Mamukko bags and materials waiting to be upcycled
I think something special happens when we let our businesses express what we believe in, what we are passionate about. I believe that is what we saw with Fred and Ger Karlsson in DoneDeal and it is what I saw when I met Attila and Levi from Mamukko recently in Kinsale.
Mamukko consists of two Hungarian brothers that make cool and trendy bags from upcycled sails and bicycle tyre tubing amongst other things. When you meet them, their genuine, warm personalities are disarming and their passion for what they are about is infectious.
When I ask Attila and Levi to describe what they do, they say they are simply doing what comes naturally to them. And if I were to sum up what comes naturally to them it would look something like this:
Master craftsmanship – Attila and Levi come from a family of master craftsmen – both mother and father are master leather workers as well as their parents before them. Their parents came to Ireland to teach them the skill of production and template making.
Art and creativity – Levi has studied art in various forms for 12 years and his natural eye for form and colour shines through in all their work.
Mamukko consists of two Hungarian brothers that make cool and trendy bags from upcycled sails and bicycle tyre tubing amongst other things. When you meet them, their genuine, warm personalities are disarming and their passion for what they are about is infectious.
When I ask Attila and Levi to describe what they do, they say they are simply doing what comes naturally to them. And if I were to sum up what comes naturally to them it would look something like this:
Master craftsmanship – Attila and Levi come from a family of master craftsmen – both mother and father are master leather workers as well as their parents before them. Their parents came to Ireland to teach them the skill of production and template making.
Art and creativity – Levi has studied art in various forms for 12 years and his natural eye for form and colour shines through in all their work.
Levi creating a new template for a bag from old Lidl posters Conscious living – Both Attila and Levi are passionate about the upcycling aspect of their work. They are not just latching onto an up and coming trend to sell their work. The upcycling ethos is present in every part of it. For example, they use old Lidl posters to cut out the reusable templates for their bags when they are designing them. They are both DJs and love listening to music while they work. And of course, their music of choice they tell me is conscious music such as raggae, African beats and hip-hop.
Attila, the "business half" of Mamukko Bring all the above together with Attila's natural instinct and appetite for Smart Business Development and you have a recipe for a business that speaks volumes about values, quality and creativity.
Three years ago, both Attila and Levi were unemployed. Now, they are finding it hard to keep up with the demand for their product. They have been shortlisted for the 2013 Green Start Up Award in the Green Startup of the Year category, they need to find a bigger premises and they are looking at taking on an employee.
The positive psychology movement tells us that if we are given the opportunity to use our strengths in our work (and note, in this case, our strengths are not what we are good at but rather what energises us, what we can enjoy and lose ourselves in) we will not only be happier but far more successful.
In my years of working with teams in the workplace I have seen this in evidence all the time. When a team was able to allow its individual members play to their strengths in the service of doing the job on hand, the success rate of the whole team grew. But not just that, when the team members believed in the purpose of their mission, they were happy to give that extra effort that pushed success rates up to the exceptional level. Some industry experts claim that extra effort, or discretionary effort as it is sometimes called, can give a business up to 40% more productivity!
Attila and Levi are prime examples of this. The goals that energise and motivate them are to take the craftsmanship of their parents and make it contemporary and to be part of pioneering the upcycling movement in Ireland. They couple their passion with their respective strengths and everything else is naturally flowing from there.
The positive psychology movement tells us that if we are given the opportunity to use our strengths in our work (and note, in this case, our strengths are not what we are good at but rather what energises us, what we can enjoy and lose ourselves in) we will not only be happier but far more successful.
In my years of working with teams in the workplace I have seen this in evidence all the time. When a team was able to allow its individual members play to their strengths in the service of doing the job on hand, the success rate of the whole team grew. But not just that, when the team members believed in the purpose of their mission, they were happy to give that extra effort that pushed success rates up to the exceptional level. Some industry experts claim that extra effort, or discretionary effort as it is sometimes called, can give a business up to 40% more productivity!
Attila and Levi are prime examples of this. The goals that energise and motivate them are to take the craftsmanship of their parents and make it contemporary and to be part of pioneering the upcycling movement in Ireland. They couple their passion with their respective strengths and everything else is naturally flowing from there.
When you speak with them, they are open, generous and very happy to share any knowledge they have with you. They are full of creative ideas. The only challenge for them is to find the time to act on them as they are currently working so hard to meet demand for their upcycled bags.
Everything about them just seems so "natural" to use their own words, and so right. They deserve all the success that their business will bring them because they are showing the rest of us that it is possible to marry our values with our work and find a way to make it all work for the better of the world.
Thank you Attila and Levi for letting me into your world and for reminding me that it is possible to express my own values and passions through my own work and still be successful.
Everything about them just seems so "natural" to use their own words, and so right. They deserve all the success that their business will bring them because they are showing the rest of us that it is possible to marry our values with our work and find a way to make it all work for the better of the world.
Thank you Attila and Levi for letting me into your world and for reminding me that it is possible to express my own values and passions through my own work and still be successful.
Old Farrangalway Railway Station near Kinsale where Mamukko have their workshop
Are you or your people able to express their passions, values and strengths in your organisation? To explore how you might introduce more of this into your organisation contact Miriam at miriam@spaceforchange.ie.
Check out more about Mamukko here.
Check out more about Mamukko here.
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