#TŐKEPORTÁL BLOG
Miniinterview with Kata Pál
22/02/2022 – Tokeportal’s own content
In our previous interview, Erzsebet Nemedi introduced herself, and now Kata Pal answers our questions about her mentoring activities. Kata previously worked as an International Business Development Manager at the Bay Zoltan Research Centre before that she was Head of the Sector, Technology and Knowledge Transfer Directorate of the Hungarian National Trading House (now HEPA), where she took an active role in the development of the export strategy of Hungarian SMEs. From 2019, she is the Head of Business Development and Innovation at the Budapest Institute of Banking Zrt. Kata’s areas of expertise include e-learning, business development and tendering opportunities.
You are the Head of Business Development and Innovation at Budapest Institute of Banking Zrt., where your primary goal is to develop the priority education sectors of the domestic SME and financial sector. How did you get into this field?
In 2019 I was asked for this position by the CEO of BIB Zrt – Gergely Fabian. Previously, as a director of one of the KKM‘s background institutions, I was involved in the internationalisation of SMEs, and then I also tried to help them in the R&D field within the framework of a research institute. At BIB, I was initially also involved in domestic business development, i.e. I worked on the further development of financial experts in the Hungarian banking sector and the large corporate sector and on the expansion of the portfolio of BIB Zrt. Then, as SME innovation is one of my main areas of expertise, I started working on a large-scale EU tender, which we won in 2020. Together with a large team of experts and several suppliers, we implemented the first complex, online and free e-learning platform in the country, the EKKV project – http://www.ekkv.hu/– on business innovation and generational change, which was expanded to a 10-module training platform by 2022.
You also have a lot of experience in international areas, including working as an international business development manager. Based on this, what do you think are the key points for the development of the domestic SME sector?
The most relevan skill are conscious planning, openness and willingness to change. Those companies that already include international market expansion and the importance of international relations in their business plan are already a big step ahead of their competitors. The biggest challenge for the domestic SME sector now is generation change and digitalisation. An important and indispensable part of this is to shape their organisational culture and to exploit the opportunities for innovation, whatever the field in which they operate.
You are also the President of the Rotary Club Budapest-Center NGO, within which you are involved in various humanitarian causes, mainly trying to promote children's education. What tasks have you carried out to this end?
ROTARY International itself is one of the world’s largest and oldest charitable organisations. The Rotary Club of Budapest-Center is one of the clubs operating in Budapest. There are more than 40 clubs nationwide. We, with the Center club, are one of the youngest Rotary generation since 2013. I was the President for the year 2019-2020. During this time, we embraced innovation in education for children in need, as the COVID-19 epidemic and crisis had just hit. In response to this, we started a campaign with Tokeportal to provide access to laptops and computers for children who did not have access to them in their homes, making online education a challenge for them.
If you would like to know more about Kata, check her mentor profile.
