30 YEARS OF TRADITION AND UNITY

Dear colleagues, dear Helb people

Exactly 30 years ago on this day (May 28th, 1990), we founded the company and expressed our intention to engage in electrical work in the name “Horvat Elektro Bogovac”, so HELB was created.

I would like to list the names of all 135 HELB employees to thank each one individually: those who have been with us from the beginning, those who joined us later, as well as all the young colleagues we are accepting into the team these days. We have celebrated many anniversaries at work, where many of you are often away from your loved ones, from your families. And I would especially like to thank you for that sacrifice.

I would also like to thank our partners whose support has helped us to be able to tell this success story. They helped us to show the best of us, to grow and develop, to present ourselves in Croatia and the world.

Remembering our beginning, I see that there are similarities with the present time: a lot of uncertainty today and into the future, great risks, … not an easy time. When I jointly founded the company with a partner, the late Peter Bogovac, it was a turbulent time and it took courage to do this endeavor. I remember that in those moments I was most pleased with his words “let’s do it together” – togetherness is our key value that has accompanied us from the very beginning.

Going back to the history of these three decades, I see that each decade carried some kind of challenge, which we tried to see as a chance and managed to overcome it together. The first decade, marked by war and postwar times, was full of challenges, from security, technical to organizational. The second decade, marked by the global financial crisis, was a decade of growth, where we incorporated our work into facilities that energetically connected a good part of Croatia. And in the last decade, we did the first big projects at home and abroad, we went through the time of consolidation, where the number of employees, partners and the complexity of our work increased.

Today we are witnessing the first crisis of globalization and global society where one small virus has reached all parts of the world in a short time. It is clear that globalization is a reality, that borders do not exist, that we are all one world and one society. We are all in a kind of “war” against the virus that united us and, I will gladly say, this time of cooperation and togetherness at all levels has shown the value of those “hidden” and “modest” occupations. And not just health workers, traders, delivery people, and cleaners, but our field workers, fitters, and engineers, as well as those who support them – all of you who very often don’t even see each other. I especially thank you for that secrecy, sacrifice, and loyalty.

And what does the look in the future tell us? We are told that a “new normal” awaits us with four key characteristics: physical distancing, slow growth, reliance on digital, and situational thinking and acting. We are already implementing all of these on many levels, and the best proof of this is that we did not have a single infected person during the crisis, we revived the delayed construction sites as soon as it was possible, and the introduction of digitalization, through business software we develop, benefits us more and more. While this required great effort and change of behavior on a personal level, more importantly, it has expressed our connection and togetherness. It is also said that the changes are unstoppable and that we must accept them. However, change itself is not important but its effect on the people is. If we continue to take good care of each other, then these changes will make sense for all of us and make us satisfied and accomplished individuals.

Dear Helb people, congratulations on our first 30 years!

I wish you and your families plenty of health, happiness, and success!

Vladimir Horvat

Direktor

HELB d.o.o