The start of an international start-up from the Executive MBA

“Real market growth is not taking market share from competitors, but creating a new market.”

This was one of the two key phrases that Gábor Szántó remembered deeply from his studies at the Corvinus-MSM-Seed Executive MBA programme. He took the advice. Eron Systems, an international company that was launched as a start-up three years ago, has already achieved sales of €20-25 million this year and they joined the Leipzig Energy Exchange in July, officially entering the international market. The Hungarian enterprise dreamed up by Gábor connects energy sector actors with market players for various energy efficiency projects.  

Eron Systems has achieved this by optimising the resources of its partners, in addition to its know-how and its own resources.

Gábor decided to apply for the programme when they closed their previous family business and wanted to start something completely new: “the sector I wanted to enter was new, and I wanted to build an international business, but the coronavirus pandemic made networking more difficult at the time. That’s when I decided to do a comprehensive training course that was internationally marketable.”  

The training has strongly shaped Gábor’s personality and leadership vision, and he has learned to appreciate the role of teamwork and the decisions born out of joint brainstorming. 

“But in the first few months we had to hold on to our seats and I think there were a few times when everyone said, My God, what have we taken on?”

– Gábor recalls, but adds that the heavy workload quickly made them a team. They soon realised the value of teamwork, that working together not only makes things easier and faster, but also generates more creative ideas. This was one of the important takeaways Gábor took with him from his Corvinus-MSM-Seed EMBA training.  The other key phrase is what Anthony Radev said to him in one of the first classes:

“the Executive MBA is mostly about networking, so you should do it in the region where you want to do business.”

Gábor still often thinks of this when he calls an old classmate with a business problem or simply gets together over a beer with former fellow students who work as senior managers in different sectors.  

“This training has also given me a lot of lexical knowledge, and it has taught me where to look for a solution to a business problem or who to call for help. But I think we learned the most from each other with our groupmates. For example, I learned very good presentation techniques and effective problem-solving skills from the others.”

– explains Gábor.   

As for the personality shaping effect of the training, he says that as a manager, one of the most profound experiences was to realize that the best solution is not always the one he suggests. On the other hand, thinking in teams and taking the best components from individual ideas can result in very good combinations to solve a business problem, according to Gábor. 

Apply by 6 September for our Corvinus-MSM-SEED Executive MBA course!