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Our colleagues Jovan Stojkovski and Joana Ristoska recently had an invaluable experience within the Coca Cola Hellenic Group and the learning platforms that the group supports.
Namely, these are the colleagues who set a new record in Pivara Skopje by being able to follow them and actively participate in all the educational sessions within the framework of LearnFest, which this year took place in the period from 10.10.2022 to 21.10.2022. Their commitment to this festival was recognized and rewarded, that is, out of more than 450 participants from the CCH Group who actively participated in these sessions every day, Jovan and Joana managed to reach the top in the competition part. The two are going on a trip to one of the countries within the framework of Coca Cola Hellenic in Europe, where they will have the opportunity to make friends with colleagues from other countries, to improve professionally, but also to have fun.
We are building a culture of learning through projects that provide us with unlimited resources for personal and professional development, and Jovan and Joana can best tell us about that.
Questions:
To begin with, I would like to applaud the LearnFest initiative of Coca Cola Hellenic because it is a really positive and productive experience, which gives a different aspect, but also a contribution to the daily work. It is a learning festival that is open and available to all employees within the Coca Cola Hellenic system, and in a period of 10 days it offers a huge number of trainings, workshops, presentations, etc. on topics that allow you to upgrade professionally and privately. Apart from the formal way of transferring knowledge that was carried out through the daily sessions, for me the opportunity to network with our colleagues from the 29 countries of CCH, with whom we might not have otherwise come into contact, was of particular importance and significance. In addition, I liked the fact that apart from sessions specifically related to our work, the topics of some of the sessions were devoted to personal growth and development, which I think is the responsibility of each of us. To grow as professionals, but above all, as individuals.
Primarily, LearnFest represents an excellent opportunity to learn something more, but also to acquire competencies for both personal and professional development. At the same time, the sheer scale of this learning festival was of great importance to all of us who are part of Coca Cola Hellenic, because the whole program was conceived in a way that allows you to see the overall picture of the Group. To my great pleasure, in some of the sessions we had the opportunity to get acquainted with the successful practices and projects of the Group, to learn something more about the expansion of the business, about new investments in other business units around the world, such as the new modern factory in Edelstal Austria or the joining of Egypt to our great Coca Cola Hellenic family.
At Pivara Skopje, we give great importance to the well-being of our employees, to the development of skills that we benefit from in our personal development. Such topics are really interesting and quite useful for me, so in this one I would say that the sessions in which they talked about connecting with time, overcoming personal challenges, exercises for public speaking, etc. left a special impression on me. These sessions were held by professional trainers, who, through a series of practical advice, helped me personally to better deal with the most everyday situations.
LearnFest was organized by collecting points in different ways through active participation. So it was not enough to just join the sessions, but also to be active by asking relevant questions and participating in the daily challenges that were set, from sharing a picture on a given topic to mini quizzes related to the sessions. Honestly, when daily work responsibilities are taken into account, the required commitment is not negligible and it is a real challenge to achieve active participation and timely completion of current work, but I think that Jovan and I have shown that with good organization it is possible to achieve both .
Being one of the winners, especially of such a tempting prize, means two things to me: an additional opportunity to learn and progress, as well as confirmation that teamwork and commitment to goals is a winning combination. Despite the large number of participants from a total of 29 countries, together with Joana, thanks to teamwork and team spirit, we finished in the TOP 5. Despite all the benefits of the sessions themselves, the award represents an excellent opportunity to learn new practices from other countries that can are applied to us.
First of all, from a professional point of view, as a Digital Commerce Manager, I cooperate with the team from Ireland through the group’s Digital Pod, where we work together on the development and implementation of digital tools at the service of our clients and overall digitization of the so-called “road to market” of our products. As a 99% digitized country, Ireland has well established development strategies and best practices which we adapt and try to replicate accordingly at local level. Of course, the personal aspect also had an impact, because Ireland, as a country with everything it has to offer, was on my wish list for a long time. We’re in the process of finalizing the market visit details this week and I’m really looking forward to seeing what Belfast and Dublin look like before Christmas.
Among countries like Switzerland, Austria and Italy, I also decided to visit Ireland. I have always wanted to visit Ireland privately and see its natural beauty. In addition, Ireland has a very unique business environment different from the average European one as a “tech hub”, and at the same time as a developed consolidated market with top analytics from which I can learn a lot and apply in my field of operation. As well as visiting the related Commercial Excellence (CommEx) team, it will be interesting to visit the whole island market itself, Dublin and Belfast and their characteristics.
For me, every new challenge is more than welcome – in fact, that’s how my arrival at Pivara Skopje happened. My general attitude is that something can be learned from everything and everyone, so I think it is very important to be open to new challenges and knowledge, regardless of our perception that sometimes the statistics are not in our favor. The past 6 months have been really full of learning and I would like to take this opportunity to thank my line manager and team members who have been very supportive and generously shared their knowledge throughout the adaptation process. So, as a fairly new and proud member of the Pivarci family, I can say that Pivara Skopje offers countless opportunities and tools for growth and development – from sessions and events like LearnFest, to platforms that provide access to numerous videos and materials for career growth. In an era in which information is “gold”, I think that the availability of all that knowledge is really valuable and makes a great contribution to the progress and improvement of both professional and personal skills.