Business success, multinational companies and the beginning of a career

How did you get involved with Coca-Cola HBC?

I've always drunk Coca-Cola. As a consumer, I've liked this brand since I was a child, I've never really enjoyed having other sorts of cola on the dining table. And as a professional? I have been working here for three years, but I had met this company as an employer or a possible workplace before. When I graduated from university in 2004, I attended a trainee management program at BAT (British American Tobacco – by the editor), but many of my former mates went to Coca-Cola, so I had acquaintance here even at the beginning of my career. There are several similarities between these two companies: they both put an emphasis on looking for young talents and training them. It has happened more than once that our stalls at job fairs were adjacent. During my career I met Coca-Cola more and more, so it had been on my radar for a while. I regarded them as a company where you can improve yourself – I could easily imagine working here. I had been at BAT for nine years when I thought it was time for a change, and it was exactly then when a recruiter called me on behalf of Coca-Cola HBC. It was a perfect match. Actually, it's like that with me in general; I experienced my first job interview at BAT, and the second one at Coca-Cola. Opportunities just find me at the right times.

Did your plans and goals include working for internationally renowned multinational companies? Why multinationals?

I saw the things I was looking for in their world. It was important for me to be able to improve, to be in an international environment, and to work for sufficiently stable and reliable companies. I think the important thing is to know what you look for, in what environment you are able to perform well, and which companies are the ones where you won't be able to achieve that. I have several friends with a flair for enterprise; they have found themselves in that. I like being surrounded by a big team and seeing leaders who inspire me, who I can learn from, so that one day I would be able to be like them. You can find all this in the world of multinational companies.

What does your job comprise?

Basically, I regard myself as an economist, who is specialised in HR. I have always had an economic or business approach to HR or to the teams I could be part of or I could lead. For me, the important thing is how my team can contribute to business success by improving people, constructing better organisation structures, focussing on goals to be achieved. In this world this is the measure of success.

I think there are two kinds of jobs within our profession. One of them, which we call a specialist, is involved in tasks such as recruitment, training, development, allocations and benefits; while the other is a so-called generalist, the HR head/business partner responsible for various areas; keeping contact with finance, marketing and sales areas. These two fields are unable to work without each other. I have been lucky during my career so far because I could switch between these: when I completed my trainee programme I was a recruitment head in Hungary, which is utterly a specialist job. Then I became a business partner which is generalist. Then I became a European recruiting leader in the Netherlands, which required specialist tasks again. Then I became a business partner again, then a HR manager. These experiences have considerably helped me in my work and I could constantly improve as a head.

What kind of qualities and skills is the ideal colleague at Coca-Cola is characterised by?

It is a very rapidly changing environment. Situations run fast both inside and outside, so flexibility and adaptability are extremely important. It is also important that a colleague should control changes; not the changes should 'drag' them. Another important thing is continuous learning. Each situation is different, and if you can handle them, you can improve a lot as a professional and as a human being, too. Coca-Cola can be characterised by the need to win: everyone at the company wants to achieve the best results, but not by stepping over others or pushing forward. Our employees can be described by the mind-set of 'winning together', which I have found very nice from the beginning.

You graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Pécs. Do you have any favourite stories of your professors?

Rhetoric was taught by Professor János Gergely, an incredibly dashing, old-school gentleman. He always wore a suit for classes, he always was on time, spoke very softly, and did not say a word if only ten people attended a lecture for 300. He was an exemplar. He thought classroom work was the most important, he did not take exams so seriously. Therefore we only had to recite a poem. But my friends and I thought it was not a challenge for us, we could do better, so the four of us performed Villon's Quatrain – consisting of four lines – together. We thought there was maybe nothing cheekier. The third line goes like “And from a rope, six foot to eight, my neck will know my arse's weight” (translation by Peter Dale). At from a rope, my friend wanted to roll down a measuring tape as a symbol of the rope, for dramatic effect. And it was then that we managed to get stuck at the third line, because he rolled down the tape, but had a blackout and forgot his line. Finally we somehow went on, and each of us got the best grade. That was a remarkable moment.

What kind of advice would you give young graduate economists who wish to find employment at some big, multinational company?

I think consciousness and career planning are the two most important things. A lot of companies – and multinationals are surely among them – look for that, as these are the aspects that can make someone successful. It is important to know why you want to work in that particular business or at that particular company and what you want to achieve. By this I do not mean 'well, I want a nice salary' or 'I want to be a CEO'. I think those times are over when you could decide you wanted this or that position. However, you do have to know why you are there, what you would like to become there, and what kind of knowledge and experience you need to obtain, what kind of skills you need to develop, what you will need to achieve in order to prove yourself, and what you have already done for that purpose. When, for example, you do your professional practical training during your university years, you need to think whether you go in that particular direction, if you try to set forth that way, so that it would be easier to take the first steps in your new job.

One of the great dangers for young graduates nowadays is that they are interested in a wide range of fields, and various opportunities are alluring as well, so it is very easy to lose the goals they have set. If they deal with this and that, various things, without any plans and directions, then five years or so will pass from their careers without knowing who they are and where they want to go. It is important to stick to our aims!

Another very important thing is humility, I think. If you get a new opportunity, don't take it for granted! An opportunity is an opportunity. If you get one, you'll have to work twice as hard to fulfil it and to gain new opportunities again.

If you possess these values, you can achieve a lot in this world. Because what are the values which are very important for us as individuals? Integrity, mutual respect and a sense of duty...

Your career has been characterised with constant success so far, however, I suppose there have occurred some failures as well. How do you approach such situations? Can you draw strength from them?

Those who say they haven't failed either are liars or haven't tried hard enough. I try to keep two things in mind: firstly, you can make mistakes but they shouldn't be too big ones; secondly, don't make the same mistake twice. I make mistakes, my team make mistakes, everyone makes mistakes; it is perfectly all right. But if you make the same mistakes two or three times, it's not OK, because it means you haven't learned anything and there's no guarantee you won't make it for the third or fourth time. I think these mistakes and failures remain with us much longer than success. They get imprinted and if you reflect upon them and draw the consequences – for yourself, too, not only for others – you will become something more. Next time you will be more courageous in a similar situation, or you will steer the ship in the right direction or make the right decisions more easily.

Is Coca-Cola family-oriented only on the labels?

I think it is very family-like. I haven't been here for such a long time, but I feel I'm part of the community. The company I work for employs people who have been working there for ten, fifteen or twenty years, or only for a couple of months. What is really important that I can be who I am at home with my family; I have the same attitude towards my colleagues as towards my children and family. I'm open to them, I'm interested in what happens to them and we share a lot of experiences not only at the boardroom table but outside the offices as well, in sports or at parties. That's why I regard the company as friendly and informal. I don't know if at other companies someone in my position could approach the number one leader, or if that leader knows your name and greets you in the corridor... because that's the way at our company. Heads' doors are always open and they are really interested in you, not only as a colleague. So I feel great and I feel I have found my place.

 by Márk József HORVÁTH