Hungary

"Through a cousin of mine, we hired a bunch of guys from Hungary who had worked in some electronic factory and who were all part of the 56 exodus. Once we went to a trade show at a hotel in Houston with six or eight Hungarian guys in three Clairtone trucks. The unions from Chicago wanted to stop us unloading and setting up our displays on the weekend. These American union guys came out and said, “You're not supposed to move products. That job belongs to one of our state unions.” And the lead guy, Bertie Hahn, said, “You just try and stop us.” The Hungarian guys were water polo players, all at least six feet tall. No one was going to get in their way, either Saturday or Sunday. We were the only stereo and hi-fi display in the whole weekend trade show. Those guys would die for Canada. They hated Hungary. They hated Russia. In Canada they had a job, they had profit sharing, they had stock options. And we all made money. It was a fantastic time!"

"Peter Munk doesn’t believe in leaving his family money. “I believe in leaving them a strong set of moral guidelines. I think that I was influenced by the fact that I saw my grandfather, at the age of seventy-four, kicked out of Hungary by the Nazis with only a knapsack. So to me that can happen again in a lifetime. If you've got the moral guidelines, the self-confidence and the determination, you'll start again and will make it. But if all you have is the money and the money is taken away from you, then you are finished.”"

"The doubts seemed to be quickly dismissed. The move to East Germany initially became a successful model. The new companies, which were formally subordinate to Ilbau as a subsidiary of Bau Holding, grew to 700 employees within a few months. Just one year later, the East German subsidiaries were conducting so much business that the total group’s revenue shot up by 15 percent. Haselsteiner then targeted other markets, including Poland and the then still-existing Czechoslovakia, alongside Hungary where he was already active. In Hungary alone, Bau Holding was active with five own companies. Shareholders enjoyed substantial profits shortly after the IPO - in 1991, a dividend of 20 percent was paid. It was a golden time - sales expectations were corrected upwards almost monthly. By the end of the financial year 1991/92, Bau Holding had generated more than ten billion Schillings (700 million euros). For Austrian standards at the time, this was an incredible revenue. And the group was highly profitable: the profit amounted to 400 million Schillings (29 million euros). By 1993/94, the revenue had grown to 15 billion Schillings (1.1 billion euros) - an increase of 50 percent in just two years. Profits also continued to rise - although not quite as sharply: They now amounted to 450 million Schillings (32 million euros)."

"The construction tycoon was certainly under no illusion that the merger would be complete with the formal restructuring. “It will still take years for the full implementation of the corporate structure.” In 1999, he estimated the costs of the restructuring to be up to 300 million schillings (23 million euros) – a substantial sum for that time: “We have endeavored to take the best from all parts of the group. All costs will be more than offset by the expected synergy effects.” His credo was to become resistant to crises in individual states by spreading the business over several countries: “If, for example, Germany has a headache, we simultaneously have aspirin in Hungary.”"

"Erling's thoughts constantly return to business. His ideas have worked, but they tend to stall just when he thinks he has a hit on his hands. Like the Advent star Tindra, sold in a million copies and the cornerstone in the establishment of his business chain Pennspecialisten. But when Tindra was to be exported to the USA, it turned out that it did not meet the American fire safety regulations. Pennspecialisten is still growing, but the business is threatened by the ballpoint pen, which was recently invented in Hungary."