MJE
iRJANA PRL ViĆ
N 02.
N 02.
o
o
3
A
2
THE INCREDIBLE EASINESS OF
SUCCESS
MIRJANA PRLJEVIC IS A PART OF OUR ELITE ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY
LIVING AND WORKING IN FRANCE. BEING ACTIVE AS A
PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANT ON STRATEGIC POSITIONING, SHE
BUILDS BRIDGES NOT ONLY BETWEEN THE BALKAN COUNTRIES AND
THE EU COUNTRIES BUT EVEN WIDER. THE ENGLISH AND CHINESE
VERSION OF HER BOOK, THE STRATEGY OF POSITIONING AS THE KEY TO
SUCCESS, WILL BE PROMOTED AT THE GREATEST BOOK FAIR IN THE
WORLD – IN BEIJING IN SEPTEMBER THIS YEAR.
AS A CONSULTANT ON STRATEGIC
POSITIONING, YOU ARE BOUND TO
KNOW WHAT MAKES A SUCCESS. OR,
TO PUT IT DIFFERENTLY, HOW
IMPORTANT IS STRATEGIC POSITIONING
FOR A SUCCESS STORY TODAY?
N 02.
o
4
I think it won’t be wrong to say that strategic
positioning is of crucial importance today,
not only for the success of a product,
company, magazine, individual but of a
country and region as well. When I say success,
I think of a long-term stable success, the one
which is secured, always growing and
expanding, regularly supervised and controlled,
success filled with imagination and work.
Success for the future. Strategic positioning
today, when you are overwhelmed by tens of
thousands different pieces of information from
the very morning, when you wake up, till the
moment when have to decide on a holiday
destination, or university for your child, or a
new business partner. Strategic positioning is
is positioning at the level of consciousness.
It is crucially important today, at any step you
take or any choice you make during the day.
In the world of positioning, it is said with
good reason: ‘’You become a winner by
going with a winner.’’
HOW IMPORTANT ARE CONTACTS
IN LIFE SINCE PEOPLE IN OUR
COUNTRY THINK THAT IF YOU KNOW
AN IMPORTANT PERSON YOU WILL
INSTANTLY SUCCEED?
For me, contacts are primarily people.
People are precious, they are the ones who
mean a lot to me. I choose people who I
do business, spend time and am friend with.
Only then do I make selection, at the level of
“contacts”. Contacts themselves can bring
a short-term success which sometimes appears as
a trading relationship. However, when your base
comprises individuals chosen for their qualities,
who work round the world, and then you can say
you do have contacts. In our country, you
often pay for contacts, which diminishes the
value of people, underestimates their essence.
I find that particularly insulting not only as
a citizen, deeply involved in the economic
situation in our country, but also as a
businesswoman, human being and a friend.
On the other hand, I cannot but mention that
there is a chosen, and at the same time, unique
group of people in our country that look on
contacts as I do. There is a private TV station
in the region, Capital Network, which has
such an attitude and professional approach
that it daily accomplishes the mission to
expand, make contacts, exchange, cooperate…
- in a word, to enrich people. The relations
whereby both sides, through their quality
relationship, build something bigger than
themselves - this is what I call a contact.
HOW DID YOU, AS AN ECONOMIST,
DECIDE TO SPECIALIZE IN STRATEGIC
POSITIONING? DID YOU SEE THE KEY
TO SUCCESS IN THE FIELD?
I don’t know whether strategic positioning
was waiting for me or I rushed to it. But,
somehow, we just clicked. Namely, at
the beginning of the nineties, at the department
of professor Stipe Lovreta and with the
unselfish support of Goran Petkovic, who is
now a professor and was a docent at the time,
I acquired the first knowledge about this
unique marketing strategy. Back then, there
was neither expertise nor consultants in the
field. Even abroad, little was known about this
strategy. On the other hand, I went to Paris,
where I wrote a case-study on the Carrefour
hypermarket and its strategy of positioning
and internationalization. Then came Bemex
group, a world-famous brand, with Corona
Extra beer and started strategic positioning
in our market. Since then, believe me, it has
been as if I was pouring my knowledge and
everything I have learnt from one company
into another, from one product into another,
from one country into another. Thus, the time
came to write a book. Aware that we have
made a several decades long step into the new
millennium - millennium of knowledge, I can
firmly say that the key to success both for the
present and future players on the world stage
is in the field of strategic positioning and
competitive intelligence.
NEW POSITIONS
GLOBALIZATION AND IMPORTANCE
OF STRATEGIC POSITIONING IN THE
CONTEXT OF THE WORLD MARKET,
WORLD CULTURE...?
When I think of conferences which deal with
globalization or when I attend them, I can see
the whole size and importance of strategic
positioning. I have to take this opportunity
to reveal a sentence I quote in this kind of
interviews throughout the world that either
have their opponents or followers – as if there
was no middle. These are the words that Ivo
Andric bequeathed to us: “World happiness
is built from every human soul.” This is the
message I always send in my everyday
quest for new positions or for maintaining
present position in the world of globalization,
which I will be doing in the future as well.
Nothing can be achieved if there is no love,
mutual respect and dialogue both at micro and
global level. Those who realize this are already
on the way to the fourth millennium.
YOU LIVE IN FRANCE, WORK
THROUGHOUT EUROPE. HOW DOES
THE FACT THAT YOU ARE A WOMAN
COMING FROM SERBIA AND THE
BALKANS ACTUALLY POSITION YOU
ON THE GLOBAL STAGE?
