For our quest for the business hero, we asked Giacomo Pedranzini how he would describe a business hero and if has ever met one.
Giacomo Pedranzini is a businessman, founder and CEO of Kometa 99 Zrt., company that reflects his family tradition but with close attention to ethics and sustainability. We spoke about our three central values: ethics, sustainability, and creativity, the qualities that a business hero for a better world.
In the interview, Pedranzini talked about his business journey, the concepts of “business” and “heroism“. He talked about the challenges he had to go through, the mentors he met in his business career and also shared some special lessons that helped him throughout his journey.
In this series, we also had the pleasure to interview Gabor Nemes, co-founder and CEO of Good People Everywhere, Michele Orzan, President of EuCham, Gabor Marton, a Peak-performance coach who works in Finance and Business, Alessandro Farina, Founder of ITL Group, Omar Balducci Manager of Lucart Kft, and Luigino Bottega, coach and author of “IO – how to win the game of life”.
1. PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF – who you are, what you are doing and what your profession is.
My name is Giacomo Pedranzini, I’m an entrepreneur and I have been leading already for 28 years Kometa 99, a meat processing company located in Kaposvár.
2. Let’s start with an easy game of word association. What comes to your mind when I say “business”? And what comes to your mind when I say “hero”?
With the word business of course, it comes to my mind something related with different type of economic activities, we can associate to the word business activities on different levels. In some cases, activities that are not fully legal or that have a negative meaning associated with them, but I would say that in general Business is a positive word related to the work each of us has to do to have enough resources to live.
While with what concerns the word hero I would say it is not so easy to define one, as it is a really powerful word full of meaning. To me this expression is calling to my mind people who really went through huge sacrifice or did extreme acts of sacrifice. With this being the meaning, I attach to this word, I feel this is also why I would say it is something really powerful and really positive.
3. Now, let’s combine them together…what do you think is a business hero?
If I connect to my explanation, what does it mean to be a hero, meaning a person that has a strong sense of sacrifice and a strong dedication, then I feel I can think of many people in many different situations. A hero is a simple worker who works every day to support his family even when salaries are not the best but in order to sustain the family the worker does everything in his power to support them. Also, mothers with children at home, with big families to manage and that at the same time they are capable to fulfill their obligations at their workplace.
In some cases, it is also possible to associate the word hero to big leaders in the economic activity. In this moment if I have to tell the truth it doesn’t come a name to my mind but if I should explain, instead of giving a name, I can use this example: If we look at the higher level of business, meaning to the entrepreneurs, for me a hero is an entrepreneur that in very difficult situations is doing all his best to keep the company alive, to pay salaries before buying big cars and to guarantee that the economic organization is really contributing in a positive way to the development of society.
4. Every business person goes through a journey: When did you hear your call and how did your journey start?
Let me start really from my childhood. First of all, I grew up in a farmer’s family, we were 9 brothers so our childhood was a really active one helping the parents in our farm. I was not really in favor of going too long to school I was more for starting to work in the farm or to do something more operative, but then my parents forced me to attend the secondary school, as a matter of fact I am a bookkeeper, and then I decided I would stop my studies, I would attend my military services and then see what to do. I never planned to attend university, but I always had in mind that in case I was going to attend it, It would have been only for an economic degree. Indeed, after the military service, I ended attending the university in Milan and I took my degree in economics and started to work as a consultant. More specifically I started working as a business consultant which is a specific profession in Italy called “dottore commercialista” and I’ve spent 3 or 4 years doing this, but I felt it was not really in line with my nature. Most probably due to having grown up in a farmer’s family I needed something more dynamic, something more connected to the real business and so at a certain point I decided that I had to take a different course of action. The opportunity to invest in Hungary presented itself, so in 1994 I decided to give up with the consulting activity and to unite with other partners to run an industrial activity here in Hungary.
5. Which obstacles did you encounter during your journey?
I encountered quite the obstacles, because, as we say in Italy “ho fatto il passo più lungo della gamba”, meaning I bit off more than I could chew. I had to learn what it requires to run a company and to mature as an entrepreneur. As a result, I really had to go through a lot of obstacles and what helped me get over these difficulties was the hard work and the perseverance to keep doing and keep trying and step by step I managed to learn and go on.
6. Did you find a mentor or inspiring leader to help go forward?
Unfortunately, I didn’t find a mentor, therefore I started running a business and I became a leader of an enterprise perhaps too early. In addition, the lack of appropriate preparation lead to the many difficulties. Even though I did not have a mentor I luckily always had the example of my parents that were always being perseverant and working hard and never getting discouraged by the failure.
A further experience that helped me, and that I would recommend also to other people who had to go through difficult times, was reading. Since I couldn’t sleep too much at night because of the many thoughts and concerns I had, I started to read. I found several books that were really useful and I would mention 3 titles: the first is The greatest salesman in the world by Og Mandino, the second one is How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie, and the third one I would mention is Think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill.
7. What important lessons did you learn and what is your contribution towards society?
The lesson I learned is really simple: you have to persevere. When you take a decision, you have to do your best and persevere. While the lesson towards the society I think is that as long as you are acting in good faith trying to your best, even if you fail, you will always have your inside strengths to go through the difficulties. To do something good for society I think is the best source of strengths to overcome difficulties.
8. Atlas World is looking for business heroes with an Ethical, Sustainable, and Creative approach: Can you think of someone that embodies these qualities?
Difficult to mention someone and believe me I was really thinking about it, but I follow two principles: firstly, for such an important nomination I need to think about it really carefully, and secondly I wouldn’t like to do it publicly.
9. Do you consider yourself a business hero?
Not at all because connecting to my previous explanation of business hero, I do not feel like I have to go through these really proving experiences, and it’s not to appear humble, but I just try to do my best to be a good example in business and as a result sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail, but I am always trying.
