DHL transport and logistics services are comprehensive and reliable, and one of the reasons for that is a unique delivery network, both in domestic and international transport.

DP DHL has over 475,000 employees, more than 80,000 vehicles and over 420 aircraft, as well as a network of 6,500 representative offices. Together, they form a powerful logistics mechanism capable of serving clients quickly and on time at over 120,000 destinations in 220 countries, making this the most international company in the world.

DHL owns 56 vehicles in Serbia and has 197 employees. Shipments are dispatched every working day from Belgrade by Antonov 26 aircraft, having the capacity to carry 5 tonnes along a route from Belgrade-Budapest-Leipzig, while items brought into the country arrive in Belgrade via the same route early in the morning on every working day.

DHL has invested more than 25 million Euros in Serbia to date and transported over 7 million shipments weighing in excess of 14 million tonnes.

In 2012 alone, DHL in Serbia transported over 640,000 shipments weighing more than 2,227 tonnes.

We had the pleasure of talking to Mr Darko Babić, CEO of DHL Serbia.

1. Mr Babić, where were you born, and where did you grow up and go to school?

I was born 53 years ago in Belgrade. I went to primary and grammar schools in Zemun before attending Law School in Belgrade. I also completed my MBA studies and am currently working through the fourth year of my doctoral studies, where my thesis is related to the characteristics of future business leaders.

2. Could you tell us something about your career path so far?

From a working life of thirty years, I spent the first seven trying to find myself. I moved on from academia to become an entrepreneur and then in 1990 I joined DHL. I went from working as a courier to being a regional manager. That’s been my career path.

I also worked in the Operations Department, Finance Department and Sales Department learning the ropes. We were all multifunctional.

Today, there’s no need to do it quite like that, which is not to say that someone who’s a courier now can’t become a director one day. I’ve held on to realistic expectations throughout my life, and I can say with certainty there’s a real possibility for advancement within DHL. We value the merits of work, devotion and talent. That said, anyone embarking on a career with a multinational company should realise they’re not going to stay there forever. If you buy into the idea that you married the company, expect it to file for divorce sooner or later! With that in mind, it’s important to use your time wisely, to learn as much as possible and expand your horizons. Make the experience as rich as possible through interacting with different cultures and forging networks. Many of life’s lessons can be learned that way.

The wide-ranging possibilities are fantastic. Everyone should take advantage of the opportunities corporations present. In large companies there’s always a clear path to advancement and what awaits at the next stage, as well as what needs to be done in order to move forward. Only those who are dedicated to their work and keep on learning, all the while letting some of their own job satisfaction shine on the customers can survive within DHL. The rules of business are rigorous, of course, since that’s the nature of the job, but there’s plenty of room for displaying personal initiative and expressing individual creativity.

3. When did you become head of DHL Serbia? What were your expectations at the time?

I can say that I’m one of the few directors who’s stayed ‘in power’ in Serbia for over twenty years. I sometimes ask myself what the secret of my longevity in business might be. After all, this is a country and a business environment that was, and in part still is a restless territory; a witness to major clashes in war, sanctions, hyperinflation and bombing, the consequences of which are still fully felt in both the economy and society as a whole.

If we analyse the past twenty years, and that’s not impossible to do since it’s a relatively short period of time – a stretch long enough to see just five Olympic games, in fact – we can see that those years have not been easy, not for Yugoslavia as it was, for the joint federation it became or for Serbia.

To be the leader of an organisation such as DHL, and responsible for business operations that are complex in terms of legal frameworks for the various fields in which you operate, primarily transport, telecommunications, customs and finance, has certainly posed a huge challenge. To me, it’s sometimes felt like a burden since there is no continuity here, not with the system or with legislation, and not for the political map or among leaders. The secret doesn’t lie in marketing triangles or formulas, even though they are important, but in endurance and the capacity to continually adapt to one’s surroundings.

With regard to DHL, an additional challenge has been that we’re a company operating in a domestic sphere while being 100% foreign-owned, which has meant we’ve had to establish globally-recognised procedures in a market that shows little sympathy. That hasn’t been easy, of course.

5. Besides standard shipment delivery, DHL has expanded its range of services. Would you tell us a little more about that?

DHL has 3 strategic goals until 2020. Simplifying customer service, providing environmentally friendly services and offering a range of services enabling state-of-the-art transportation and logistics solutions. They are embedded into all our developmental plans and goals.

DHL offers a wide range of specially designed solutions - from express document transport to supply chain management. The services we offer include solutions for individuals as well as all other legal entities. DHL has developed solutions that encourage eCommercethrough delivery services offered to buyers over the Internet and online stores. At the same time, we’re a reliable logistics partner to SMEs, facilitating their operations through our expertise and the ease with which we transport their samples and products.

We are a partner to the biggestbusinessesand production systems, and we integrate into theirprocessesand become an integral part of their business operations.

