Coaching

One of the wise things according which we are governed at LOGIKO is that Chinese proverb: “If you want to feed someone for a day, give him a fish, if you want to feed him for a lifetime, teach him how to catch a fish.”  And that is coaching.

If you are experiencing the following signs in your life and / or career, and if you solve them, they will allow you to succeed and launch you into a completely new level:

• Do you have the need to develop new or improve old skills in process management?
• Are there any deadlines for project (s) for which you are not sure you will reach?
• Is your task to work faster and reduce costs?
• Do you want to give your career a new boost or direction?
• Are you stuck in the intent to achieve something?

If any of these situations are present in your life, this may mean that you need a partner or coach.

Coaching is one of the forms of helping clients that Logiko provides. Edgar Schein wrote the whole book (“Helping”) about how he sees helping  clients. The first of his ten consulting principles says, “Always try to be helpful”.

In fact, there are three modalities as a consultant (or coach) can help a client:

1. From the expert’s point of view, telling the client what to do and how to do something
2. Selling to a client a solution or set of tools that the consultant prefers and knows how to use
3. Engaging the client in a process that will eventually be perceived as beneficial by the client and by the consultant.

The third model for a relationship and cooperation between a client and a consultant is a consultation through a process (“process consultation”) and is closest to what is called coaching. Coaching process is not technology or a set of interventions for working with individuals or groups, or just some counseling model. It is not a profession or a permanent job. Instead, it is the “helping” philosophy, and technology and methodology of how to help.

“The specific result was a year-over-year reduction in logistics costs of just over 17% for the three leading markets in the region, a conclusion that would have taken me much longer to reach if I had not connected with Mr. Zrilić. “

– Matija Rotkvić

Coaching enables realization of the goals of a company, and an increasing number of companies today support their development and the development of their employees by introducing coaching techniques through internal and external coaching to better monitor and support clearly defined development steps for their managers, directors, professionals etc. In the world of fast changes, we need people and professionals who can handle all the challenges that come up, proactively, fearlessly and very productively.

Business coaching supports this process and enables individuals and teams to clearly define and implement their business goals and desires. It contributes to increasing the ability of employees and enables people in leading positions to optimally lead and motivate their associates. Business coaching is also a support for teams in the development of their tasks and their more efficient implementation.

Once the relationship of effective help for the client is developed, the client and the consultant together can diagnose the situation and develop the appropriate medication. Emphasis is, in fact, all the time on the “process”, because it is more important, or at least equally important, howthings are done among people and groups rather than whathas been done.

In fact, this modality of helping should be used at the beginning of each helping process. One of the reasons is that even diagnosing is actually an intervention. Indeed, intervention in the process of helping begins a lot before then we think. In fact, our coaching process has already started – do you want to continue? Call or email to info@logiko.hr to continue where we have just started.

Case study

In May 2020, when I first came into contact with Mr. Antonio Zrilić, I was living in Belgium and working for a multinational company in middle management. I was responsible for optimizing the regional supply chain for Europe and Africa, with a focus on improving service levels, reducing costs, and a general redesign of the entire supply chain.

Due to the exceptional scale of the projects I was working on at that time, and as I had not encountered such complex business scenarios before, I began to contemplate possible solutions by involving an external expert as a personal mentor.

I conducted some online research to find someone with sufficient knowledge and experience in a variety of logistics projects. Among several potential collaborators, I chose Mr. Zrilić based on his references, extensive logistics experience, and the materials available online (courses, books he authored, seminars he organized).

We got in touch, and soon we agreed on a collaborative partnership. This allowed me to balance my business obligations, project work, and learning effectively. Mr. Zrilić was extremely accommodating and flexible in his approach to work and projects.

We agreed to have a short video call every two weeks to discuss ideas and progress on the projects I was working on, all while respecting business confidentiality on both sides and not sharing any sensitive business information. Mr. Zrilić was also available for ad-hoc phone calls outside the agreed-upon schedule.

I am pleased to say that this collaboration helped me condense a multitude of ideas into truly relevant ones. Through discussions with Mr. Zrilić, I often found ways to further improve these ideas through open conversations and moments of "what if we looked at it this way?"

A concrete result of one of the projects was the possibility to reduce logistics costs on an annual basis by just over 17% for three leading markets in the region. This conclusion would have taken me much more time to reach if I hadn't connected with Mr. Zrilić. Of course, it goes without saying that we had been consistently optimizing the supply chain in the region for many years, and I did not believe we could significantly further reduce costs while maintaining the same level of service quality or even improving it.

Since then, I have participated in two more separate external business projects with Mr. Zrilić. Both projects involved using European funds to improve business processes in logistics, redesigning warehouse processes, warehouse design, and efficiency improvement.

I would gladly recommend Mr. Zrilić as an expert in his field from whom much can be learned. I am grateful for his assistance, mentorship, and patience demonstrated during our collaboration.

Respectfully,

Matija Rotkvić,
Head of Business Planning and Distribution Chain Optimization for Europe