Leadership is Not Just a Function, It's the Courage to Be Human

Science and business are not separate worlds for Dr. Saša Bavec. After graduating from Bežigrad High School, he earned a degree in chemical engineering, followed by a master's in biochemistry and molecular biology, and a PhD in biotechnology. His path early on also led him into the business world – from intellectual property protection at Lek to an MBA at the prestigious IMD in Lausanne. His career is full of interesting twists. It has taken him to secret laboratories, crisis negotiations, and behind the scenes of major acquisitions and multi-million dollar global business. Today, he operates at the intersection of business strategy, leadership, and people development – values he places above numbers.

You often travel to Dubai, a city of bold vision, rapid growth, and pushing the boundaries of the possible, while Europe is increasingly seen as unable to innovate. Do you agree?

Europe can innovate because people are inherently innovative. But it's true that in Europe, we tend to compartmentalize things, wanting to standardize and regulate everything. Understandably, as we have dozens of different cultures that need to be somehow harmonized, but in doing so, we often lose sense and flexibility. One thing that has long frustrated me is sustainable (ESG) reporting – something that had a wonderful purpose but has turned into checkboxes and bureaucracy.

The word sustainability means creating something lasting, something that will survive generations, but today we've reduced it to merely environmental forms and reports. Everything has become a formality, without deeper thought and meaning.

And here I see a broader European problem: too many regulations, too little room for innovation. Additionally, we are extremely attached to tradition and history. I often hear: We've always done it this way. This rigidity often limits us, while Dubai is completely different. There, they encourage uniqueness because you succeed only if you are unique, if you bring something new.

From a business perspective, Dubai offers opportunities, but truly significant ones only if you convince the right people, like the ruling family. Then your idea can achieve monumental success. Additionally, Dubai is an ideal business hub – six hours to Europe, seven to Singapore, direct connections two to three times a day.

For me, it's fascinating that Dubai attracts interesting people from all over the world who think broadly and openly. In this regard, I can compare it to New York, London, or Singapore. It's a multicultural cosmopolitan point where you breathe freedom in a different way.

You have been involved, for example, in patent disputes or the transformation of the Škofja Loka company Knauf Insulation into a global strategic partner of many multinationals. What distinguishes innovative and growing companies from those that stagnate?

It's similar to private life, whether you resist changes because you want to stay in the comfort zone provided by the past, or you accept changes as a challenge, adapt to them, and realize that it won't be easy, but still try to make the most of the new situation. In these cases, the limit is the leader, the leadership team – whether they have the courage to accept changes and step into the unknown or endlessly persist in what they know and sometimes brought results. Every change in the business environment is an opportunity because the cards are reshuffled, and the brave can find their new competitive advantage here.

You are one of the few Slovenian managers who has worked in both local and global environments, including leading units in Brussels, Dubai, and beyond. How do you see Slovenia's potential as a business and innovation hub? Are we, as a small country, ambitious and confident enough to be more than just suppliers or subcontractors to bigger players?

Slovenia certainly has the potential to be a business and innovation hub, at least in its people, their education, and its geographical location. However, the ecosystem for this potential to be fully realized is not developed. Logistics and other infrastructure do not support this potential, even less so the tax and economic environment. Instead of wanting as many people as possible with salaries well over 3000 euros, which a representative of one of the parties disdainfully labeled as capitalists and almost class enemies, we fight for as many production jobs as possible, competing with low-cost Asian manufacturers. Here we are the complete opposite of Dubai or Singapore, which have very little production and don't even want it, but have many business and development centers of both large corporations and medium and small companies. Unfortunately, Slovenians are very insecure and unaware of our value, and we rarely muster the courage to test ourselves on the global market. There's nothing wrong with being a supplier or subcontractor as long as you compete on the market with more than just price and secure a position as a strategic partner.

In your career, you have often found yourself in the midst of unusual and challenging situations. Among other things, as a representative of Lek, you visited a secret Russian laboratory linked to the development of biological weapons. The story sounds like something out of a thriller – the city is not on the map, and the laboratory is surrounded by myths and conspiracy theories. Can you describe this experience?

