Srđan Jovanović

As Vice President of People at HTEC Group, Srđan Jovanović has spent the last several years operating at the intersection of rapid growth, organizational design, and leadership under uncertainty. His professional journey, shaped by an engineering background and refined through experience and education at COTRUGLI Business School, offers a nuanced view of what leadership looks like when scale, complexity, and technological disruption collide.

From Engineering Logic to Organizational Architecture

Looking back, Srđan describes his professional ambition as remarkably consistent — even as everything around him changed. “I was always driven by the same internal challenge — to be successful not only in the domain I deeply understand, but also in areas completely outside my comfort zone.”

With a background in engineering, he was accustomed to structured problems and predictable outcomes. However, a deliberate shift into People and Organisation leadership marked a turning point. Rather than importing ready-made HR frameworks, his organization chose to build systems from the ground up — ones that genuinely reflected who they were becoming.

That decision coincided with an intense period of growth. When Srđan enrolled in the COTRUGLI program, the company had around 250 employees. By the time he graduated, it had grown tenfold. “Almost nothing we designed remained valid for long, because the organization kept evolving. Each stage of growth demanded a different version of leadership.” In that environment, the challenge was not just keeping up with scale, but ensuring leadership continued to add value rather than become a bottleneck.

COTRUGLI as a Space for Real-Time Leadership Thinking

COTRUGLI arrived at precisely the right moment. For Srđan, its value went far beyond academic frameworks. “What I found there was a space where I could openly think through real problems.”

Being surrounded by peers from different industries, all facing their own versions of complexity, helped him articulate leadership dilemmas in real time. Professors provided structure, but it was the peer group that offered perspective. “That’s when I truly understood that my role was shifting — from solving problems directly to designing systems in which other people could solve them.”

After the program, his goals didn’t fundamentally change — but they became clearer. Leadership was no longer about having the answers. “It’s about asking better questions, creating clarity where there is ambiguity, and building organizations that can adapt faster than the environment changes.”

Leadership Today: Stewardship in the Age of AI

Today, Srđan no longer defines his role through operational leadership. Instead, he sees himself as an organizational architect. “A large part of my time is spent observing the company as a system, noticing which processes no longer serve us, which need redesigning, and which should be removed entirely.”

In fast-growing organizations, structures expire quickly. If they are not actively evolved, they quietly slow everything down. What makes the current moment particularly complex is the rise of artificial intelligence. Unlike pure company growth, AI introduces a level of uncertainty that reshapes careers themselves. “The hardest question is not how to use AI tools, that part is relatively straightforward, but how to redesign careers and expectations around them.”

For Srđan, leadership today means thinking several years ahead and designing systems that keep people employable, not just productive. Especially for younger professionals, the traditional learning-by-doing path is being disrupted. “I spend a lot of time thinking about how juniors in 2030 will still have a meaningful way to enter the profession and develop real competence.”

When Leadership Steps Back

The achievements Srđan values most are not tied to individual projects. “The moments that matter most are when the organization operates effectively without direct intervention from leadership.”

When decisions are made at the right level, context is understood, and trust replaces control, the system is working. His role then becomes maintaining the conditions that allow adaptability, even as change accelerates beyond any single leader’s capacity to manage it personally.

Mentorship as Framing, Not Answering

Mentorship plays a natural role in Srđan’s leadership philosophy, particularly within the COTRUGLI community. “People don’t come with theoretical questions. They come with very practical dilemmas.”

From scaling organizations to integrating AI or designing companies that remain attractive to investors long before exit discussions begin, these conversations are less about answers and more about framing. “I don’t see mentoring as giving answers, but as helping people frame their situation correctly and avoid a few predictable mistakes.”

For him, meaningful mentorship means helping leaders set up fair systems from the start, preserving culture while scaling, and motivating people through purpose rather than pressure.

Leadership as Balance, Not a Role

One of Srđan’s most formative realizations was abandoning the idea that leaders and managers are fundamentally different archetypes. “The strongest organizations are built by people who are both at the same time.”

They understand process, metrics, and system health, but they also lead through example, meaning, and motivation. Leadership is not charisma without structure, nor structure without humanity. “It’s a balance; creating order where it’s needed, while still giving people direction and meaning.”

Advice to Future Leaders

If he could speak to his younger self, Srđan would shift the focus away from chasing ideas toward cultivating judgment. “Experienced founders don’t win because they see more opportunities; they win because they ignore more of them.”

Strong teams, clear roles, and early alignment matter far more than originality alone. Many early mistakes come from trying to compensate for weak structure with effort and enthusiasm. “Alignment at the start saves enormous energy later.”

What Success Means Today

For Srđan, successful leadership has no fixed style. “It’s a constant choice between different approaches.”

Sometimes leadership requires creativity; other times, restraint. Sometimes empathy matters more than authority; sometimes clarity demands decisiveness. “Being a successful leader is the ability to recognize which response the situation actually requires, and to choose it consciously.”

Ultimately, leadership is less about always being right and more about awareness of context, people, and one’s own limitations, so teams can move forward with clarity and trust.