EE country :Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia)Team leader: Vesna DjukanovicTeam members: Syed Mahmood Kazmi

Saad KhanTeam Mentor: Prof. Vladimir VulicCountries: Montenegro & Pakistan

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Montenegro The smallest amongst the reviewed Eastern European countries, Montenegro has only 0.6 million

people with average GDP per capita of 7,300 US dollars. Montenegro’s problem areas include inadequate infrastructure, access to financing and inefficient government bureaucracy. At the same time it rates above average in the area of higher education and innovation with outstanding government support of advanced tech products and quality of scientific research institutions.

Based on this analysis, Montenegro’s profile indicates all preconditions for a successful near shore outsourcing industry although its very small pool of resources limits its growth.

Slovenia Another country to make it to stage 3 in country development, Slovenia’s 2 million population enjoy

a high level of productivity, GDP per capita of 24,400 US dollars and excellent education standards as well as a capacity for innovation. The country is a member of the Euro area, offering a high level of investor and intellectual property protection, yet its labor market remains inefficient and FDI lags behind at #101 ranking position.

Based on these factors, we do not see Slovenia as a near shore outsourcing destination but rather expect its businesses to go outside of the country to former republics of Yugoslavia in search of more affordable outsourcing services.

Bosnia & Herzegovina A relatively small country with only 3.8 million people, Bosnia and Herzegovina generated only

$4,300 GDP per capita in 2009. Nevertheless, the quality of math and science education put it on 36th position in the overall ranking, while total tax rate pushes it even higher to the 23rd position. Simplicity of hiring and firing practices also stands out.

Access to financing, tax rates, government bureaucracy and corruption are the most problematic factors for doing business in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yet it still appears as a niche location for fairly small size outsourcing projects as the size of its population limits outsourcing industry growth.

-Summary of findings about the companies and competitiveness of  Eastern Europe (Yugoslavia)- 2011*

Serbia A high level of corruption, inefficient government bureaucracy and policy instability weigh the country

ranking down making business operations more difficult. Yet with a population of 10 million people and GDP per capita of only 5,800 US dollars, above average quality of math and science education and tertiary education enrolment rates, Serbia comes out as an attractive near shore outsourcing location.

Additional government incentives for export services industry, simplicity of starting a business and above average taxation all suggest that the government invests in building on the country’s strengths to compete in the global outsourcing marketplace.

Croatia Based on quality of education, relatively low cost of crime and violence to business, utility patents per

million population and total tax rate, the country stands out as an attractive outsourcing destination. At the same time, already relatively high GDP per capita if 14.2 thousand US dollars indicate higher wages

and cost of living and a fairly small labor pool (population of only 4.4 million) which may indicate that cost savings for outsourcing to Croatia are quite limited.

Macedonia This former republic of Yugoslavia has a small population of 2 million which is characterized by relative

poorness, as GDP per capita is only 4,500 US dollars. With a somewhat average level of higher education and a low level of FDI, the country stands out with a small level of government debt, excellent investor protection (position #20 in ranking) and fairly flexible labor markets.

Given its small size, the country is not likely to rely on the outsourcing industry as its main source of export, yet opportunities for small and medium companies exist to take advantage of the few but available skills at relatively low cost.

Summary of findings about the companies and competitiveness of  Eastern Europe (Yugoslavia) 2011*

Questions : - What are the weaknesses and opportunities of Eastern Europe? - Which should be the focus industries and what kind of companies should - What will be the most wanted profession in 2022? - How EE could escape the bind between the West and the Far East?

Answers : Carlo: I think eastern Europe has so much potential as they count with a highly qualified human

resource but maybe that's one of its weaknesses too because a region like that could suffer a lack of low level employees, like cleaning people, etc

That is very highlighted for my eyes, because I come from a region with a very low level of specialization

Latin America is in the other end of the balance our problem here is a lack of specialized people, and a lack of ethics.

Ok the fact is that maybe eastern Europe has to overcome those problems stimulating migrations from regions that have people willing to do those jobs I know Australia and Canada are doing that kind of things and they have succeeded on the other hand, the highly specialized people from eastern Europe can search for jobs in other places in Europe, for example Germany, France and UK have a lot of work for this case

I don't know the economical structure of eastern Europe, but I know that they have a great geographical position so, transportation, importations, commerce services may be of great importance there and such industries may provide great incomes about the most wanted profession for 2020 I think it will be computer work as everything will be computer for now and on

Carlo López Scutaro & Isabella Torrealba

emerge? 

I think that is going to keep ruling for a long time and with that comes a lot of diversification whitin the computer science disciplines specializations within that area may arise so, I think that preparing everybody in that subject will be of great help, to provide jobs

I mean, every other professions will have to do with computers as every task will require more eficiency

Eastern Europe could exploit this being a kind of link between the two of them like providing cost efficiency to the more productive companies human resouces outsourcing for examplethat is something that is arising a lot in countries like Spain where the cost are much more lower thatn other parts of europe, in terms of human resources I mean

So Eastern Europe could provide a link to connect the low cost human resouce of the far east to the efficient industries looking to lower costs in the west inspite of trying to bet the two just work with all of them

Answers : The weakness... is that too many people migrate a lot of talented people is going out of their

country because they find better opportunities .The opportunities are the strategic urbanization eastern europe should explode more this:

