Planning for Growth
— 2006-10-16 —

Interview with Damir Imamovic, Vice-President of Produkty Pitania Company. 

What are your company’s major competitive advantages?

Produkty Pitania is proud of its competitive edge when it comes to accurate market positioning; exceptional logistics; innovative product promotion; and state-of-the-art production facilities.  But it’s our people – our team of highly-trained professionals – who have made this company what it is today.  And of course, with their expertise, we have developed a business model that is second to none.

What sort of business model do you use?

We begin with sound western business models, and adjust them to fit local market conditions. By doing so, we can take into account such external factors as politics, WTO membership, and free economic zones, thereby gaining an even stronger competitive advantage. 

Years of experience have taught us that a time-tested business model is key to long-term success, as it helps eliminate errors at the initial stage of business set-up, and allows us to predict results over time with a higher degree of accuracy.  Business experimentation, on the other hand, should be undertaken only when there are plenty of extra resources available. 

Do you also use the western method of strategic planning?

No.  Western economies are more settled, and therefore stagnant, when it comes to new business development, which means that western companies can plan more successfully for the long term – 10 years or more.  But the Russian business market is highly dynamic and even erratic these days.  So we generally take a medium-term approach – planning for a period of three years and looking ahead to six, while closely tracking our success along the way.  In fact, careful tracking over the past 10 to 12 years shows that our company has indeed selected the right strategy - which included Russian-based production facilities; a diversified distribution and delivery system; and a highly developed network of international partners. 

I believe that by 2008, major food manufacturers that market to Russian consumers will have to either set up their production facilities here or leave the market altogether because of growing competitive pressure from astute companies like ours that have kept operations close to the customer base.  So from that standpoint, we could begin implementing longer term strategies simply because by developing a solid local presence, we have a better handle on consumer preferences, as well as on market fluctuations and trends.  It also paves the way for building the right kind of partnerships both here and abroad, based on local market conditions. 

How do you hire the best people for your business?

From the very beginning, Produkty Pitania focused on ‘growing’ experts within the company. And even though it may take several years to do that, it pays for itself in the long run. We also provide plenty of internship opportunities, and send our professionals abroad to visit and learn from other companies like ours, in order to stimulate new ideas and round out the learning experience. 

For the most part, Produkty Pitania hires young, energetic, self-starters, usually focusing more on their intelligence and educational credentials than on their professional background and expertise.  But of course, the ultimate success of any business rests with its leaders; and that has certainly proven to be the case in this company, where visionary leadership has made us what we are today – Russia’s leading manufacturer of high-quality convenience foods.