Natasa Grdinic, CEO and Partner at CMM Investment Consulting Group, leads an internationally recognized company with extensive expertise. With offices and partnerships in various locations such as the UK, Montenegro, Russia, Western Europe, Turkey, Spain, and China, Natasa has cultivated a successful venture. Her remarkable achievements include establishing the foremost company in investment consulting, the development of spa resorts, apart-hotel projects, and the overall real estate business in Montenegro. Offering an array of luxury services centered around ensuring complete client satisfaction, Natasa has earned a reputation for excellence. Furthermore, she specializes in facilitating the sales of Investment Passports of Montenegro and possesses comprehensive knowledge to address any inquiries regarding investments in Montenegro across diverse sectors.
Below are highlights of the interview conducted between Fortunes Time and Natasa Grdinic:
Tell us about your background and what did you do before starting your professional journey?
My background, before starting the company was schooling. I graduated in English language and literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Montenegro and jumped into business straight away. I started my career in a western international project development company in 2005, and in 2006 I continued my career in CMM Investment Consulting Group, a company of which I am the co-founder and executive director for the Montenegrin section.
Tell us about the CMM Investment Consulting Group? How did it all start?
During the last 16 years, with our dedication to our clients and business partners, we have become a corporation with a clear goal, vision, and plan. Namely, everything started with a real estate company with only 3 people in Montenegro that developed into a world-wide corporation. Corporation now has enterprises all over the world in real estate and investment businesses, bathroom equipment factory production, and wide distribution centers in many countries on the globe.
Tell us about the company’s offerings and how it is revolutionizing the whole sector like real estate, consulting?
Here we will focus on the real estate and investment departments of CMM Investment Consulting Group. The core idea when we started the company was to mediate in real estate transactions and that service still has a significant place in our portfolio. We help our clients decide how to invest their funds, whether they`re buying a land plot, a house, an apartment, office space, or investing in project development.
We have also developed the Property Management sector, which manages our projects as well as our clients’ properties, which they leave in our hands with full trust. Also, the clients can lease out the property purchased through us as a part of our arrangement. We started this service so the clients could best valorize their investments. In addition to the private sector, we also have hotels and apartment hotels and are successful in tourism as well.
CMM has also developed the sector for design solutions and equipping the units that our clients buy. CMM also has its own legal team, which deals with all the legal aspects regarding our clients. With its help, they can obtain stay permits, open a company, legalize their real estate, and use any service of legal consultation. The CMM VIP Lifestyle Club covers all the services that the client can use after they become the owner of the real estate they buy with our help. The CMM VIP Lifestyle Club is a concept we are very proud of, and it offers the services of a concierge, who is only a click away for all the client’s questions regarding their stay in Montenegro.
What was your key driving force to joining this sector?
I joined investment and consulting pretty much spontaneously in the beginning, but developing in this sector was a great challenge. And challenges are my biggest driving force. You do not have one day in this business that will look like another that you already had, so challenges are different but satisfying since the learning process never stops. A lot of achievements came along the way, and all of those set the bar even higher than before. Success in this field is the best driving force and the ultimate confirmation of valuable work, and we probably do things right.
What are your standard processes and procedures and how do you maintain to keep up with clients’ expectations?
Since the beginning of the CMM Investment Consulting Group company, we have been working with very serious algorithms and procedures, which have given amazing results. CMM Investment Consulting Group is certified to European standards and procedures 9001, 14001, and 27001. We pay a lot of attention to the environment and take care of nature, which is why this standard for safekeeping the environment is very important to us. The Amazing CMM team is responsible for applying them and meeting clients expectations at the highest level.
Tell us about your role and responsibilities as Partner and CEO of Cmm Investment Consulting Group? What about the culture and values resonate with you?
As a partner and SEO of CMM Investment Consulting Group, I am responsible for setting and executing the strategy of our company as a whole. I enjoy sales, so I happily participate in sales processes with our clients from time to time. A big part of my engagement in CMM is transferring sales knowledge to our team, creating new sales strategies with the team, and putting them to work. My core values are integrity, honesty, teamwork, and innovation. I think i successfully transferred them to the company as well, since our whole team built a company culture based on them. And they work well.
What are things you would like to improve in society or people’s lives?
Our society as a whole misses a lot of generosity and kindness. We should be more open to each other and value our communities and the people in them. This remains an Utopia because the world itself now puts very intensive challenges before each of us. But we should remember that we are social beings, and the wellbeing of one should be the wellbeing of everyone. One act of kindness a day might change many lives.
What’s the greatest risk you’ve taken as a professional?
Starting this enterprise was the greatest risk of all. Being a 20-year-old without a penny in the pocket, at that time everything was a risk. But bravery and a lot of strategic thinking turned the risk into a win. And that is how I continued throughout my whole career. I constantly take risks, now more aware than as a beginner. It is a driving source at its core.
Does your organization’s corporate responsibility strategy match the availability of your current resources?
I think I will not be the only one to say that we are facing a big lack of human capital. In the business of services, especially in all coastal regions, people are the most valuable resource to incorporate into any business strategy, especially our organization’s corporate responsibility strategy. It is a challenge, but one that we handle quite well.
Where do you see your company in the next five years?
Our company changes and develops every year. We say,’’ If we don’t grow twice, we do not work well’’. So, in five years, I expect us to be more diversified in terms of the business fields that we cover, with many more investments in a lot of different countries. Our main focus will remain Montenegro and investment projects there.
What is some of the advice you share with young, emerging leaders?
Dear young leaders, be proactive, ask questions, and ask for feedback. Take risks, and don’t be afraid to fail. Learn from possible failures and be way more successful afterward.
