The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory

The chosen company

to move a brick worth 50 forints even a short distance, for example, we use 150 forints worth of labour.” This comment gives us a preview of the sort of approach he was to use to such effect as a director: aiming for a harmonious combination of quality and economy. As far as his relationship to the political situation of the time is concerned, he has this to say: “It’s enough to say that the Communist party was a compulsory duty, but compulsory duties can be fulfilled in a number of ways. Why else do you think that management is often described as an art? You have to find a way of fulfilling basic requirements in such a way that your basic activities are not really influenced or affected. That was the game tactic, and for me, as director, it was in my interests to maintain a cordial relationship with the county, city and even the national organs of the party. And not only in my interests either, but in the interests of the factory as a whole, in order to ensure stability. And this was reflected in the people’s behaviour as well. It didn’t work on the basis that, say, five department heads would arrive, work for a while, move on and another five department heads would take their place. Once you were in you were in, cradle to the grave sort of thing. People stayed with the factory until the day they started drawing their pensions. And for as long as this way of life continued, so long as there was no point in office intrigue, in swapping people in and out of positions, practically everyone understood, tacitly, even the party secretaries themselves, that it was just a question of fulfilling basic requirements and showing up for meetings. There were a lot of formalities, but this wasn’t a problem.

And since the tobacco industry was less well paid than other branches of the manufacturing sector, they left us alone, and the so-called big-wigs of the political scene didn’t interfere with us much.”

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FT