Preparing for the World

The future will be seen only by those who are ready for it today. A small number of them includes also the "Jugoslovenska Knjiga" (Yugoslav Book) company.

This assumption can be deduced from a simple statement by "Jugoslovenska Knjiga" general manager Zoran Nikodijevic: "The loss which we have undergone during the sanctions is irreplaceable, like a few years of our lives. Today, we can recognize neither the goods nor their purpose in Western supermarkets, and equal changes have in the meantime occurred in the world market of books and newspapers. What we can do is to join the world changes as quickly and as fully as possible, bearing in mind that significance in the world is not measured by the size of the country, but by its economic power."

Zoran Nikodijevic became the manager of "Jugoslovenska Knjiga" after the United Nations imposed sanctions on Yugoslavia in May 1992. Now he thinks that, like many people, he was very naive because he believed the sanctions would last until autumn. "It did not occur to us to wonder: till autumn, but what year? If I could have imagined how long they would have lasted, I would now probably be doing some other job."

"Jugoslovenska Knjiga" on 17 June celebrated its 50th anniversary. On that very day the company received an order from the United States for books and publications. The size of the order was unimaginable only a few days ago. The people who in the past few years stopped going down to the basement to look for foreign books and magazines literally emptied the exhibition of latest foreign editions. "There is great hunger," said Nikodijevic, "so we shall prolong the exhibition for as long as there are people interested." Like in the good old times, the bookcases are offering the books of the world's major publishers.

"We lived through the sanctions by doing all sorts of things, just like everybody else," says Nikodijevic. "What I consider our success - mostly because in this way we kept the confidence of our partners - is regular payment of debts, so we started this year with a sufficite. All of this in spite of the unbelievable things which happened." When sanctions were imposed, even though they never referred to culture, many contracts and agreements were canceled. Despite our ideas about friends and enemies, the Austrians were the last ones to withdraw. Throughout the sanctions, "Jugoslovenska Knjiga" had the strong support of the president of the German Association of Publishers, Gerhard Kurz. "We dealt through agents in Europe, so we have maintained a minimum of links, despite the fact that our partners in London were criticized as dealers of Yugoslav press and the agent in Vienna had to run away from the police."

"The first important signal that things are changing came in August 1995. It was an invitation to participate in the Frankfurt book fair," said Nikodijevic, "It was a great exception because hotel rooms for fair participants are booked a year ahead of time, let alone business deals." "Jugoslovenska Knjiga" and "Vreme Knjige" (which the regime-controlled media kept quiet about) were Yugoslavia's only representatives in one of the world's most important book fairs. "Our old partners did not mind that our stand was very small, so things started moving."

"Jugoslovenska Knjiga" was established in 1946 as a state-owned company and had the monopoly on export and import. Things changed, and prior to the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia it was also a publishing company. One of the ideas was even to change the name of the company.

"Our strategy can be reduced to a few key points," said Nikodijevic. "We shall offer the domestic market a good-quality foreign book, charging only the minimum for our expenses. Our buyers have already noticed the difference in the price of foreign monographs and reference books and their Yugoslav equivalents. How the price is 'built' here is another question, but "Jugoslovenska Knjiga" will not take part in such deals - to build up the price and then offer a 70 per cent discount. There is no product whose price, if it is an economic one, can drop all of a sudden by so much."

Setting the business standards similar to those in the world and setting the standards of quality of reference books and dictionaries is one of the aims to be accomplished at home. As for journalism, "Jugoslovenska Knjiga" has remained the supplier of Yugoslav books, publications and newspapers abroad. This includes the U.S. Government. "We shall try to expand the number of partners to include the world's major publishers and universities, major libraries starting from the Library of Congress in Washington. We have already got the first good sign."

Books have also arrived: a look at them was one of the nice pictures in Belgrade these days.