New participation record for the BCSDH Future Leaders Talent Program

With the participation of 37 talented young leaders, the fifth year of the BCSDH’s Future Leaders Talent Program has begun, and was officially inaugurated on January 18th.

The outstanding success of the Business Council for Sustainable Development Hungary (BCSDH), which is based on the World Business Council’s international program, is proven by the knowledge that 100 talented executives have been awarded a diploma during the four years of its existence, and by the fact that in 2018 the fifth year of the talent program will welcome a higher number of participants than ever before.

BASF Hungária Kft., one of the organization’s member companies, hosted the opening event on January 18th at which the young executives met the mentors who support the program for the first time.

“It is a great pleasure to see how the program’s primary goal is being fulfilled, since it is reaching the number one and top executives of the future more and more efficiently. Many of the students of the previous course have become the catalysts of the sustainability processes of their own organizations, or even new ones.” – highlighted Irén Márta, Managing Director of BCSDH – which is comprised of 30 companies that produce 30 percent of Hungarian GDP.

Attila Chikán Jr., president of the organization, emphasized in his opening speech that the goal of the program is to explain the complex conceptual system of corporate sustainability and existing practices to future leaders and talented professionals who will later become corporate leaders so that they can work and make business decisions according to these principles.It is important to note that the seven principles of BCSDH’s “Complex Interpretation of Corporate Sustainability” offer the best possible framework for this, as they are based on the most important business issues involving corporate sustainability that managers have to deal with.

“The BCSDH’s Future Leaders Talent Program is a practice-oriented training course whose benefits can be seen in the daily operations of each company. BASF has been delegating participants to the program for years, and this year (year five), our employees will be able to get to know the sustainability practices of the BCSDH members. The impacts of the program go way beyond individual benefits: the acquired knowledge not only benefits their professional and private lives, but they can also share it with their co-workers so that it can be integrated into corporate culture.”- added Dr. Thomas Narbeshuber, Managing Director of BASF Hungária Kft., and host of the opening event.

Zita Szederkényi, Head of the Future Leaders Talent Program, presented details of the program and introduced the mentors of the 25 member companies. This vibrant program is unique in Hungary as participants become acquainted with a theoretical and practical knowledge of corporate sustainability, and the program helps them to learn and develop through factory visits, case studies, discussions, CEO interviews, professional lectures, and interactive exercises. During the training events, participants get insight into 31 companies’ operations from a variety of industries.

The 37 young leaders participating in the 2018 program came from the following companies:

ALTEO Group, BASF, Budapest Airport, Coca-Cola, Coface, Continental, Deloitte, Dome, eisberg, E.ON, Essity, GE, Generali, Grundfos, KPMG, MagNet Bank, McDonald’s, METRO, MOL, Nestlé, Prímaenergia, Rossmann, Shell, Siemens, Syngenta, Telenor, Unilever.

Among the participants we can find Gábor Földvári, winner of the scholarship for university students and presently a student of Corvinus University of Budapest, taking an M.Sc. in Finance.

This year’s most important mentoring companies: ALTEO Group, BASF, BDL, Budapest Airport, Coca-Cola, Cothec, Dandelion, Dreher, eisberg, E.ON, Essity, GE, Grundfos, Inest, KPMG, MagNet Bank, McDonald’s, MOL, Nestlé, Richter Gedeon, Shell, Szerencsejáték, Telenor, Unilever.