The panel discussion on the topic “Innovations: Take on the Idea” continued the two-day Economic Conference 2023 organized by the Chamber of commerce of Montenegro on December 12, focusing on the economic horizon of the region.

The keynote speaker was Habib Lešević, entrepreneur and motivational speaker at NUU Berlin, while the discussion was moderated by Velibor Bošković, director of the Science and technology park of Montenegro. The panelists discussing this important topic were: Valentina Radulović, founder of Flourish, Carl Warkentin, founder of Circular Textile Platform @ CIRCULAR REPUBLIC, Laura Martin, regional director for Southeastern Europe at Glovo, and Danilo Bunčić, director of infrastructure at the P3Mobility project.

Habib Lešević spoke on the topic “How to Establish Innovation to Fundamentally Change Your Business.”

“Innovation means introducing something new into what is already established. Innovation is not a radical transformation of reality. The prerequisite is to challenge the status quo and see what we can do that is new and better. This is how we evolve into a different state of affairs. For us, it seems easy, but it is not, because we are naturally prepared for it to be a problem,” said Lešević.

Among the barriers to innovation, he sees a kind of neurological programming of humans not to challenge the status quo if it is even somewhat positive for them, as well as an inherent inertia towards implementing new things.

“When we start changing the status quo, we enter the zone of the unknown, and we are programmed to resist uncertainty. Moving towards something new presents the risk of being excluded from the group that does things in the same, old way,” he said.

He urges entrepreneurs to reassess their practices and turn to heuristics that lead to innovation, instead of the process-driven approach that fosters the status quo and control.

“Emphasize the importance of learning over prediction and control. Management often chooses the path of least resistance, but when communicating with employees, it is better to be honest than friendly, and to base the organization on meritocracy. Company culture should be focused on purposefulness. It is necessary to motivate employees towards holistic action and the creation of new values,” concluded Lešević.

Velibor Bošković emphasized that the topic of innovation is quite exploited, but its processes and meaning are not sufficiently understood.

“We all in the community must take action for things to change; otherwise, nothing will ever be achieved. Stepping out of the comfort zone is always uncertain, but we must try,” he said.

According to him, we must understand the circumstances and facts that lead us to work on the sustainability of startups in order to contribute to strengthening the overall Montenegrin economy.

“Startup sustainability is something we all need to work on because from them can emerge something great, such as the company Rimac Automobili, which can help the development of the entire economy and its digital transformation,” said Bošković.

Valentina Radulović, founder of the company Flourish, particularly thanked the Chamber of commerce of Montenegro for recognizing and including the topic of innovation in its agenda, emphasizing that innovation is the right path to a better and more productive economy.

She shared her story about founding a startup, which is atypical for our circumstances.

“Leaving a large company where I had worked for 17 years, from my seemingly comfort zone, was traumatic. Our business environment is not very open to change, let alone innovation, and my colleague and I decided to venture into the specific entrepreneurial field of education,” she said.

As she mentioned, her company focuses on educating children in the field of digital skills, which she believes are essential in the era we live in.

“We don’t just teach them programming, but creativity, logic, and emotional intelligence. Persistence is key, without it, there is no success, even in the startup world,” Radulović emphasized.

To improve our entrepreneurial and startup system, she believes that education is primarily necessary, as well as ensuring easier access to finance.

“We need a culture of innovation starting from kindergarten. We should nurture and encourage children to be innovative, creative, and to understand that it’s okay to make mistakes, but also to try again,” concluded Radulović.

Carl Warkentin believes that by 2030, most companies will have incorporated the concept of circular economy into their business.

“Every company that wants to be successful in the next decade must incorporate the principles of circular economy to be resource-efficient. It is the business model of the future. Companies need to introduce new business concepts to adapt to circumstances, and this is very interesting for startups that can quickly change business models,” said Warkentin.

He emphasizes that we cannot be circular if we are focused only on ourselves and are not connected to the environment.

“We must focus on the opportunity to utilize our own resources. Currently, for example, we recycle only one percent of clothing, and the textile industry is one of the largest polluters. If we recycled all the cotton in Germany, we would be the third-largest supplier of this raw material in the world,” he pointed out.

Warkentin believes that we must adapt to the circular economy now, changing our way of thinking and doing business so that we can continue to operate in ten years. He believes that startups provide excellent business ideas and should be connected with large companies for mutual benefit.

Danilo Bunčić emphasized that in the world of innovation, persistence is a key skill, and it is also extremely important to have a good team around you—one that is “crazy” enough to endure certain efforts and execute everything you envision. He also mentioned that luck is a necessary factor.

“I believe it is very important to develop ecosystems and communities of knowledge incubators, where people come together to reach a certain level of self-awareness and knowledge,” he said, adding that the collaboration of companies can significantly aid the development of innovations.

According to him, many startups have emerged from Rimac, the company where he worked for many years, with people who learned and developed there.

Bunčić emphasized that our region has a huge potential for the development of startups, but that the most important thing is to encourage people, provide them with space to express themselves freely, so they can step out of their comfort zone and create something new.

“We have more and more ‘know-how,’ but it is crucial to motivate students and pupils to be more creative and move in the direction of innovation,” he said.

Laura Martin described the journey of Glovo from its founding and how process transformation led to its growth and operations in 25 countries across Europe, Central Asia, and Africa.

“Our main ‘obsession’ is to transform the way cities are digitized where we operate. For Glovo, technology is the main pillar of the company that connects our users and couriers. We provide local businesses with tools to connect online. For example, 30 percent of restaurants accessed online channels for the first time through Glovo,” said Martin.

According to her, in order to reach a leadership position, in addition to technology, the speed at which you develop and respond is also important.

“Be agile in decision-making. We try to always be one step ahead and step out of our comfort zone. We have focused our resources on countries where we had better results compared to the competition. Also, our local teams have a lot of space and authority for decision-making, which helps us be better than our competitors and adapt to the needs of the environment,” she said.

She emphasizes the importance of education about the new services they offer, creating a good user experience, a proactive approach to business, and the implementation of new ideas.