The Norwegian ambassador talked to the students of Belgrade University about the entrepreneurial experiences of Northerners
At the invitation of a student, non-governmental organization Business Development Network and within the project School of business skills, the Norwegian ambassador, Nils Ragnar Kamsvog, is to the students of Belgrade University in the ceremonial hall of the Rectorate, 5.3. held a lecture on entrepreneurship where he shared Norwegian experiences, inspiring those present to perhaps take that path themselves.
"We have a large number of the most famous products that have changed our everyday life in many ways thanks to entrepreneurs. Schumpeter was right when he said that entrepreneurs can, and often do, contribute to changing society." With these words, the ambassador, referring to the famous economist Joseph Schumpeter, began the lecture on entrepreneurship.
According to the ambassador's words, both countries, Serbia and Norway, should constantly transform and develop their economy in order to be competitive and to ensure the future and well-being of their citizens. Promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship should be an integral part of such a strategy.
"The one who wants to be the initiator of changes in Schumpeter's mercy must be curious, ready to take risks, optimistic, but also know how to draw a lesson from failure," added the ambassador. "That's exactly how the Norwegians were when they first entered the fish business. Forty years ago there was no fish farming at all in Norway. The economy for small farmers was weakening and they saw in fish farming something that could be an additional source of income for farmers living near the sea. We had the comparative advantage of having a lot of fjords that are protected, but also water that circulates so that it is very suitable for fish farming", said the ambassador. "All in all, it was a road full of ups and downs, but in the end it turned out to be a great success. Norway is today the second largest exporter of marine products in the world, and last year alone it earned five billion euros from salmon exports."
The ambassador believes that there is no point in inventing new technologies. "Many famous entrepreneurs did not actually invent a new technology, but found a better way of using it or a different concept of packaging or organizing a production line. This was the case with Steve Jobs from Apple, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, Larry Page and Sergey Brin from Google, but also Norwegian salmon farmers."
"Most of you eat sushi, which has salmon in it, but 30 years ago Japanese people didn't eat sushi with salmon, so we tried to introduce it to the market, to get them interested, and as a result, more and more people wanted to buy that kind of sushi." product," said Mr. Kamsvog.
He then mentioned the similar potential of Serbia, giving the example of a project to improve the production and export of honey, which was financed by the Norwegian Embassy in Serbia. "This was a very small project that we supported and in the first year, 120 tons of honey were exported from Serbia to Norway, which is 10 percent of the entire consumption in Norway. And in two years, Serbian honey took over 30 percent of the Norwegian market. This indicates potential", Kamsvog concluded.
"Government incentives would certainly contribute to the further development of entrepreneurship in Serbia. One of the things that Norway is very proud of is the cluster idea. Basically, the idea is to gather several people who are more or less in a similar business, and then they compete with each other, but also exchange ideas that will create new technology and increase competitiveness. The best example of entrepreneurship and innovation in Norway is the underwater sector. . Last year, a turnover of 24 billion euros was recorded in this area alone, and this is a sector that did not exist 40 years ago. Many companies from this sector in the world move to Norway precisely because of the cluster. However, being an entrepreneur is a challenging vocation because studies show that only one-third of firms survive the first five years. So, apart from finding an innovative way, timing is also important. Napoleon asked his generals to be smart and be happy. Entrepreneurs may also need the same qualifications," added the ambassador.
In the end, the Norwegian ambassador added that it is also believed that the introduction of entrepreneurship classes in schools can contribute to the successful entrepreneurship of a country, because students in those classes understand that entrepreneurship can be an interesting and profitable vocation. "Norwegians, for example, start learning about entrepreneurship at the age of 15, and "founding and running" a company is part of the curriculum," said Mr. Kamsvog.
Goal of a project School of business skills is to provide young people with knowledge and skills that they do not encounter during regular education, all in order to reduce unemployment and to improve and make better use of the intellectual capital of young people in the country. Some of the topics that School of business skills deals with: entrepreneurship, leadership, diplomatic relations, communication, public relations, teamwork, psychology of success, business ethics, human rights, local development, democracy.
The lecturers are eminent experts from Serbia and abroad such as John Lennox (professor from Oxford University), Dr. Jürgen Spies (director of the Institute for Humanities), Tony O'Brien (director of the British Council for the Western Balkans), Laurent Stokvis (Ambassador of the Netherlands for Serbia and Montenegro), Stefen Fish (Executive Director of Ernst & Young), Guy Djoken (Executive Director of the UNESCO Center for Peace from Washington), Slavica Pavlović (CFO of Eurobank) and many others. The new lecture season began with the guest appearance of the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2003, Dr. Shirin Ebadi from Iran, who is Schools of business skills held on October 22, 2014 at the Faculty of Civil Engineering.
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