Our second day in Cyprus was dominated by company visits, a stark comparison to our first day which was mainly cultural outings. We had the incredible opportunity to meet with two big companies headquartered in Cyprus: Medochemie and Wargaming.
We got to go in and see the Medochemie building in Limassol, where we were greeted by the welcoming employees of the pharmaceutical manufacturing company. It was very interesting to see the different layouts of the office buildings. There were no cubicles to be found and all the employees seemed to share an open, but not small or limited, space. This was quite different from most offices in the U.S. where it is customary to have cubicles to divide “shared” office space. Through the presentation given by two of the company’s experts, we learned a lot about Medochemie’s most important practices and their role in the supply chain. It seemed to serve mainly as a manufacturer, gathering raw materials from various suppliers and selling to consumers like hospitals and drugstores. It was interesting to learn the reasons behind their choice to open an office in Vietnam, where the costs were significantly lower due to lower salaries and cheaper raw materials which resulted in higher profits.
Both my parents work at pharmaceutical companies so I had some prior knowledge about things like R&D and Quality Assurance but the presentation and Q&A with the Medochemie experts really helped me understand all the different aspects that a company has to think about before putting a product on the market. It was crazy how many different procedures and guidelines they had to stay in accordance with. It was especially interesting to see how Medochemie tested quality for their products in the parts of the supply chain they did not directly oversee. This included ensuring that the raw materials they were receiving were honorable and making sure that the distributors they sell to have the proper systems in place to maintain the quality of their medicines. I think that the overall goal that Medochemie has of trying to provide more affordable medicine by creating generic versions of medicines is very impressive and intriguing.
Wargaming, an award-winning videogame developer and publisher, has its headquarters in Nicosia. We were fortunate enough to meet with the HR services manager, Mr. Geroge Charalambous, and with a game design expert, Mr. Slava Liushia. They both had intriguing insights to offer about the world of video game development, something I had known very little about previously. Unlike Medochemie (which was hindered by FDA regulations), Wargaming actually did have offices in America. However, they were privy to the fact that their products did best in countries that were directly involved with World War 2 since that was the inspiration for the game. Their big selling point was that they offered a trilogy of games (World of Tanks, World of Warships, and World of Warplanes) with a free-to-play monetization method. This was important for the growth of the company because a differentiating factor like this is integral to the success of companies, especially ones dealing with competitive markets based on consumer approval. As for the supply chain, one of Wargaming’s biggest concerns was with getting the proper software and licenses needed to develop their games from suppliers. They served as the manufacturers and also worked with advertising their games in ways that are best suitable for different audiences in different countries.
Wargaming also emphasized the importance of testing their game and making sure that it will do well in the market before they invest a lot of money into pushing it all the way through. This seems to be an important practice for companies universally, as it is also emphasized in the U.S. No matter what country a business is working in, it will always have to ensure that there is a market for its product and that people will actually want to buy or use it. Otherwise, the world’s greatest, most advanced product could end up costing a company hundreds of millions of dollars.
On just the first day of company visits, I feel like I’ve gotten a great introduction to the inner workings of two very different types of companies. I’m looking forward to meeting with and learning from more Cyprian companies!
