Young Manager 2024 is Samo Kumar, CEO of IBM Slovenia

Collaboration, responsibility, leadership without excessive hierarchies. Values and building blocks on which the leadership of his team is built by this year's recipient of the Young Manager 2024 award. Samo Kumar, CEO of IBM Slovenia (IT solutions and consulting), who received the award at tonight's January Gathering.

"People will never forget a leader who believed in them first, so I try to be that leader. I surround myself with smarter people, that's the only way I can progress. I do a retrospective every year and if I notice an excessive comfort zone, I know it's time for a change. I leave bridges behind me, not chasms."

All this helps him achieve and exceed the above-mentioned values, with which he always, as a former multiple national champion in volleyball and Prešeren Prize winner for his diploma thesis, who at the tender age of 33 became the CEO of IBM Slovenia, or the largest IT multinational in Slovenia, strives to empower people and give them some responsibility and trust. He is also a big advocate of the thesis: work smart and not too much. With a focus on productivity.

Samo Kumar, as one of the youngest directors in Slovenia, has thus established himself in the company with direct, ethical and empathetic leadership and achieved enviable financial success with it. Colleagues describe him as decisive, strategically thinking and as a master of interpersonal skills, with which he creates a positive atmosphere in the company, in which everyone feels valued and motivated. His excellence is also openness. To be closer to the team and even more closely connected with it, he even replaced his office between four walls with an office in an open space.

And what would he advise a younger colleague if he asked him for advice, a wise instruction?

"Let him learn to say an argumented no from time to time. So not only that he will not do something, but he should also present arguments why he cannot, cannot, cannot, cannot do something." After all, he himself realized that he often is not and cannot be the smartest. That's why he learned to listen and hear. And to learn from others, because he realizes that only with a calm head can he make the best decisions. And he is calm when he knows well that he has put enough effort into what he does.

At IBM Slovenia, as a direct, open, ethical and empathetic CEO, who never builds success on the failure of others, he began to build bridges between employees by taking time for them and trying to inspire young people in the process, and learning from the older ones. He is a mentee and a mentor, and he dedicates at least half an hour a week to these two roles to exchange opinions with an experienced mentor, and at least two hours a month to mentoring young people. Realizing that in this way he grows and connects different generations.

And what was his biggest lesson? What did it teach you?

"Don't underestimate human greed. Not everyone thinks the way you think. Prepare for alternative scenarios and always have a plan B." Because he knows well that this is the only way he will fulfill his business and life motto, which accompanies him at every step: "Everything is possible, if we are only persistent enough, patient enough and if we have a good story with the title Why?"

And what is his why and his story with this title? That he accepted the challenge of business leadership, to leave behind a positive and as far as possible a resounding mark. At the same time, he realizes that the true character of a business leader is also shown in difficult times and solving demanding situations. That is why he leads by example and in a participatory way. For personal growth, for the growth and progress of employees, for the growth of the company and the Slovenian economy. For the well-being of all of us.