This is from the ground up. I've always been fascinated by what
drives our business leaders and I want to know about the journey they've
traveled. My guest is a chief executive of Wizz Air
Jozsef Varadi Were to say no frills flying
revolutionized air travel. Gone was the glamour the luggage
allowance and the free food and drink and didn't return.
Destinations were opened up to millions more people.
Since co-founded the company in 2003 Variety has taken Wazir to new heights
and the carrier was named Europe's most sustainable airline earlier this year.
We all know the pandemic shattered the industry and with recession possibly
around the corner new challenges lie ahead.
Wazir has managed to keep its head above water expanding across Europe and now
into areas in Asia. Despite staffing challenges and rising
fuel prices passenger levels are on the increase with the airline expecting
record traffic this summer. So what tough decisions lie ahead.
What has he learned and what can we learn from him.
Jozsef thanks so much for joining us. Thank you for inviting me.
Lindbergh you're one of the most well-known entrepreneurs for good and
sometimes also a bit of controversy around you.
How did it all start. Well you know I never thought I would be
such an entrepreneur if you want to put it that way.
I went to Procter and Gamble a great American company to get properly
trained. After being educated and I thought I
would be one of those kind of managers lifelong in in the business moving
locations et cetera. But that all changed in in 2001 I got
head hunted for money of Hungarian allies which at that time was seemed
like a really dysfunctional socialist type of
company. But at the same time it was very
exciting because that posed all the challenges you can take and you started
testing your own boundaries and you were pushing the envelope sometimes beyond
the conference on and on. So this is revamping basically a failed
airline. But also it kind of changed me
completely because you know I used to be a big corporate solver.
You presented your business card 90 percent of the business was done.
But here I mean you were alone. I mean there was nothing behind you
because there was no duty properly functioning business.
So yes I mean it was a complete idiot on and turn around over of a business
moving from socialism to capitalism if you want to put it that way.
And is this where you find out that you had.
Is there something called the entrepreneur gene.
Because a lot of people come on this program and say I knew I want to be
entrepreneur at five years old. Do you realize that's very interesting
because someone was telling me and and she mind a piece of paper which I don't
like at the age of 9. And I said I wanted to be a an
entrepreneur to make a lot of money. So.
So something must have been in the genes.
But I don't know that that's what it is. But I would still consider myself if I
saw a Saturday and manager of it and pioneer spirit.
And then you decide to basically found was there how.
So after a couple of years that at my money.
That was a significant opportunity presenting itself.
I mean let's not forget 2003 is the year of the European Union confirmed
accession of ten new countries into the union.
Hungary being one of them Czech Republic Poland etc..
And that really created the opportunity because at that moment the whole
regulatory framework of the aviation industry changed from a regulated market
where domestic market. And I saw that I was coming from the
legacy side of the industry working for it for what even I saw.
I mean those guys will never be able to compete.
Given Ortiz dragging issues and divestitures the new generation airlines
will not recognize the opportunity as quickly as they should.
So that was this window of opportunity. And I saw if this is what I need to jump
through. I mean I have to say out of all the
industries. Right so you have the safety of
passengers. You have to buy big planes you have
regulation you have slots with various airports.
I mean the barrier to entry in the airline industry is huge.
It is. I mean you know it requires operational
complexities to be tackled. It requires a lot of regulatory hurdles
to do it. And it requires a lot of capital to be
raised to be honest to fund you know the liquidity needs of the of the business.
And you have to be quite soulful how you are
planning on that because you see that actually a number of airlines
gets created time and time again. I mean just this year he said is going
to move 55 million people. I mean this is almost like the size of
the United Kingdom. I mean that's how profound you are
affecting people's life. What was your hardest year.
So we started flying back in May 2004 and.
Fairly quickly we had two videos that we got out of money.
I mean simply we couldn't raise capital at that time
sufficient for running the business and indeed we were running out of money.
So by the end of the year actually we became technically bankrupt.
And the hard part of it is actually recognizing that yes some of you might
be taking the risk on yourself but you are taking the risk of you know another
fuel hundreds of people. Your responsibility is different because
you cannot just think of yourself. You have to think of it.
Not a lot of people. And I mean that puts a lot of weight on
you and a lot of distress on you. But at the same time you also learn how
supportive people can be. So we had like a staff meeting when we
were clearly out of the money and there was no confirmed funding plan for the
idea. And I told you guys that look I mean you
can leave the company and that's fine. I mean you know find another way to feed
your family and you know do something for yourself.
And everyone said that no you know if you die if you got a day together and
that that gives you emotion that gives you person thanks.
And I think it shapes your character. I know you've spoken Metz socialize with
a lot of entrepreneurs and founders. Is there a common thread.
Is there a secret sauce to being good at what you do.
I don't know. I mean I mean there are good
entrepreneurs. There's less so good and proprietors and
people are quite different depending how they come into it.
I mean some people are incredibly creative.
Some people are incredibly speakers. Some people are pretty good at not only
being inventive but also being able to execute.
I think I'm probably in that category so I can invent but I also kind of stick
with it because that's just how I've been trained and hold.
My development has been happening personally.
But the execution is hard. So do you have to measure when it works
and when it doesn't. There is no way that everything is gonna
work out but it's kind of a you can make an
impact on a word and you can make a difference is that if you try out a
number of things and maybe a very few of them will actually manifest their
success. And that is the fear.
And that is a cultural difference in a way.
If you look at the United States the United States is quite encouraging for
entrepreneurship and it's socially acceptable to fail in Europe.
And maybe the UK is kind of in between. In Europe failure is not a great thing.
