportunities into successful stories and projects, how to encourage employees to use the opportunity for their own development in a multinational company with over five thousand employees.

The next panel dedicated to liquid leadership was moderated by Aleksandar Plavšin, with the participation of two leaders, Mrs. Ivanka Novaković, CHRO of the Delta Holding company, and Mrs. Ivana Kappenmann, partner and CFO of the Novi Sad company Vega IT. Should a modern leader have elements of liquid leadership and how it can be applied in a corporate environment, what is the right measure between patience and fast decision-making in a time where business changes happen on a daily basis. What is agility? Where is the border between “liquidity”, flexibility and business “anarchy”, investments in Serbia, the region, the availability of human capital, the environment and the return on investments, were also discussed about on this panel with really excellent guests.

The topic “LIQUID LEADERSHIP” is also the bearer of the latest issue of Business Intelligence Review, a business magazine edited and published by the Business Intelligence Institute, which was traditionally presented at the Forum.

A special part of the Forum was dedicated to investments and the future of investment banking, where the panelists were renowned economic experts and professionals. The first panel “Smart money investor” was moderated by Mr. Vladimir Pavlović, director, WM Equity Partners, with guests Mr. Rade Rakočević, owner and director of Senzal Capital, and Mr. Milan Marinković, partner in WM Equity Partners. At this panel, many guests could learn about the key factor that determines business success, how to deal with it, how to manage ups and downs in business, business intuition. As the global economic situation is complicated by the events of the last few years, we had to touch on the topic of how a “smart money” investor thinks in such crisis situations and what has changed in the field of investing.

The future of banking, what exactly is investment banking? What does the economy need to know for 2024? It was the topic of the next panel where the panelists were Mr. Filip Bovan, an expert with many years of experience in J.P. Morgan (New York and London) and Mr. Aleksandar Bogdanović, President of IO Mobi Bank. This panel was moderated by Dr. Veljko Mijušković, docent from the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. The questions for the guests were very interesting and concerned the global trend of “neobanks” and whether Serbia has all the necessary regulations and infrastructure for this type of banking, digitization and artificial intelligence in banking, which are today global centers of investment banking, to what extent and how it can be expected to develop in the medium term.

The next panel was dedicated to sustainability, improvement in the field of green transformation, innovative solutions and how we can save and reduce environmental pollution at our micro level. What is adiabatic cooling, its application in practice, how it works and what are its advantages is also one of the topics of the panel where the interlocutor of moderator Mr. Ivan Gazdić, partner in CMS Belgrade was Mr. Miloš Smiljanić, Director of Solution Design and Sustainability of the ENEL PS company.

The last but not least interesting panel was devoted to the importance of data in the AI age and its application in practice. The moderator of this panel was Mr. Darko Marjanović, General Director of the company Things Solver, while his interlocutors were Mr. Dejan Aleksov, Managing Director of Benu apoteka and Mrs. Zorana Branković, COO of Banca Intesa. As innovations in the field of artificial intelligence accelerate, this type of transformation requires different types of standardization, more efficient processes, security, data protection and of course transparency perceived as disrupting business were just some of the interesting questions and topics for the panelists.

The Business Intelligence Institute owes special thanks to the companies that supported this fantastic forum: Građevinar, Serbia Innovates, Enel PS, Mobi banka, Eurobanka, Things Solver and Marsh.

This year, the Special Award for the author’s text with the most views on social networks in 2023 was presented to Sonja Pipić, Executive Director for finance and organization of the company Standcert d.o.o. for the text “ESG Certification”.

After the official part of the Forum, the guests had the opportunity to exchange impressions and expand their business network of contacts in a relaxed atmosphere, as well as to enjoy a cocktail with a concert of the violin and guitar, duet Wonder Strings.