The Interview with Ari Kormi
If the image about Hungarians is the warmth and kindness, then I think Mr. Ari Kormi is pretty “Hungarized.”
During the 70-minute of interview on 3rd of July, 2012, we were thankful for his openness to share his experience about the business, culture difference and barrier from his personal experience. I searched for more information about Mr. Kormi’s career. Here is the summary about his current job- “The Flying Finn connecting people and business across the globe. Finnish native living in Hungary since 1990. Export-import business expert in Hungarian language region.” (The LinkedIn profile of Mr. Kormi is http://www.linkedin.com/in/arikormi )
Mr. Ari Kormi is experienced for business, especially for the international trade and marketing. The range is wide. Previously, in 1992, 1993, he helped friends to connect to the local market in Hungry for real estate business. In 2000, he started the new business for packaging business until 2009. Then, he dealt with the business for problem-solving. Since 2005-2006, he has opened the window to export and import for middle-size enterprises between Finland and Hungry. In the past three years, he has worked in the food industry and agriculture which is the economy driver in Hungry. Excitingly, last year, he fulfilled his dream by marking the history for the cooperation between Finland and Hungry. The history book actually writes this historical moment down and he was so thrilled that he could be one part of it! We can say that through his connection as the bridge, the distance from Finland to Hungry is a lot more shortened.
It is said that Finnish and Hungarian is from the same family; however, the culture difference can be huge. Mr. Kormi is the great example ,who heartily embraces the culture difference, respect it and learn it. For instance, he knew how Asians value the process of exchanging business cards. Unlike the casual style in most of the Western business world, Asians appreciate titles, good manner to give and receive business cards and good attention to business cards once you receive them. He shared that once he exchanged the business cards with Asian businessmen, he took the cards seriously and even took important notes on the back of the cards to show how much he cared. (Note 1) The little action can be huge to build up relationship with foreigners.
Moreover, Mr. Kormi honestly said that the way Finns do the business in Finland would not work in Hungry. First of all, they do not like to be called East Europe most likely duo to the historical reason. He explained that as the matter of fact, Hungry is “westerner” than Finland (one hour later than the time zone of Finland), so why is Hungry East Europe? To show the respect, he suggested the term of “ Central Europe.”
Spending 20 years in Hungry, he learns Hungarian, works with Hungarians and even builds his own family in Hungry. He is the perfect lecturer to represent how different between the Finnish business style and Hungarian as below.
1) Finns are comparatively direct. It may be hard to build up trust and relationship easily with Hungarians, especially you do not speak their language- Hungarian.
2) Finns tend not to do follow-up conversations and thus do not build up long-term relationships. In Hungry, people keep in touch after actual business relationship and have follow-up communications. That’s how long-term relationship is appreciated in the culture.
3) The regulation for dress code cannot be underestimated. Unlike the Finnish casual style, Hungarians have certain rules for how you should dress yourselves at different business occasions. For example, they tend not to mix colors. One simple color at one time. Mr. Kormi nicknamed the Hungarian style as “gentlemen business culture.”
4) Hungarians are friendly. Although they feel uncomfortable because of your behaviors, they do not show their emotion but deep inside, they are aware of it. As Mr. Kormi stated above, when they hear you say Hungry is East Europe, Hungarians would not argue with you but keep the unpleasant feeling to themselves.
5) Finns admire quality while Hungarians value titles. In Hungry, they do not address you by your first names but by titles, such as Mr. or Miss.
In this case, Hungarians are quite suitable to develop business relationships with Asians since we are similar when it comes to the business manner- Asians appreciate titles and long-term relationships as well.
According to what Mr. Kormi shared, we can see that he truly loves Hungry with his heart and soul. The country is worthy to visit -Budapest, the capital of Hungry, is praised as the pearl of Danube and highly recommended by Mr. Kormi, and the people are trustful to have business with, especially the location of Hungry is the central of Europe to easily go anywhere in Europe. For example, eight-hour trip in Finland, you can only travel from Helsinki to Sotkamo, but with the time, you can reach Italy by train from Hungry.
Nowadays, Mr. Ari Kormi runs the business with his family- Mrs. Kormi works on the management and his children help with the computer and sale parts. In Chinese/ Taiwanese culture, I would like to wish him to have good fortune in his business (生意興榮) and look forward to further conversations. Thank you for the interview, kiitos paljon!
Note 1: Though I am sorry to say that it may be offensive in Taiwan since Taiwanese may think you insult their business cards by taking notes on the back .
Note 2: If you are interested in the detailed of interview, please go to the audio file:
http://digitalvillages.posterous.com/ari-chloe-and-helge
Comments
Chloe, thanks for a great posting. Irja and myself spent the afternoon in Kajaani. She had to renew her passport.