Božidar Perović, Lead of Mobile Business Development at Kodio
The Montenegrin IT sector boasts Kodio as a shining example of successfully showcasing local talent globally. This dynamic IT company, founded six years ago, specialises in search monetisation, programmatic advertising, and software development. Božidar Perović, the Lead of Mobile Business Development at Kodio, recently shared with Diplomacy & Commerce Montenegro insights into the company’s achievements, the challenges of attracting IT experts in Montenegro, and how their internal solutions facilitate swift responses to market changes. Delve deeper into Kodio’s strategies for maintaining competitiveness in the international IT market and their role in advancing the Montenegrin digital ecosystem.
Mr Perović, how would you describe the company Kodio? What are its highest achievements?
Kodio is an AdTech company that successfully launched numerous profitable projects over the past six years. The company focuses on the international market. We are recognized for our expertise in search monetisation, programmatic advertising, and oRTB, as well as app and software creation and monetisation. Our greatest success is our platform for software monetisation – an intuitive system designed to help developers, individuals, and companies with user-oriented products gain additional income. This platform enables programmers to earn income even by offering their products for free, thus creating a passive income form.
Moreover, one of our successful initiatives is a platform for programmatic advertising, where we provide innovative solutions in online advertising. Our ad exchange platform offers our partners the ideal way to reach their target audience. With innovative solutions, our programmatic advertising platform identifies the perfect opportunities for publishers and advertisers to connect, buy, and sell digital ad space, utilizing the best tools to maximize their advertising potential.
In the digital marketing world, consumer trust is often the biggest challenge. How does Kodio build trust between the product and end users? Which tactics do you use to succeed in a more demanding and competitive business environment?
On the one hand, our ultimate users are companies, developers, and individuals looking for the best way to monetise their products. On the other hand, we work with companies, brands and marketing agencies looking for the best solutions for online advertising and increasing their brands’ visibility. We strive to stay up-to-date and offer our clients the best technical solutions, often being the initiators of market changes, rather than just a company that follows trends. I would like to point out that developers are the majority of employees in Kodio, meaning that all technical solutions for the projects we work on are created within the company itself. This allows us greater control, customization, and adjustment of these solutions to the project as time progresses.
In addition to technical solutions, our partners are in constant communication with Kodio Account Managers, who work with them to achieve their business goals. We are aware that quality services, constant support, and mutual benefit for both sides are the main reasons for having an extensive network of loyal partners.
Attracting and retaining quality IT experts is also a big challenge for IT companies. What is the situation in Montenegro? How many quality personnel are there, and how difficult is retaining them? What kind of strategy does Kodio have when it comes to this?
Finding and retaining quality personnel in any area is challenging, even more so in the IT sector. Fortunately, the wave of the IT industry’s popularity in the past few years increased the interest of young people in the country for education and improvement in this area, so Montenegro does have a pool of skilled professionals. The problem is that we are a small country, so the number of IT experts is limited. We establish partnerships with universities to discover talents from the local environment. We strive to find the best students in the state, offer them tuition and help them improve their knowledge.
Our company is guided by the idea that its most valuable resource is its people. Accordingly, in addition to competitive financial conditions, employees are provided with very modern facilities for work and development. Our office space is equipped with a modern gym, sauna, living room that transforms into a movie theatre, and other joint rooms used for socializing among colleagues. Numerous courses and training are often financed to improve employees further, and they do not have to be related to the current field of business; it is enough that they are the subject of interest of the specific employee. We are also frequent participants and attendees at conferences around the world, where we expand our partner network and further improve ourselves. During the working year, we organise team buildings, usually one in summer and one in winter, to rest and relax collectively. Organisational culture is something that receives special attention.
In your opinion, how much the IT market in Montenegro is competitive compared regionally and globally?
Montenegro should continue to work on developing the IT industry. I believe that we have only recently realized how important it is for the growth of our country. Despite our competitiveness in the Balkans, we lag globally but can still catch up. As a small country, it is easier for the private sector to grow, especially with government support, which should focus on creating a favorable business environment and properly directing resources. Our country’s beauty and climate already attract many digital nomads. It is also one of our significant advantages compared to other Balkan countries. Companies’ orientation towards the international market certainly increases Montenegro’s and the Balkans’ competitiveness globally.
What technologies and trends are current in the areas where Kodio operates? Given the speed with which technologies develop and trends change, what are you doing to make the company “futureproof”?
As already stated, the modern technical solutions we create ourselves, combined with adequate support, are truly our great advantage. We tend to initiate changes, and in the company, we develop a few projects that support the main project. Very often, due to significant market fluctuations and turbulence, one of these support projects becomes the main one. In addition, our most important advantage compared to the competition is speed. Large companies sometimes need more time and have a set of administrative procedures to process the client’s request. We are ready to make decisions and react much faster. Combining those two factors makes us sustainable and competitive in the IT market.