INTERVIEW with Levente Szász, General Secretary of the NLV Klub
Levente, please introduce NLV Klub to our audience.
The Club of Logistics Directors is an association of logistics, warehousing, purchasing and supply chain managers. Since its foundation in 2008 the Club has recruited 150 members for whom the professional association provides an opportunity for networking and professional development. We have established a community based on human relationships to promote the development of logistics, where members strive to make their work easier, more effective and more professional by helping each other. The main goal of the club is to promote the development of logistics, to inspire and support professionals working in the field.
How does your association differentiate compared to other logistics associations in Hungary?
The Club is so unique because our events have a direct and familiar atmosphere. The members welcome new entrants with a kindness of friends and facilitate their adaptation. Our events help members’ everyday work in an industry-specific manner. It is a huge testament to the success of our activity that hundreds of people have been attending our events for long.
On www.nlvklub.hu site every registered member is provided with an individual access code and password. On accessing the site, you can find the members’ data sheet with photo and our LinkedIn access to ensure a quick contact.
Would you share some of the member companies with us?
Logistics, warehousing, purchasing, and supply chain managers are the full members of our Club. We are proud to have, among others, the logistics managers of the following companies in our ranks: Vodafone, Tesco, Rauch, JYSK, Bosch, E-On, Coca-Cola, Dreher, Gyermelyi, just to name a few.
What is the value added after becoming one of your members?
Through the Club, members can discuss professional issues and have consultations with one another at personal meetings. Club members enrich each other with proposals for solutions and useful practices which can then be integrated into their corporate processes. We are building an easily accessible knowledge base. We develop valuable, lasting professional relations and acquaintances.
Our club members have a chance to visit the warehouses and plants of a number of large enterprises, and as hosts, they can also offer similar opportunities to our members.
As associate lecturers, they can attend the lectures of Budapest Economic Universities where they can teach logistics to students in English and Hungarian.
Organized by the Club, the Logistics Team Contest is held every year with the purpose of talent promotion: the selection of a team of extremely talented and motivated students who consider logistics as their life’s calling. Usually, 25-30 university teams apply for the contest from institutes of higher education in Hungary and across the border. The contest consists of several rounds. The first two ones involve an online test, then in the third round, a case study is worked out, which can involve corporate practices or the solution of a problem; the specific cases are provided for the teams by the Club’s big companies. The fourth round only sees the best five Hungarian teams and one team across the border and they take their weight in logistics skill tasks. The member companies of the Club can offer the students not just grand prizes and special awards, but insights into professional practices, as well.
Every year the Club organises a Conference of Logistics Directors where attendees can listen to professional presentations, and take part in round-table conversations and workshops for three days. Our members are given a chance to appear as presenters at this event, thereby popularizing the products and services of their company.
What are the key strategic partners in Hungary and other Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries that your organization relies on?
Our Club is contacted with a number of institutions and organisations we have developed a mutually useful relationship with and with whom we can-co-operate successfully. Such are e.g. the Hungarian vocational training centres, institutions of higher education in Hungary and across the border, the National Human Management Association, Association of Hungarian Logistics Service Centres, Association of Customs, Fiscal and Tax Providers, Hungarian Economic Society, The National Association of Hungarian Vehicle Spares Manufacturers, and the Hungarian professional media (Navigátorvilág, Prodengineer, Trend Fm, PP Konferencia, beszerzes.hu).
You will be promoting a very unique table game at WOF & BUD Cargo Forum. Can you tell us a bit about it? How and why it emerged and who is it for?
In 2021, during the COVID pandemic, we started developing a logistics board game, later to become known as PROFI-T-ABILITY, around which we announced a national championship last autumn for the pupils of vocational training centers in the big towns of eight regions – in Debrecen, Pécs, Győr, Székesfehérvár, Kecskemét, Miskolc, Budapest and Vác.
Our mission is to show as many as possible youngsters the beauty of logistics through the game and bring them closer to our beloved job. We have created a platform enabling experience-based contact building between companies, schools and pupils. The talents of the future can familiarize themselves with various industries in an informal way and get an insight into the day-to-day operations of Hungarian big companies.
Besides talent promotion, the initiative addresses even employers enabling them to build contacts with future employees in an unorthodox environment. Besides it offers an excellent opportunity for companies in terms of CSR, Employer Branding, and branding. Apart from that, the game is highly suited for corporate team-building training and is unique in exclusive logo form, as well.
It is crucial to underscore that the game does not just develop logistic skills but stimulates financial, business-oriented, economic, and strategic thinking irrespective of age.
We have managed to create a game that presents the beauty of our job for every age group. And all this in a real environment that fully maps today’s unpredictable market conditions
The Club of Logistics Managers of Large Enterprises is an association of logistics, warehousing, purchasing and supply chain managers.
Since its establishment in 2008, the Club has more than 150 members, for whom the professional association provides networking and professional development opportunities