Interview with Péter Kecskés, CEO
"The more things you encounter, the more you fail, all contribute to your success."
Starting a business, company history
The company was founded in 2022, I have been managing director since 2012. The objectives at that time were to try to start a business on a stable operating platform, much better. By 2014 we had reached a stage where the company was generating enough profit to buy it back in full from the then owners. Then came a 'restart', a new horizon opened up. Firstly, by rethinking the production tracking system and revamping the IT support business. What was then a small company has now grown into a company of 20 people and we are a leader in the region, and our data collection system has since achieved great success over the last 12 years.
What kind of successes are we talking about?
Last year, we completed the country's largest factory digitalisation project for the Bonafarm group, and over the past three years we have been building our building automation business, which won us the Loxone project of the year in 2022. In IT operations, we have undergone a paradigm shift, working with new technologies and complying with the TISAX audit, which is a very serious cybersecurity compliance in the automotive industry.
Industrial IT advances
Today, we are seeing a lot of progress, because we felt that we were ahead of our time with our manufacturing digitisation solution, because companies were basically not prepared to digitise their processes. And then about 10 years ahead in time, these companies have realised that without these digitisation solutions, you cannot have modern manufacturing. However, our OEEm system meets the basic principles that provide a perfect platform for digitisation for current manufacturing technology.
Working in industrial manufacturing and IT, what changes have you seen in the business environment in recent years?
I think that in today's world it is essential for a business leader to understand the significant implications that digitalisation can have. In manufacturing digitisation, we can be up to date to the minute with every single parameter of a given production, what the current state of productivity is. And in the IT area, the responsibility of the company manager is increasing, for example in the area of cyber security, because the European Union is also making a lot of effort to ensure that everyone has a secure IT system, which it is trying to impose on European companies, for example, with NIS2 compliance. For this reason, as an IT support organisation, we have to be very well prepared and we have to learn technology that will ensure that these conditions are met. It is important to note that we as professionals have a great responsibility, because if we do not follow the technology, if we do not go after it or even if we are one step ahead of the security technology, we will never be able to ensure that those businesses can keep themselves and their data secure.
What role do sustainability and environmental aspects play in the company's strategy, particularly in the area of industrial manufacturing?
Basically, with our OEEm system, we are trying to develop a standard because we believe that something can be really effective if it is measured. With our system, we can use measurement to draw conclusions that can drive manufacturing companies towards sustainability and environmental protection, because we know exactly how much energy it takes to make a product, how to optimise it so that less energy is needed to make it, and we can identify areas of waste. All this leads to more sustainable production and environmental protection.
What do you think a good manager looks like?
To be a good company director, you have to be a good manager. You certainly need to be a systems thinker, have a wealth of experience and be good with people. Again, strategy is one of the ingredients that lead to being a good manager. The sum of these is the picture that leads you to do your job well. It's not just a question of being a leader or not, it's a question of always putting yourself out there, focusing on what you want to do, defining the path to get there and then checking that you've done it right through constant feedback. That way, we can be sure that we are in the right leadership position.
Are these skills and abilities inherited? Or can they be acquired?
You can't inherit them, you definitely need a skill to 'grow' them, but everything I've talked about so far is something you 'pick up'. The more you encounter, the more you fail, all of that adds to your success. Obviously, failure should be more at the start, because you can gain experience from it and then you can rise. However, when you know how things work, you have a lot of factors in your head, you can look at a lot of things in parallel, so to speak, and decide what is the right way to go. What's very important is that you can delegate, you can find the right people around you to move forward with safely.
Goals for the future?
Personal goals and economic goals
My personal goal
My personal goal is to build as much as possible a self-sustaining team, and that team should be experts and have the best possible knowledge. If I can do that, then actually I, as a manager, I, as a consultant or as a professional, will be free from the daily burden, the whirlwind that we are in every day. I think that we can create really good things when we are not under pressure. So, one of the sure goals is to be able to build a successful team and then channel my energies elsewhere.
My vision for the company
My vision for the company is to be able to create something unique and to be unique in the market in terms of service or even in terms of our product portfolio. The first tool for this will be the OEEm system. OEEm, as our own child, will bring to Hungarian companies and later to the Austrian and German market a solution that will put sustainable production and environmental awareness firmly in the crosshairs. I am optimistic about the future, we do not have to wait 5-10 years, we will reach our goals in the next few years.