As you can see, these are shoes.
They're walking. Taking steps forward.
But we can only go forward...
if we rid ourselves of certain stereotypes.
We have to kick these stereotypes out of our thinking.
That's true in every sector, but technology and innovation in particular...
advances in leaps and bounds, not one step at a time.
Because the amazing dynamics of innovative products and ideas...
could help Greece realize its full potential as a country.
When we set up the company 24 years ago...
it never even crossed our minds that we would be manufacturing innovative products.
And yet, today, 80% of the products we sell are innovative.
We are active in the electrical protection sector.
So what is it we do exactly? We protect equipment from lightning strikes...
and the electrical surges that can follow a power cut.
As the leading company in this field worldwide, we have 75 patents.
As we speak, the latest 4th-generation equipment in mobile telephony...
in airport radar systems, solar energy farms, wind farms...
on oil rigs and the railways are protected by our products.
So how did we get there?
From the start, ours wasn't a top-down, management focus.
Instead, we tried to provide products which gave added value to the customer.
We wanted products that could withstand the most demanding conditions...
and that kept on working without needing maintenance.
And that's what we did.
Along the way, two events would leave their mark on the company.
The first was when lightning stopped the conveyor belts...
at the lignite mine in Megalopolis.
What had happened?
A surge from the lightning had destroyed the belts' electrical circuits.
Treating the damage as a natural consequence of a weather event...
the client began transporting the lignite by truck...
which is expensive as well as increasing pollution.
But we didn't see it that way.
Instead, we studied the problem and found a solution
Now the conveyor belts keep working, whatever the weather.
The second event that helped mould the company...
was when we heard that a man had suffered major burns...
in a village in Central Greece...
and help couldn't be summoned because the telephone lines were down.
This was before mobile phones.
So what had happened? In that village...
the phone lines ran underneath the power cables...
The resulting power surges would blow the fuses on the phone network...
which meant the phone company had to send a man out to change them.
But the fire was at the weekend, so no technicians were on duty.
The result: a man died because help couldn't be called.
So what did we do? We improved the fuses.
We used semi-conductors which can withstand power surges.
So all those villages were equipped with our new fuses....
which never needed changing...
and which are still working to this day.
So, equipped with this pioneering technology...
we produced whole series of ground-breaking products...
and filed the patents for the innovative technology they were based on.
Then we put them on the market.
We started in Greece...
but no one was interested, for one simple reason.
And the reason is this: although there is so much talk in Greece...
about innovation and innovative products...
which are terms on absolutely everyone's lips...
no one has opened the dictionary to see what 'innovation' actually means.
Everyone thinks they can buy the same innovative products...
from five or ten companies. The result?
They end up buying a run-of-the-mill product that isn't innovative!
But we didn't waste any time.
We decided to focus on the most cutting-edge technologies...
and the most highly developed countries.
So we went to the US, Canada, Germany, France, Denmark and Italy...
where, as Niki has already told you...
we quickly made the leading companies our clients.
All this time, we remained oriented in the same direction.
Through recessions and booms alike...
our focus remained fixed on the customer...
on their problems and on solving those problems.
We didn't look inwards at ourselves and our company...
but outwards at giving added value to our clients.
Of course, every company claims to do that.
But saying you are client-centric is very easy.
Actually doing it is very hard indeed.
It's so hard, because you need very clever people working with you...
very well-educated people who know their field inside out...
and know everything there is to be known about the client's sector, too.
Most importantly of all, they have to keep their eye on the ball...
and not on the stands.
Which means you need good, sound people who aren't egotists.
You want to work with people...
whose focus is on the client and their problems, not themselves.
They also need to be patient...
able to work on a client's problem as long as it takes to solve it.
Curiosity is essential, too, because that's what leads to innovative solutions.
They need to ask what else they can do, for the client and generally.
How they can help the client get ahead.
And over time, they have to acquire resilience and persistence.
And that's only possible when you can quantify the gains to the client.
For example, last month...
we went to visit a mobile telephony company in Alabama.
We were sure they'd be excited with what we had to offer.
They listened to what we had to say, but said they were fine as they were.
"OK", we said, "but could you give us some data?".
How high are your poles, or how many subscribers are there per base station?
They gave us the information, we did our calculations...
and we got back to them quickly.
We said, if you invest 3,000 Euros for this particular base station...
our solution will earn you 150,000 back in return.
And we had specific figures ready for each and every base station.
