Mark Mobius: a postcard from Slovenia

I was impressed by their sophisticated data systems covering all the 20 countries tracking every product sold, including description, price, marketing materials and videos with cross-sell opportunities so offices in each country could share information and the head office could track media costs and sales by each country. The system has over eight million customer records.

At another major home appliances manufacturing company, we saw how emphasis on practicality, aesthetic value and partnerships with world-famous designers propelled them onto the world stage. Their award-winning designs were crafted to appeal to sophisticated interior designers and home-owners. This unusual world-class company started life in the village of Gorenje in a blacksmiths shop making wood and coal burning stoves in the 1950s and then in the 1960s followed with simple refrigerators and the first washing machines.

The company has won a number of design awards with its line of retro style refrigerators in a wide range of colors particularly popular. The newest appliance range, a fusion of minimalism and color, was designed by New York designer Karim Rashid and features an innovative LED stripe which allows the user to select one of seven light hues to decorate each of the appliances. The company recently launched the new line of appliances at the Russian Fashion Week, one of their largest markets.

The company exports all over the world and has even entered the Chinese market with sales in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. They opened their first Chinese store in the city of Wenzhou with a population of seven million; more than triple that of Slovenia’s total population of two million.

I had been in the capital city in the north of the country a number of times but always didn’t have time to see the coast so we headed for the Adriatic Sea. We were able to drive from Portoroz to Trieste in Italy in a half hour, and in the town of Lipica along the Italian and Slovenian border, there was a stud farm where Lipica (Lipizza in German) horses, renowned for their elegance and discipline, are raised. These horses are the very pride of Slovenians and are the source of the famed white “Lipizzaner Stallions” used in the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.

We didn’t have a chance to stay at the farm but I’m looking forward to visiting Slovenia again to look for interesting companies and see more of this fascinating country.