11 minute read

Women in business

i nterview

On my road to development and growth, I was lucky to be mentored by very knowledgeable, professional smart and strong men, Diplomacy&Commerce, Women in business, says Irina Tomić , Director of Sales and Marketing at Blue Kotor Bay . I work with lots of men, sometimes they are annoyed with the amount of words coming out from me, but majority of the time, I really feel appreciated and respected, and I do feel they really have my back, says Irina Tomić.

Advertisement

“Woman in business” is it still “exotic” or has it become our everyday life?

Hmm, exotic. I think this phrase “woman in business” will always be exotic. It sounds exotic, not to go even further and say out loud, if I may, it sounds sexy, right? It is my everyday life from the day one actually, even from college days, I dreamt to be the one in nice suits and high heels, with leather case full of important documents. Stereotype, which you are aware of only when you are twenty, and you think this is something you need to maintain in order to be perceived as business woman.

Today I swooped these heels with sneakers, and rather relaxed outfits, but documents are still here, no matter which type. There is such a strong connotation behind this phrase “woman in business”; most of the times I am not even aware that it really represents something crucial, historically grounded,

Director of Sales and Marketing at Blue Kotor Bay

The current global labor force participation rate for women is just under 47%. For men, it’s 72%.

valued in so many different ways, especially in the eyes of my daughter and her friends for example.

Is the business world a man’s world? What are your experiences on the road to success?

Every questions I feel like starting with: hmmm….and then to really think deep.

Listen, statistically, the answer is still big YES. The current global labor force participation rate for women is just under 47%. For men, it’s 72%. That’s a difference of 25 percentage points, with some regions facing a gap of more than 50 percentage points. Since this is the case, than working men are the answer to creating freedom to work for women, as this should be the starting point. The mathematics behind it easy, eventually it would lead to huge growth benefits, and positive production at the end. Not to mention, the changes in society – the rising number of confident, self-sustained, self - aware, happy, smart and beautiful women all around the world.

If speaking about my experience, I feel obliged to mention that I had amazing experience, even though, through the career I did have a huge change in the work surrounding. My path has brought me to experience working in Montenegro, beautiful country which has a rather different “setup” than Croatia and EU, moreover, still very patriarchate in some ways.

Before that, on my road to development and growth, I was lucky to be mentored by very knowledgeable, professional smart and strong men. The emotions were always high, all the time on the steak, sometimes I even lost so much, but at the end, the final result was rather positive and admirable. So I could easily say, that one of these men, have not recognized my potential and gave me further opportunities to learn and to grow, if they have not polish my mind and influence how to balance emotions and ratio on the job, maybe I would be different today. I do not mind saying thank you to these role models in business to me. My former General Manager from Esplanade Zagreb visited me last summer in Kotor Bay, in the resort where I am part of management, and was so happy for this opportunity to say thank you to him, for believing in me and molding me according to my character and skills. Probably, if he did not push me so hard, I would not investigate my limits so early in the career. There are always both sides of everything, I mean, there were also some not so nice things during the career but if I have to generalize, I would recommend the same to most of the women.

Nowadays, I work with lots of men, sometimes they are annoyed with the amount of words coming out from me, but majority of the time, I really feel appreciated and respected, and I do feel they really have my back.

There are still fewer women in leading positions compared to men colleagues, somewhere around 5%. What do you think is the reason for that and how can that figure be changed in favor of women?

From what I learned, it really depends on various conditions. One of them is the country itself. There is huge difference between developed and stable countries, and those which are still developing. The truth behind lower economy, is that women do not have any choice, but rather to seek for job. On the other side, in developed countries, women, especially if married, and if partner is financially stable, usually play some other role in the society, like being part of some associations, humanitarian clubs etc., so they give in, and give back, but in a different manner.

I would like to point out, that the starting point actually, no matter which economic level country is, we should create climate for women to freely decide whether they want paying job, or they want to seek some other things. Freedom to work at this point should be primary focus, and we are still on step 1 in some countries. There are many socio economic constraints which we need to focus on to resolve this step 1, with many variables.

You are director of sales and marketing at blue Kotor bay. How much attention do you at blue Kotor bay pay to each type of equality, including women?