Although globalisation influences the development and modernization of ever more demanding solutions in terms of logistics, our combination of our global network, expertise and local experience of our employees remain major traits which differentiate DHL from the rest of the competition.. This is the only way to fulfil the demands and expectations of our clients around the world.

6. Which modern IT technologies do you use to offer even better services to your clients?

DHL always invests in state-of-the-art solutions to provide its clients with the best possible services.

All our couriers are equipped with modern handheld terminals for scanning shipments when collecting, transporting and making deliveries. All shipments are scanned to track each change in status and all the information is made available to clients through an Internet portal, so they can see for themselves where their shipment is at any given moment, and in real time. We’ve also introduced a system whereby clients can provide signatures on the screens of handheld terminals when receiving shipments.

In addition, we’ve introduced several eCommerce applications to serve the needs of clients. These automate and thus simplify the process of scheduling the pick up by courier or dispatching a shipment. Through using these applications, our clients save time, since there’s no need to talk to a Call Centre operator or to read out an address to a courier while he or she manually fills in a waybill.

There’s also a portal named MyDHL, designed to enable our clients to track status, prepare shipments for dispatch or order the collection of goods from abroad.

For our major clients, there’s the opportunity to integrate the process of ordering a courier with that of preparing a waybill and all the accompanying shipment documents within their business processes and systems. When they do that, there’s no need to enter the same information into two different systems and the one in place for transport is much more straightforward for the client.

Once it enters our system, shipment data travels ahead of the actual item to announce its arrival, providing rapid classification in the sorting centres as well as swift customs clearance at the destination, which all leads to the shipment being delivered to the recipient in the shortest possible time. The entire operation is supported by a global telecommunications network that connects all countries with our data centres to provide for the effective flow and exchange of data.

7. DHL’s a huge operation, doing business according to well-established business rules. This surely means you need reliable, well-trained people. What are the basic criteria at DHL? How do you train your employees?

When you say “business rules” it’s important to note that DHL has drawn up a precisely defined Code of Conduct, which was officially published in 2006 and which covers different areas such as the ethical liability of all employees, good business practice, our common working standards, business integrity and social responsibility.

This Code relies on the Global Compact, a United Nations document of which DP DHL is a signatory. We’ve undertaken to work according to a number of essential values in the field of human rights, standards pertaining to labour law, the environment and anti-corruption practices.

It’s important to mention that DHL Serbia has, since 1996, ensured that every employee is familiar with the 1996 rules of conduct from their very first day at work. This was well before these documents were published and put into force globally. This has helped individuals to become part of a system that promotes certain values and the corporate culture we’ve been improving on for decades.

“Provider of Choice” and “Employer of Choice”

If we take a look at the most significant pillars of DHL Strategy for 2015, we see that two are closely related. We aim to be both a “Provider of Choice” and an “Employer of choice” because contented, motivated employees most definitely affect the level to which our clients are satisfied. Along with all other aspects, training within the corporation has evolved. Whereas in the past 80% would have taken place in the classroom, today that figure’s closer to 10% - and that includes so-called e-learning. 20% is provided through working with a tutor, ‘coaching,’ ‘networking,’ and giving feedback on work results and conduct.70% of an employee’s development now depends on the creativity of managers, in terms of allowing for development through different activities which involve stepping out of one’s ‘comfort zone’ and provide platforms for fresh learning.

For a couple of years, we’ve been working on an international experts’ certification programme that all our employees now go through, with the aim of offering our clients professional support of the highest quality at every level, and every time they come into contact. In a word, the development of every individual within a company is vitally important, since predictions once made about having to fight for talent have come true.

8. Social responsibility and environmental protection are important aspects of DHL’s business operations. What do you do to ensure that your company is socially responsible in Serbia? What are some new global trends in terms of transporting goods in an environmentally friendly way?

Corporate social responsibility is not a phrase that applies to us, because the way we operate is different. We’ve set a goal to improve our energy efficiency by 30% by 2020. This means that we’ll reduce emissions of hazardous gases, carbon dioxide and phosphorous.

As a global company we own over 420 aircraft, as well as tens of thousands of delivery vehicles. I therefore think that as a big player we bear a responsibility for the world in which we live, and we’ve decided to do what we can to help preserve it for future generations.

DHL was the first company to manage to calculate the damaging effects of its business operations and, with that as a basis, adopt a plan for preserving energy and reducing the emission of hazardous gases over the next 10 years.

It’s an extraordinarily big challenge for the company because of the large investment cycle to surmount it.

We’re awaiting an answer from our state as to whether we’ll receive certain benefits and incentives through the taxation system, which is what has happened in other countries. Corporate social responsibility is not simply a matter of caring about the environment; it involves a wide range of activities, from taking care of workers to looking after the local community. In Serbia, it is difficult to achieve conditions whereby suppliers operate responsibly, but we try to educate them and thereby grow together.

