Hidden Champions of North Macedonia
摘要
Being the regional frontrunner in supporting a favorable environment for businesses, boasting a highly liberalized foreign trade and tax policy, a stable monetary environment, and a member of NАTO and a EU candidate country, North Macedonia represents a favorable ground for developing and investing in hidden champions. This book chapter gives comprehensive research and an overview of hidden champions in North Macedonia, highlighting these companies’ nature of market leadership and competitive advantage, development needs, best practices, challenges, and strategies for overcoming them, especially in turbulent times post-COVID and facing rising geopolitical tensions. Considering this, the book chapter analyzes four hidden champions, which operate in diverse industries—Korab Trnica, Mermer Imperijal, Ading, and Mikrosam. Through semi-structured interviews with management members from the hidden champion companies, it was found that export orientation, leadership through innovation and uniqueness, family business style of operations, continuous learning, and a focus on originality in a niche market can lead to business success in this type of companies.