At the document's presentation in Zagreb last Thursday, Vladimir Preveden of the Roland Berger consultancy company said that the company had carried out a survey among managers in southeastern European countries in the first half of this year and that only Croatian managers had pointed out that a reform of the public sector and the improvement of the schooling system were top priorities.
The survey covered 146 managers from influential companies in Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania, and of all the respondents, Croatians gave the worst grade to their current status.
On the other hand, Croatian managers expressed the greatest optimism about the economic outlook in the next ten years.
The survey shows that Croatian companies are highly dependant on the domestic market which Preveden assessed as worrisome in light of the fact that the Croatian market was not big.
As regards possible internationalisation of their businesses, Croatian managers described Russia and Ukraine as the most desirable markets, along with western European markets.
Roland Berger analysts offer four strategies for the improvement of the business performance of Croatian companies: to become a highly specialised leader in a particular niche of the market; to remain a small local company with business cooperation with foreign partners; to become a regional leader or centre for some economic sector; or, to become an international 'player' such as the food-processing company Podravka.