Business Entertaining in Hungary

Food and drink is an important part of everyday life, but the real purpose of the occasion is that Hungarians need to cultivate the personal relationships that are crucially important in a business relationship. We want to know what sort of person you are and whether we can do business with you before talking about it.

You simply cannot do business until you have first achieved a positive personal rapport. While this is less a factor in Northern Europe, even there it takes far longer to get onto a business footing than in America. Americans should understand that in most European cultures they cannot walk into the office of a complete stranger, exchange business cards, and immediately start a sales pitch.

Most business entertaining is done at restaurants. It is a rare honor to be invited to a Hungarian home; be sure to accept.

Hungarian business culture, business entertaining, business relationships, personal rapport