AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF CONSULTING IN A TRANSITIONAL ECONOMY IN THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN REGION DURING COVID-19

The consulting industry has been affected in many ways by the global pandemic. According to a leading international literature source (consultancy.org), the decline is most noticeable in Europe. In our article, we present the general recent trends of the global management consulting industry, and then outline the results of our survey conducted among Hungarian consultants. Our team surveyed the extent and direction in which consulting companies have been affected by the pandemic. Although some of the respondents reported rather negative effects, the survey finds that a significant proportion of respondents consider the emerging crisis as an opportunity and not only as a threat.

Consulting during the coronavirus in the light of an empirical survey in Hungary

Relatively little accurate information about management consulting and its market is available to interested readers. Therefore, in this article, we are committed to presenting the most important global trends from various sources, analyzing the main features of the development of the European, Central and Eastern European, as well as the Hungarian consulting markets. Among several other industries, the consulting sector has been affected negatively by the emergence of corona crisis. Consulting, characterized by stable growth and expansion before the pandemic, is estimated to have declined by 17-18 percent in 2020. However, different experts agree that consulting industry will recover faster from the current crisis than before. The pandemic has caused radical changes in the way we work and communicate, and consultants are ready to keep with the flow. One of the key questions of our empirical study in Hungary was the extent to which each consulting organization experienced an economically negative situation, the areas where there was a decrease or an increase, and the extent to which they see new opportunities for the future. Based on the results obtained, we found that the examined organizations were negatively affected by the crisis in terms of sales and services, but a significant part of the organizations also see new opportunities in the current situation for the future.

Strategic Management from the Perspective of SMEs Operating in Service Sector

Purpose: Providing high quality services is a basis for long-term competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises. Recognizing the success factors of transformation and strategic management is an issue that has been frequently addressed in the past two decades. The goal of this article is to evaluate the strategy of small and medium-sized enterprises offering services in tourism and catering. Methodology/Approach: The qualitative analysis was based on 107 completed interviews. Two hypotheses were formulated and an Independence Test was applied. Chi-square Test and Cross Table Analyiss were used which enable to examine the relationship between 2 non-metric variables. The two examined variables related to our Hypothesis 1 were ordinal, and 1 ordinal, 1 nominal in the case of Hypothesis 2. The significance level was p=0.05. Findings: The obtained results show weak relationship between the size of the business and the awareness of the strategy. No relationship can be detected between the size of the business and the evaluation of the key success factor Research Limitation/Implication: The research activity and obtaining research data from SMEs was obstacled by the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19. The research was limited by external circumstances, so the interviews with company representatives could be conducted on online platforms. Originality/Value of paper: The paper examines how successful the SMEs involved in the research are in communicating the values and goals of the company to their employees. It brings important findings in the field of stretegy management which leads to high quality services in the case of providers. Category: Research paper

Negative pressure wound care while covid-19 pandemic: Treatment of necrotizing fasciitis and retroperitoneal abscess

INTRODUCTION - Necrotizing fasciitis is a rare and high mortality condition. Most commonly it is spreading in the extremi - ties, abdominal wall soft tissues and perineal region, but occurs rarely in the retroperitoneal space too. Primary treatment is debridement with administered antibiotics, supported by negative pressure wound care. The present case report concerns a successful treatment of an extensive necrotizing fasciitis spreading from the hip region and ending up in a retroperitoneal abscess. CASE REPORT - A gradually increasing, painful, ulcerated swelling developed in the patient's right hip region. On the first examination, elevated laboratory markers of inflammation were identified while the necrotizing lesion raised concerns of sarcomatic background. Initially, we started antibiotics and took tissue samples. The prompt CT scan confirmed a large abscess complex involving also the retroperitoneal space. The surgical exploration verified a typical necrotizing fasciitis and after removing debridement negative pressure wound care was started. After 14 days of this treatment the patient recovered successfully. CONCLUSION - Negative pressure wound therapy is pivotal in the treatment of necrotizing fasciitis. The number of wound dressings and of medical staff - patient contacts can be significantly reduced by this me - thod. It has a major advantage in the COVID-19 pandemic, since minimalizing close contacts is of vital importance in controlling the spread of the virus. © 2021 Literatura Medica Publishing House. All rights reserved.