Learn Croatian: Očuvanja radi, moramo zaštititi ugled tvrtke. - For the sake of preservation, we must protect the company's reputation.

The word radi usually acts as a standard preposition placed before the noun. However, in certain fixed or formal expressions, it can follow the noun in the genitive case (like očuvanja) for stylistic emphasis. This inversion gives the phrase a slightly more formal, emphatic tone, meaning for the sake of preservation. Other common examples include primjera radi (for example's sake) and reda radi (for the sake of order).

Could we use zbog instead of radi here?

Not quite, though learners often mix them up. The word radi expresses a goal or purpose (you want to achieve preservation in the future), whereas zbog expresses a cause (because something already happened). Since the protection is being done in order to achieve the preservation of the reputation, radi is the correct choice here.

The word ugled is the direct object of zaštititi, so why doesn't it take an accusative ending like ugleda?

The word ugled (reputation) is a masculine inanimate noun. In Croatian, masculine inanimate nouns share the exact same form in the accusative case as they do in the nominative case. If it were a masculine animate noun, such as a person or animal, it would indeed take the -a ending.

Why use the perfective verb zaštititi instead of the imperfective štititi?