Tuzla Cantonal Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with consulting and FINOR TALDI organized a seminar called “Strategic Planning and Human Resource Management”.

Speakers at the seminar were Mr. Marc Neal, CMA, the Canadian expert and consultant with more than 15 years in strategic planning experience and Ms.Mevlida Kunosić-Vlajić, TALDI’sdirectorand advisor for socio-economic development. Participation at theseminar was free.

"We organized a seminar for managers, company owners and other business people who want to improve the operations of their companies and learn the basic principles of strategic planning and human resource management. The seminar aimed to familiarize all participants with strategic planning as a key element for maximizing organizational potential, identifying new business opportunities and willingness to adapt to market changes and new circumstances that could be used as an opportunity. It is significant that this was free and open to all members of the Tuzla Cantonal Chambers of Commerce, as well as all other businesses, "said Miralem Čandić, coordinator of the Center for Tuzla Cantonal Chambers of Commerce Regional Cooperation.

A Canadianexpert with previous fifteen years of experience in strategic planning and human resource management, at the seminar, pointed out to the managers: "It is important to show in which strategic direction companies can move and I hope that we succeeded with our intention, through our presentation to show managers what strategic sources can be used to accomplish the goal, "said Marc Neal.

FINOR Consulting and TALDi together have prepared a presentation with the most important guidelines that can be applied to economic subjects in the Tuzla Canton area.
"Within our partnership, we recognize that entrepreneurs in this region do not have a strategic planning or have one at best that was made but neither evaluated nor implemented. Our strategic planning experience not only with small businesses but also while working on local development strategies and at the regional level throughout the Balkans, shows that mostly everyone forgets to implement a created or revised strategy, considering the situation in the region and within the organization or a company, "said Mevlida Kunosić Vlajić, TALDI’s Director.  A cooperation will be continued in preparing new, useful and important projects, as announced by Ms. Mevlida Kunosić Vlajić, Director,FINOR Consulting and TALDi  .

Dino Kalesić (Tuzlarije.net)

During the period between 7-17 November 2010, the Regional Environment Center organized a ten day Advanced course, focused on the three pillars of sustainability: Economy, Social and Environment.

35 participants had a chance to gain new knowledge and share experiences gained in their local communities. The representative of Finor consulting held a presentation on the topic of Green Marketing, how to advise clients to conduct and channel their marketing efforts towards new values and demands of the market.This course intended to bring skilled local sustainability professionals to discuss issues how to advance daily practice to improve governance for sustainability in local communities around Europe. It offered a wide range of opportunities to improve the knowledge and skills concerning sustainable development and focused on real-life case studies.

New leading world experts shared their visions and ideas, including the representatives of the United Nations Environmental Programme, Government of Hungary, the Fair Trade Foundation, Sustainable Cities Research Institute from UK and many others. Finally, it was intended to offer participants an opportunity to examine the application of different sustainability-related policies in practice. Finor Consulting continues placing its efforts for the vision that the business will be successful only if sustainable in the long term.

I recently had a discussion with a colleague regarding the development of company strategy and the analysis regarding the development that strategy.  I was asked if I had a spreadsheet or a software application to carry out the analysis and develop an appropriate strategy.

This struck me as a strange thing to ask and I will elaborate why.   In a recent article I posted entitled “Consulting what you can expect “I pointed out that consultants have a tool kit that was developed over time, education and through experience.  Now I think we need to clarify what that tool kit entails in order to get to the gist of what the risks of off the shelf solutions can be.

The toolbox that a consultant brings to the table is more esoteric than actual tools such as out of the box applications.  What the tools include are a broad business knowledge in, organizational design, operations, human resources, marketing, finance, business as well as the analytical tools which, by the way, require to a large extent a great deal of professional judgement when applying them.    Additionally consultants may want to use a check list to ensure that they do not miss key elements of the analysis and are often developed at the early stages of the engagement.  A standard set of key elements does not necessarily capture all the elements necessary to successfully develop and implement a strategy worthy of the client’s consideration. 

In order to illustrate this let’s use an example from structural Engineering by examining the design and construction of a bridge. I am sure that there are no off the shelf solutions to develop the conceptual design of a bridge, there are far too many factors that need to be considered.  When designing a bridge the engineer does use, but only to a certain extent use design tables to size the steel and design the appropriate concrete strength, sizing of supporting beams, the support structures and the list goes on, they also rely a great deal on professional judgement building in with a sense of conservatism a safety factor to ensure that the structure will withstand forces that may happen in rare instances.  The Engineer will certainly have a design checklist that will include investigations about:

• the soil condition, in order to have an understanding what kind of foundations will be required;
• An evaluation of the topography of the surrounding area
• Prevailing weather conditions to understand how to design  bridges superstructure so it  will withstand the  forces of wind, snow loads
• Traffic patterns, in order to get a grip of the loading that the structure will be subjected to.
• Choices of materials for construction and their availability, useful life and maintenance requirements
• The selection of a designed life expectancy
• Associated works that will be required, such as approaches,
• Lighting systems,
• And so on.

