#BocconiCorrespondents. From Belgrade, Giorgio Marchegiani
Serbia has also been on lockdown since 16 March: closed airports, borders open only for urgent freight transport. The neighboring countries are also shut: Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia. To get an idea of the "Serbian version" of lockdown, consider that those over 65 are locked in the house 24/7. They can only go out on Saturdays from 4 to 7 in the morning (!!) to go shopping.
The rest comes as a consequence: the others can shop from 7 to 15. After 5pm there is a curfew. In Serbian it is called "the hour of the police", legacy of the war, and this gets the idea across well. Those out without a self-certification risk arrest. On the weekend, everything is closed from Friday to Monday.
This country has memories of other emergency situations: the last bombing dates back to April 1999. People obey (almost all). We hope that it serves to contain the spread, because the health system is rather weak. Despite the preparations (field hospitals, stadiums) and the numerous donations from different countries including the EU and China, the system is not structured for mass contagion.
My business here is to manage an insurance company, the third largest in the country, part of the Unipol group. We did in 15 days what we might not have done in a year, that is, to put all those whose job allows it in smart working. It was an orderly and almost natural process, we had to strengthen the transmission networks, buy laptops, inform people how to use the technology. I have about 1,400 employees, distributed in about 100 offices throughout the territory, so the operational problems have been numerous, but fortunately all have been resolved.
The most important work concerned people: informing, managing anxieties, reassuring that there would be no layoffs, that wages would be paid regularly. Then, implement safety: give masks, gloves, disinfect the premises, equip the offices open to the public with dividers. I paid a bonus to the best sellers of 2019 - trying to give a message of continuity, and they were pleasantly surprised. After a few days of transition now about 75% of the employees are not present at the office: they work from home, or work in shifts with the use of accumulated holidays and other local contractual arrangements.
I am stimulating everyone to use the time when there is less pressure than daily business in the office to move forward with projects and investments in products. At the end of April I started a reorganization project of a specific company area, with consultancy support: I have to do it otherwise I can't stay on plan. It will be interesting to see how we manage to work. We have also done a lot on the customer side, facilitating renewals via email or web, and giving broader payment terms, especially for the elderly. Last but not least, we did our part by supporting both Serbian Civil Protection and some local institutions with donations.
In addition to my role as CEO, I am president of the Italian - Serbian Chamber of Commerce and therefore in recent days I have also had to deal with the problems of the local branches of Italian companies together with our Embassy. And we have seen a thing or two! In the virus panic, a race to close borders exploded without coordinating on how to guarantee the transport of necessary goods (food, products to be exported or raw materials to be imported). There has been some senseless behavior by several states, which for example allowed the passage of trucks, but then held the drivers in quarantine for 15 days.
In these difficult days, with my Bocconi friends from the class of 1989, we ease the tension with a lively exchange of more or less serious messages. We also made a video, featuring 28 of us from three continents. Network power.