Junior Achievers Earn Profit and Win “Best Company” Award
Srdjan Obradovic, a 17-year-old high school student from the Southern Serbian town of Aleksandrovac, has a natural predisposition for business. His talent led him to be named the director of Agricola, a company founded by Junior Achievement students from his high school. Junior Achievement is an international program dedicated to cultivating the entrepreneurial spirit in high-school youth, providing them real-world experience in planning, organizing, and operating a business.
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| Agricola employee-students cultivate plants and flowers atop their school in southern Serbia |
For Obradovic and his classmates, this business was Agricola, a fledgling flower and landscaping company with little more than a business plan and a dedicated team of 16 employees. The members of Agricola soon proved to be both resourceful and efficient in establishing a foundation for their business' success. They transformed their school's roof into a greenhouse for flowers and seedlings and set to work developing a marketing plan. Agricola's marketing team identified a target group of local private and public companies and developed a promotional strategy to catch these clients' attention.
Their hard work was rewarded when Vino Zupa, Aleksandrovac's largest company and one of Serbia's biggest juice and wine producers, asked Agricola to landscape their central yard. This first account resulted in a small profit that Agricola re-invested into promotion and greenhouse improvements.
"It is important to establish a good name now so that next year we can have enough clients to allow us to maximize our production," said Obradovic.
To repay their school and build up their company's good name, Agricola employees agreed to purchase some sanitary upgrades for the school's kitchen.
Today, Agricola is preparing for spring, when they expect their inventory and clients' demand to increase rapidly. In the meantime, the company generates winter income by growing and selling potatoes at the local market. Agricola expects to sell about 2000 kilograms worth of potatoes this winter.
In recognition of its employees' hard work, Agricola won recognition at the Annual Serbia Junior Achievement Competition as Best Student Company in 2005. Serbia's Junior Achievement network continues to grow, thanks to the support of USAID's Community Revitalization through
Democratic Action (CRDA) program and its implementers. The Junior Achievement program that cultivated Agricola is implemented by Mercy Corps as part of USAID's efforts to develop Serbian youths' entrepreneurial skills.
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