What Our Clients Had to Say About Us

ARD Color Kft.

ARD Color Kft is a major player in the retail of car painting materials. During the past 3 years they have expanded their activities to include household painting and industrial painting materials as well as furniture finishing.

The owner-manager had this to say about our cooperation:

In August 2009 we have opened a 300-square meter painting material retail unit in Kecskemét. With this expansion came the idea to bolster up ourselves in this field by getting assistance in increasing our turnover, our profit margin and our profit volume. We also had the purpose to increase the number of areas where we can effectively operate (e.g. to increase the number of different trades that buy our products and thus the total number of customers we have.)

That's how we started our cooperation with Szilard Potencsik.

We had been going well on the original goals set for the consulting but an unexpected breakthrough happened on the subject of optimizing the size of our stocks. That really “blew the fuse!”

We were “looking for” the financial resources for expanding our business when we suddenly found out that as much as 20 or 30% of our stocks (25 million HUF worth) had not even budged yet in the year 2010 either at this or other retail points. We found that 50-60 Million HUF worth of stocks would have been sufficient for a 6 months period yet we had a stock worth of 140 Million HUF!

To make a long story short, we had a much larger stock than warranted or needed and on top of that we had a significant amount of “dead” (unmoving) stock.

When confronted with these facts I realized that all these unmoving stocks can expire on me, and anything with more than a six/month turnover period (from the date of stocking it to the time of date of selling it) is a potential danger and only ties up my liquid funds.

This realization has started a chain reaction.

The result: We have handled a large source of danger that could bankrupt the company! I would have never thought that we had items of this magnitude that were not turning over in our stock!

We have started on another consultation program with Szilard as of 1st of January. We have assigned a person in charge of this who takes extremely good care of it and will produce much better inventory statements resulting in a much improved stock policy in our company.

At the outset all we wanted to do was to improve a small retail point and what we finally ended up with was finding a huge mass of problems which was much more important to handle and was mandatory to solve.

We have “found” lots of inactive money and we are making that into “working” money now. By setting these amounts aside as reserves we greatly add to the power and strength of our company. Today it's a luxury to expose yourself to “luck” or “chance” coming from the outside world. Yet it's exactly what we did. Fortunately we had the consulting just in time and took the necessary steps to remedy.
Now I can look for expansion in areas what I couldn't do so far. I can use the funds thus “found” to open up new areas and to make my company more productive.

Why do I recommend Szilard? He has an extremely extensive and profound knowledge in his mind and he uses it not only to help achieve the targets we set but he also examines how we could advance further and exposes problematic areas which we would have never thought existed or were that big!
Should one embark on a consulting program with Szilard, he will dig deep into the operation of the company with the managers and will find ways of improvement and optimizing that are worth the fee many times over in realized returns.

Szilard is a professional of this area of trade. The solutions he worked out for our company is invaluable. If us, the old-hands, advanced guys were gaping with our mouths open at what he found, it's my bet that there are lots of other businesses out there who could profit big time from such help.

I consider it important to work every year with him, to investigate the company inside out to find those areas that can advance and improve the business in the given situation. This is an important and successful part of our operation because there is always room for improvement!

Adorjan Moczar
owner-manager
ARD-Color Kft
www.ardcolor.hu

Eco System Kft.

Established in 2004 Ecosystem Kft is a 100% Hungarian owned family business.
We are involved in the construction business. We have 23 employees.

With an extensive 20 years of experience behind me in running businesses I set out to reorganize our company. We didn't have any contracts, we were just sitting and waiting for some miracle to come our way. I had had a feeling for years that what we had been doing was okay but somehow we were missing something, and the financial crisis unfortunately confirmed this hunch of mine.

The first helping hand came from one of my friends, Tamas Kopacz, who is one of the top managers of an outstandingly performing business. I owe him a lot for his help. Upon seeing that our case requires a complex handling he recommended Szilard Potencsik to me.

Our work together with Szilard resulted in me taking our company from the edge of bankruptcy to a 15% annual increase.