In tourism there is a great mixture of both, men and women, younger and older workers. There are almost around 300 colleagues in our company at the moment, from all over the world. Mobility is crucial for workforce at the moment. From the day one, Blue Kotor Bay showed comparable attention to equality, especially to women. This is the industry where you need to show respect towards all your employees, as you showcase on a daily basis how you want for all guests to be treated. Showing by example is our everyday practice. Not to mention again, one of the men in business, our CEO who is pushing all of us every day to act like dames and gentleman. I always say, in hospitality, in hotel business, we are like ladies and gentleman serving other ladies and gentleman. If you analyze the word - gentleman, you will see this soft, beautiful, meaningful word – GENTLE. So, this is what I expect to get from everybody, and to give to all around me –gentleness.

As of June 1st we have committed ourselves to franchise of Hyatt Regency, and Hyatt is known for taking care of the people first and foremost. We are obliged to go through specific trainings in order to better understand culture around us, company culture, also treats around us and how to recognize them and act upon. I am extremely happy that this will bring additional enhancements and growth.

Your company is also known as a company that pays special attention to the attitude towards employees, mutual respect. How difficult is it to understand the needs of employees and what is essential for satisfaction and success at work?

I have said in one of the interviews before, tourism is the industry of emotions. It is one of the nicest industries to work in. Everyone is equally important, and one cannot function without the other. Guests cannot be satisfied if we are not working all together in the team, as the one. Hospitality industry sets example and implements high standards from the behavioral point of view. Guest satisfaction is the mirror of employees’ satisfaction.

Obviously, in this business guests’ needs are those that you hear very loudly, and ours are often very quiet, not out loud spoken. You really need to be the master of psychology for establishing work climate where you allow people to be heard, where they know as a worker there are respected and valued. We treat our colleagues in a manner we want our guests to be treated. Again, showing by example is always the best school. Communication, empathy, listening, togetherness, team work, stepping in for a colleague, not minimizing any role in a team, and many other nice examples are set in a stone if you want to have successful organization. This is industry with a great workforce turnover, so you want to make sure in every possible way to keep every single one of the valued staff. Part of the process is to present them with individual growth plans, to understand their individual set of skills, and to allow them to develop in the best fitting position. And at the end of the day, there is nothing nicer when you find a note in the hotel room, hand written from guests, showing thank to all team members for making their stay memorable one. This is the end hype.

04 apr.

Croatian coffee lovers were presented with a coffee machine that prepares popular cold brew specialties that they will love this spring. In a positive and relaxed atmosphere with the sounds of the violin, the season of enjoying coffee cocktails is open. This is due to De’Longhi, a well-known Italian brand of premium coffee devices, which presented the new and innovative Eletta apr. 12

Explore device in the Eateria restaurant in Zagreb.. “Innovation is what makes the De’Longhi brand special. Top innovative cold brew technology allowed us to encourage the trend of cold brew drinks and I believe that this is why the simplicity of preparing cold and hot coffee drinks will soon become an everyday thing that our loyal consumers will also accept. Cold Brew Cappuccino or Cold Brew Mojito, with one touch you can prepare the ultimate refreshment in less than 5 minutes, isn’t that really #perfetto?” – said Nataša Bagić, Marketing Manager of the De’Longhi Group in Croatia..

