On 18 December 2008, the last CEED event before the New Year was held at the premises of the Hermes SoftLab Company, which presented an excellent best practice case on how to successfully implement the internationalisation of a high-tech company.

The story of the Hermes SoftLab was outlined via their own experience by three of the company’s key men: Gregor Smrekar, CEO, Matt Mayfield, Global Sales Director and Vladan Atanasijević, General Manager of the Serbian Hermes SoftLab branch office.

Each speaker presented his own view of the success story, presented the challenges encountered upon entering foreign markets, some of the mistakes from which they had learned a lot, but they all agreed that the true key to their success lay in Rudi Bric’s vision to make Hermes SoftLab a global company.

Hermes SoftLab owes its success primarily to finding partners in the right people, to good talent management and the right amount of adapting to foreign markets. Everyone present was enthusiastic about the round table discussion that followed, not least because it ended with a surprise conjured up by Rudi Bric. Still being the person responsible for the development of talent, this time, he invited three young talented musicians, who practice every day to perfect their artistic sense and reach the level of masterful expression, which the proved by performing a few classical music pieces. This was a beautiful addition to the value of this CEED meeting of the festive season and an inspiration for all of the successful moves we will make during 2009.