I would love to attribute some of the mentioned qualities to myself, but at that time, we didn't even know where we were actually going. We went for microorganisms for the production of cholesterol drugs. Only later did we realize that the laboratory we were headed to did not exist on maps. An English lawyer and I arrived in Moscow, searched for the location on the map and the internet, but it wasn't there – the city simply didn't exist. Then you arrive there, in front of you are huge buildings, inside modern equipment, some better than in many Western laboratories of that time. And you wonder what they were doing here. When their professor started talking a bit, it became clear that we had stepped into a very big story, as well as a secret from the Cold War era.

It felt like a scene from James Bond. From Russia, we actually carried test tubes with microorganisms in our jacket pockets, through all customs and airport controls, and then used them. At that time, it didn't seem like anything special to me, only later did I realize what kind of story I was actually in. Not to mention that a few weeks after our return, the English lawyer sent me a picture of the upper floors of our hotel, which had been destroyed in a mafia bombing. He commented on the view of our blown-up hotel rooms with the words: "No more privacy in the bathroom."

The reality of the business world is often just as dramatic as James Bond movies. You already mentioned the ESG concept, which, in times when Europe is also opening billion-dollar budgets for armament, increasingly seems like an empty phrase. How do you, as an experienced leader, see the contradiction between beautifully written values and reality?

The two do not go together at all. In reality, it's pure hypocrisy. ESG was great for PR, but now we see how few take it seriously. Singapore surprised me a lot here. There, companies, in line with the state's thinking, say: Ecology and business in accordance with legislation and norms are basic hygiene. Ecology, caring for society, and creating profit – all this must be fully integrated into business, not something you check off in a report. They talk about responsible wealth creation, meaning, yes, we create profit, but in a way that also creates benefits for the broader community. It involves inclusive responsibility for employees, shareholders, suppliers, customers, the environment, and future generations. This is how a healthy organization is built, and all this is also connected with the culture and values you believe in.

Have you ever thought about your mission?

I think about it a lot. Sometimes I go by feeling, sometimes I still give in to the rational part of my brain that tells me what would be logical to do. But when I really listen to myself, my "why" is this: to support people who find themselves in a similar position as I did. In the corporate world, it's very easy to get on the hamster wheel and lose touch with yourself. We often realize this only when our health fails us. This is really a call for change, to align our life again with our values, our primal self. When we hear this call for change, we usually feel lost, not knowing where to start and with what. If my story can inspire, encourage, or otherwise support anyone to embark on the path of searching, I will be happy, even if I only change a few lives for the better.

Of course, I still catch myself evaluating my success from a material perspective and completely forgetting that I didn't leave the corporation because of money, but because I no longer got up in the morning with joy. Honestly, I enjoy what I do today. I do what fills me, and every day I happily embark on a new project.

So we are at the definition of satisfaction?

Yes, exactly here, but unfortunately, society rewards achievements and results, not peace of mind. But how many people are burning out in this game? How many suicides, how many people drowning their stress in alcohol after long days? In Japan, I witnessed colleagues who drank themselves to oblivion every night just to sit at the same table again in the morning. When you take a person out of the community, out of their natural environment, they get lost. And this doesn't just apply to corporations, it also applies to entire cultures – like with indigenous peoples, where individuals who were taken out of their world start getting lost in the world of drugs, alcohol, prostitution, and crime. Today, I understand the Maasai who, after studying in cities, prefer to return to their community. Because there they find their "why".

Your path from the world of science and corporations also led you to work with people on a more personal level. You introduced Dr. Saša Božič's Living Sofia Way program into the corporate world, which goes beyond classic corporate approaches. What was the turning point that prompted you to step out of the world of numbers and strategies and start creating a program aimed at personal growth, team bonding, and finding deeper meaning in the business environment?

