Gergely Vida, founder and CEO of Lightware always focused on the adaption to the changes that accompanied development. He believes that the transformation of Lightware from a classic rental company to an AV manufacturer was not a deliberate action but rather a result of external factors. His driving force has always been the creative freedom and to find new innovations that will serve the AV world in the long term.
He takes pride in how Lightware managed to turn the COVID-chaos and crisis of 2020 to its advantage. The first quarter of 2020 started off well, but by April, the company had lost a significant amount of income, and the forecasts for May looked even worse. Due to restrictions and lockdowns, all rental events were canceled or postponed. Customers didn't accept shipments because everyone had switched to crisis mode. At that time, it was impossible to predict how many months would be unprofitable for Lightware. It was a frightening and worrisome period. However, Gergely and the team of Lightware tried to solve the emerging problems. During the lockdown, the leaders communicated effectively with each other and found good solutions. Instead of highlighting weaknesses, they recognized each other's strengths. Within 2 or 3 weeks, it became clear that no one would be laid off. The company stood together as a united front.
When the market started to pick up, Lightware wanted to be the first to deliver products, because we knew that people would be there and ready to order again. Other than this priority, Gergely recognized that there were many poor-quality cables on the market, especially USB-C cables. Our Taurus UCX device was already proving its worth and a good, reliable cable was essential for that too. In just six months we formed a new cable team and we became the experts in USB-C cables throughout the market. To those colleagues whose work became impossible due to the pandemic, new responsibilities have been assigned therefore they joined the cable team.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed a huge challenge for Lightware, but its greatest lesson was that in times of trouble, we pulled ourselves together and adapted to new circumstances. As stated by Gergely “we always have to discover new opportunities”.
Stay tuned for the last part of the anniversary series, where we will talk about Lightware’s records, awards, the offices and the story of our groundbreaking growth.
