Milosevic by Adam LeBor

– would prove a powerful and more durable ideology than Yugoslavism.

4
The Capitalist Years
Slobodan in America
1978–82
    Two things impressed me about him: his readiness to listen and his readiness to learn.
    Mihailo Crnobrnja, economic advisor to Milosevic, 1974–89. 1
    While Milosevic paper-pushed at the Belgrade city hall, his
kum
Ivan Stambolic was running Tehnogas. Tehnogas produced gases for industry, such as oxygen and argon. Stambolic soon brought Milosevic over to Tehnogas, and by the early 1970s Milosevic held a senior management post. Although working for Tehnogas was not as prestigious as working for the gigantic steel works and car factories in which Communist countries specialised, for Milosevic this was still a promotion. Tehnogas was a Yugoslav-wide company, with branches in Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia as well as Serbia. It was well regarded internationally, a flagship Yugoslav enterprise.
    It was understood that Milosevic was Stambolic’s designated successor, and when Ivan left Tehnogas, Milosevic took over as president. Milosevic knew little about economics and even less about producing industrial gases. But he was a fast learner, according to Mihailo Crnobrnja, then an economic consultant at Tehnogas. A US educated professor of economics, Crnobrnja worked as a consultant at Tehnogas. He was one of Milosevic’s key economic advisers from 1974 until 1989, when he was appointed Yugoslav ambassador to the European Union. Milosevic was a quick and adept student. ‘His learning curve was in most cases very rapid. There were very few things that he needed to have repeated. If he was not dynamic, if he did not listen, I would not have bothered to work with him for so long.’
    Milosevic’s approach to managing Tehnogas was unusual for thosetimes. Although it was a liberal dictatorship, Yugoslavia still functioned on Communist principles of command and control, imposed from the top down. Yugoslav managers often tended to bark out their instructions and regard questions or alternatives as insubordination. Milosevic had adopted this approach at university, where he had a finely developed sense of his own status, according to Nebojsa Popov. On a visit to a motorway construction site, Milosevic refused to don the customary workers’ clothes or even loosen his tie, as it would diminish his prestige. And he did not like his new nickname, ‘Boban’. In Serbia, like all Slavic countries, names are usually reduced to a diminutive, especially by friends and family. When Popov and his colleagues addressed Milosevic as ‘Boban’ he refused to answer, as he thought it lacked gravitas. The more serious sounding ‘Slobo’ was more acceptable, he decided.
    But there was none of this pomposity at Tehnogas, at least when dealing with senior managers. Milosevic wanted to do well, and was certainly intelligent enough to realise that he, and Tehnogas, would flourish if he drew on the expertise of those who had greater knowledge and experience. Age and family responsibilities also played a role. The callow university youth had matured. Milosevic’s approach was thoughtful and considered when chairing board meetings, said Crnobrnja. ‘Throughout my working relationship with him, he generally preferred to listen and conclude at the end. He did not intervene often, and only on very few occasions did he set the agenda in advance by using the technique of “this is what I want to hear from you”.’
    Yet others, less useful to the chairman of the board, saw a different persona. The veteran Belgrade journalist Milos Vasic, then a young reporter for the news weekly
Nin
, was despatched to interview two Tehnogas engineers who had developed an innovative recycling process. Milosevic insisted on sitting in on the interview. He was cold and unwelcoming. ‘What I remember most of all was his very limp handshake, like giving you a cold fish. He would not let them