Instead of systematic and ineffective advance planning of short-term activity results (outputs), expected changes in target groups or areas (outcomes) and multiple long-term impacts based on the projection of a desired state, we will focus on the potential for change that can be observed in the existing state, in the relevant context and with the actors with whom we work, so that we can identify and support opportunities that are ADJACENT POSSIBLES, i.e., achievable and desirable because they are on the main path of change. Together with partners, we will test and develop new tools and practices that support and achieve innovation, greening, and digitization of SMEs, while developing networks that increasingly include educational and research and development organizations, as well as other support institutions, in addition to SMEs in leading sectors.
The correctness and feasibility of such an orientation are confirmed by a series of individual stories from our common experience with partners, clients, and associates. These are stories of innovative companies, such as those we presented in the publication “How to achieve greater added value – Stories of innovative companies from our environment” and those whose initiation and development we supported in companies such as: Spektra DMG, ELAS Metalexpert, Masterwood, Topling, Tikt, Reflex, Tri Best, MP Panduevic, MIP Prijedor, FOD – Final Woodworking, Soligna, Tapetarija Matic, Euro znak, to name just a few, where innovations in products, processes, and even business models have led to greater added value. This is the story of Trebinje, whose development strategies we have been working on since 2008, setting the vision of becoming “the most desirable small city in the Western Balkans”, which is getting closer to its realization, as well as the story of Trebinje winemakers who have seized a strategic opportunity and significantly contributed to the desirability of their city. Or the story of East Ilidza, which, back in 2005, when we started working together, was among the underdeveloped municipalities and is now in the exclusive circle of developed ones, even though it did not belong to the favorites of higher levels of government. There are about fifty such stories of local development, each with its own peculiarities, challenges, and flows, in which we participated in the previous period.