Stability and growth in the crosshairs

Dorottya Ágnes Prokaj, J.D. became head of Andersen’s tax incentives and grants division this summer. The expert sees possibilities for development and progress despite the market slowdown and the uncertain regulatory environment. We asked her about her plans and targets.

What professional path led you to your new role?

I spent 7 years at one of the BIG4 consultants where the majority of my tasks involved contracts regarding the use of tax incentives and grants. I participated in the successful completion of large complex projects, working for clients in a variety of industries from the planning phase all the way to implementation. I acquired quite a bit of experience and gained extensive insight.

Although the opportunity to lead the Andersen division was unexpected, I said yes because I felt the complexity of the task was a professional challenge while also providing new prospects.

What are your impressions after these first months? How was the division doing when you took over?

This is a relatively new service area here at Andersen that has been operating for just a few years. Nevertheless, my experience is that the foundation is stable, the client portfolio is both stable and diversified, the workflows work well, and the quality of the professional materials is excellent. I can also honestly say that the team consists of highly qualified experts who hail from various fields. As a result, we have experience from ministries, background institutions, and the BIG4, which is a great value. All in all, we are not starting from square one and don’t have to start rebuilding the foundations—this allows us to concentrate on development and progress.

What are the most important goals that you set when you accepted the position?

I would like to maintain the division’s stability despite the unfavourable external environment and negative economic processes. I would like to establish a successful and reputable professional workshop that is able to flexibly react to client requirements, to make Andersen a fundamental player in the market segment.

As regards business objectives, my aim is to substantially expand the current clientele and increase Andersen’s market share in the field of consultancy.

What do you need to achieve these goals?

We have to monitor changes more closely, and that includes following trends. It is no longer enough to be informed of or to react to changes in the Hungarian and EU regulatory environment in time: we need to think ahead, we practically need to see into the future. We have to take into account the effects of international events like the US presidential elections, the eruption of the war in the Middle East, and EU decisions that affect the region.

A division manager is expected to see and seize opportunities in a continuously changing business environment. I believe I have this ability.

What challenges are you facing in this area of services?

We are on a difficult path. The retention of EU funds and the curbing of investments has led to a great deal of uncertainty on the domestic market, and the regulatory environment is less predictable due to changes in economic policy. This is compounded by the international events and conflicts I mentioned earlier.

At the moment, the Hungarian economy is being artificially boosted. However, we must be aware of the fact that the start of any positive processes depends in large part on the decisions and risk-taking of market players. A supplier will not carry out an investment only because it receives support. If it sees that the coming period will not bring the orders that justify developing a substantial infrastructure, purchasing expensive assets, or increasing staff numbers, it will not make that decision.

If we examine the division’s three service areas separately, which holds the greatest possibility for medium-term growth?

We are taking different possibilities into account for EKD (individual government decisions) based support for large investments in the coming period. In this case, the focus will shift from traditional investments to investments with greater added value and R&D projects.

We used to concentrate on just one or two tax incentive types, though they are much more expansive than that and the number of available clients is much greater than the amount we had been able to reach. Since we have the expertise, all we lacked was the initiative.

The near future is expected to bring more business opportunities involving grants. The government is trying to provide more support to SMEs in the form of various measures: a good example is the recently announced Sándor Demján Programme that provides assistance to these companies in the field of capital financing.

How can clients be reached in this uncertain market environment?

I would like to uphold the professional tradition of having Andersen be among the first to report on the developments, changes in rules, decisions, opportunities, and any anomalies that affect the division. We have the channels and platforms to do so, we are still producing professional content, articles, and publications, and we are also giving presentations. Our newest initiative is the Andersen AdóReggeli (Tax for Breakfast with Andersen) online webinar series launched in September, which features discussions of current tax topics in an easily digestible format, including issues related to grants and tax incentives.

In addition, we, similarly to other Andersen divisions, want to cooperate more closely with business organisations and industry associations. We already have concrete results and new initiatives that we will soon report on.

We are also planning to provide a more active presence in the professional fora and business events relevant to us. A good example is the 10th Business Meets Government Summit organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary (AmCham) and the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA). I will be acting as moderator for one of the panel discussions.

Thanks to the cooperation between Andersen and the State Aid Monitoring Office, functioning within the Prime Minister’s Office, the publication entitled State Grant Legislation has again been published on a regular basis since 2022. You became its responsible editor this summer. What advantages does this hold for the company? How does it support our status as experts?

This project is also a great asset for reaching clients. Moreover, thanks to the editing, the reviewing, and the writing of the technical articles, we enjoy a huge advantage by gaining first-hand information on changes to rules, decisions, and important events affecting the field months before other market players. Not to mention the fact that this form of cooperation is very prestigious for the company.