The Portorož Business Conference: 20 years of being in great shape
Once again, this year’s Portorož Business Conference, held on 15 and 16 November, provided a diverse programme featuring a varied and interesting line-up of both international and Slovenian guests, while celebrating an important anniversary – 20 years. As befits such an anniversary, Prof. Dr Janez Prašnikar, the godfather of the Portorož Business Conference, glanced back at the past and described the four main substantive periods in which the conference has preserved its relevance and attractiveness. Its early years were marked by internationalisation, soon followed by globalisation and then the global financial crisis which shaped its content for several years; ending with the period of exiting the crisis, which again influenced this year’s programme.
The first day’s programme conveyed the sentiment already expressed by Dr Prašnikar in his speech while opening up themes that basically offered an outlook towards the future, yet warning that sometimes one must also look into the past. The keynote speaker was Lars-Johan Jarnheimer, the CEO of Ikea, who through a series of humorous anecdotes presented some of his most valuable findings. He emphasised the changing role of IT departments which are these days increasingly taking control of the entire process, while also pointing out that not all new practices were always the best – data are really valuable, but do not reveal the whole picture; one must always keep in mind one’s customers. It is also better for the management to stick to already established practices. That was a lesson he himself learned after they had removed chairs from meetings so as to increase productivity, which turned out to be a mistake because the employees simply switched the chairs for the floor and were soon practically lying all over the floor.
The next speaker, Susanne Stormer, Chief Sustainability Officer at Novo Nordisk, also returned to the basics. She described how Novo Nordisk’s work is based on principles as this pharmaceutical company operates in accordance with the values of its founders who included social responsibility in the company’s essence already 100 years ago. Today, the company works in line with the principle of the Triple Bottom Line, promoting financial responsibility, social responsibility and environmental responsibility.
Nevertheless, the common theme of the conference was looking towards the future, with topics ranging from virtual reality and artificial intelligence to electronic business and the future of the economy. The uniqueness of the conference, which is of the utmost importance for students of the Faculty of Economics, was again reflected in its programme which traditionally also includes the findings of research conducted by FELU IBM programme students. Prof. Dr Polona Domadenik, Prof. Dr Matjaž Koman and Prof. Dr Tjaša Redek presented a study entitled The future Today: The Opportunity and the Challenges of E-business around the World and in Slovenia, which is the result of the hard work of 37 students of the 25th generation of the IMB programme, guided by as many as 16 mentors.
The conference ended with a discussion with Prime Minister Marjan Šarec who talked about topical issues such as the second railway track, and outlined the Slovenian Government’s actions in relation to them. The conference’s pinnacle already came the evening before, when Prof. Dr Janez Prašnikar received the Finance newspaper’s award for outstanding economic achievements. The justification for giving the award to Dr Prašnikar is superfluous, commented Gregor Pilgram from the Generali Group. Nevertheless, Sandi Češko from Studio Moderna gave a long and emotional thankyou to this long-standing professor at the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana, who has left an indelible mark on the Slovenian economy as “a man who cares, […] a man who has never ventured to those places that are more comfortable or trendy”. The FELU students agree with this and thank Dr Prašnikar for his true dedication.
Katja Mencigar, EFnews
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