Anton Sakovych: “2020 is not the year we dreamed of. However, this year taught us to adapt and develop under the new realities”
The new “COVID” reality, in which we have been living almost for a year, has tested the stability of both companies and national economics. It was important for business to take in a non-standard situation and make split-second decisions. Those companies that managed to diversify their business and adapt to the new environment benefited.
Anton Sakovych, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of DEZEGA, told how to deal successfully with the challenges of our time, overcome unforeseen difficulties, and use this situation as additional opportunities for development.
Changes in company operating mode, adaptation of employees
The outgoing year was not simple for our Company. Nobody promised that it would be easy. We often say and repeat that this is not the first time our company has experienced such a situation. We remember the events of 2014 in Donbas, in the southeast of Ukraine, when a number of citizens and businesses faced new living conditions. We have successfully coped with the challenges and crisis of that time and we have overcome unforeseen difficulties even now. To tell the truth, the current situation is quite non-standard, and the collapse is happening on a global scale, and not in a single country or company…
In March, we had to revise and refine the general development strategy of DEZEGA and made efforts to provide remote work for the company’s staff. We used a special service where it was possible to hold online meetings, group video calls, upload and work with documents and files in real-time; also increased individual data storage with the ability to share files and work with all employees. We have provided all the necessary conditions for comfortable and safety activities of our people.
Payroll and employment
Considering the anti-crisis management and budgeting, we had a chance to revise our approaches to the management of the payroll fund, although the salaries of specialists in DEZEGA remain above the market average. We have taken a number of measures to manage the bonus fund, deposit it – and if we achieved the planned financial targets, the remaining part of the bonus would be paid to all employees. Thus, we motivated all employees of the company to fulfil the budget, as well as to achieve the planned sales targets.
We are proud that we were able to save jobs and did not cut the staff due to the pandemic, as many companies have done.
Obligations towards the customers; sales markets
Importantly, we had the opportunity to continue to work fully and fulfill all contractual obligations to clients in an uninterrupted mode, in full and on time. For sure, due to the crisis, the solvency of customers has significantly decreased, and in some cases – the demand for such specific products as ours. Nevertheless, we have added sales markets: we have entered into agreements with new important and strategic partners. However, we will tell about it a little bit later.
We also got things working well on online platforms and were able to conduct a number of training webinars for our clients and end-users of our equipment. Online training from DEZEGA is a discovery for our customers and us. It gives new opportunities in communication and saves resources for our clients.
In addition, our Turkish plant DEZEGA SP launched the Intern Program: we concluded official agreements with 181 universities in Turkey.
Investments during the pandemic
Naturally, realizing the scale of the global crisis, we revised our investment portfolio and invested only in profitable projects. We had to freeze a number of product projects and cut costs, but we continued and will continue to invest in the development of our production facility in Turkey. We also launched the anti-crisis management system, which includes a special budgeting procedure. It was necessary to make fast decisions and launch the correct procedures before the onset of a crisis. In addition, due to the introduced quarantine restrictions, we were able to reduce the costs of both the rental of office premises and business trips of employees.
2020 for DEZEGA, company achievements
Perhaps 2020 is not the year we dreamed of. However, this year taught us to appreciate what we have. Moreover, move on against all odds. Despite everything, we continue to design, manufacture and launch new products. We have achieved a lot in 2020:
- Signed a global cooperation agreement with the global leader in the design and manufacture of emergency safety products across the mining, tunneling and petrochemical industries –MineARC Systems;
- Development DSTU 9052:2020 standard for the emergency escape self-contained self-rescuers in Ukraine;
- Received a type examination certificate, launch the production and placed on the EAC market the CARBO-70 self- contained self-rescuer;
- Received a type examination certificate and placed on the Ukrainian market emergency escape hood DEZEGA EmSCAPE;
- Received a type-examination certificate in Europe for the self-contained compressed oxygen breathing apparatus of the fifth generation – P-70;
- Launched own production of some components for the self-contained self-rescuers at our Turkish plant DEZEGA SP.
- Launched a project to improve labour efficiency within the framework of the federal project “Targeted support for labour productivity at enterprises” at our South Ural Respiratory Protective Equipment plant;
- Organized and held the technical conference on the base of one of DEZEGA dealers in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine;
- Completed and launched new product and infrastructure projects.
Strategy of the further company development
We continue to pursue our development strategy with a focus on two pillars. First, we continue to hold our leading positions in the global RPE market in the mining sector, retaining existing customers and attracting new ones. At the same time, we want to advance and penetrate into other industries, where there is great potential for using our RPE. Our goal is to become a leading safety company and produce RPE for various industries.