RITAM POSLA Marijan Lorencin

Guest Marijan LorencinHosted by Helena ŠuprehaMay 3, 2026

Marijan Lorencin

About this episode

What you'll hear in this conversation

Imagine transforming an 80s military frigate into a giga-yacht for a royal family — a project that swelled from three people to nine hundred in a single year, coordinating nine engineering offices across the globe. That extreme challenge is just one chapter in the story of Ajtak, a Croatian ship design company that has grown consistently for two decades without a single down year. Marijan Lorencin, Ajtak's director and owner, shares how his firm specializes in the complex engineering of mega-yachts and cruise ships, and also builds a parallel business implementing advanced software for the world's largest shipyards. This conversation offers a rare look into the operational realities of a highly specialized, export-oriented technical firm, revealing what it takes to scale expertise in a global market.

Insights from the conversation

What to take from this episode

Converting an 80s Dutch frigate into a giga-yacht for the Abu Dhabi royal family wasn't just a technical redesign; it was a test of rapid organizational scaling. The project grew from three people to nine hundred in a year, coordinating nine engineering offices globally. When the scope is truly novel, the challenge isn't just to solve the problem, but to build the entire problem-solving apparatus from scratch.

After successfully delivering the giga-yacht, Marijan Lorencin found himself missing the extreme challenges, noting the return to 'real projects' felt less stimulating. Successfully navigating a project that redefines what's possible can inadvertently reset your team's baseline for what constitutes 'interesting' work. Plan for the psychological return to normalcy.

Since its founding in 2004, Ajtak has never had a single year of stagnation or decline, consistently growing in both revenue and headcount. Sustained, unbroken growth over nearly two decades, especially in a niche technical field, signals that a company has mastered not just its craft, but the art of anticipating and meeting consistent market demand.

Marijan Lorencin describes his management style as delegating significant authority and freedom, guided by the Dalmatian saying 'daj dite materi' (give the child to the mother). As a leader, your most important role shifts from direct oversight to cultivating a culture where managers are empowered to genuinely care for their own teams. Trust in distributed care.

In 2019, Ajtak nearly doubled its employee count, achieving in one year what had taken the previous fifteen. Decades of steady, incremental build-up can create the latent capacity for exponential growth, allowing a business to suddenly seize a market opportunity that might appear to be an overnight success.

The Ajtak group consists of two engineering firms, a network of fifty cooperators, twelve students, and a separate company for skilled workers, totaling over 250 people. Scaling a highly specialized technical service business often means segmenting the organization to manage distinct legal, geographical, and talent requirements, rather than forcing everything under one roof.

Ajtak's 'consultancy and support' division implements Catia software for major shipyards like Meyer Werft and Damen, with Dassault Systèmes (Catia's owner) having been a 40% co-owner. Deep expertise in a niche technical field creates a secondary, high-value business in process and software implementation, often leading to strategic partnerships with the very platform providers you use.

Ajtak operates as an exclusively export-oriented company, with all its projects serving foreign markets, primarily in Europe, and 'not a single project in Croatia yet.' For highly specialized B2B services, the initial domestic market may be too small or underdeveloped to sustain growth. Pursuing international clients from day one can be a necessity, not just an ambition.

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