Magyar Hírek, 1983 (36. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1983-09-17 / 18-19. szám
Ute UtmpifEE feacs SNAPSHOT OF A HUNGARIAN ENTERPRISE "How does a food packaging enterprise come to handle the construction of a 1,500 cubic meter water-tower?" I asked Dr. Béla Czimbalmos, the General Manager of Compack Kereskedelmi Csomagoló Vállalat (Compack Commercial Packaging Enterprise), when I discovered that his firm build the huge concrete and steel watertower soon to start operating at Nagyatád.“We designed and constructed it, that’s how” he answered with a smile, “just as we did our 500 Watt wind generator, our new plant growing process involving the use of column, or our alarm system, which works equally well in the home or in motor cars.” “And is this really so simple for an enterprise with such a different profile?" “As long as one considers the mechanism of the matter, yes. The recipe is this: take a strongly importoriented enterprise, and think about how it could renew itself, what methods could it employ in order to not only use up, but also earn hard currency. If you do not get far on your own, employ a few talented young people, graduates who speak a foreign language or two, and charge them with thinking with you to find ways to renew the otherwise well-operating enterprise. If they feel that you really rely on them, if you give them freedom, independence, and opportunities to realize their ideas, and if you pay them honestly for their work, better than the national average, in other word if you make them interested in what they do, and have the courage to take risks in realizing their ideas, than success is inevitable. The proof is that the department which employs these young people, what we call special development bureau, has been selfsupporting from the moment it was set up. Currently we are building a 150 cubic meter structural steel watertower in Nigeria to our own design; we have sold the automatizing part unit of our sliding form-work equipment; we have a contract in Cyprus for the introduction of a new agricultural technology to the Common Market; we completed the construction of the already mentioned 1,500 cubic meter reinforced concrete water-tower at Nagyatád: and we are ready to operate our newly developed Compack- Novakon equipment at our next project of like nature, which enables us to construct water-towers of various diameter and wall thickness, chimney-stacks, television and cooling towers, underwater oiltanks and piers with sliding form-work technology.” A staff of seven tion on time we get the orders. But designing and construction still takes a good year. In the meantime we had to, and still must, generate a cashflow in order to avoid being taken to be parasites at the enterprise. This was how the alarm system was born, since they could be made quickly, needed little investment, used outside contract workers, and sold readily on the domestic market. This is also why we now manufacture God only knows how many kinds of small products that pay. Since the establishment of the bureau we have chosen and processed more than one hundred different ideas.” “ What is the size of the staff who cope with all this?” “There are seven of us right now.” "Anybody from the street" “Well, the principle of our managing director is that anybody from the street may knock on the door of Compack, and come with a good idea which he considers profitable. He sends these people over to us, we study the idea, and if we consider it really realizable and profitable for the enterprise, and worth the risk, we invite the owner of the idea to realize it. We are additionally grateful, if he also provides the market for the product. And, naturally, we pay well for Water tower at Nagyatád all his efforts. The seven of us also joined the enterprise in such a way that each of us brought something with us to Compack.” The head of the bureau himself has a degree in engineering as well as in economics.” “István Molnár, who is entrusted with the selling and managing part of the bureau is at the age of 2H the youngest among the young ones, as I see. What do you know?” “I am an engineering graduate, and I have a diploma from the Foreign Trading College. I speak English, French and German. I have the task of establishing contacts, and introducing new products to the world market, and I have to know how to do this.” “What is your current job?" “I am looking for customers for water-towers, and for fun, I am trying to sell our latest product, wrought iron ornaments, in the Middle-East.” “ What inspires your work?” “First of all the freedom we never enjoyed at any of our earlier jobs, that we are doing what wo want to do, that we can test ourselves in the technical as well as the economic and commercial fields. We can also travel abroad, since the practice here is that everybody works on his subject from the start to the finish. In other words we do not only design a project but we also build it up wherever we have to, and contract for the job in partnership with the Teehnoimpex Foreign Trailing Company. We discovered just recently that Cyprus is a reexporter country, that Cyprus buys products, and orders projects from us which are needed in other, mainly Middle Eastern countries. It is an intermediate station possessing vast, yet unexplored, markets. We get to Middle Eastern and South American countries this way with our food, agricultural, and water management projects, in which we recently specialized. We see great opportunities in these. We are not just waiting for orders but go for them, and offer our new products methodically.” “What do you need apart from the already mentioned freedom and independence to keep on workinq successfully?" István Molnár gives the answer: “The capital-strong firm behind us, Compack; and the entrepreneurial spirit which permeates the enterprise, and honest work on our side, a little good luck, and the kind of atmosphere in which we work here together. If we have all these it will be impossible to make a wrong move. The economic situation of the country is not easy. And while we are importing part of our products earmarked for domestic consumption it may happen at any time that the world economic situation changes, and the authorities will say stop to the importation of these goods. An enterprise which has a turnover of almost six thousand million forints, which employs more than eleven-hundred workers, will have to keep operating at any cost. For this reason our target is to stay on our feet ip the further. Should we become unable to take a step forward with one of them, we will have to have an other, so we can change step.” MIKLÓS MÉRŐ The patrons of the Native Language Conference have organized camps coupled with summer courses year after year for the sons and daughters of Hungarians living in various parts of the world. Magyar Hirek has already published a number of articles on these vacation schools, but a review of the experience gathered may be in order since this is the first time the subject is here discussed in English. One or the other detail of this subject belongs precisely here, to the English pages of the paper since the camps take young people of Hungarian descent to the Lake Balaton camp, and to the Summer College of Sárospatak, those who can hardly or not at all speak Hungarian. Those who have already been there, have pleasant memories of the weeks spent at these places during which, even if they have not become fluent in Hungarian, they acquired a basis, and enthusiasm for further studies and, what is just as important, they familiarized themselves with the country their parents or grandparents were born in. I should like to call the attention of all those young people to vacationing while learning the Hungarian language, who have not yet enjoyed a stay on the shores of Lake Balaton, at Zamárdi, Fonyód, or Boglárlelle, or at Sárospatak, this mellow, old college town. I should like to emphasise first of all that the young people do not only study, but also take part in the customary holiday fun and games. Even the lessons are entertaining. Study is interspersed with functions designed to suit the age and interests of those enrolled. There are a number of special interest groups, there is opportunity for sports, excursions, and nights spent listening to music and dancing. The organizers of the courses and camps endeavour to make the learning of the Hungarian language a time of joy. “As far as I know, an average Hungarian enterprise takes two to three years to build such a tower. How did you manage to make an immediate profit?” “It is true that it takes that long for an average construction enterprise, but we work substantially faster, and considerably cheaper than they do. Our tenders seem incredible to the investors at first sight, but since we are ready to accept clauses prescribing heavy penalties for non-comple-54 *
