Networking Workshop

ISO 37001 – Anti – Bribery Management Systems, 2017. Serbia, Zlatibor

In Mona hotel, Zlatibor, an ISO 37001:2016 seminar is held regarding the Anti-Corruption System management. Dragana Rakin, founder, and executive of Prudent Agency took part in the seminar.

Corruption is one of the basic elements of poor social quality (from finances to all forms of life and work), and as such, it must be analyzed, discovered, and reduced to a minimum.

The ISO 37001 standard aims towards fighting against corruption and minimizing it. ISO 37001:2016 is based on prevention and organization. Fighting against corruption requires a system, organization, mechanisms, and education. Fight against corruption is not a fight against people, spying, and chicanery. The corruption that is officially proven can be sanctioned only by the state. ISO 37001:2016 is a component of compliance firm.

The goal of participation was to improve and increase the knowledge of major system processes of the fight against bribery (ABMS) and to understand:

  • Terms, approaches, methods, and techniques used for the implementation of the anti-bribery
  • Basic elements of the anti-bribery system (ABMS).
  • The importance of anti-bribery system and the advantages that organizations, the society, and governments can get.

Prudent Agency’s interest in participating in the ISO37001:2016 Anti-Corruption Management System seminar is in the following:

  • Cooperation with the authorities in the fight against corruption and reducing the presence of corruption.
  • Benefits in getting projects, better cooperation with financers and banks, an easier approach within international cooperation.
  • Creating a better image and earning the trust of all interested parties.
  • Achieving the organization’s goals more easily.

Fight against corruption is the fight for a higher quality of the society, anywhere, anytime, and on any level.

International Conference “Forensic Audit and Risk Management” 2017. Serbia, Zlatibor

The conference, in which Dragana Rakin, founder, and executive of Prudent Agency took part, was held in hotel Mona on Zlatibor. The conference was opened by Prof. Dr. Draga Ž. Đurđević from Academy of National Security. He spoke on the subject of money laundering and terrorism. Today, the entire world is focused on money and the question of how to acquire money for personal and other purposes. “Money is the lifeline of terrorism=a fact“, Đurđević started his commentary, who then spoke about money laundering. “According to the working definition of IFAC, those who do money laundering are actually concealing their activities which additionally complicates the assessment because their transactions are not revealed within official national financial statistics nor can they be recorded by the national accounting systems. The activities of money laundering have become much more complex, creative, and cunning.“

Topics considered during the conference were: economy and terrorism, electronic money laundering, informational technologies, cryptocurrencies, and terrorism.

 The topic regarding the state’s response and directions of the fight against crime and corruption were especially considered. “The matters of perspective and the issues that money laundering brings open new fronts toward social networks, cryptocurrencies, and IT revision, with which IT revisors-forensics-will deal in the future. Experts will come across more complex and serious issues that can only be solved getting involved in international circles keeping up with the most advanced findings of prevention mechanisms, detection, suppression, and repression“, Đorđević concluded.

Assistant professor Dr. Miroslav D. Stevanović introduced the participants with the critical review of the concept of suppression of terrorism and the system of national security of the Republic of Serbia.

The role of digital forensics in fighting against terrorism was also discussed during the conference as well as the overall plan of the country for fighting terrorism, strategical vision, the use of digital forensics, and intelligence assessment. „In the information age, prevention and early discovery of terrorist acts depend on the use of digital forensics and intelligence assessment to overcome limitations that are implied by the anonymity and internet presence“, Stevanović said.

Conceivable money as a mechanism for money laundering was the topic dealt by Dr. Nenad Kaluđerović.

Risk management was one of the topics of Prof. Dr. Nenad Injac’s lecture. The goal was to introduce all those present with the basic terms, definition, and terminology in the field of theory and practice of risk management and the processes related to it.

“Those connected to the existence and functioning of a company represent a specific hazard. In such a case, divisions can be in the technical field, finances, quality, organization, human potential management, politics, and the environment“, Dr. Injac said followed by examples of hazard, matrix, dynamics, hazard assessment, and management.

