IGA Consulting

Name: IGA Consulting
Address: Petricka 6, Skopje, 1000, MK
Telephone: +38977535293

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IGA Consulting

Turning engineering from a vendor dependency into an owned asset

20/05/2026

Proud to have people in the team who think like this.

On the gap between how we hire and how we welcome.

Irina Stojkovska 📌

“The interview: structured, prepared, intentional.

Day one: chaotic, unclear, sink or swim.
Engineers notice that gap immediately.

They came in motivated. They had questions about the roadmap, the architecture, and the team dynamics.

Nobody had time for that.

So they did what smart people do in unclear environments: they scoped themselves down.

Did what was asked. Nothing more.
We call it disengagement. It's actually self-preservation.

When someone walks in ready to own something, and nobody hands them anything to own, they stop reaching.

That's not a people problem. That's a system problem.
Hiring gets the budget, the process, and the attention.

Onboarding gets a checklist.

If you want engineers who behave like owners, build an environment that treats them like one. From day one. Not day ninety.”

19/05/2026

Sometimes the best insights come from looking back.

Olja Dzabirska did exactly that and connected a childhood memory to something much bigger.

Why the 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐚𝐧𝐬 builds differently
and why that was never a coincidence.

“There's something about a child eating soup, head down, that feels very Balkan.

Quiet. Obedient. No complaints.

I reread an old book this week, one I first read almost 10 years ago and this time I saw myself in her in a way I never expected.

The book talks about child prodigies, the ones who were brilliant, obedient, always the teacher's pet.
They learned fast.
They played by the rules.
They got the gold stars.

And then... not much.

Because somewhere along the way, they stopped asking why the rules existed in the first place.

The kids who actually went on to change things?
Often the ones teachers found difficult.
Too many questions.
Too many ideas.
Too much.

I think about this a lot when I look at the Western Balkans.
Because this region didn't exactly celebrate that kind of thinking for a long time.

We grew up in systems that taught us to be obedient.
You kept your head down. You did the work. Nobody told you to start a company, build a product, sell it.
That wasn't on the menu.

But the discipline stuck.
The persistence stuck.
The pride of doing something well, that stuck too.

So when the world opened up and people here finally had permission to be curious, to explore, to build they didn't arrive empty handed.
They brought all of it with them.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐞.
𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐞.

People who stayed curious anyway.
Who had no playbook, so they figured it out as they went.

The ones who actually move things forward in a team are almost never the obvious choice.
Talent is common. People who genuinely care are not.

The Western Balkans has a lot of those people.

We just forgot to say it out loud.”

14/05/2026

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰.

Aleksandar Ubavkov on the five factors that determine whether AI becomes your biggest advantage or your most expensive engineering problem.

“Nobody is asking whether to use Al anymore.
The question that actually matters is how.
And most companies are skipping straight to the how without asking the five things that determine whether Al becomes a force multiplier or a doomsday device.

I have seen both outcomes. Up close.
Here is the framework I use when advising engineering leaders on Al introduction into software development.”

Full article on LinkedIn (link in comments) ⬇️

13/05/2026

At the exit table, one thing becomes clear: who owns your engineering team?

Philip Ilievski on why this changes everything. ⤵️

“At due diligence, one thing becomes clear: ownership matters.

If your engineering is outsourced, you're about to have a longer conversation with investors.
Because outsourced teams come with problems that don't show up until you're trying to sell:

-Key people can leave for another account
-Your IP gets tangled in vendor contracts
-Investors see vendor dependency, not a real asset

We do it differently.
We build your engineering team to be owned by you from day one.
After one year, there is an option to transfer the team.

It sounds simple. But it changes everything at the exit table.
When investors ask who owns your team, you have a clean answer.
No vendor dependency. No IP friction. No question marks on your balance sheet.

That difference is worth a lot more than you think.
72 hours to start. 12 months to own.”

07/05/2026

Our founder Aleksandar Ubavkov on how AI is changing engineering.

𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐰𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬. 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐚 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦.

“Let me start with the thing most companies are getting spectacularly wrong.

They think Al is a productivity tool.
They measure output.
Lines of code shipped. Features delivered. Velocity metrics on the board deck.

They are measuring the wrong thing.
Al is not a productivity tool. Al is a multiplier. And like every multiplier in history, it multiplies both directions. It makes the strong stronger. It makes the weak a strategic liability.

This is not an opinion. This is what I have watched happen across engineering teams for the past two years.
And as a CTO or CFO reading this, it is the most important thing happening inside your company right now that your reporting is not capturing.”

Full article on LinkedIn (link in comments) ⬇️

04/05/2026

Irina Stojkovska on what really matters when you're building a team.
A reminder worth sharing. 👇

“After taking some time off for the Easter holidays, it felt like the right moment to reflect.

A wrong hire costs more than an open seat.
Most companies don't want to accept that. It's easier to move fast, fill the role, and deal with whatever comes next.
But the consequences are real.
A misaligned person disrupts team dynamics.
Creates rework.
Burns through onboarding resources.
And when they leave, you're starting from scratch.

The companies that get hiring right aren't moving faster.
They're moving more carefully.
They say no more often.
They wait. They ask questions that actually matter.

It takes longer. But the people who stay actually stay.
The team stays intact. The culture doesn't get disrupted every six months.

One thoughtful hire beats three rushed ones. Every time.
That's the difference between companies that scale smoothly and ones that are constantly in hiring mode, wondering why people keep leaving.”

24/04/2026

Perks attract engineers.
Ownership keeps them.

Hristijan Pejchinoski explains why experienced engineers value autonomy over benefits.

Ending the week with a perspective that matters. 👇

23/04/2026

Most founders confuse better coordination with actual control.

Here’s the difference ⬇️

22/04/2026

The thing that got you to Series A stops you at Series B.

Early decisions are made for survival.
Hire fast.
Stay lean.
Keep moving.

Those decisions work. Until they become your operating model.

By 50 people, what felt flexible at 10 is now structural chaos.

What felt fast is now fragile.

The problems you postponed?

They didn't go away.
They compounded.

Scale exposes which early decisions were smart and which were just lucky.

By the time you realize which is which, it's expensive to fix.

20/04/2026

What if your best work is the one you actually finish?

17/04/2026

Some engineers deliver tasks.
Others build products meant to last.

Andrea Angelova Trajkovska shares why engineers who build for the long term approach products very differently.

Read the perspective below. 👇

Address

Petricka 6
Skopje
1000

Telephone

+38977535293

Website

https://igaconsulting.com/

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