Lav Odorović, CEO "BEO Coders" – promising boy

The co-owner and CEO of "BEO Coders", the company that designs web applications, came to the scheduled interview straight from the English language colloquium that he successfully passed. Lav Odorović did not make the decision, as an experienced entrepreneur, to include the diploma of the Faculty of Economy in his business “opus”, but, as a 20-year-old and regular student, he decided one year ago to found a company in Belgrade with the partner from Netherlands.

- Our idea was to open the company in Serbia that would cooperate with company "MAS Coders" from Arnem, of which owner is my current partner, on designing of OffShore ICT solutsion for Dutch companies. For the time being, these two companies are legally independent, but we will soon find the appropriate solution to merge the companies - says Odorović.

"BEO Coders" will soon celebrate its first birthday. The average price of their software solutions amounts to about 25,000 EUR. The greatest percentage of buyers (98%) are Dutch companies. "BEO Coders" won prestigious "E-trade Award 2008" for website "web-kupovina", intended for Serbian market, for exceptional contribution to development of electronic trade in Serbia.

- The idea of "BEO Coders" and "MAS Coders" is to design applications for clients according to "tailor made" principle, that is, to completely adapt solutions to their wishes and needs. We mainly work in php, but we also use java, flash and other technologies – Odorović explains.

He points out that the solutions are more complex and advanced that the ones that dominate Serbian market, while the situation in Netherlands is completely different.

- We’ve decided to export our products because of both higher demand in foreign market and significantly higher prices of services. One hour of work of a programmer in Netherlands costs between 60 and 120 EUR, while the wage per hour in Serbia ranges between 20 and 50 EUR – Odorović explains and points out that "MAS Coders" is responsible for finding clients in Netherlands, while the office in Belgrade represents "production department".

Dutch companies that use outsourcing prefer cooperation with companies from their environment because the same rules and laws are applied to all, and they feel more secure that the job will be done on time, Odorović explains.

- The clients know that "MAS Coders" is connected with the company that produces software for them in some other country, but they are also secured because they make the contract with a Dutch company. It brings excellent profit to the company in Belgrade because we have managed to overcome usual problems of international operations. We have the staff who fluently speak both Dutch and English in correspondence with all foreign clients who need technical support. Besides, the phone line in the Belgrade-based office functions as if it were a part of the Dutch telecommunication system. There is an internet program that makes that possible – our collocutor explains.

Odorović met his present partner at the UN Labor Simulation in Netherlands in 2006. He says that he did not think of founding his own company at that time because he had numerous obligations – membership in non-government organization, secondary-school parliament and international students’ organizations.

- I used to be a delegate of Serbia in European Youth Parliament and I attended numerous meetings, the most significant of which was the meeting in Paris where I even represented the committee that our country belonged to.

Lav singles out participation in the programme organized by “United World Colleges of Atlantic”, the association of students from all around the world, as the most interesting social activity. On that occasion, as the representative of Serbia, he was selected to teach English language to Chinese kids during his one-month stay in China, as well as to present European cultural heritage to them.

- We were first staying in exceptionally rich, southeast part of China. My pupils were driven to the school in Rolls Royce automobiles. We earned plenty of money there. Then we moved to the central, poor part of the country. It took us more than 15 hours to reach the village we were staying in. We gave the money we earned in the rich part of China to the pupils in that village because it was the only way for them to receive secondary education in a nearby city, which was the point of the programme – Odorović explains.

Just like every 21-year-old, Odorović has great plans for future. If he could choose, he would like to get a job in the World Bank or in the United Nations. That is why he chose the department of international economy at the Faculty of Economy. He is likely to attend some good MBA programme abroad. As he admits, he finds running of the company easier than studying, although none of these obligations has impact on his private life. He has enough time for friends, girlfriend, photography and numerous hobbies.

- When I was starting the business, my parents were afraid that I would neglect my studies, and father even offered me money to give up that idea. In spite of what many people think, they did not “blow the wind to my back”.

By the way, Lav loves to admit his mistakes, and he finds vanity the worst flaw in business. He says he has fair and professional relation with his employees, most of whom are older than him.

T.S.