Cezar, or how to achieve an international success

Cezar, or how to achieve an international success

Management is challenge

Cezar company from Białystok (Poland) belongs to the leading printing sector entities in the country. In its production segment - „premium” packaging and labels – it is measuring up to the best in Europe. We talk about the determinants of success, the significance of good management and plans for future with Cezary Nazar – owner and president of Cezar company.

During my previous visit to Cezar company you presented your vision of an enterprise. We talked then about problems which the head of a big printing facility must struggle with. Have you managed to solve all of them since that time?

It could seem five years ago that the printing house achieved a satisfactory level of production. Then it turned out that as a result of market changes customers verified their needs, and satisfying the re-formulated demands required new machinery and technology. Of course new from the perspective of Poland, not from a global perspective, where – for instance – print on plastic with deep embossment has been known and implemented for years.

Introduction of new technologies requires from the company to train employees, so that they could apply them. The process of improvement continues – it is a kind of a „never-ending story”. You add new products, new sources of supply, modern materials. You swap conventional inks with UV inks, you look for new suppliers, you change hundreds or thousands of colour standards prepared for another, previously applied type of inks, etc.

What is the biggest challenge for you as a manager of a big company?

Managing constant growth. Western companies have got bigger possibilities, they are capable of accomplishing the vision of a modern enterprise from the scratch. In the West, a new company (start-up, greenfield) does not commence activities without the concept, the idea it is supposed to realise, and without money for such venture. When a western company is trying to build a facility, it is organising a greenfield project, defines the scale of the enterprise and maximum production capacity, then buys the land and starts the construction. Planning is the foundation.

In Poland it is different. Cezar and hundreds of other companies from the printing sector want very much to develop, but they encounter the problem of scale. The increase of production volume is significantly hindering the management of the company. You manage differently the facility generating 10 million of annual turnover, differently the one with 50 million, and the one with 200 million – yet in another way. It is like promotion to a much higher rank. You cannot simply put in another machine and pretend everything is going to function the way it used to with smaller infrastructure. The head of the company will sooner or later find out that he must completely change the manner of managing. Structure changes, therefore new people are needed – efficient people, highly motivated and educated staff of the medium rank.

That is why I emphasise that managing constant growth is a big challenge. In order to be successful, you need the right product. In order to have the product, you need appropriate technologies. We should add other pieces to this puzzle, to make it complete: infrastructure, sources of funds, growing crew and managerial staff. We cannot forget about the training programme, because there are very few educated workers on the market. On top of that, you have to know, how to retain your staff. Believe me: printing sector is a complicated field, which require both the familiarity with technology and skills to manage the increase of volume.

Observation of Cezar’s market success makes me presume that you handle the management pretty well. In contrast to several other facilities – especially with Polish, not western capital.

We very often forget that several things need time. People try to leap a few steps at a time. They build new halls, put in new machines, and then, suddenly - stop! They have to take a break, because people do not follow the changes, and frequently they are not even interested in new products.

Appropriate management, appropriate selection of personnel, information and production flow, logistics – this the key to success. Individual managing a printing house should be capable of appointing goals and planning for a term longer than a year, at least to guarantee the funds for a long-term repayment of expensive machinery.

That is true. Equipment costs millions of Euros – have a look at the price of a good 8-colour UV printing press. These are serious investments: installation of the machine requires a place in a manufacturing hall and a team of qualified operators. We try to take care of our employees, yet we are concerned with growing fluctuation among the staff. Today, a young person is more prone to change his profession – especially when foreign companies present tempting offers. I have to create such conditions so that he does not leave. Not only by means of salary, but also a guarantee of employment and opportunity for constant development, e.g. via training.

Most of medium- and big-sized corporations with extensive market experience know very well that they have to have a vision of activities and strategic priorities, as well as points of measurement which will allow concluding objectively that they are developing in the intended manner, at the forecast pace. This is the goal I am trying to attain as a head of Cezar company.

I have got a long-term strategic and financial goal which I am trying to attain. I would like Cezar to be a leading European printing house in the aspect of highly-processed UV print.

I am working hard to achieve on the European market the position of a leading supplier of greeting cards, paper labels and premium type packaging, and to make Cezar the second producer of IML labels in terms of turnover. It took us two years to get to the place right behind the unquestionable leader of IML market, Verstraete company. We have managed to build second biggest production capacity in this segment.

