FELU MBA Annual Awards 2017 – Best Alumni
Jure Ugovšek, Journalist and Editor at Časnik Finance
Jure, your colleagues Alumni choose you for the FELU MBA Annual award for Best Alumnus. What does this mean to you?
It is a great feeling to be chosen for the award among all talents of our generation. FELU MBA proofed itself once again to be a real generator of self-confidence and motivation. The prize, which I put on my desk, in stressful moments, reminds me that I possess the needed knowledge for everyday challenges in professional life.
What are the most important decisions/challenges that you face daily as a leader in your organization?
Media business faces similar challenges as other industries in our business environment. Our competitors are not companies at another part of the city, but IT giants in the Silicon Valley. Consequently we are putting many resources in digitalization and facing all the challenges that IT disruption can bring. In era of low unemployment rate one of curtail tasks is also recruiting new employees. From that perspective it is interesting to remember HRM and leadership classes which covered topics of implementing changes and the meaning of good hiring practices. At time of covering those topics our industry was still in cost cutting phase and finding its way to face the IT disruption. In few years those topics, which back than seemed very far away, became potential source of competitive advantage.
As an individual and professional, how do you operate today (after your MBA degree)? What’s different from before, during the MBA course?
Mission of Časnik Finance, d.o.o., is “Adding value”. After MBA experience adding value to our customers has become easier task. Developing a front page story (partly I still work as financial journalist), organization of in depth research or leading the newsroom has become a lot less stressful. Equipped with knowledge of corporate finance, statistics, micro and macroeconomics, … , recognizing and developing stories for business audience have become much easier. After the MBA experience, I also understand our target group better, since I got good friends interested in business topics. Enriched with advices like “Drink more tea” — Justin Featherstone thought us about importance of going on a coffee with employees from different departments — and recognitions like “Leaders are made, not born” I tend to understand the essence of developing leadership capabilities.