Alexander Teutsch, CEO of Adria Media Serbia - Playing with numbers in the world of letters

(Alexandar Teutsch)

When German citizen Alexandar Teutsch returns from his hometown Cologne to work in the capital city of Serbia, he says: "I am going home". In less than a year, the CEO of Belgrade-based Adria Media Serbia newspaper agency has learned to speak Serbian language, adopted new mime and gestures, got good friends, explored the city restaurants and green markets, "fallen in love" with paprika in sour cream and homemade noodles, and he will soon buy his first ticket for theater. In addition to the "offensive" on the cultural stage of Belgrade, Teutsch also announces an "assault" on Serbian media market - higher quality of production, new columns, more diverse contents, and larger numbers in financial reports.

His fuel is challenge, analyticity is his primary work tool, while open communication is "sine qua non" of each success. He is one of those who "make a lemonade when the life offers a lemon". Coming from the city in the west of Germany, intrigued and inspired by the life "on the other side of the Iron Curtain", he became a student of Slavic studies and traveled all around Russia, Slovakia, Poland... In all these countries he communicated in the language spoken by local population, and he also understands Bulgarians, French and British people. Craving for new knowledge and adventures, Teutsch also finds his arrival in Belgrade a good opportunity for him to "write" a personal cultural study.

He says that the city on the Danube won his sympathies already during his first stay. His wife Dana and daughter Marta joined him in the house on Dedinje few months upon his arrival in Serbia.

- The offer to run the team of Adria Media Serbia was a big business challenge and, of course, an opportunity for further advancing. Serbian market is developing and that is both mitigating and aggravating circumstance. An advantage is the fact that you are able to implement some ideas that have already been tested and implemented in other countries, to penetrate the market by launching new contents, but, on the other hand, the purchasing power of citizens is smaller and there is also the global financial crisis. In any case, I am more than satisfied with the results in Serbia, we have big plans for the next year, and our young, creative and expert team is the guarantee of success - Alexandar Teutsch, who communicates with his employees in Serbian language, says at the beginning of the interview for eKapija.

Successful "Story"

Of all the magazines published by Adria Media Serbia, Teutsch's favorite is "Story". His office in Airport City business center is "decorated" with copies of the magazines "Elle", "Cosmopolitan", "Men’s Health", "National Geographic", "Lisa", "Moja lepa basta" (My beautiful garden), "Moj stan" (My apartment), "Zivot sa cvecem" (Living with flowers), "Mama", "Trudnoca" (Pregnancy), "Elle Dekor". The portfolio of Adria Media Serbia currently includes 12 world-famous magazines and even those who never buy anything at newsstands have heard for at least one of these magazines.

- Of course that I read the publications of other media companies in Serbia in addition to our own production. I read the daily papers Blic and Politika on regular basis, as well as other daily and weekly magazines that keep me up to date. At the same time, it is also an excellent opportunity for me to practice my Serbian - Teutsch adds.

The interlocutor of eKapija says that, although he is in the media business for many years, he has never considered writing anything because he finds the side of the business that is not exposed to the public more interesting.

- I prefer playing with numbers to playing with letters - Teutsch says through laughter and adds that, as a student, he was writing articles for a city newspaper for a short time.

Adria Media Serbia was formed in 2006 as a result of the merger of the media companies Gruner+Jahr AG&CO and Sanoma Magazines International B. V. It is owned by Adria Media Holding Gmbh and local partner Styria Media Group AG.

Teutsch is full of compliments for his colleagues in Belgrade and he reminds that a good team can function even without the boss, but that the boss without a team is good for nothing. In his opinion, he is not strict, but he admits that he is a perfectionist and that he tries to find a boundary between hedonism and too much responsibility.

- The most important things in business are: open communication, exchange of ideas and opinions, active approach and critical thinking. I am not afraid of failures and I never lose optimism. I often say to my colleagues and friends - "It is an experience the first time and an error the second time". I am capable of forgiving and forgetting errors.

Those who have had chance to work with Teutsch say that he has completely assimilated to his new fellow citizens and jokingly add that only the work with finance makes him a typical representative of the West.

Fashion behind Iron Curtain

Before he came to Belgrade, Alexsandar Teutsch was working for publishing company Gruner+Jahr in Hamburg, while his career in the publishing business started in "Burda" in Prague where he came to the position of CEO.

- I completed the training program in "Burda" and when a chance occurred for me to run that magazine, I was more than delighted. That was a perfect chance that I did not want to miss. I remember that I applied for the position in an open competition titled something like "Burda East Europe seeks young potentials". I found the opportunity in that business to use my knowledge of languages, as well as to enter the world of publishing and acquire knowledge in the fields of management and finance - Teutsch remembers.

He says that his first year as the CEO has been his greatest business success ever because his work exceeded the expectations and he managed to deal with the burden of big responsibility towards employees, the company, results, plans...

- Then I realized how many big things you can achieve by taking small and reasonable steps. I am not an advocate of abrupt and big cuts and revolutionary solutions, and I primarily believe in team spirit and synergy of ideas - says Teutsch.

Craving for new business challenges, after working in the capital city of Czech Republic for five and half years, Teutsch accepted the offer of Gruner+Jahr and moved to Hamburg.

He says that he has been interested in a great variety of things from his early childhood and that the life in one city only has never made him completely satisfied.

- Everybody in our house has always worked hard. My mother, father and brother still live in the west of Germany, while I started traveling around the world from my early age. I completed primary and secondary school in Cologne where I also enrolled in the Faculty of Slavic Studies. I resumed my studies in Russia, that is, in Volgograd, and then I moved to Haidelberg where I took my PhD degree - says Teutsch.

He says that he decided to become a student of Slavic studies because he was interested in former eastern block, especially in the early 1990's, at the time of Perestroika and Glasnost.

- I wanted to get familiar with that hidden world and Slavic studies seemed to me as a good solution. I actually had the first contact with that system as a secondary school student, when I was on exchange in Moscow.

Citizen of Belgrade from Cologne

He spends his leisure time in Belgrade with his four-year-old daughter Marta and wife Dana. Apart from spending time with his family, Alexandar also likes to read. He has read Andric's "Prokleta Avlija" and some books by Vladimir Arsenijevic. His favorite German author is Heinrich Mann, while his favorite Russian writers are Isak Babel and Vladimir Sorokin.

Teutsch says that he has nothing to complain about after living for nearly a year in Belgrade. He is not bothered by the works on Gazela bridge or traffic jams on bridges because he uses that time to think about new projects for Adria Media. On the other hand, aggravating circumstances for business are, according to him, voluminous bureaucracy, old procedures, lack and disrespect of standards. Everything that we can hear from the business world in Serbia on a daily basis.

- However, I think that Serbia is on an excellent path and that the admission to EU is only a question of time. People now have to deal with maybe the most difficult feeling, and that is impatience - Teutsch concludes.

T.S.