Well, we had an interesting summer from a business perspective in Hungary.
Many of our assignments were stopped, or put on hold and obviously not much new business landed on our desks. We had lost half of our expected business by May - comparing it to the volume we had in H1 2019.
Over the past 6 months we had many Teams meetings with our Friisberg colleagues, globally. I spoke many times with my friend and colleague, Alexander Matthies (Friisberg Germany) about the trends impacting us in Hungary, the similar trends affecting his business in Germany and yet how he continued to be so successful – seemingly Covid proof.
He shared Friisberg Germany’s strategy designed to keep their 2020 revenue plans alive - or even exceed them. In all honesty his advice sounded a little at odds with my own instincts:
I was astonished!
Could it be that simple?
Then I thought about how much it would cost if we simply waited passively for the pandemic to be over. The answer was indeed simple: if we waited, it would cost us a lot.
So, we actively adopted Alexander’s advice and it resulted in several new mandates. Then he called us with two cross-border Searches which we quickly and successfully delivered. Now, we are currently meeting prospective consultants in Budapest to further enhance our team.
Our existing clients have increasingly turned to us during this crisis. We are objectively able to highlight the weaknesses within their organisations by suggesting they talk openly with us as a trusted partner. By sharing ideas and openly discussing future decisions with trusted friends and colleagues, we can all adopt new and successful strategies.
We decided to shape our future instead of simply reacting to it.