It's a shame. And Europe is a lot less entrepreneur
than the USSR as a result. You say the UK is kind of in the middle.
Why. I mean there's a bit of shame but also
people are quite proud of being entrepreneurial.
Yes. I mean I think the UK is the flagship in
terms of capitalism. I mean if you look at the functioning of
financial market in Europe I think it's a very London driven phenomenon.
But to some extent it's also affected by content utopian behaviour and standards
and better. So yes I think it's somebody in between.
Does it how do you build the team around you.
I've always told this is the secret actually to being successful even if
you're a good entrepreneur. You
hire for attitude. I mean that is this whole big debate in
in corporations you know. But are you really looking for where you
value how you or someone. I mean do you
look for the talent. Do you look for the skiers the
experience or what. In my view you have to hire for attitude
because if you are not totally stupid you're going to be requiring the skiers
you're going to be going through the experience curve and you're going to be
picking up things important to our to do a good job.
But you cannot change attitude. So that's a given.
And and you have to spot people with the right attitude and vice to guide that.
I think a lot can be achieved with it. I know you landed in hot water or a bit
of controversy for saying that actually a lot of the pilots had to go the extra
mile because a lot of them were taking days off because they were tired.
Yeah. But do you remember that.
I mean did you regret what you said. Did you power through like it was just a
miscommunication and an automatic known and not enough at all.
I mean I think what I was trying to describe was
first kind of a way of looking at life as opposed to deferring to actual
situations. I mean we are incredibly eager to see
the company regarding fatigue management.
I mean it would never push anyone beyond any and it aims to get into a dangerous
zone or anything like that. I mean I think the idea of a separate
airline. We have never had an incident
resulting from this veteran. We have never had any incident otherwise
serious one. No.
I think this is a bay of of approaching life.
I mean you know it just mind that you know that are to 200 people on your
plane and those people on a travel unable to get to that.
Their destination and it doesn't mean that you have to slash yourself beyond
kind of the possible allies. And by the way this is a highly
regulated industry. I mean you have to be to do crazy things
anyway. I want to ask you about your
relationship with controversy. So a lot of the time you know founders
say I can't see anything wrong because otherwise you know I'll have press
articles on me and it will show a bad side.
Another saying I'm human like why can I not talk to the press or give interviews
as I want to. I think I'm a kind of guy who says lots
but I think. And yes that may be controversial.
Am I right all the time. Certainly not.
And I make mistakes. But if I don't make mistakes I never
really learn how far I can go and how good I am at in certain things.
So I think it's fine to speak up. I think it's fine to make mistakes is
fine to you know push your neck out. But yes I mean it comes with failure of
if Cosby you know some graphs zeroed out.
So what's your industry going to look like in four years.
This has been one of the most disrupted industries during Covid Aviation.
The airline industry itself I think is one of the most fascinating industries
you can think of because of the complexities because of the scale
because of the impact you are. You are making us seem to send ISE
continue to develop. Morbidity is inherent in people's need.
That is demand. The challenge to the industry is how you
do it in a way that you are sustainable. You are friendly to the environment.
The industry needs to find a technology that decarbonise is the operation of
our. I think we are under way to to achieve
that. We actually have joined into initiatives
trying to explore various technological at narratives for decarbonising the
industry for what 10 15 years away from. That is stunning 50 years of age.
But in the meantime you know we are also looking at changing the fuel sustainable
aviation fuel to to make sure that you know Beyond the Bell it is much less.
I forget. I mean we are the airline flying the
youngest fleet of aircraft in a most efficient manner.
So that makes us audit it politically in relative to the rest of the industry.
But we are totally committed for it. Totally cleaning this up and making it
pure degree and in the future. Thirty years ago it was a thing to
travel right. You had even cutlery that was that was
proper and good had a meal. Then we go more into low cost.
What's it going to be like in five years.
Is it low cost. But then expensive hotels.
How will people travel and holiday. Definitely.
In my mind the low cost sector is is really a commodities sink.
The industry I mean you don't travel for travel purposes.
You travel as a means of achieving something.
The money you have to do it your destination.
And that is that travel is a commodity and low cost airlines.
We live in this. If you look at Europe already as in half
of the passenger traffic in Europe has been already converted into into local
celebrity. And I think that trend will continue to
to unfold going forward. And yes I think you'll be a time to
maximize you know your investment at the hotel and gastronomy drinking better
violence science and in order sort of things.
So how does that change. Actually how you'll manage was here.
Is there like a dream destination or like you know airline route that you'd
like that you don't have now. And B B try to understand you know what
people want to do that able to go solve and be started with 17 years ago we've
had we should be creating an infrastructure for people who who who
are moving from east to west for work. So they take up a job in London from
Poland and many to move them. If I look at our network today we just
launched the motives. We are flying to Egyptian beach
destinations. We are flying to Spanish French beach
destinations. So we go with the flow.
And I think we try to better understand what people want about able to go and we
want to be in the forefront of of that loss here.
Joseph you famously said I think in an interview that actually you don't have
to be liked or you don't have to have a sense of humour as a boss.
Is that true. Like what.
What motivates people to stay in your organization.
In my mind I mean this is not a life story.
Being like this is a lot less important than being respected.
I think you need to be respected. You also have to accept the fact that if
you are to be leading and you are trained to make a difference that
creates controversy as you as you pulled it.
Yes. I mean you're going to be on certain
people's interest and you're going to be on certain.
Scarlet Fu interest but otherwise change will never happen.
You know effecting changes and executing changes never come speed walking on that
carpet. Jozsef thank you so much.
Thank you.