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Apart from Gresham, my sense of Budapest as a place to do business derives largely from Brian Maclean, author of a guide to Hungarian customs and etiquette (published by Culture Smart) and a convivial companion on the rickety train out to the palace at Gödöllö, where the Emperor Franz Josef’s tragic wife Sissy spent much of her life. A literally Bohemian figure alongside the new Hungarian suits of our emergent European colleagues, Brian has lived in Budapest for 30 years and is the translator of — among many other books — the definitive history of the Herend porcelain factory, which has long been a highly visible jewel in Budapest’s economic crown.
His view of local business practice is that communism left only personal relationships intact, so that it is still emphatically who, not what, you know that counts. Old-world courtesy is expected and the structure of firms is still intensely hierarchical. Even if relatively junior figures speak the best English, you must still maintain eye contact and friendship with the senior person — who is nearly always male in this still-traditional country. ‘Decision-making,’ says Brian, ‘takes time.’ If your main contact is away, nothing gets done and you have to get used to agreements being negated by a distant superior you’ve never met. So be patient but above all polite. If not, ‘it may appear to the Hungarian that you’re underestimating his or her status.’
Hungarian businessmen are, I gather, inclined to think the British uncouth. I wonder what Sir Thomas Gresham thinks of them, as he looks down at their sleek limos pulling up at the front door of his palace.
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