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Boran Lončarić
Episode · #189

TEHNOBIZ Boran Lončarić

Guest Boran LončarićHosted by Dražen TomićMay 3, 2026
About this episode
What you'll hear in this conversation

The recent crisis, with its sudden demand for digital solutions, made it seem as if technology could be deployed overnight. Yet, for Boran Lončarić, CEO of GDI Group, the reality of building enterprise-grade systems remains a multi-year endeavor. As the founder of one of Croatia's largest technology companies, Lončarić has spent decades delivering complex solutions to industrial clients and entire communities, navigating the tension between immediate need and deep, foundational work. He shares how GDI, even amid significant growth and expansion across fourteen European countries, maintained a relentless focus on long-term investment in its own products. His experience offers a view into how to build a resilient tech business that can absorb sudden shocks and capitalize on unexpected accelerations, without ever losing sight of the patient, deliberate effort required for true innovation. This conversation will make you rethink the timelines of digital transformation, revealing that the speed of execution during a crisis is often a lagging indicator of years of unseen preparation and strategic intent.

Insights from the conversation
What to take from this episode
01
GDI's 2019 growth, which saw over 22% increase in commercial software deliveries, didn't come from a single year's effort. As Lončarić puts it, these results were "based on long-term work several years prior". The biggest leaps in business are rarely sudden; they are the visible outcome of years of invisible, compounding effort.
02
In 2019, GDI's team grew by over sixteen percent, spread across sixteen operating companies in fourteen European countries, from Warsaw to Abu Dhabi. This isn't just growth in headcount; it's a deliberate expansion of distributed capability. When your talent pool and market presence are decentralized, you build resilience and deeper local insight that a single-office model can't match.
03
Even as GDI saw commercial deliveries grow by nearly twenty-three percent in 2019, investment in its own products increased by almost thirty percent. The lesson is not to harvest during a growth cycle, but to reinvest aggressively into the next generation of your offering. Your future relevance depends on what you build when things are already going well.
04
The crisis forced rapid digital change, like the electronic travel permits or the cloud solution for the Zagreb earthquake, which went live in under twenty-four hours and involved 1,100 people assessing 25,000 buildings. This speed, Lončarić notes, proves what's possible when urgency overrides typical bureaucratic friction. The real challenge isn't the technology, but how to sustain that urgency and remove peacetime constraints.
05
While many assume IT deals are quick, Lončarić describes GDI's contracting process as taking anywhere from six months (which he calls 'science fiction short') to two or three years, and sometimes six years before a deal closes. For complex industrial solutions, the 'quick win' doesn't exist; sustained engagement and relationship building over years is the actual sales strategy.
06
Lončarić states that users "are not interested in technology as technology; they want technology to solve a problem quickly." This means the most effective approach isn't a feature list, but a clear articulation of the immediate, tangible benefit. Your product is not what you made; it's the problem it solves, delivered with speed.
07
Lončarić uses the example of a specialized fire truck for airplanes – the extinguishing process takes minutes, but "the preparation of that possibility takes years." This illustrates that while customers demand instant deployment of solutions, the underlying capability for that speed must be built and tested over a long horizon. Speed in action requires years of slow, deliberate preparation.
08
The era of bespoke IT infrastructure is ending. Lončarić states that "many people certainly no longer have time to set up their own data center. Those times are over." The market now demands pre-configured, rapidly deployable cloud solutions. If your offering isn't designed for immediate consumption and minimal setup, it's missing the core expectation of modern business.
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