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 Thinking of doing business in
Central and Eastern Europe? We put some questions to Ian
Herbison, Regional Director, Central Europe, Mmd, who was in
Munich recently to collect the International Business Awards'
Stevie Award for Best Public Relations Agency for Mmd
Corporate’s office in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Mmd has been operating in Central and
Eastern Europe (CEE) for some fourteen years now. What
are the biggest changes your company has seen in the region in
that time?
It is no exaggeration to say we have seen huge and truly
historic changes over the last 14 years—socially, politically
and economically. Our business in the early years was driven
by the major multinational investors into the region—the likes
of IBM, Visa, and Mittal Steel—whose initial focus was very
much on what are known as the Visegrad countries of Czech Republic,
Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. There was much competition among
those four countries as to which would provide the business
capital of the region, with Prague making the early running,
but Budapest emerging for much of the ‘90s as the main
regional hub. The region saw phenomenal growth of 20 percent
plus year-on-year during this period.
The Visegrad markets today have many of the characteristics
of more mature Western markets, with lower growth rates and an
increasing recognition that they cannot compete on price
alone. There has been a shift away from Budapest, with Warsaw
increasingly being the preferred regional hub because of its
large domestic market and strong stock exchange.
Over the years the focus of multinationals has spread
further east into the former Soviet Union, and south into the
former Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria. Our business has
evolved to meet this by organically expanding across the wider
region and supporting our clients as they move into these
markets, navigate the complex regulatory and business
landscape, and exploit huge growth opportunities.
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