in Zagreb

In the foyer of the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb, the Agreement on sponsorship cooperation between Privredna banka Zagreb and the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb was solemnly signed. The contract was signed on behalf of Zagreb HNK by the head of the management, Iva Hraste Sočo, and in front of Privredna banka Zagreb, the president of the board, Dinko Lucić. By signing this contract, Privredna banka Zagreb became a sponsor of the HNK in Zagreb in the next theater season 2023/2024. On the occasion of the signing of the contract, Iva Hraste Sočo, director of the Zagreb HNK, said: I am extremely glad that Privredna banka Zagreb has recognized us as a partner in the cultural sector and that they will follow us through the next exciting and rich theater season. Support for culture, theater and art through mu- tual cooperation, which we confirmed today by signing the contract, is extremely important to us, because this way we get the possibility of even better production and repertoire in our theater. I believe that the cooperation will only develop over the years to our mutual satisfaction and the satisfaction of our audience. The president of the PBZ board, Dinko Lucić, expressed his satisfaction that the cooperation started many years ago continues with the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb, a national theater company that is a symbol of excellence in promoting Croatian culture and art in general through the organization of top performances and events, and that PBZ has been recognized by HNK in Zagreb as a partner that is a symbol of excellence in financial business. Privredna banka Zagreb (PBZ) and members of the PBZ Group, as part of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, one of the leading European banks, have confirmed their strategic focus on culture, providing support to cultural institutions and important artistic events in the promotion of Croatian and Italian art in our country and beyond. Also, PBZ is a significant factor in the development of the Croatian economy and the initiator of introducing changes in the field of socially responsible business, also, we are the leading donor in the country in terms of donations to health institutions and homes for children and young people with a unique donor program I do well every day, which has been running continuously for 15 year, said Dinko Lucić, president of the PBZ Management Board.

18 opera in arena Di Verona

apr.

On the initiative of the Foundation of Arena di Verona with the support of the Embassy of Italy in Zagreb and cooperation with the Italian-Croatian Chamber of Commerce and Veneto – the land of Venice, an event under the name 100 times the first time that celebrates centenary of Opera in Arena di Verona, took place. People gathered in the temple of Croatian culture - Croatian National Theatre at least for the moment had the opportunity to travel to Italy and taste the irresistible Italian atmosphere in a few-hours-journey that guided them from the past throughout the future while listening about all the activities of the Opera Festival that will be happening in the historic ambi- ent of Arena di Verona from June to September. Iva Hraste Sočo, intendent of HNK and Pierfracescco Sacco, the Italian Ambassador, expressed a warm welcome to everyone, after which Andrea Perkov, the General Director of the CCIC, and Stefano Trespidi, Italian opera stage director, held one-hour speech that explained main questions around organizing such a huge and important event. They referred to the history of the Arena di Verona, guidelines of his five years of artistic direction for a Festival, influence of being Veronese in his life and career, problems they face to make the festival as good as possible, and many more. Needless to say that all the guests enjoyed the most beautiful voices from

Italy: tenor Gaston Rivera, baritone Youngjun Park, soprano Ruth Iniesta and pianist Federico Brunello who performed arias from the six most successful operas in Arena di Verona from the 1913 until now: Celeste Aida from Aida, Cissi d’arte from Tosca, Dio di Guida from Nabucco, Le fleur que tu m’avais jetee from Carmen, Un bel di vedremo from Madama Butterfly and finally Di Provenza, il mar, il soul… from La Traviata, after which the typical meal from region Veneto was served – risotto and tiramisu. Appropriately, later on that evening, in Croatian National Theater the opera Tosca was performed, and everyone interested could have enjoyed it.

jurica sabol Museum of Croatian Zagorje, Director

Last year, the Museums of Croatian Zagorje were visited by 301,508 visitors, which ranked us in second place among all museums and galleries in Croatia according to the register maintained by the museum documentation center, which includes more than 170 museums and galleries in the territory of the Republic of Croatia, Jurica Sabol, director of the Museum of Croatian Zagorje, says for Diplomacy&Commerce. In addition to thirty years of operation of the Museum of Croatian Zagorje, we will also mark 70 years of operation of the museum in Kumrovec, and in February we already marked the 450th anniversary of the Peasant Uprising, says director Sabol.

The Museums of Croatian Zagorje are celebrating 30 years of their work. How will you mark this grand anniversary?

The Museums of Croatian Zagorje are one of the most complex heritage institutions in this part of Europe. They consist of five different museums in the area of Krapina-Zagorje County, namely the Dvor Veliki Tabor Museum in Desinić, the only openair museum Staro Selo Kumrovec, the gallery of Antun Augustinčić in Klanjec, the Peasants’ Revolt Museum in Gornja Stubica and the Krapina Neanderthal Museum in Krapina. The Museums of Croatian Zagorje were established by a decree of the Government of the Republic of Croatia in 1992, and we started working on January 1, 1993, so thirty full years of work are behind us. A lot of things happened, but also a lot of

This article is from: