A marathon, not a sprint

On Sunday, 15 May, at 7 a.m., a group of about 20 “Neltians” gathered before the start of the Belgrade Marathon on Nikola Pašić Square. They were easy to recognize by their bright green t-shirts branded with the Nelt logo and the name of our new strategy, Accelerate.

After several weeks of preparation (probably several months for the most serious ones), we were all here, ready to run the best we could. But before the start of the race, we socialized a little, took a group photo, cracked jokes, and laughed, creating a fantastic team energy.

That energy was visible both during and after the race. We encouraged each other, helped each other, and congratulated each other at the end. Running times and personal bests lost importance because we enjoyed the camaraderie and understood that an individual can be fast but acceleration is much easier when you are part of a good team. Precisely because of this, I believe that the team formed of good people and top professionals that make up Nelt is the paramount guarantee that we will accelerate and achieve the goals of our Accelerate 2025 strategy.

Why Accelerate? During my 17-year career, working in three different companies, in various fields, and on three continents, I had the experience to see and work on many strategies. Some of them were successful and delivered the set goals, and some, unfortunately, did not bring the expected results.

Experience tells me that two things separate successful strategies from others. The first is a focus on revenue growth that is sustainable (long-term) and profitable. Revenue growth and cost optimization are crucial generators of added value. Cost optimization can bring good results in the short term, but long-term profit growth can only come from revenue growth. This is exactly why the name of Nelt’s new strategy is Accelerate – because we have a lot of room for revenue growth on existing businesses and to develop new businesses and acquire new partnerships.

It’s worth mentioning that the focus on revenue growth does not mean a company should not work on cost optimization. On the contrary, the best businesses use cost optimization as a source of funding for further investments in revenue growth.

Another feature of successful strategies is the attention to the necessary prerequisites for the company to win in the segments in which it operates and achieve the projected revenue growth. Prerequisites are the “foundations” of strategy. Identifying the growth sources is only half the job when it comes to strategy – the other half is identifying the prerequisites necessary for the company to deliver that growth. To use a running analogy, the race course and training are only part of the success, but prerequisites such as adequate equipment, good nutrition and rest, as well as good weather and good team spirit on the day of the race, are the main prerequisites for success.

This is precisely why, during the creation of Nelt’s strategy, we focused on prerequisites that we grouped into four categories: organization, knowledge and skills, infrastructure and technology, and sources of competitive advantage.

We have a multi-year marathon ahead of us in which we have set challenging goals. But we also have 30 years of successful history that we are proud of, and we are starting the race at full speed and with the wind behind us, which gave us excellent results in previous years. Most importantly, we have an unrivaled winning team, which has always been and will remain the foundation of our success.

The successful start of 2022 tells us that the passing time is phenomenal. Then let’s continue at the same winning pace… ACCELERATE!