Of course, we won the contract very soon after that.
So this is my point: with figures like that...
you really need to get out into the market.
When you know a client can invest 3,000 Euros and get a 150,000 return...
you can't come up with excuses like "He didn't understand"...
"He's from the North or the South", "He's tall or she's blond"!
You have to focus on the benefits to the customer...
not on finding excuses.
Now, our successes...
have cut the ground from under a whole bunch of stereotypes.
Firstly, that you need connections to get ahead in Greece.
That you need access via friends in high places.
But as you've seen, we didn't aim at the top.
We aimed at the root, at the problem.
Another stereotype is that you need money to get ahead.
Well, we were all from poor families.
We took things one step at a time
And when a huge opportunity presented itself to buy a company in the US...
we got the facts together...
and gave them to our finance director, Nikos Birakis, who was 35 at the time.
So when he went to the banks, he didn't go cap in hand...
he went with data, and they gave us 8 million Euros to buy the company...
and they gave it to us on September 30, 2008...
at the very height of the American financial crisis...
just two weeks after Lehmann Brothers collapsed!
The third stereotype is that Greece doesn't manufacture anything.
Well, we manufacture all our products in Drama.
And one of our main customers...
is a world leader in production.
In fact, it introduced the SixSigma system...
which allows only one faulty piece...
in every million produced.
So you can imagine how we felt when they said...
they were coming to Drama to inspect our production line!
We panicked, grabbed our brooms and started sweeping the road...
between their hotel and the factory!
They congratulated us: "Your factory is wonderful and so is your workforce."
"One electrical engineer, in particular, Fotis Xepapas...
is the best we've ever seen". And Fotis was only 35 at the time.
And these were extremely experienced people.
Another common stereotype is that Greece and quality don't go together
If I can give you another example, one of our key clients...
whose sales top 50 billion dollars a year...
and which manufactures lifts and aircraft engines...
told us they worked with 30,000 suppliers...
and had problems with all of them...
some minor, some major.
But we don't have a problem with you...
so we came to make sure you were a real, not a virtual, company!
And they came and were very enthusiastic with what they found...
because we don't perform sample checks on our products...
we test all our products.
Not because we don't trust statistics...
though I can tell you we don't...
but because we don't know where a given product will end up.
It could end up in my home, or your home...
or it could end up in a critical application...
in a radar or a vital wind turbine.
And that's why we test them all, so we can be 100% sure they'll work.
Yet another stereotype has it that Greece conducts no research...
and especially in the provinces.
Well, we have 75 patents, so that's another stereotype out the window.
The fact that we can get to a client in Dusseldorf or Paris...
in the same time from Drama or from Athens...
has also made it easier to conduct research outside the capital.
Another benefit is that, because our researchers work beside the factory...
and have access to all its equipment...
they can make prototypes for our clients far more quickly and easily.
And because we have the space, as well as some sheep...
we've been able to build a big solar energy farm...
which is the only experimental unit in the world...
which produces sizeable amounts of electricity...
as well as allowing us to test our products in real-life conditions.
Finally, and topically, there is the issue of Greek reliability.
We tell our clients they'll have their orders in 3 days...
and we say that because we like a challenge...
but that isn't to say that we're masochists.
And when we say 3 days, we mean 3 days...
between receiving an order and delivery to the client in Germany or the US.
Because it's very important for the client to know that...
our products, which only we sell, will arrive quickly...
when they order them.
That way, they're free to concentrate on the pressing matters at hand...
on helping their company get ahead.
That's why quick delivery is so very important.
Of course, we live in Greece, not up in the clouds.
We know there are strikes and calamities.
But we've taken those possibilities into consideration.
We don't sit there and say "We know we said 3 days...
but it will actually be 5, because there was a strike.
That isn't how we do things. When we say 3 days we mean 3 days.
Not, you know we said the deficit was going to be 7.6...
but because the recession is deeper than we expected...
or because Paraguay didn't do so well compared with Uruguay...
it's actually going to be 8.5 or 9!
When we say 3 days, we mean 3 days.
So, you can see that we haven't changed at all down the years...
through booms and recessions or the current crisis.
We've remained client-oriented.
So what is our goal?
We want to help our clients get ahead. Not us, them.
We want to help our neighbour get ahead...
we want to help those around us get ahead...
because if they get ahead, they'll take us with them.
But to do that, we have to get rid of the stereotypes.
We need to throw the stereotypes out the window.
Thank you.