We try to help orphans, and our employees spend time with youngsters from the Children's Villages in Kraljevo and Sremska Kamenica. We try to nurture young talent, so we’ve been co-operating with AIESEC since its foundation. We partnered with them 20 years ago and recently organised workshops and lectures where we discussed management and leadership, and passed our knowledge on to them. Many AISEC alumni work for DHL in Bonn, Brussels, Singapore and Dallas and we’ve tried to educate them according to our system.

Our progress and contribution to society is evident and measurable in many countries. It is our wish to achieve that here through the very way we do business.

Volunteering Day

In September of this year, to mark the ‘Volunteering Day, DHL employees acted as volunteers in co-operation with the Traffic Safety Committee. They took part in a campaign that aimed to increase awareness of traffic safety and efficiency, and which actively included both pedestrians and vehicles. Well-organized and full of positive energy, our volunteers were stationed at several locations around the country, where they achieved the results they were aiming for in different ways. At the most critical intersections in Belgrade, Niš and Novi Sad, participants at this year’s Volunteering Day came out to pedestrian crossings with the aim of raising public awareness of the gravity and importance of road safety.

Some moved further away from the intersections they were sent to, and took their duties to nearby parks and shopping malls, thus involving the younger members of our society, whose awareness of safe conduct is only just starting to form.

Through this and similar activities, DHL sets an example to other socially responsible companies, in the hope they might pay more attention to such concerns and invest more in their operational environments in the short or long term.

At the Clinical Hospital Centre in Zemun, traffic-signalling equipment was installed to enable the general public and employees unrestricted access to the Emergency Room entrance, on hospital grounds where the safe and efficient flow of traffic is crucial. In addition, DHL employees painted benches and a fence in front of the entrance to the ER.

Mr John Pearson, CEO, Europe, DHL Express

Mr Pearson,has the global economic crisis influenced DHL operations in Serbia and worldwide, and in what ways?

WE HAVE ACHIEVED DOUBLE DIGIT GROWTH!We are a sort of litmus test for all commercial enterprise, and through the flow of shipments across our network we gain an insight into market trends. Extraordinary service quality, motivated employees and recognition of clients’ needs are the main reasons why DHL is the company of choice when it comes to transport and logistics services. For DHL, this year has also been successful, and one could say it was the year when extraordinary results were achieved. It is often said that DHL is a good barometer of business operations on the global market, but I believe our results were better than those seen in the markets. While, from a historical point of view, the typical growth of our business operations amounts to 1.5% in developed countries, what we recorded last year is expressed in double digits. Serbia has not been an exception -says John Pearson, CEO for DHL Europe at the start of his interview for Profit Magazine.

If we try to state the reasons for such effective business operations, especially in the light of news from Greece and some other countries from which bleak news has kept on coming, the cornerstone must be that we’re a stable organization focused on the international market and express services products.

DHL is the leading company in the field of postal and transport services, and this goes for Serbia, too. There are three major reasons for the success I mentioned. They are the level of quality our services represent, the motivation of our employees and recognition of our clients' needs. This all serves to promote loyalty among our customers. Looking back, we’ve been consistent in creating a platform where we focus on communication with clients and employees and achieve results on a global scale. We’ve invested a lot in advertising campaigns and marketing in order to present our company to the whole world as the most international company dealing in transport and logistics services. The message underpinning everything we try to convey is that DHL is the expert, an international professional in our field of endeavour so that we operate in the best and fastest was possible, a fact our clients recognize as “the speed of yellow”. It is our intention to ensure that products arrive for clients in the shortest possible time at the addresses to which they’ve been sent, in every country and territory in the world. In that way we provide them with security and stability.

We are a successful company, both in the world and in Serbia, because DHL, as a pioneer and as the first company in the international transport services and air freight market, serves a wide range of companies for which we tailor our services: from both small and large ones we move on to providing solutions for special industries etc. We all know that where there is a successful company there’s also one that does not fare so well. If the large companies don’t operate well, perhaps the smaller ones will have more success in finding their niche in the market. It is precisely because we serve a wide range of clients that we have a strong potential for growth in Serbia, and the fact that we achieved double-digit growth goes to show that. One might add that where technology has had an impact, that has been positive. It has proved beneficial through enabling closer co-operation with clients, for example tracking of parcels and documents via our website.

Electronic communication offers countries such as Serbia access to information, and we can see that more and more use is being made of the Internet as time goes on. When the World Wide Web emerged, many people thought it would strike the death knell for paper documents and mail as we knew it, but that didn’t happen. Something similar was once said about fax machines, but paper documents still account for a large proportion in the services we offer.

Our biggest investments are directed towards the creation of sorting centres and what we put into our fleet of aircraft, along with investing in people, of course.

