Location: Central Europe, bordering Austria 366 km, Croatia 329 km, Romania 443 km, Serbia and Montenegro 151 km, Slovakia 677 km, Slovenia 102 km, Ukraine 103 km

Capital: Budapest

Population: 10,032,375 (July 2004 est.)

Language: Hungarian

Lifestyle & Aspirations
Hungarians are hugely proud of their musical heritage, of composers like Liszt and Lehar and conductors like Solti.
Football is a national passion and although Hungary is not currently particularly successful, many an evening is spent reliving the glory days of the 1950s, particularly 1953 when Hungary beat England at Wembley. Hungarians believe firmly that their destiny is to be the world's football champions.
Hungarians also see themselves as exceptionally talented in Olympic sports and do, indeed, win a number of medals disproportionate to their small population. Generally, though, Hungarians do not practice much sport.
Chess, music, literature and coffee house culture are more important. All Hungarians also have a deep sense of history and are enormously proud of the scientists they have produced, including Rubik (inventor of the Rubik Cube), Biro (inventor of the eponymous pen) and Gabor, inventor of the hologram.
Hungary is rich with mineral springs and spas, a tradition started by the Romans, and there are many excellent spas where people take the waters for a long holiday or simply an afternoon.
Hungarians are also fond of spending time at Lake Balaton, one of the largest landlocked bodies of water in Europe. Motorised sports are banned on the huge, shallow lake but fishing, swimming and sailing are all popular pursuits.

The Essentials (10 Key Tips)
1. "What is true is true" (ami igaz, az igaz) is a rule of conversation in Hungary, where people do not soften their views.
2. Maintaining eye contact with a Hungarian is a way of establishing trust or showing that you are sincere.
3. Hungarians have a tendency to take the realistic view almost bordering on the pessimistic - it is important therefore to show the practical benefits of your ideas when selling to those who enjoy the 'cynical' role.
4. Hungary has an exceptionally high suicide rate; any form of aggression is often directed at the self rather than at others.
5. Hungarians expect trusted friends to share personal information - so be ready to receive questions about your personal situation which may appear very private!
6. Hungarians respond well to good story-tellers and have a highly developed sense of humour.
7. An over-enthusiastic point of view about any subject might be construed as arrogance, ignorance or hypocrisy.
8. Often, it's important simply to have your say at a meeting or gathering, to show your level of personal interest and engagement.
9. Entertaining is integral to business life and it's essential to join in, to appreciate Hungarian food and wine and to show your admiration of Hungarian culture.
10. Hungarians are highly individualistic and anybody managing a team must defer to this, treating everybody as a person in their own right and spending time with each team member.

Working with the Hungarians
Hungarians are hard-working, enterprising, creative and enthusiastic. They are taught from an early age to aspire to perfection and are capable of getting frustrated and depressed if something stands in their way.
Forming good relationships is essential to Hungarians and they will not do business with someone whom they do not know or trust. It is critical at the start of a relationship to put in time to get to know your Hungarian counterpart, tempting as it may be to get straight down to business. To maintain a business relationship, constant face-to-face contact is ideal and at worst, constant telephone contact. Do not rely on email, letters or internal memos. Accept invitations to business dinners and drinks and extend your own invitations
in return. Network as much as possible; Hungarians rely on extended social networks for information, support and friendship.
Coming across as sincere is important. Do not overemphasise your achievements or try to appear artificially jolly or upbeat. Modesty and strong opinions are a good combination; you will be expected to join in the many lively debates that Hungarians enjoy so much.

Making a Good Impression
Anyone with passion and charisma stands a good chance of impressing Hungarians. They admire a high level of education, and those who have made notable achievements in the arts or science. Mavericks and entrepreneurs are looked up to.
Business entertaining is important. Bond with your Hungarian counterpart in coffee shops, restaurants and bars. You will be assessed as a person with whom them may want to do business during these social occasions.
It is important to empathise with Hungarians. Show an understanding of their turbulent history and listen to their problems, without throwing any of your own into the conversation.
Status symbols are admired, so designer clothes and watches can be displayed. They mean achievement to a Hungarian.
Hungarians are highly patriotic so always praise the beauty of their country and in particular, of Budapest.
While a degree of humour and joking is appreciated, be careful not to appear too over-jolly or enthusiastic or you may be taken for someone insincere.

Business Etiquette
Business Cards
The exchange of business cards (névjegy) is commonplace in Hungarian business culture and in social occasions, so bring a big supply. Having cards translated into Hungarian is optional; most Hungarians speak some English but if you are there for the long term, a Hungarian card may help. Remember to list academic qualifications, which are admired.
The information that is included in a Hungarian's business card gives a good indication of their attitude towards business. In general Hungarians happily integrate their business and home life. If this is the case, your Hungarian counterpart may include their home contact details as well as their business details on their cards.

Body Language
Hungarians are used to living in close proximity, either in a busy city or in relatively modest country homes, so physical distance during a conversation tends to be close. They are passionate and animated in conversation, with a lot of gesticulating. A speaker needs to introduce humour, passion and energy in order to be listened to.
Eye contact is essential to convey that you are sincere and telling the truth. If you are walking along next to a Hungarian, they may stop and turn to face you to emphasise a point while making eye contact. They are not, however, especially tactile and you should avoid grabbing somebody by the arm or slapping them on the back until you know them well.

