Goulash Project Management

Vilmos Rajda MBA MSc PMP is the Principal Consultant of ProjectAge Management Solutions, a boutique consulting firm in Toronto, Canada. He has over 10 years of experience with delivering PMO maturity, product development, applications development, packaged application implementation and IT infrastructure projects for telecommunication, financial, utilities and government organizations. He can be reached at [email protected].

  Communications Management  

I was recently on a sabbatical that included taking care of small projects for friends in Eastern Europe, mostly in Hungary. I planned to soak up new experiences while also soaking myself in Hungary’s famous thermal baths. So, no matter what, I was going to come out clean.

A wise man once said that what is often mistaken for 20 years of experience is just one year experience repeated 20 times. My goal was to expand that one year of experience by challenging my project management skills outside of North America.

Fair Play is Fair Game
My friend Erika (I have changed names) and her family have outgrown a condo unit and were ready to buy a house in Hungary’s depressed housing market. The timing was good; the condo may sell for less, but a new house would also cost less.

After a short search, she found a house that met her family’s needs. She called the seller’s real estate agent, Béla, to make an offer. Since the seller did not accept her initial offer, a face-to-face negotiation session was scheduled with Erika (the seller), Béla and myself. The first hour resulted in an impasse due to a gap of less than 1% on the purchase price.

“Both sides made large concessions already. Could we come to an agreement with reducing the real estate commission charge?” I asked Béla, knowing that his commission was over 4…

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