Gregor Cuzak

on marketing, business and philosophy

Layers of hierarchy

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Slovenian companies have at most 4 layers of hiererchy. I would argue that counting by the number of employees most Slovenians are 1,5 people away from their CEO.

This makes Slovenian management different from the ones in the big countries, even in Croatia, twice the size of Slovenia, not to mention Germany, 40 times the size, or Russia, 70 times the size.

Alas, this has implictions on corporate governance. Strategy and tactics intermingle in Slovenia, whereas they are quite separate in the big international companies.

An implication is that Slovenian companies excel at niche specialisations, wherein interdisciplinary knowledge and getting your hands dirty count most. Slovenian hidden champions are exactly of this type.

On the bad side Slovenian companies don’t fight well in the mass market area.

In terms of roles Slovenian model fosters development of profiles such as experts, consultants, engineers, organizers, doctors, scientists. We lack leaders, generals, kings, principals, factory managers, presidents.

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