Officespotter

András Szabadi, from the marketing and communications division of Concorde Securities Ltd. contacted us, asking whether we would like to visit their offices for a tour. As we simply love Hungarian success stories, it would have been a mistake to miss this opportunity.

When one hears mention of a stock broker agency, generally the first thing to come to mind is the crowd of brokers on the trading floor with one hand holding a cell phone, the other waving as they shout. Ever since the film Wall Street 2, we now know this is not the way most companies handle their trading, so we did have an inkling as to how this office would look like.

The company occupies two and a half floors in Alkotás Point Office Building. In our opinion, this is one of the few office building sin Budapest where the building fits exceptionally well into its surroundings. Such buildings are unfortunately very rare in Hungary.

The company was founded in 1993 by Gábor Borda, György Jaksity and Norbert Streitmann, all financial professionals. Thanks to their expertise and the lack of significant competition, the company was able to grow at a fast pace. We discussed with András that in today’s world it’s hard to imagine what conditions must have dominated stock trading and communications back when the company started.

When the building developers finished construction of the building in 2003, Concorde’s management immediately developed a liking for the building, and leased out the most representative portion of it. The uppermost floor houses the larger meeting rooms, the middle level is occupied by the people accountable for the operational tasks in the company, while on the lowest level one can find the investment advisors.

The brokers sit in a room crammed with monitors. Most of them are on the phone as we walk in, but they all speak in calm voices, without any rush. We can’s really interpret their work, but seemingly it requires a high level of concentration. Most people find our presence uncomfortable, and some go as far as to say so, thus we don’t even try to ease the mood.

The mood in the research and analysis department is much lighter, they even offer to tidy up the place for our photos, but since we like spontaneous photos and showing what real life is like in these workplaces, we decline their offer and begin taking photos. As the company is quite open, we even take a quick look at the CEO’s office.

The entire office consists of large rooms, with a only a few small meeting rooms strewn about. Only the managing director has his own office. A smart idea implemented by the company is that in each of the five small meeting rooms, there is a seperate one-person work desk, in case someone needs some quiet to perform a task alone.

The more design-conscious elements are located at the reception areas, as well as the upper meeting rooms; the rest of the office is furnished in a more practical way. The brokers’ working quarters seemed a little cramped to us; for example they can only reach their workstations via narrow little corridors.

It’s apparent that both the company and the employees are avid collectors of contemporary art. Statues of bulls and beautiful paintings decorate many parts of the office, and it’s apparent that the fluctuation of artwork is high.

The mood is best characterized as calm and a bit chilly. A very large amount of investment capital is decided upon here every day, so it’s no big surprise that there is none of the easygoing atmosphere that we find at other offices, such as advertising agencies, etc. The most notable positive aspects of the office are its location and the areas the company decided to lease within the building, as well as the abundance of contemporary are. Having said this, we did miss some sort of unifying design or motive, that would be present throughout the offices. All in all, Concorde can rightfully be proud of its office space.

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