When I analyze a bit deeper, I would first
say – my very knowledge and awareness
of how important strategic positioning is
determine my position. I have seldom been
asked where I come from, and, believe me,
I often travel abroad. Somehow, the fact that
I am an expert in the field has always been
in the foreground. And if someone wasn’t
aware of that, the words spoke for themselves
– whether through lectures, exposes, published
articles. A woman in this field can be an
ideal counterpart to a businessman as, with
her strong and deep intuition and penetrating
ability to go into details, she dispels
conventional views of the world of economics.
What I have personally learned and what I
can give here as a piece of advice, is that the
most important thing in any kind of business,
social interaction or relationship is that woman
should be a woman and a man should be
a man. Only then does everything we do or
live for makes complete sense.
HOW DO YOU BEST DO
BUSINESS? WHEN YOU PRESENT
YOURSELF AS…?
I do business best, which means most
efficiently and effectively, when I approach
it in the way that the interest of the project
we work on, the interest of the product or
enterprise we position, the name of the
country on behalf of which and for which
we fight, is always, literally always, above
all of us. Only then does my knowledge gain
power to create, design, build and shape,
motivate and, simply, lead forward.
THE ESSENCE OF TRUE
POWER
YOU WRITE BOOKS. WHAT IS
THE PLACE OF BOOKS IN
COMMUNICATION TODAY? WE
KNOW THAT MEDIA HAVE TAKEN
THE LEAD, THEY HAVE CAPTURED
OUR BRAINS. A BOOK DEMANDS
CONCENTRATION WHICH, YOU WILL
AGREE, MODERN MEDIA BREAK WITH
PLENTY OF USELESS INFORMATION...
I feel obliged to all my books so I mustn’t
fail to mention that they are really my best
friends. The internal communication with
yourself, which a book offers, cannot be
experienced through any form of media. I
N 02.
o
5
grew up in the Yugoslav Drama Theatre,
spent my youth working at Studio B and 3K
(TV stations), but I have always been aware
that when you scratch under the surface, the
basis of all creative work is the book. A book
is a word, communication with yourself, but
also with the society you live in, sometimes
even with a society you don’t even know,
with something you haven’t experienced
yet… On the other hand, I respect media as
much as they respect word i.e. how much
essential knowledge I can gain or how
much new things I can learn when watching
their program or reading an article.
Concentration itself means that you are
aware of the present moment. The present
is, in its most explicit form, the only thing
we have. Therefore, when you see that TV
channel you watch, or newspapers you
read, seem senseless, disturbing or
demotivating – switch to another one
as soon as possible.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
MONEY, KNOWLEDGE, POWER...
IS THE KEY TO POSITIONING
THE ATTITUDE TO THESE VALUES?
It is a cause-and-effect relationship which
you should start controlling on time.
Otherwise, it will soon start, to control
you. In my lectures, I always point to and
explain the essence of this relationship in
relation to positioning. Depending on the
situation, power can be expressed through
the use of knowledge, sometimes money,
and sometimes it can be the position
you work in. However, this is where we
come to an important dimension, which I
have already talked about: the present. The
key to positioning is in your imagination,
in a clear and defined goal or goals you
strive for. Only then do money, knowledge
and power come which can materialize your
thoughts, ideas, projects. You have your
own values – develop them, invest in your
knowledge, fight to achieve financial
independence as soon as possible. Only
then will you perceive the real power.
The power of a creator.
N 02.
o
6
YOU ARE KNOWN TO BE SPIRITUAL,
YOU EVEN WANTED TO LIVE IN
A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WAY.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO STAY SPIRITUAL
IN THE WORLD OF BIG BUSINESS, I.E.
WORLD RULED BY MONEY?
For me, spirituality is deeply personal and
no matter whether you are in business, art,
politics, or working in church, you are a chosen
micro-cosmos, or, to “translate”, each one of
us is a “little prince”. Those who have read
the book know what message I want to give.
I wouldn’t say that money rules the world.
The world is ruled by creators who sometimes
use power, sometimes money, sometimes
their influence, and sometimes the power
which is not always expressed through money.
If money doesn’t represent “live creating energy”,
it stands in the way to development. All the
people who shape the world, influence its
development, its present and future, know this.
I am an optimist both of will and soul. Although
harsh reality sometimes proves me wrong,
I believe that the fourth millennium is smiling
at us and waiting patiently. Those of us who
remain patient will be saved.
Depending on the situation,
power can be expressed
through the use of
knowledge,
sometimes money, and
sometimes the position
you work in.
However, this is where we
come to an important
dimension which I have
already talked about:
the present. The key to
positioning is in your
imagination, a clear and
defined goal or goals you
strive for. Only then do
knowledge and power come
which can materialize your
thoughts, ideas, projects.
HOW DO YOU SEE THE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MONEY,
KNOWLEDGE AND POWER IN
SERBIA?
In a few words, I would say: underestimated
knowledge, overestimated role of money
and ignorance of the essence of true ---------power.
-
DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT
WORLD IS NOT RULED BY MONEY?
The world is ruled by creators, visionaries
and strategists. What is essential about them
is power. At the second level there are bankers,
engineers, producers. We must not identify
cash flows with energy flows as we know
that mother nature only has given us so many
free energy sources. Isn’t that right?