-For tourism -Commerce Here .in Venezuela people doesn’t know too much of the beautiful places you have there. Like Bled foe example-Slovenia The companies that should emerge are the ones of tourism.It will create profit from the

turists, Investors New.companies. The profession of future i think is : computer science and engineering. Yep I agree with Calo : Eastern Europe could provide a link to connect the low cost human resources of the far east

to the efficient industries looking to lower costs in the west inspite of trying to bet the two just work with all of them

Isabella

The region is dominated by power and energy companies. Deloitte 500 otherwise includes manufacturing and transport sector as second

best. Metallurgy is one of the main products. The Telecommunication sector is one of the poor performing sectors and is one

of the weakest links of these economies.Mobile phone market is up and users of handsets have grown rapidly but innovation is missing.Considering Ukraine which has 44 companies in top 500 of Eastern Europe,there is none which pertains to TMT.

Telecommunications and Transportation are two sectors that we see will have the higest importance in future for this region. Phone lines and road networks are the back bone of an economy infrastructure.

2001. was a great year for telcos in Eastern Europe. With help of monopolies and incumbents they achieved higer profit but after 2004. ,

with increased deregulation, the region face stagnancy in telecom sector growth and innovation as monopolies broke down but did not give rise to the

expected competition

Today the telecom sector in Eastern Europe needs market development, effective regulatory environment and high tech technology deployment.

One of the main reasons has also be lower GDP per capita in the region but as the changes of the economic development should be regarded in medium and long term perspectives, one has to indentify adequate policy options focusing on allocative and productive efficiency, leading to enhanced penetration and usage of information and communication technologies.

Researched lead to the fact that the market has hit saturation and will be stagnant after 2015 (http://www.analysysmason.com/About-Us/News/Insight/Mobile-operators-CEE-forecasts-Nov2012/)but we believe that inovation is the key to reach masses and attract new business. And thus we believe that telecome will see the new era in upcoming years.

With increasing trade in the region, the EE countries are also focusing towards an effective transportation service industry.

For example preparations for Euro 2012 soccer championship(cohosted with Ukraine in June 2012)helped

Poland significantly improve in the past two years the previously neglected transport infrastructure. The investments in 2009-2011 drove the transport sector upwards during the period and there is still enough room for growth, considering that some of the projects are still to be finalized-according to media estimates, 80% of the projects were completed before the Euro 2012, while the remaining 20% will be finalized after the campionship (dublin, www.businesswire.com)

With the influx of the international retailers and increased trade agreements, the region has been focusing on development of rail and road infrastructures and many new projects are on way. Tourism is yet another industry which is highly dependent upon a good rail and road service industry.

The strengts of Eastern Europe are propped by three pillars,

- People,Eastern Europe is hotbed of young talents. These countries boast a high qualified and well educated workforce that is both ambitious and fluent in foregin languages

- Location, with the adwent of low cost airlines($roundtrip to most major European cities), Eastern Europe is 1-2 hours away from a vsat number of very attractive market

- Technology(yes technology), Many Eastern European are more technically advanced than their Western European counterparts

What is lagging in inovation.As Mark English(spokesman for Maire Geogheg Quin)-says:”The only viable road to sustainable growth and jobs is trough research and innovation”.

While these countries are high on small scale innovations, we need a sustainable platform that can affect masses. In Slovenia for example the Government set up “Slovenian Technology Agency” and at the moment Slovenian investment in research exceeds that of average Europe. However the main issue which defines the future of how companies in Future Eastern Europe should look like is that the local clientele has been neglected, the retention of talent has been inevitable and bureaucracy is a nightmare.

The future companies should invest on innovations hubs along with proper talent retention and limited corruption to focus more towards the need of their local populace. Critics can say that local clientele has lover GDP per capita and is thus not willing to pay high for quality but than that is what the innovation hubs should sought to carter.

Providing required products at a low cost and if not very high then at least acceptable quality. Restructuring of policies and government support would be highly required. This doesn’t not mean privatization or monopolies. Rather Government should support objectives that are in favor of growth of the region. Although this can only be achieved if companies are transparent with low bureaucracy. Flattening the organization won’t help, accountability will. Clearly defined job descriptions with ownership will surely be a plus point for future EE organizations.

Be it a small scale business or a corporation, success can only be achieved if the company keeps in mind that before being international,they have to be local.

Their strengths are their employees and they will only remain with the company if they are satisfied with constant innovation and transparency.

The model can be well explained by Topicus a software company in The Netherlands that avoid bureaucracy in order to stay innovative. Topicus does this by creating spin-offs that focus on separate market niches when organization become too large and bureaucratic ,the concept of “modularity”. Topicus has created a highly modular and organic organizational structure that seems to be the exact opposite of those commonly pursued by large IT-companies, such as Google and Microsoft. When a company reaches 25 employees, they make a new entity rather than a division.

After this, there is no bounds to performance, productivity and reach of international markets. At first Human resource and research departments will play a significant role in up rise of EE countries. Once developed,

Telecommunication, digital media/Information technology and transport systems will be utmost for outreach to

global markets. EE needs small business that first focus on their own market and than rather growing as one Monolithic organization, stay small but look for newer markets.The key of value of such organization will thus be “accountability” followed by constant strive for Research and Development.