Insights from Ronald Binkofski, CEO STX Next, a leading software house based in Poznań, Poland. Before joining STX Next, Ronald served as President of Central & Eastern Europe at Honeywell, where he led the Intelligrated division, specializing in automation solutions for distribution centers across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. With over 23 years of experience in the IT industry, he also held the role of General Manager for Microsoft in Central Asia, Poland, and Romania, including being the General Manager of Microsoft Poland from 2013 to 2018.
What advice would you give to foreign business leaders considering establishing or expanding their operations in Poland?
Poland offers a resilient and dynamic environment for business expansion, with a well-educated workforce, a strong tech sector, and a strategic location within the European market. In addition to those characteristics – which you probably would associate with some other countries within the Central and Eastern Europe Region – Poland has a critical size to play a dual role of being a significant destination market and an excellent place for operating within a bigger geography from Poland. There are a few aspects I would take into account while planning the expansion:
1. “Poland is Unique” – is it really?: This is the sentence you hear in every country you might consider expanding to. Throughout my career, I was always very critical in this regard as the differences were usually in the range of 5%. Nonetheless, understanding the significant ones and assessing their impact on your business is super important. As the size and location of Poland are exceptional within the region, some of those specifics might surprise you and have a significant impact, which you will not find elsewhere.
For example, you could look into the Polish Telecommunication market and see that it is much more scattered than in Czech or Romania. The reason for that is not obvious – take a look.
2. Make up your mind about why you are coming to Poland: I mean to be conscious about what you are trying to accomplish. Are you coming to Poland to utilize the sizable domestic market for your products or services, or are you building a regional footprint to serve the CEE Region, or are you on the forge to serve the global market more effectively, or even more as a strategic location for your HQ that will bridge Central Asia and CIS with Europe for your operations.
For each of these approaches, I would deeply analyze what resources, infrastructure and talent are best for you. For example, if you would like to support your Central Asia endeavor, you would find exceptional talent with great past experiences.
3. Build Relationships: It is an obvious one and never to be underestimated. Over the last 20 years, Poland has become a source of excellent management skills. Poland is small within the big countries and Warsaw is the place to build relations fast and impactful. Use it and you will learn to navigate the culture much faster and avoid the usual traps. You will find people who are looking beyond the obvious and are taking the global perspective while knowing Poland very well. Find those and build relations with them – this will help you a lot.
Remember, Poland is a country that at first glance looks very homogeneous. But doing business in the east of the country is very different from the western part. The urbanization is fast but the rural origins are significant – and you would see it clearly analyzing preferences on many levels.
4. Make people flourish: Finally, probably the most important hint I would like to give to you is to utilize the local talents properly. Build on great skills you will find and let them develop with you. Polish people, once guided well, rock on the world’s arena. Use it. Allow them to become part of a global idea and you will find passion, innovation and great execution daily. Once you create a great team, your work will become so easy.
