I was CEO for IKEA in Czech Hungary and Slovakia from 2007 to 2012.
I was responsible for promoting Eszter to Lead the Budaors IKEA store with a multi million Euro turnover and over 300 staff.
When meeting Eszter early on in her career I noticed the potential to move to a senior role within the organisation. This was born out with the passion she has for product and customer service. She has the ability to develop people and the business together - this is proven with the success of the store and Eszters' promotion to HR manager in Austria.
She developed the competences of the people within her store and influenced her peers in the wider organisation. When Eszter speaks people listen as her points are well thought through and considered. This will benefit any company when employing her services as a consultant.
Her knowledge of the market and peoples lives at home - specifically focussing on the female customer (the decision maker in home furnishings) enabled Eszter to transfer the store and achieve fantastic financial results.
Eszter is inclusive in her approach and has a questioning mind that always gets to the route causes of any Business problems she might face.
It was a real pleasure working with Eszter, as a person and as a business leader. I wish her al the very best in her venture.

We worked together with Eszter for many years and shared projects along the way. She has always - and even since - been one of the few people I would not hesitate to turn to in case of a decision point. Her angle on things are crisp and bright, down to earth with an extra human touch. Highly recommend to involve her in any field, her insights could be game-changers.

I got to know Eszter when she stepped into her role as Country People & Culture Manager for IKEA Austria. Very shortly into her role she was assigned to lead a major transformation to create a better IKEA fit for the future. The transformation included a new organization setup, new ways of working and a new governance structure. Despite being new in the area of Human Resources at that time, Eszter led the transformation of all functions including HR in a very professional, targeted and caring way with special focus on change management and communication. She could lean back on her profound experience from her previous assignments. Eszter is a fast learner, curious to expand her knowledge and to develop in areas that are new to her. 

I directly reported to Eszter Arvai for 6 continuous years when she was my manager. I do not even like his title because Eszter was a true LEADER for me. She is able to create an atmosphere where she sets high expectations, works with clear goals and delivers with speed, but everybody feels themselves in an inclusive and supportive environment. We all understood our own role towards fulfilling the vision of the company. Eszter has solid knowledge about marketing and PR, she led several workshops and trainings about how to create strategy on a high level and translate it into clear actions to all levels.

We strongly delivered towards our business goals and besides that as a team we did two total rebuilding projects for an 15 000 m2 retail area. Although Eszter has deep business knowledge and profit driven thinking, she has good sense to spot talents. This, together with her passion towards people development helped her team to grow in many aspects. She is a very friendly, active listener and she always has a question which makes you think and then invites you to find the solution together. She can be your best partner if you face challenges in leadership, marketing, strategy (business and HR) or you just need a personal coach to help you take the most out of yourself.

Marek Feltl - Business advisor
9.2.2022
I worked very closely with Eszter Arvai during my CEO IKEA CZHUSK role in the period of 2012 to 2018 as well as during previous period being deputy country manager IKEA CZHUSK 2007-2010. Eszter was my direct report as Store/Market manager Budaors. We worked together on several projects throughout various processes and topics both in Commercial area and on Strategic company level.
Eszter, together with her team, was meeting and over-performing all outlined goals and assignments like vision realization, store processes and organization development, market penetration and of course sales targets.
She always delivered great result with clear view on costumer satisfaction and company profitability. Eszter was also very valuable member of Regional Team, bringing people together, contributing to any topic beyond her field of responsibility as well as challenging ways to develop the business further.
Eszter was putting extremely big focus on development of competencies and leadership capabilities of individuals in order to achieve engaged, motivated and committed co-workers on all levels.
Reflecting on her leadership skills, Eszter was demonstrating every day her positive attitude, the spirit of „everything is possible“, being available to people and taking care of individuals as well as integrating various teams by clear objectives to be achieved with strengths of each member.
It was pleasure to work with Eszter and see how she contributed with all her attributes to bring organization and business to the next level. Her personality, competence, passion, energy as well as communication will definetely contribute to any company and business development.

Working for the IKEA franchisor, I visited the franchisee IKEA Hungary for an official 3 day IKEA Concept review. Here I met Eszter and her team in the IKEA Budaors  store in Budapest. A store that had shown year after year strong sales and profit growth figures. The store passed the review with a ‘green score’, the highest score possible. The store scored high on topics like layout as a commercial tool, providing home furnishing inspiration, IKEA merchandising basics and commerciality. This all contributed to a successful implementation of the IKEA Concept and protection of the IKEA Brand. During the review I got to know Eszter as an inspirational leader of her team, strategic in her thinking - taking the discussions to a higher level and full of energy to get things done, reaching results.