Honestly, I didn't start the program out of altruistic intentions, but from the realization that the greatest untapped potential of a company lies in its employees. You can't command employees to be creative, to collaborate, to positively accept changes, etc. You can only expect all this from employees who feel good and are the best version of themselves, and it is their decision to give all this to the company. In this program, you go through a process where you find yourself, discover your authenticity, establish sincere relationships with colleagues, and then find a common higher purpose. At the end of the program, you also learn how to get up when you are down, when tough moments come. We started the program via Zoom. At first, it might have seemed quite classic, but we quickly realized that something special was happening in these conversations. Masks were falling, and colleagues, even complete strangers, began sharing very personal stories. Suddenly, we all began to realize that we are very similar with our fears, desires, and questions. The program was intended as mental support for employees during COVID and part of the process of creating our corporate culture. With the entire management of Knauf Insulation and people in key positions, around two hundred people, we went through a process that really connected us. People no longer looked at each other just as colleagues or by titles, positions – director, secretary, plant manager – but as human beings. They began to recognize each other as whole beings. This completely changed the relationships in the teams. I went through the process with all the teams, and in the end, things really touched me. I became a passionate advocate of this approach.

Is it true that you started gaining knowledge about people, relationships, and creating a creative environment very early, even in the role of a patent attorney, where many would expect more dry and technical work?

At that time, I viewed and understood these things quite differently than I do today. As a patent attorney, I realized that I could more easily get inventors into a creative state if I created a pleasant environment where they felt good. Later, I delved deeper into this with workshops based on the concept of Blue Ocean Strategy – how to create a space where people really come to life and create excellence.

I then transferred this to leading teams at Lek, at Knauf Insulation... Everywhere we created such "bubbles," but unfortunately, their effect lasts only a few days. For a lasting effect, you need to create an entire ecosystem in the company, from corporate culture to authentic leaders who live all this themselves and inspire colleagues as role models.

This led you to the realization that leadership must be more than just setting goals and managing projects. Over the years, you have realized that leadership is actually a process where you first enable people to be heard, included, and co-creators, not just task executors.

Exactly. I realized that we are often trapped in the logic: first, we set the strategy, processes, and goals, and then we try to convince employees that they fit into it. But why not reverse the process? Why not first ask employees what their values are, what kind of company they want, how they want to work, what inspires them, what kind of environment they would like to have? When you give people the opportunity to co-create the vision, the energy is completely different. It's no longer just dry project execution. They identify with the goals and start thinking more holistically, not just in numbers. They start working with heart.

Leaders should help employees with this. The reality is often different; leaders stifle creativity with rigid rules, excessive control, and distrust.

If you have to hide behind rigid rules and micromanagement, then you are not a leader, you are just a manager of processes and resources. Usually, this is the result of a lack of confidence or awareness of one's incompetence. I believe that anyone can be a leader, but the most important quality is authenticity; it is what convinces people to follow you. Today, we all talk about sustainable leadership, about steward leadership [a form of leadership that focuses on others, the community, and society in general], about what a modern leader must have. But often, it's enough to allow yourself to be you, to be a person who loves people and knows how to inspire them.

Of course, knowledge, structure, and communication skills are also important, but authenticity is what pulls people forward. If I have mastered anything, it is the ability to inspire – to get so excited about something that the excitement spreads to others.

In authentic leadership, function or title is often secondary. You often emphasize that the true power of a leader is not in position but in authenticity and relationships.

Leaders too often hide behind titles, money, functions, caring for their reputation, the image of being all-knowing and invulnerable. But these are all fleeting things. In the end, we are also human beings, and only when we are ready to show our human side, without embellishments and masks, accept our weaknesses, and allow ourselves to show vulnerability, do we step onto the path of authentic leadership. In allowing ourselves to be authentic, the superpower of true leaders lies. The book by Dr. Saša Božič Back to Yourself helped me a lot in finding this path, taking you on a journey of discovering and understanding yourself. Only when we as leaders are authentic can we gain the loyalty and trust of the team. And when tough moments come, it is this team that helps us out of the hole.

You were also an excellent basketball player, playing for Slovan. So you know the sports world from the inside. Since we are talking about authenticity and personal strength, I am interested in how you experienced the story with Luka Dončić and the Dallas Mavericks, a story that at times seemed cruel but perhaps also a necessary step in his sports and personal growth.

At first, I was shocked like everyone else, but on the other hand, that's just the reality of professional sports. If I look through the eyes of a basketball enthusiast, as I was in basketball for 30 years – the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers are the biggest basketball clubs in the world, history is written there, and Luka was sent there by the trade.

Although the situation seemed cruel at first glance, I think they did him a favor with the trade. It actually gave him a great opportunity, and it's up to Luka whether he will take advantage of it.