István Kapitány: The “journey” is what matters in a career

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

Sustainability and energy supply

Mr Kapitány talked about how Shell supplies the world with energy. In his view it is very important to make the energy transition – from fossil-based to zero-carbon – as quickly as possible, in spite of the energy crisis that is unfolding. This is treated as a top priority in the domain of electromobility, where Shell’s executive vice president is working. Shell already has 90,000 charging points – just in comparison, the number of their service stations is 45,000. The company’s objective is to have 500,000 charging points by 2025 and 2.5m of them until 2030. This will be a great contribution from Shell to making e-car driving simple and fun, as currently the biggest challenge in this field – besides the price of e-vehicles – is that there aren’t enough charging points. In some countries Shell is buying companies specialising in home charging, and they are also building EV hubs – for instance the last one was completed in Fulham. These hubs are better utilised that the chargers installed in the parking lots of supermarkets: the latter’s utilisation level is only around 5%, while Shell’s hubs have a 30% usage rate.

István Kapitány, Shell’s global executive vice president and president of the Hungarian Association of Executives

The future of mobility

Ms Krizsó asked when the majority of cars on the roads will be e-vehicles. Mr Kapitány explained that the situation is different in every country. For instance in Norway drivers can charge their cars at every service station and at lots of charging points, and 66% of vehicles sold are electric. It is rather likely that the same process will take place in Hungary too. Shell won’t have problems when cars with internal combustion engines disappear from the roads, as what they are selling isn’t products but services. The only difference from selling fossil fuels is that much more points of sale are needed for e-vehicles. Although there are new trends such as carpooling, István Kapitány thinks there won’t be fewer cars on the roads in the future. In his view self-driving cars will actually increase the level of mobility, especially in the form of shared service use. As president of the Hungarian Association of Managers, he is working on putting talented young Hungarian managers on an international career path. He keeps reminding them that a career isn’t about positions, it is the “journey” that really matters.

„I accepted the position of president of the Hungarian Association of Executives  to help put Hungarian managers in a position”

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The above article is available for reading on pp 192-193 of Trade magazin 2022.08-09.