Dragan Nenadovic, GM at Opel - A boss must work the most

- From Frankfurt, across Kiev, Kishinev, Yerevan, Almaty and Budapest, it is the same everywhere – everywhere people like to have a good car - Dragan Nenadovic, Magaer at Opel for Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania says for eKapija.

Nenadovic went through all these meridians during 18 years of long work in the company and he returned home somewhat more than a year ago – in August 2013.

He was born in 1959 in Pozarevac but he does not remember much since the family moved to Belgrade very quickly. He graduated foreign economy at the College for economics and then continued the third and the fourth year at the Faculty of economics. Before Opel, he worked for 12 years for Toyota.

In his interview for eKapija, Dragan Nenadovic is speaking about SFRY, his experience from Russia and Germany, about why his job became his hobby and why a boss must work the most. Apart from that, he discovers how an ideal “café for the old ones” should look like, how he spent his high school, how he drove his father’s car for the first time and to whom he sold a car totaling 25.000 marks – in five minutes at the fair ’86.

I started as a waiter

It was difficult to get a job in the eighties and you had to have connections, party relations or cousins and I did not have anything of that. I came from the army, trying unsuccessfully to get a job. I worked for a student’s association when my father decided to open a café on Kosmaj, in Koracica village. I was a waiter there for two years.

After a number of failures at interviews where you see they were set up for someone else, I was lucky to find Agrooprema which was looking for employees without any connection. It was a big company in old Yugoslavia and they were representatives of Toyota as well. Thus, I got to automotive industry since they were looking for a person for that branch office. I first worked at the headquarters in Balkanska 44 and in mid-1987 we opened the first Toyota saloon in Sarajevska 75 and I moved there.

Invitation from Opel

Opel invited me in late 1996 and after a lot of thinking and negotiations, I moved in mid-1997. They decided to do in Budapest what Toyota wanted in Belgrade- they opened Opel South East Europe which was responsible for distribution of Opel in the entire SEE region.

We had a good start since people knew about us. Apart from that, General Motors, the owner of Opel had a joint venture with Livnica Kikinda which was producing some elements for “the first installation”. In return, Kikinda was not paid in cash but cars so Opel could be bought for dinars while others were asking for foreign currencies due to sole import. Opel was the best sold and the most popular foreign car in Yugoslavia.

Russia was like a movie

From the company headquarters in 2005, they picked up a few people from Opel Southeast Europe. They asked us openly whether we are ready to go since it will be a day and night work.

It was expected that Russia will flourish, oil and gas started, large companies invested in big businesses. I was a Sales Operations Manager, in charge of fleet sales, brand quality, etc. The demand was incredible; I did not believe it existed.

We lived in Moscow but I travelled all Russia, in 11 time zones.

Kiev, Kishinev, Yerevan, Almaty, Budapest, Frankfurt...

In 2008, Opel was planning to make a breakthrough in Ukraine and I went to Kiev to open a branch office. However, a big crisis came, Ukraine faced problems, plans were abandoned and I returned to Budapest after a year in Kievu.

Parallel, I was in charge of Opel’s business in all ex-Soviet countries.

I am fond of Budapest even today. It is a wonderful city and incredibly pleasant and human for life.

After Budapest, I left to company headquarters in Germany, in Russelsheim, near Frankfurt.

Boss must work the most

In Serbia, there is a belief that the “bigger the boss” the later you come to work, work less and go home earlier. It is the first wrong thinking which he was reassured of by the Japanese in Toyota and then high managers at General Motors and Opel. For instance, I have never seen my last boss in Germany coming to the office or leaving it. The higher the position, the more you work and have more responsibility.

The second important thing I learnt was "walk the talks". People cannot follow you and believe you if you ask them to do one thing and you do something completely different. A manager must trust his or her team and to know all about them because very often a manager will have to decide based on what the team presents.

I have never had time for a special hobby and I do not regret it. I do what I like and this job is in facr my hobby.

Café for older population

I have never wanted to change my job and I do not think I ever will. Though I do have an idea of opening as I say, “café for older population”(laugh) For the ones "50+". I often speak with my wife how I would arrange it… It would be a café with a bit different music and atmosphere, with Turkish coffee which mostly cannot be found anywhere, etc.

"Hey son, can I take it now"?

I was very young at the beginning of my work at Toyota. At my first car fair in 1986, we exhibited toyota celica model, a sports car, red, with light which can lift, a true “beast”. Incredibly progressive and avant-garde design for cars of that time.

An older man came in a peasant costume and asked: "Hey son, how much does this car cost"? I told him for example DM 25.000. "And can I drive it from here"? I told him he could when he paid. "And, can I pay for it now "? And, the man took out the money from his bag, paid, set in a car and drove it directly from the fair. It was a gift for his grandson for a wedding, somewhere at Nis region.

Firga and "fights with apples"

I attended former Third grammar school, today Sveti Sava. It was a strict school and the dean was famous Firga, who used to be the head of the Detention and rehabilitation center in Krusevac.

Still, it did not stop us from occasional fight with apples across the fence with the guys from the neighboring school.

The first car I drove in my life was my father’s old "VW". He gave it to me when I passed driving test in 84. Today, I have insignia since it appeared as a new model in 2009 and I would not trade it for any other car in the world.

Milica Stevuljevic