American Chamber in Hungary to boost Business Services Sector in Hungary

AmCham Hungary has been instrumental in a ground breaking cooperation that sees rival companies come together to raise the awareness and attractiveness of the Business Services Sector in Hungary.
The Business Services Sector (BSS) Attractiveness Forum, the first ever industry cooperation on sector branding, was launched by AmCham Hungary. As of today, 22 companies and organizations have joined this unique and inspiring initiative, which aims to raise awareness of the sector, make it more visible and to promote BSS as a preferred career choice for students in secondary schools and higher education, as well as career starters.
Since the launch, project member companies have joined forces to create the branding and communication strategy for the sector, including the industry’s employee value proposition framework. A brand-new website (www.bsshungary.com) was launched to provide relevant information about the business services sector and it is also accompanied by social media channels to connect with the young generation.


BSS in the spotlights at the HVG Job Fair
Beyond that, two major events were organized in 2019. Early October, the BSS Project had a dedicated stage at the HVG Job Fair, one of the largest and most important career events in Hungary. Among the all-day workshops and over 200 exhibitions, AmCham held panel discussions delving into the mystery behind the business service centers and the vast career opportunities the sector offers.
AmCham members jointly organized these BSS panels, and they continue to work together in promoting the sector with the strategic partner support of the Debrecen Business Service Centers Roundtable and Hungarian Servie and Outsourcing Association (HOA)
Open doors
In October-November, an open-doors event series, titled ‘open_doors@business.services’ will be organized, where the participating BSCs invite young talents to their offices. Fifteen companies committed have themselves to show their offices, explain the career opportunities they offer and educate those who are interested in what the BSS community is about.
The number of companies joining the initiative is growing, at the time of writing, participating companies are: Albemarle, Aldi, Blackrock, BP, BT, Celanese, Citi, Corning, CPL Integrated Services, Diageo, Deloitte, Eaton, ExxonMobil, IBM, Karrier Hungária, Lexmark, National Instruments, Randstad, TATA Consultancy Services, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Unisys.
Another initiative coming from Hungary to promote Business Services is Inspiring Hungary conference organized by the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency in early October. The day-long conference gave a unique opportunity to connect key investors and economic stakeholders from home and abroad as well as to expand networks, while learning more about the country’s key assets, economic successes and innovation abilities through clusters, keynotes and round tables with leading experts and government officials.
AmCham’s Innovation and Business Services cluster was opened with an inspirational welcome speech by Péter Szalay, chief operating officer at IBM Hungary, who highlighted dedicated entrepreneurs and talents who dared to dream big and achieved the unachievable, setting an example for all of us.
“Innovation is triggered by curious and courageous individuals who look beyond the conventional and come up with unprecedented answers and ideas,” said AmCham President Dr. Farkas Bársony, opening the round table discussion.

The panel, consisting of Dr. György Drótos (Corvinus University of Budapest), Kata Krecsmári-Kővári (LogMeIn), Kevin Murray (Citi), Prabal Datta (Tata Consultancy Services) and Zoltán Szabó (BT) came together to discuss why regional and global decisions are made in favor of Hungary.
This article appeared in the November issue of JOURNAL, the official magazine of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary.