Breaking the ice: meet Partner Broker (HR) and Mario Zadravec

The UNIBA Partners’ network is constantly evolving; new Partners join, IDMs and Senior Contacts change. Although we have the chance to see each other face-to-face, most of the time we are meeting behind our laptops. And in this online environment you might have missed a new Partner joining or a contact changing, right?  Through this article-series we will make sure that that doesn’t happen anymore! In ‘Breaking the ice’ we will introduce new Partners, their specialisations, and, perhaps even more importantly, the people behind it; what makes them tick? why did they join? what do they like? Because what is UNIBA Partners if not a business network of friends?

This month we’re catching up with a Partner who joined earlier this year: Mario Zadravec, CEO of Partner Broker in Croatia.

For those who didn’t have the chance to meet you just yet, can you please introduce yourself and your company?

I’m Mario Zadravec, CEO of Partner Broker in Zagreb, Croatia. I started the company back in 2018, with Milan, our IDM and my brother Marco joining shortly after. We all have a background in insurance and we felt it was time to try our luck and venture of on our own. Through our previous connections and current work, we managed to build up a good reputation within the Croatian market, something which we try to maintain and develop further. Our focus is on claims support; we are very involved in the entire process, from submitting the claim to restitution. Besides that, we work a lot with risk analysis and insurance programme solutions. We do have some sectoral specialties, for example construction and marine. However, Croatia is a small market so you don’t really have the opportunity to work on one specific line of business

On a personal note, my passion is sports. Football has always been a big part of my life, I even have a coaching license, but also cycling, skiing and tennis. I also read a lot, from biographies and history to business success stories. Besides my previous involvement in the insurance industry I had a short stint at Heineken, later moving on to my own company, the Croatian equivalent of Groupon.

Let’s dive back into the business side of things. Why is “international” important to your company?

I believe it’s a natural part of business development, although we did have an eye opener that led to us joining UNIBA. We competed for several large tenders and, despite scoring high on most points, we were not able to provide international support at the time, meaning we were not successful. Afterwards we made the decision to find a network that could support us on the international side of things.

What are you hoping to get out of the network?

The obvious benefit relates to our clients; we now have the possibility to support them all over the globe. That’s a big deal and an important part of our business development. These coming months we’d love to connect more with the different Partners, especially those in countries close to Croatia. Try and act together, approach different clients working across borders. This could benefit the Partners, the brokers and the clients. On the long term we hope to benefit from the experience and knowledge within the network.

Where do you see your company contributing most to the next years within the UNIBA network??

Partner Broker is growing every year, not only in terms of revenue and number of clients, but also with regards to the quantity and quality of our team. In order to be truly client-centric, we invest a lot in our employees who's satisfaction and quality reflects positively on our business relationship with our clients. We believe that we could contribute to the UNIBA network by providing quality local support. We also expect further growth in international business and more mutual business opportunities with our Partners.

 

Let’s move back to the personal side of things again. Is there any book that inspired you, be it personal or professional?

I like reading about sport or businesses success stories, biographies and history books.  Right now I can think of two books which I find very interesting. ‘The Innovation Stack’ (McKelevey) talks about developing business by implementing quality ideas and innovations layer by layer and thus becoming resilient in a competitive industry such as insurance brokerage. For Partner Broker entering UNIBA is surely one of the important steps to become more resilient and recognizable in the market.The other book is „The inner game of tennis“ which talks about focusing on important things and ignoring the noise. It can be applied in sports, business and every day life. 

On a final note, if you could have lunch with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?

 To be honest I don't have a favourite one, because there are so many interesting and inspiring people.  Maybe, Margaret Thatcher, General Patton, Luka Modrić and Michael Jordan just to name a few, because of their courage, determination and success.