March the 4th, 2024 – The Croatian IT company Notch is expanding across the pond to the USA, as well as to the Arabian market.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Domagoj Puljizovic writes, the Croatian IT company Notch has been successfully developing software products for large, mainly European and American companies for a decade now. It also helps others in their development. Mihael Sedmak and Ivan Belić, who lead the Management Board, revealed this impressive Zagreb-based enterprise’s latest plans.
“Notch’s mission is clear: to help our clients optimise their processes or to go to market faster with their software in order to become leaders in their domain,” Belić stated. From its beginnings to this very day, the Croatian IT company Notch has made a huge step forward, claims Sedmak.
One model and two directions
“We’re continuously achieving growth, even in challenging years like 2023, in which we recorded a 17 percent increase in revenue. In 2022 and 2023, our focus was primarily on the development of new competencies in the company and on preparing the organisation for growth over the next three years,” he said.
He shares the management position at the Croatian IT company Notch with his colleague Ivan, who did a great job in the co-leading role, he believes. “As an expert with extensive managerial experience, which he gained while working within companies such as SAP, Pliva, Amplexor, and KingICT, this role is far from new to Ivan. The usual adjustment time wasn’t required. The challenges that await him aren’t unknown to him, and as a member of the management board for strategy, he’s already been deeply involved in the processes that are included in his new role,” he emphasised.
Managing a company is complex and layered, especially when it comes to technology companies that are focused on agile management, Belić pointed out. Mihael is primarily responsible for business growth, and Ivan for performance, but both are involved in business.
One deals with business efficiency, the development of human potential and profitability, and the other is in charge of growth, expansion into new markets and the selection of the right technologies and partners with which they can build a position on the market.
“Without continuous communication, such a model cannot succeed. Alongside us are also the other members of the Management Board. The board looks at the strategy and adopts a business plan every year, and operationally manages all business segments. Mihael and I complement each other very well, which confirms the old saying that ‘two heads are better than one,'” Belić explained.
The management model with two directors is relatively poorly represented here in Croatia, while global data, according to research conducted by the Harvard Business Review, shows that 60 percent of companies that exceeded their plans chose the “co-CEO model”. That’s precisely a model with two directors, as is the case with Notch.
Different rules
The Croatian IT company Notch operates in Zagreb, Split, Frankfurt, and plans to expand across the pond to the USA and the Arabian markets (GCC). While they already have plenty of experience in America, entering the Gulf market is very much a step into the unknown.
“The rules of the game and approach to customers are different on that market. We’re currently in the process of learning, preparing and engaging in initial discussions with potential clients so that we’l be as ready as we can be for the first projects there by the end of the year,” he said.
In addition, in 2024, the company will focus on strengthening their partnerships with renowned manufacturers of software platforms that they use in project deliveries to large users. They’ll also be focusing on expanding their network of sales partners and a new portfolio of services.
“As far was what sets us apart from other companies, there are very few teams that go deep into understanding why a solution works. Most of our clients have been with us for more than three years, and some from the very beginning, so our relationship has turned into a sincere partnership. We believe that the quality of our service as well as care for our customers, along with proactively proposing solutions is our secret recipe”, they said.
They noted they are particularly proud of two projects. “Over in the USA, we created a basic application for the sale of insurance from scratch for an insurance company, and for a well-known construction company from Austria, we developed a portal that is used by 800 of their managers to see consolidated data from different systems in one place, and based on this information, they make important decisions”, they concluded.