The specific results of the consulting program with Szilard were:

An ever-increasing contract volume for our business.
Our revenue of last year has tripled by June of this year. Our supply and work organization and coordination processes are much more thought-through.
We have just analyzed the results of the last period. Our profits before taxation has increased by more than 30 million HUF this year.
I have amassed 10 million HUF in reserves in just half a year. This provides great stability and a calmness of mind.
We have reviewed our expenses and using what we found we reduced them by as much as 15-20%.
I became much more aware of the importance of setting goals, planning ways to achieve them for the whole of the company as well as its individual parts. Just a small example of the results of this: the head of our back office reduced the cost of office supplies from 100 units to 80 units just by surveying the actual needs and ordering based on the findings.
Morale has suddenly soared. Everyone knows why he or she is in the company. Jobs and their spheres of responsibilities are clearly delineated and you know what you can expect from your fellow workers.
We set as a goal to have satisfied customers, subcontractors and suppliers. We started to apply the strategy worked out and the attitude of these people completely changed toward us and we are getting much better conditions because they are certain we are going to pay up.

Szilard is like a “professor”, an incredible man who doesn't let his clients deviate from the path toward their goals. He didn't let us up for a moment, he demanded results. The product of this was at least 50 job descriptions made, of which the most difficult was my own. I was at the verge of giving up because I already saw where I wanted to go (and by getting impatient again lose it all), but Szilard was adamant.

Szilard taught us to think like businessmen. I now know why it's good for me if it's good for my suppliers, colleagues etc. I learned to view things from a bird's eye perspective and to think like a leader. I put great emphasis on handling our suppliers well and on training my executives.

One of the greatest thing is planning my schedule in advance and applying this with my executives as well. My head of office who didn't really believe in all this told me at the last meeting that although he didn't expect anything from applying this but gave it a try and as a result he caught up with his backlog work. He is not dispersed anymore.

Our selection of employees has got onto a much more conscious level.
I have shown my fellow workers the direction, I depicted a future for them and this meant a lot in terms of morale. As a result of the program lots of things became clear to them.

It's my personal gain that I learned to communicate effectively. I know exactly what I want before going to a meeting with someone and I am able to get that other person to comply with my request. In this I use one of the tactics learned that is not letting things ride when receiving a curt reply “yes, boss, I'm on it” but I keep probing on.

Even our partners, clients and friends started to see the improvement in our company and were asking about the why and how. And I happily recommended Szilard to many of them. I'm sure that we will also work together again.

Working with Szilard is an investment that pays off big time. I recommend him to every business who wants to take their business to a more conscious and knowing level.

Attila Pap
owner-manager
Eco System Hungary Kft
www.ecosystemkft.com

GIA FORM Kft.

Autumn 2008 brought on the financial crisis. The area we were hit the most by the recession was the decline of the car industry. The crisis made me realize how dangerous it is to be a supplier to only a few bigger companies, to never diversify our range of customers but stick to only the car industry or some electronics giants. During the time of an economic recession anything can put us into an effect position and from there it can easily become a falling domino theory proposition.

This is what we remedied in 2009 with Szilard Potencsik. He is a real pro, a strategist and he has a unique program. We completed a situation and market analysis. We decided to come out with our own products along the lines of our own marketing plan. We are introducing this product into a new market by forming up our own sales team. Our goal is to diversify our customer portfolio and to get into a more causative position. The feedback is very promising, customer interest in our product is beyond expectations.

I can safely say that we are handling the crisis successfully and our turnover is increasing by 60-65% annually. Despite the economic recession we will grow by 20-25% also this year. Our profit is also an area of owner satisfaction. Our business won the Business and Success award in 2008.

I recommend Szilard Potencsik to all business managers who want to achieve a stable, predictable and continuous expansion without sacrificing their private life.

Attila Gaszt
owner-manager
www.giaform.hu

Mapei Kft.

Dear Szilard,

The four days we spent together was extremely useful.

Perhaps the most important was that by introducing these principles into our system I expect a minimum of 50,000,000 HUF increase of revenues the next year.

The cost of consultation was but a fragment of that figure so it was very worth it!

The reason I really decided to have the consulting was that I wanted to increase our profit margin. This we can achieve by changing the prices of the products that are not at a fixed-price and by increasing the sale of these products.