Although goals are precisely defined, it does not mean that there are no natural adjustments. General vision is for the enterprise – no matter how pompously it sounds – a certain kind of safety valve.

I realise that the value of Cezar company is the people. Everyone has got a specific scope of responsibilities and goals for future, but we are trying to work as a team. We want to understand the needs of customers and business partners and therefore we attach a lot of importance to co-operation with suppliers. No company can develop without them.

When you are developing these visions, are you using the experience of other entrepreneurs?

Of course I am using it. I travel a lot and I watch, how it is working in other countries. You can benefit a lot if you observe, how HR processes are handled there. Currently we are very intensely training the medium rank managerial staff – it turned out they are the key people, because 80 percent of costs are generated on the operational level. Therefore control of these costs must be also conducted by the medium rank managers.

Is there any market area, in which you have not yet been active, and which you would like to enter now?

No, there is not. We are developing in premium segments. The assortment of our products has been planned in such a manner that it allows for a constant development – on average by 20 percent per year. It means that we are producing for markets of a growing or at least stable demand.

Most of mature, model companies in Europe want one type of product to be manufactured in one facility. Such plant has got perfectly adjusted production capacities and procedures fitted to serve a definite type of product.

We manufacture a few various products of premium type, therefore we have got four times more relations with suppliers and four times more problems related to complicated logistics – planning processes. We have to take care of appropriate information flow, of the appropriate quantity (and type) and machines in the book-binding department, in order to be able to produce paper labels, IML labels, packaging and greeting cards (which from the post-press processing point of view differ a lot). I accepted such model – future will show, whether it is appropriate. For the time being the external opinions I heard indicate that it looks all right.

An exceptional market activity influenced your image as an aggressive player of the Polish printing sector. Do you think such image is correct?

Cezar has already been operating on the market for 18 years – I want my company to have even better market recognition. For this purpose I have to be recognised in the sector, in which I am active.

We are restlessly sending to the market information that we are specialists in difficult tasks, that we cope with issues complicated from the technological point of view. Our marketing campaigns are bold, but we want to distinguish ourselves among the Polish printing houses.

Could you please reveal the idea of the slogan „Printing experts”, which accompanies Cezar brand on websites...

This is a deliberated process. At the beginning of 2004 that is before the accession of Poland to the European Union, we made a strategic decision on transforming our company from a typical family business into a new organisational structure, facilitating the increase of range of our activities a few times. The element of such change was the creation of the so-called corporate identity, visual identification of the brand. We hired a company that helped us develop ways of marketing communications. The outcome was a change of the company’s logo and the emergence of slogan „Printing experts” or – as we want to co-operate with international companies - „Competence in print”.

So far we have been discussing managing the company in the aspects of HR management, implementation of new technologies, advertising and marketing. What about the customer?

We take great care of relations with customers, of recognising their needs (which they often do not realise themselves). Customer does not have to be familiar with production processes – we have to supplement his knowledge about printing issues. The more he knows about modern technologies, the easier becomes our co-operation – because then he is capable of appreciating their advantages. And such person can also choose the best partner. Therefore we organise meetings with our customers and we delegate to such meetings our people, who can share their knowledge in a concise, clear manner.

How is the European market reacting to your activities?

Premium sector is profitable only then, when the company can supply a high-quality product for a good price. You can print beautiful items, however if they are so time-, cost- and labour-consuming that you earn next to nothing. Western companies have already learned their lesson and competing with them is a big challenge. These are enterprises with long-term experience in the market, enormous know-how and strongly rooted relations with customers.

When the Polish printers were getting ready to access the European Union, they had the false impression that it will be enough to offer a lower price and similar quality to beat the competition from the West. We were very much surprised that the foreign customers did not flood us with orders. We were not aware of the fact that several companies in the developed countries are not ready to purchase packaging from manufacturers located hundreds, or even thousands kilometres away.

Despite it I think that we are capable of conquering the Western markets. We need a lot of stamina and expensive investments in sale structures, in the international marketing. More and more companies realise it – a fine example of that is Winkowski Printing House. The entry of sheet-fed printing houses on the European markets requires additionally, a definite – high – volume of turnover. Then we will be able to afford regional representatives in several places all around Europe. What matters is the scale of activities: export develops much faster in the medium and big companies (in EU terms it means at least EURO 40 million of the annual turnover).

Thank you for this interview