Magazin: Károly Gerendai: ‘One must try to act like the captain of the ship’

Trade magazin’s Business Podcast, Future Talks with Szilvia Krizsó continues

– How big was last year’s negative effect on you?

– Certain elements of it were really bad for me, while I looked on others as a challenge. I had to do crisis management with my enterprises – this was interesting, a real challenge to try to act like the captain of the ship. The worst thing for me was having to stay at home all the time, because I am the kind of person who can’t sit around doing nothing, I like to create, make plans and build.

– The only way to handle this is to keep saying to yourself: you are doing this for a cause that will produce something good, because by keeping businesses alive you don’t have to lay off workers. In Hungary the average entrepreneur is a small or family business with no significant savings. Due to the fact that a few years ago we sold our majority stake in Sziget Zrt., I had financial reserves and despite losing more than a billion forints in the last 12 months, I could keep going.

– You did start new projects, for instance the two new restaurants, Nudli and Rumour…

– Yes, but we started these before the pandemic and the recession. In Nudli I partnered with András Jókuti, while Rumour is a joint project with Jenő Rácz.

– When this episode airs, Rumour will already be open. I would like to know what your concept was with this restaurant, because whatever you do turns out to be some kind of major triumph…

– Rumour is special because its chef is the famous Jenő Rácz, who won a Michelin star in Shanghai. In Rumour the kitchen is in the middle of the restaurant and guests are sitting around it, watching and listening to the chef while he is cooking; it is also him who serves guests.

– Soon you are going to open a Costes in China too, in a huge restaurant complex on the island of Hainan. How are things going with this project?

– Next to the island of Hainan the Chinese are building an artificial archipelago, called Ocean Flower. Costes will be one of the 150 restaurants there from all over the world: the top 50 Chinese restaurants, 50 from other Asian countries and 50 from the rest of the world. Costes was the only restaurant selected from Central Europe.

Pulitzer-winning journalist Szilvia Krizsó

– How much are you true to your principles?

– It depends on what we are talking about. Most of the time I am trying to think following my principles, so I am always true to certain values, but I am not dogmatic – I can change my mind if I realise that I was wrong about something. These days I am very much irritated by conspiracy theories and how fast they are spreading.

– Actually I am a bit afraid of the future because of all those technological innovations…

– I am a little afraid of the future too, but I am also very curious what kind of novelties it will bring about. My view is that there are innovations which really satisfy fundamental needs of people. These innovations serve us but they have their hidden threats too – we need to find a balance here, what can be allowed and what we can’t let happen. //