We can achieve more profit margin by advertizing and increasing the sale of promotional products.

Still more profit margin can be achieved by applying the Realistic Flow Table which gets our salesmen much more in control and aware of their monthly planning.

As a result of the consulting sessions we found the real reason of the weaker Budapest area performance and we are increasing our sales network to address this problem. This will also increase our profit margin.

I wholeheartedly recommend cooperating with you to anyone. I honestly believe there are lots of companies in the country that you could give great help to!

Sincerely:

Bela Markovich
Executive Director
www.mapei.hu

V-S GROUP 2000 Kft.

The situation at the outset:

we were struggling with the problems presented by our expansion.
My workers were performing less and less of what I expected of them

The result of our cooperation:

I'm much more effective as a leader
The processes and structure of the company are much more transparent to one and all
This gives tremendous stability and a calmness of mind for the owners, the manager as well as the workers
continuous, stable expansion even in the current economic situation

The programs we did together paid off at least ten times what they cost me because:

we ensured stable expansion and development
our profits also increased
we have made a leader of myself that achieves his goals and can focus on getting his own job done
I can devote more time on organizing and development which proved to be near impossible beforehand

I recommend Szilard to every business and business manager who would like to expand continuously, and in a stable and organized manner at that.

Viktor Nemess
owner-manager
www.vsfurdoszoba.hu

"Kristály-99" Kft.

Our business was established in 1995 from scratch, with 1 Million HUF starting capital. Our staff at the beginning consisted of me and a fresh-out-of-college female worker.

Currently we have 42 workers and our annual revenue is over 1 Billion HUF.

We have done several consulting programs with Mr. Potencsik. They included the production analysis program (which lasted only a few days, but in turn we got such a statistic monitoring system which can be compared to a manager like a dashboard for someone driving a car. One can see at any given moment the major statistics of the company including turnover, profits, various expenses and even the different departments. This way we can see at all times when and where to interfere and what direction to take.

All in all, our cooperation was very successful and paid off many times over. It contributed to the following results in the past 8 years:

Our turnover more than doubled
Our profits more than doubled
We have more than a 100 Million HUF reserves which greatly contributes to the company being stable, and me peacefully sleeping at nights as the owner and manager.

Szilard played a major role in achieving these.

I can only recommend him to all who would like:

a peace of mind
a well organized team

Bela Kurucz
Business manager
www.kristaly99.hu

Dig-Build Kft.

Dig-Build Kft. has been involved in the cleaning business since 1995 all over Hungary, mainly in Bekes county. In 2000 we contacted a Spanish company selling cleaning supplies to be our main supplier and up to 2008 we imported supplies from them for our own use only. In 2009 we decided to also enter the cleaning supplies market.

We got introduced to Szilard Potencsik in 2009 and started working together in May to build up our company structure and to form a business strategy to achieve our goals.

During the course of our sessions we:

“took the company apart” fully
set goals
formed up the business structure outline
established a sales system

Our financial and other statistics show that our operation became more economical, and by following the route set out we can become more and more effective.

I can only recommend Szilard Potencsik and the program to any business that wants to take a step forward.

Sandor Bagosi
Dig-Build Kft.
www.digbuild.hu

Krüger paint retail

Krüger paint retail was formed in 2002 with the idea to create a paint retail network in the Transdanubian (west Hungary) area consisting of eight to ten outlets. We sell traditional house-hold type of products as well as hard finishing materials, tile glues, etc.

To reach our goals we started out with our consultant, Szilard to form up our company strategy and structure in 2009.

We had had a record year in 2008 but I couldn't see our guaranteed expansion, we were simply not established for expansion. I wanted our company expert, Szilard to help me in reshaping our business structure to enable us to improve and reach the original goals set.

The Construction industry was hard hit in 2009 by the economic crisis and the resulting 35% loss of our turnover would have collapsed our small 3-shop retail network. With the help of Szilard we were just in time in the middle of the crisis to correct all our mistakes we had committed in the past. That step achieved the minimum level of stability required. Our turnover did not expand compared to the previous year but only went down by 20% (after the close-down of one of our retail outlets) which was still a surprisingly good result. The close down of that outlet was attributable to mistakes committed previously, including wrongly selecting the location. After the close-down, the reorganization of the remaining two outlets was accomplished with great success. We are much more careful now about employee selection. Raising profits is in reachable distance in 2010.

