In the background of it all was the concealed and subconscious wish that knowledge and professionalism are promoted in the economy instead of 'socio-political adequacy', and efficiency of operation and technological progress instead of the dominating voluntarism," were the words by its first president Ivo Marenko on the 15th anniversary of the association.

The attendees, whose number reached almost 250, were registered by the then Verification Commission at the event. This is how the story of the present-day Managers' Association of Slovenia started – with the maiden meeting of the General Assembly of the Association of Managers of Slovenia. Ivo Marenko was appointed its first president and Sebastijan Piskar was appointed secretary general.

That year, almost 30 years ago, almost 250 of our present members were finishing the first or second grade of primary school, and some of our members were only learning their first words.

This year, almost five generations of our members, or almost 1,200 members, will pay tribute to the 30-year tradition of the association with all its ups and downs. On this anniversary, we want to celebrate the diversity and tradition which enrich our association. Although these values are part of our everyday life, and we read about them almost everywhere, and warn about how important they are etc., we want to take the opportunity of the anniversary to together select the values of managers and leaders which we believe are of key importance in our work for the well-being of all people. By using your voice we want to make the past 30 years of the association's work a good prospect for the future. To invest role models into future hopes.

Bogomir Strašek is this year's recipient of the lifetime achievement award. He received the highest award of the Managers' Association because he has achieved exceptional results and has written an exceptional story about a company, the environment and people, due to his dedication, persistence, responsibility and firm personal stance. He started to manage KSC Ljubno, the company producing gear rings for automotive industry at the age of 26, and has been connected with the company for 47 years. Their business policy is based on their business culture, which stems from self-respect. Self-respect is one of their fundamental values. As many as 97% of the production processes in the company are automated and robotised. Since they purchased their first robots ten years ago, the company has increased the number of employees by more than 50%, while wages have been doubled. Added value per employee exceeds EUR 115,000.

We invest the examples written by the history of the generation of Bogomir Strašek, last year's winner of the award Jožica Rejec and Aleš Mižigoj, another winner of the award who retired last year at the age of ninety, and other recipients, into the hope represented by young managers. These are and will be role models for next generations. This year's finalists of the Young Manager of the Year award - Filip Remškar, Peter Smole and Igor Verstovšek, who won the award, have shown in their speeches, in a live debate at the Masters event in December and through the lengthy selection process, which in addition to results also heavily relies on the attitude to employees and managerial stance, that the values of good managers and leaders do not change much. "Great leaders inspire people and this is something I want to achieve myself. What moves me forward in business is the indestructible belief that with cooperation we can achieve more and thus contribute to sustainable development of the society," says Filip Remškar. Igor Verstovšek likens his company to a family. "To be able to use the brains of 450 employees is something you cannot buy, read or find on the internet," Peter Smole has told the newspaper Dnevnik. Business, he added, is not numbers and machines, but people.

The story about business is, as we love to say, a story about people. But if you were asked what the key values of managers and leaders for a better tomorrow were, what the motto Good Results the Right Way stands for, would all of you list the same? At the end of May, when we are going to celebrate, we will list them. Thanks to all of you who have cast their votes. See you on 29 May in Cankarjev dom.

Saša Mrak, Executive Director of MAS