Communication Style
Hungarians communicate with passion and humour and pride themselves on being great storytellers. They do, however, get deeply engrossed in arguments during which rhetoric takes over and the inbuilt sense of pessimism may win the day. Asians, North Americans and less passionate North Europeans may find Hungarian conversation style bewildering and difficult to follow, as debates jump from one topic to the next with no apparent logic.

Gift Giving
Business gifts are not exchanged, although you should take good wine, chocolates or flowers if visiting someone's home.

Business Meeting Culture
Planning a meeting
Face-to face meetings are important in Hungary as Hungarians place great importance on personal contact. Allow plenty of time as the meeting will inevitably take longer than you think. Hire an interpreter unless you speak fluent Hungarian. You can prepare and circulate an agenda but it may be ignored.

During a meeting
Meetings won't just start with small talk but with a lot of networking, lobbying and gossip. The chairman then starts the proceedings with an introduction, which may be long.
Meetings can easily go off at a tangent, with everybody talking at once. Little attention is paid to an agenda. Hungarians can get carried away with their theme, presenting long, fluent arguments about something that may not even be relevant to the meeting. Fluency is equated with intelligence and everybody will try to have a say about something; the goal is not especially to change opinions, but simply to have one's own say. Group discussions can become highly competitive, with everybody trying to outdo one another. It is important for individuals to gain and save face and a way of doing this is to talk as much as possible.
Hungarians may also introduce problems just as progress is being made, some of them apparently fabricated, playing on their own natural sense of pessimism.

After the meeting
Minutes may or may not be taken; some Hungarians prefer simply to circulate a memo after a meeting.
Promises may have been made in a meeting but these may be, to a Hungarian, just ideas, so try to be clear about the course of action someone intends to take. Follow-up is important, by phone if not in person.

Motivating Others
Hungarians are motivated strongly by money, partly because they enjoy status and status symbols and partly because for many people, the financial responsibilities are high. It is not uncommon for someone who has reached the top of their career to be supporting children, possibly grown-up children as well as elderly parents, so what may seem like a large salary or bonus may not actually go very far.
Another strong motivator is long-term security. Hungarians are risk-averse and resistant to change and take a long-term view on any project, including their job.
Hungarians are also highly individualistic and will be inspired by any workplace that appreciates and nurtures this. They are creative, enterprising and hard-working and need the freedom to exercise these qualities. They are also competitive and perfectionist, qualities which are encouraged at school, so any company which offers good opportunities for advancement will be attractive.
Free time and a balanced life are also strong motivators. Although Hungarians will work very hard and put in extra hours where necessary, and will make and receive work calls from home if they have to, family is more important than anything. Hungarians go through life with great passion, for eating, drinking, family, friends, literature, music, travel and debate.

Effective Presentations
Hungarians are not the strongest listeners. Their attention needs to be engaged by a charismatic speaker but they also prefer a presentation that is brief and likely to challenge them. They appreciate facts and figures as they like to gather as much information as possible before making a decision and are more interested in the substance of a presentation than a flashy style. The use of humour, particularly dry humour, will show your human side, and a desire to empathise with your audience, but it is not necessary as an ice-breaker.
Hungarians are also inclined to what many cultures perceive as rudeness, interrupting a speaker if they do not agree, or talking amongst themselves if they are not interested in the speaker's subject.
This creates problems for anybody presenting through an interpreter. The best solution is to keep it short and to the point; include humour of the type that will work when delivered by a third party; avoid idiom; question the audience in the presentation to get them thinking; and retain an element of modesty. The heavy sell does not work in Hungary and nor does extreme enthusiasm.
Remember, too, that you will be judged on your appearance so dress smartly.
A Hungarian audience will expect the chance to interrupt the speaker and ask questions, which can be very difficult as the presentation can degenerate into an intense debate and veer away from the original point completely. You should prepare well-presented handouts in Hungarian for distribution after your talk so people can at least take the facts away with them.
An audience is also quite likely to smoke and take calls on mobile phones during a presentation.

Managing Relationships
The majority of Hungarians value relationships above all other sources of happiness. So building relationships of trust takes top priority. Nothing of significance is likely to happen if there is little trust. The way trust is built is by spending time together, both in the office and outside it.
Hungarians can take time to get to know as they may appear reserved at first, until the first few bottles have been consumed, at least, when a love of passionate debate quickly emerges. Hungarians have extended social and family networks but choose their close friends carefully and would rather have a few very good friends than a wide circle of vague acquaintances.
Expatriate managers need a careful understanding of the Hungarians' pride in their individuality. While Hungarians work well in teams, they expect to be treated as creative individuals. They expect to voice their opinions when they want to. The same applies to working with suppliers; an honest, open relationship should be cultivated.
Hungarians' attitude to time is more relaxed than that of some cultures like Britain and the USA. In managing relationships, it is important to understand that a Hungarian would rather do a job well, or spend time looking for solutions to possible problems, than meeting an arbitrary deadline.