At the end of the „Returns Program” it became crystal clear to us that we have again set the company on the right path of stability and expansion. Our current target is 20-25 new outlets in 4-6 years which is a realistic goal based on the business programs we have worked out.

I recommend this program and cooperation with Szilard to all businesses who have similar problems to what we have had. Taking the next step forward is a simple and easy thing once you learn what to do, and that's where Szilard is a great help to you.

Janos Ivanyi
owner-manager
Krüger Festékbolt
www.krugerfestekbolt.hu

TAKÉPSZOLG BT.

Takepszolg Bt. was formed in 1994. We deal in cleaning of offices, office buildings and industrial installations.

We wanted to form up a business structure that could guarantee the major products of our company. These are:

maximally satisfied customers
continuous and planned expansion
a stably and transparently operating business.

Thus we embarked on the Company Strategy and Structure Program with Szilard Potencsik which delivered just exactly the above results.

We worked out a professional structure for the company and a detailed, feasible business program to achieve our goals.

Armed with these we are going to achieve 2.5 times the turnover in 2010 than we had in the last year. During the consulting with Szilard we worked out a sales system that can ensure this expansion.

According to our plans the program will have made 5 times what it cost us by 2010.

I recommend this service to all business managers who have goals and ambition to expand, and would like a stable, guaranteed future for himself and his fellow workers.

(excerpt from the webpage of the company showing number of workers increased nearly double from 2009 to 2010.)

Viktor Nemess
owner
Taképszolg Bt.
www.takepszolg.hu

TERRA COOP Kft.

Terra-Coop Kft. group is involved in agricultural production and services. We have a 3000 hectares land area. Our gross revenue is 1 Billion HUF per year.

We started our company from scratch and we expanded so fast that we needed new tools to be able to review our operation. That's how we started working on the program called Effectiveness and Productivity by Szilard Potencsik.

During the course of the program we worked out a monitoring system which made measuring results possible.
We even made individual performance clear and transparent to each individual workers, so it could be seen who individually produced how much, and what it cost to operate equipment. Management also got invaluable help in the form of statistics (revenues, expenses).

We took the measuring and analyzing our performance so seriously as to create a new job which has the sole duty to collect and analyze these statistics. This system provides individual staff members with an objective look of their performance. At the same time it's a great help in doing the managing job for it provides the data and analysis necessary. The end result of all the above is transparency in managing the business, increased performance and discipline.

The program is bringing results in terms of increased efficiency, performance and cost-effectiveness which all go to increase a potential profit increase. The fact that both me and my fellow managers can see their objective performance depicted is of great use. Because of this the program is an investment that paid off well.

I recommend the program to others. Any business employing over 10 people and having a 500 Million HUF annual turnover essentially needs this kind of observation and evaluation tool, and Szilard is an expert (also) on this field.

Pal Szarvas
owner-manager
Terra-Coop Kft.
www.terracoop.hu

ENSI Kft.

Our company is involved in constructing engineering systems for buildings.
I have been the owner and manager of ENSI Kft since 1997.

We have been working with Szilard Potencsik since 2001 and in that period our annual turnover increased from 550 Million HUF to 1.6 Billion HUF.

It was shocking to see some of the prevailing conditions in the company. The Management changed, only the really competent remained.
A few days after completing the consulting we have signed a 400 Million HUF contract immediately.
With the program we have been able to find the really important details of countless problems which we have successfully solved by now.
In working out the effectiveness and production monitoring system we were able to remedy a situation in the sales area to have more bigger customers.
Our quarterly revenue in the first 3 months of 2005 has exceeded the same period of the last year.
We have a great contract volume. Previously we were oftentimes late with our delivery.

I recommend this program to all business managers. The result will be that management will immediately see and handle those points which really cause expansion in the company.

Laszlo Nemeth
owner
www.ensi.hu