The importance of recognizing the risk is thoroughly explained. “According to the present state and expected development, risk recognition is of the utmost importance for the organization. The official attitude towards this issue is reflected through a series of standards dedicated to this problem directly or indirectly“, Injac stated and then considered the quantitative interpretation of risk and risk elements.

In its definition of risk, the ISO 27001 standard includes the definition of ISO 31000. According to that, the risk is defined by the three following elements: threat, vulnerability, and consequences.

The connection of conflict and hazard in which it is stressed that „the existence of conflict always implies the existence of hazard for all the parties involved. If it is a matter of a conflict without a conflict, a hazard is present for the individual, a group of people or organization involved“, and then elaborated the mechanism of assault, consequences, analysis, and the results of an unexpected assault. “According to the present state and the expected development, risk recognition is essential for an organization“, Injac stated.

Conference on Human Resources Management, 6th HR Days 2018, Croatia, Rovinj

A two-day HR Days conference was held in Lone hotel, Rovinj, in which Dragana Rakin, founder, and executive of Prudent Agency, took part.

This year’s conference was opened by Jamil Qureshi, one of the most recognized motivational speakers and experts in the psychology of work performance. In his lecture on How to Turn Your Ambition Into Achievements? he especially focused on decision-making as well as the importance of maximizing the potential among employees who are motivated by avoiding negative consequences or have a minimal compliance attitude.

One of the lecturers was Terence Tse, Financial Consultant and COTRUGLI Business School lecturer who, when speaking about megatrends and the HR function, emphasized the relevance of understanding a wider social and economic context in business planning, and also pointed out that by keeping up with the so-called megatrends, we can avoid their potential negative effects.

Andy Longley, the global talent executive in Adidas and organizational psychologist of Transformation of Organizational Culture Through Leadership lecture, introduced the participants with a way of maintaining the culture of success in a corporate environment by applying sports techniques of coaching.

Maja Parmač Kovačić, assistant professor of psychology of work and organizational psychology within the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, focused on the burning issues of the usefulness of personality tests for predicting work success. For an organization, prevention is crucial when hiring. How to detect individuals that create a toxic environment, how to assess the validity of data in application tests, how to recognize an attempt at deception of a potentially aggressive individual etc. That is crucial for every organization.

Bruce Greenhalgh, Mindfulness coach and consultant dealt with the topic of employees’ mental health. “The work environment changes rapidly and such work changes affect the health of employees. Considering the issue of extending working life, there is the question how to create the necessary conditions for a comfortable life at an advanced age. Apart from physical health, do we pay enough attention to mental health?“, Greenhalgh asked.

In his lectures on social networks, the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republic of Croatia, assistant professor Dr. Sc. Robert Kopal emphasized the importance of control over the networks we create in personal as well as in business context.

“Social networks are those we shape by ourselves and unlike the digital ones, it is us who determine who the influencer is. From an HR point of view, it is important to realize who do our employees know and what kind of a social capital do we have in our organization. Planned social networking in project management will lead to maximizing the flow of ideas as well as productivity and employee engagement“ Kopal says.

Renata Barić, the official psychologist of the Croatian water polo team, has come up with practical advice on how to keep your cool in situations that may seem unsolvable at first.

Workshop: World of Mindfulness – Bruce Greenhalgh, Global Corporate Mindfulness Consultant

Dragana Rakin, founder, and executive of Prudent Agency took part in the Workshop: World of Mindfulness lead by Bruce Greenhalgh. Bruce is currently working as Global Health and Wellbeing Clinical Lead BT. Bruce holds an MA degree in Counselling and Psychotherapy, and he is an accredited therapist of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. He developed and implemented global employees’ health and wellbeing programs within all levels of multinational companies, and he passed on his knowledge to those present at the workshop held within HR Conference in Rovinj, 2018.