This check list is usually developed based on past experience with similar projects but definitely needs to be modified based on the projects particular requirements.   While working through the design check list, other elements may be identified that require investigation due to extraneous events and conditions that may come to rise from the initial investigation.   So is the case with Management consulting, we certainly would not have the same check list for the development of a strategy as for the optimization of production and operations.  What complicates matters for the Management Consultant even further is the human element, on which all businesses are based, as well as the competitive environment that the business operates in.  Personally I would not feel comfortable traversing a bridge designed for a land crossing in the south of France if it were an off the shelf solution used for a water crossing in Norway for example.  You may think this is a trite example; however, do you think it is appropriate for a company solution being applied to your company that is developed without the same consideration as that for the Bridge?  I think not.

When a professional Business Management Consultant investigates and comes up with recommendations for your firm you must feel that the due diligence has been carried out in order to address the particular circumstances of your organization.  There are no two organizations in this world that operate in an identical manner. There are far too many variables that come into play.  Special consideration must be taken for assessing the culture, capital structure, intellectual, financial and fixed, the objective of the organization,( i.e. profitability, operational excellence,...), the market environment, competition, legislation and technology just to name a few.

The Management Consultant provides you with sound advice that will assist your company to grow, helps you meet the objectives set out for it by your senior management team and assists in carving out a competitive advantage over your competition.  This cannot be done by copying a solution developed in a vacuum or by copying what the completion is doing.  When selecting your consultant, be wary of those who want to give you an off the shelfsolution or in other words want to fashion you after some other company.  You will want a Consultant who concentrates on first principles, and the application of sound analysis of your industry and your business.

On November 10th, Finor, with our partners TALDi kicked of a project which was attended by 15 people who have started companies.

The project is to provide follow-on assistance to start-ups which have been just started up to 5 years in business.  The Austrian Development Agency has provided additional support to provide relevant additional training and consultancy assistance to BSC enterprises. Support was approved based on a real need for follow-on assistance, especially in the start-up phase of business (0-5 years), to address some of the common and specific problems BSC enterprises face.

Global Reporting Initiative in cooperation with Finor Consulting is organizing workshop entitled „Doing Business with sustainable development“ to be held on 30.11.2010. at the Chamber of Commerce of Canton Sarajevo.

The workshop will be held for the first time in Sarajevo and the region.

The world economy is at the crossroads and we today live in the period of tranfer  to the new, sustainable economy, and the information being collected and transmitted will affect the reality around us. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)is a network-based organization that has pioneered the development of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework and is committed to its continuous improvement and application worldwide. Successful business is successful business. This is introductory workshop intended for all companies that want to learn and gain understanding about different requests and needs of doing business with sustainable development.

Participant will be able to:

• Recognize the changes in business context & the drivers for sustainability for organizations.
• Differentiate between philanthropy and responsible (sustainable) management.
• Provide reasons why organizations of all types and sizes are preparing sustainability reports.
• Explain what GRI is and how it can help your organization to understand and measure sustainability impacts.
• Identify the main characteristics of the GRI framework for reporting.
• Identify the five phases of the sustainability reporting process.
• Provide a list of activities to be done under each phase.
• Prepare a realistic time line for covering the major activities necessary to complete a GRI report.
• Explain what is a GRI certified training and how to participate

In the process of transition towards sustainable economy, the change of the way we think about how we perform our activities will be equally important as any other technological innovation or government policy. The organizers hope that this introductory workshop will be the opportunity to think about how to cooperate in building and reporting in sustainble economy.

Agenda and additonal info can be downloaded here as PDF file.

If you are interested in participation you can download the PDF application here, which you can send us by email.

For all additional information send mail to: riada.asimovic@finor.biz or call: 033 295 320

Read interview with Marc Neal, director of Finor consulting for magazine "Lider" where he speaks about importance of consulting and services that can help your business. He is also giving advice of possible measures that can help company survive hard period of recession. Enjoy!

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Director of company Marc Neal,  was a host to Simon Laih Director of Taiwan trade Centre Bucharest from company TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade Development Council).

This fact finding mission included logistics and setting up meetings with government, and manufacturing businesses in BiH. It was first visit, prior to the Taiwanese business delegation coming to visit BIH with the goal of developing potential cooperation between these two countries.