Zorana Subasic is all about people. She heads up procurement for Hemofarm, the largest Serbian exporter of medicinal products, with a share of more than 70% of the total pharmaceutical. It sells pharmaceutical products on four continents in 34 states and, since 2006, has been part of the multi-national pharmaceutical giant STADA Group.
Zorana explains that her priority is focusing on people, both within her team and in the wider company, a priority that has been even more important during the last few challenging years and has impacted her leadership style. ”These are areas that were new for me – managing people in ‘business as usual’ times is completely different to what we’ve been through in the last two or three years. It has affected people, and how it was for me to manage people in difficult times – understanding the challenges around us and making sure that people also understand the challenges.”
Overcoming challenges
The difficult times Zorana is referring to are, of course, the global coronavirus pandemic. She also recognises that individual team members will have their own experience of these challenges, influenced by their own lives. Zorana explains: “I cannot neglect the fact that every single person goes through some personal challenges during these times, managing the lockdown and the family, added to the pressure at work to deliver results and to make sure that business continues to deliver and grow. It meant keeping people motivated, whilst there is a complete uncertainty in terms of life, in terms of what’s everything’s going to look like. I think that was something that we didn’t face in the last twenty or thirty years.”
Managing teams based across several territories means that Zorana was probably more prepared than most to embrace the Zoom culture forced on us all by the pandemic, but she says lockdowns and remote working still had a huge impact. “I love that face-to-face contact because it gives you much more about the person than just communicating over any app. And I think in that sense it was more challenging in terms of mentality and different ways of working. You have to understand how people are and what’s important to them. Throughout my career I was always working with people in different countries, but I would say this technological aspect and not being able to spend time with them face-to-face was a bigger challenge.”
Building strong partnerships
“I am a firm believer that building strong partnerships in business is, in some aspects, the same as building a relationship in life. You have to be prepared to dedicate your time, willingness to learn and understand all aspects of their business and to support when needed. When you have that kind of relationship then managing business in difficult circumstances becomes slightly easier. One of the great examples of that kind of relationship we have with our long-term partner Palladio Group.”
Zorana says integrity is very important to her – and it is one of the company’s values, alongside agility and entrepreneurship. There is also a culture to, as Zorana describes it, “play as one team”, which is a tendency to recognise talent wherever it is in the company and give those people the chance to shine. She explains: “This is ONE STADA where the aim is to play as one team regardless of the fact that we’re different people and different regions, it’s making us look at the whole work as one team. This is actually really special because it gives opportunity to people from different regions – if they’re good at what they’re doing they have a space to be visible. It’s not just about the headquarters, it’s not just about people leading the company or upper management.”
