Paul Garrison, Former Managing Director of Coca-Cola Hungary
- 19 May 2009 12:00 PM
![Paul Garrison, Former Managing Director of Coca-Cola Hungary Paul Garrison, Former Managing Director of Coca-Cola Hungary](/binaries/content/gallery/xpatloop/interviews/2009/05/912c0a47-1574-4a00-8e6e-58425b6bdfa6.jpg/912c0a47-1574-4a00-8e6e-58425b6bdfa6.jpg/xpatloop%3Achannelslarge)
He established twelve separate regional marketing teams across twenty-three countries. He was awarded the "Woodruff Cup" as number one division in the world for The Coca-Cola Company based on key performance measures.
Prior to Coca-Cola he worked for numerous transnational companies like Procter & Gamble and spent a significant amount of time in the advertising consultancy sector.
He is now Chairman of the Garrison Group, a strategic development consultancy based in Budapest with clients such as Coca-Cola, T-Com, Procter & Gamble, Danone, Sony PlayStation, IKEA and Raiffeisen Bank. He is also a former Dean and Managing Director of CEU Business School.
Paul has written two historical books on East Central Europe, one on the 1956 Hungarian revolution with the title "Concrete Statues" and the other on the Second World War in South-Eastern Europe with the title "The Distance". He also published a professional marketing book, "Exponential Marketing".
1. When did you arrive in Hungary and what brought you here?
I came in 1996 as the managing Director for the Coca-Cola Company
2. Have you ever been an expatriate elsewhere?
Before coming here I was in Vienna as the Division Marketing Director for Coca-Cola in the region (CEE)
3. What surprised you most about Hungary?
The people. More open and hospitable typically found in than Western Europe
4. Friends are in Budapest for a weekend - what must they absolutely see and do?
Liszt Ferenc Ter for a Friday afternoon coffee, dinner in any one of 200 very good local restaurants and boating up around Szentendre Island and through the heart of the city on Sat afternoon. Sunday spent in Vac or in our weekend house nearby.
5. What is your favourite Hungarian food?
Cold fruit soup
6. What is never missing from your refrigerator?
Coke, of course.
7. What is your favourite Hungarian word?
Apa
8. What do you miss most from home?
Going to my local football team games - The Denver Broncos and skiing in Vail
9. What career other than yours would you love to pursue?
Historian
10. What's a job you would definitely never want?
Prime Minister of Hungary
11. Where did you spend your last vacation?
Skiing in Austria - Murau
12. Where do you hope to spend your next holiday?
At a friend's lake house in New Hampshire
13. What was your favourite band, film, or hobby as a teen?
The Beatles, the movie Airplane and skiing
14. What can't you resist?
Mushroom and cheese pizza two times per week because my two sons love it
15. Red wine or white?
Red
16. Book or movie?
Book
17. Morning person or night person?
Morning
18. Which social issue do you feel most strongly about?
Children's health and safety - what the United Way in Hungary is focused on
19. Buda or Pest side?
Pest
20. What would you say is your personal motto?
It's possible.