MEDIJATOR Milan Horvat

Guest Milan HorvatHosted by Srđan ŠimacMay 3, 2026

Milan Horvat

About this episode

What you'll hear in this conversation

A year defined by devastating earthquakes and a global pandemic might seem an unlikely backdrop for business growth, yet Milan Horvat describes 2020 as a "good year" for his FIMA group. His perspective offers a counter-intuitive lens on crisis: for businesses already operating in the digital realm, these disruptions accelerated rather than hindered progress, forcing wider market adoption of online models. Horvat, a specialist in investment, digital transformation, and asset management, leads a group of firms at the forefront of financial services and cryptocurrency. He brings a grounded, entrepreneurial view to the rapid technological shifts underway. This conversation explores how the current wave of innovation, from AI to blockchain, mirrors past industrial revolutions, and why the human tendency to defer adaptation is the riskiest strategy of all. You will leave with a sharper sense of urgency about engaging with the future, not just observing it.

Insights from the conversation

What to take from this episode

Despite the devastating earthquakes and the COVID-19 pandemic, Milan Horvat's FIMA group achieved most of its goals in 2020, calling it a "good year." A crisis does not uniformly harm all businesses; for those already positioned in the digital economy, disruption can accelerate growth by forcing wider market adoption of online models.

Horvat references an Ark Invest study that compares today's technological boom to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when innovations like the railroad, automobile, telephone, and electricity fundamentally reshaped society. We are now in a similar, even more intense, period of discovery with AI, blockchain, and renewable energy, poised to drastically change how we live and work in the next decade or two.

He illustrates the pace of change by noting that touchscreen mobile phones, now ubiquitous, did not exist just ten years ago. The speed of technological adoption is accelerating rapidly; what seems normal today was unthinkable a short time ago, underscoring how quickly new paradigms become everyday reality.

Horvat recalls first encountering a computer at age thirty, a stark contrast to his son's upbringing with YouTube and digital media. Generational differences in technology exposure mean that older modes of thinking and operating are no longer viable; continuous, proactive engagement with new technology is essential for continued relevance.

Asked how to navigate these changes, Horvat advises, "You have enough time to adapt if you start working on it now. But if you think you have time and procrastinate, then you will be overrun." Adaptation is not a task to defer; it is a continuous, urgent process where delaying action guarantees obsolescence.

He points out the common resistance to adopting new software versions, like Windows or Word, only for users to later realize how much time and advantage they lost by clinging to older systems. The human tendency to resist change, even when new tools offer clear improvements, is a significant self-imposed barrier; embrace technological evolution as a normal part of work, not an inconvenience.

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