Some large investments include the opening of a sorting centre in Shanghai, as well as the expansion of another one in Cincinnati. The former is extremely important for that region because China definitely represents the biggest import trading line of all the countries in the region. Regarding our aviation, we’re offering some new services that are very important for clients who need to send a shipment from point A to point B as quickly as possible. We have managed to shorten the transit time and enable the late collection of shipments, literally as you step out of the office, so that they can reach their destination early the next morning. To enable our clients to send their shipments later, we’ve also made changes to our shipment collection times.

Our goal is to be the number one company in the world in the field of providing transport and logistics services, and of course postal services in Germany. No one is better at providing those services. We are present in the supply chain and offer the top service in that field. Our strategy is to be the company of choice and recognised as the Employer of Choice, Provider of Choice and Investment of Choice. Many admire the logistics solutions we have installed worldwide and want to be a part of it. Regarding investments, and keeping in mind that they are significant, we offer a positive return to our shareholders.

We have a great brand, competitive prices and effective, qualified professionals work for us.

10. In your opinion, what might the state possibly change for your operations in Serbia to be even more efficient and profitable?

The role of the state is to create a healthy and predictable business environment that allows companies to invest, operate and develop unhampered. The state needs to speed up in terms of adopting modern regulations and ensuring their effective application. This is something that has often emerged as a problem.

I will give you a few examples. We’ve invested a considerable amount of money in procuring modern equipment for courier fieldwork. Thus, each of our couriers uses a device with which he/she records shipments, and then all operations in the field. This device has a screen on which the recipient can provide a signature confirming receipt of the shipment. This is important for clients, in view of the fact that all such data must be available to them in real time. However, according to Serbian regulations, only a traditional signature on a paper document is seen as valid confirmation that a shipment has been received, and so instead of simplifying the process and cutting costs with our investment, we are obliged to work both electronically and on paper.

However, the biggest obstacle to our everyday operations is the fact that even after three years, regulations governing the customs clearance of express shipments still haven’t been applied. Customs Law and relevant bylaws feature modern, European solutions for applying simplified procedures and yet, in practice, “the old” approach is still used, which slows us down significantly and greatly increases our operations costs.

When our aircraft land in Europe, 90% of shipments are cleared while the plane is still airborne, via the electronic data exchange. The remaining 10% of shipments require some additional attention (e.g. inspection etc.), and are cleared in two working days on average. Here, due to the impossibility of electronic data exchange, on arrival only one third of shipments are cleared, while the remaining two thirds take almost five days on average. This adversely affects both the people and the economy.

Instead of receiving an express shipment in the morning, on the first working day after it’s been dispatched, both we and the recipient are obliged to go through a drawn out customs clearance procedure, this in spite of the fact that our operational network has the capacity to deliver overnight. It follows that if you order something via the Internet, the import customs clearance procedure may easily be the same as that in effect when importing a full truck of goods. The costs of implementing such a procedure are far higher than the value of the shipment and the import taxes.

These are the areas where we need the state to act more decisively.

11. What results have you achieved in 2013? Are they any different from what was expected, and if so how? What plans are in place for the coming year?

We planned this business yeartaking into consideration the expectations of our investors and fulfilment of strategic goals until 2015.

Apart from our political and economic predictions, we also took into account what services we would be able to develop in the Serbian market, which could help us to grow in the next few years. Innovative transport solutions have been created for different branches of industry. We’re working on developing a more efficient system for freight to Russia. We’ve expanded what we offer in terms of air freight. Through several sales campaigns, we’ve presented clients in Serbia with quality services at affordable prices.

We experienced a growth of 10% in revenue this year compared to last.

The automotive industry segment is the leader in terms of growth, with an increase in revenue of over 100% year after year. Our main destinations for exports are Germany, the USA, Italy, Russia and Great Britain. The goods most often exported are spare parts, automotive equipment, pharmaceutical and medical products, electronic components and different commercial goods and samples.

The countries we import most from are China, Germany, Italy, Greece and the USA.The goods most often imported are textiles, shoes, computer equipment and spare parts. We transport raw materials and those which are internally processed in free zones, and which we then return as a finished export product.

13. Your job is dynamic, but exhausting. How do you manage to overcome everyday stress?

By dedicating myself to exercise and my Airedale terrier Cana.

14. What do you do in your free time? Where do you go out?

I enjoy being in the countryside, and spending time with people I love away from the noise of the city.

15. If you could, would you change anything in your career and what?

Each career is made up of a different set of circumstances, wishes and individual responsibilities for constant learning and self development. My career up to now corresponded to my capabilities, needs and values. I had and still have the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills. My understanding of a successful career lies in ethical behaviour and good intentions, through setting a personal example and constant work as well as the responsibility for creating better life conditions in the world in which we live.