For daily news visit us at wbj.pl Since 1994 Poland’s leading business magazine in English AUGUST / SEPTEMBER ~ No. 08-09 (72) included)8%(VAT30.00PLN INDEX-RUCH-332-1272543-9529ISSN WE WITHSTANDUKRAINE BUSINESSWARSAWJOURNAL PAWEŁ MICHALIK & MARIUSZ SOSNA developing people to lead ING in global digital transformation POLAND'S IT SECTOR AMONG THE MOST COMPETITIVE REMOTE REALISEXPLAINEDREGULATIONSWORKPOLAND'SESTATEMARKETINTROUBLE?
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Creating The Future [Of Impactful Teams] Interviews with Paweł Michalik, Mariusz Sosna by Morten Lindholm
59 Life + Style
36 Feature
WBJ.PL 1 AUG/SEPT 8 In Review News
49 Interview
By Mariusz Szałagan and Jakub Wnęk
Dr Mehmet Göktürk İplikçioğlu Interview by Morten Lindholm
CityNewsSpotlight: Wrocław
Poland Must Prepare For Crisis by Sergiusz Prokurat
53 Tech
26 Cover Story
Cover photograph: Michał Pawłowski, Collab Studio
15 Lokale Immobilia
Martin Giminez Castro and David Racchi of Tuna Interview by Alex Webber Events
Robert Rękas Interview by Nikodem Chinowski
Polish IT Sector Conquers Global Markets by Anna Rzhevkina
Subcription Economy
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FAQs: Remote Work Regulations by Andżelika Madej-Kowal and Rafał Ferber
MORTEN LINDHOLM
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
1. How to attract and retain talent is still on top of the agenda for many businesses
2 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
2. Will remote work and hybrid work solutions be good for all in the long run
awards 2022 in June, we observed real estate companies and solutions with high quality and sustainable solutions winning the attention as well as the trend of mixed-used products getting confirmed as the winners of the current times.
My three observations from the summer:
For our cover story, we ask leaders from ING Hub Poland — one of the biggest hubs for IT development in Poland — for their input on what tools they use to motivate, engage and keep productivity among employees high. We also bring you an opinion about the new remote-work regulations that are being implemented in the Polish
Underneath “the good,” however, are high inflation, growing interest rates and growth of uncertainty of prices for energy and gas, creating a worrying short- to middle-term perspective for Poland.
Meanwhile, the Polish government is doing its utmost to communicate that Poland will not experience a shortage of coal and gas, and we can all be safe, warm and productive next winter.
Last but not least, I would like to end with a short update on the Ukrainian refugee situation in Poland, where the numbers confirmed by Polish Economic Institute (PIE) say between March 16 and July 12, 358,000 Ukrainian had been offered employment and 1,225,000 Ukrainian citizens had received PESEL (individual identification) numbers and there were more than 1,500 inquiries for setting up companies or other ventures in Poland.
Duringmarket.theCEEQA
The after-effects of the pandemic led to an increase in domestic travel and hotel stays — characterized by new record visits in Zakopane in mid-August when rail operator PKP too noticed its highest ever weekend passenger numbers.
For businesses, the growing double-digit percentages in wages and generally low unemployment are definitely difficult to maneuver and discussions about how to push the cost increase forward to consumers are now ongoing debates in many boardrooms.
3. E-commerce sales growth has flattened. Shoppers have started looking more for deals and promotions offline
Traffic in shopping centers is back to the level of 2019, the Polish Council of Shopping Centers (PRCH) has confirmed. In June, we saw a footfall of 1.4% vs June 2019, while sales rose by 22%.
In this issue, we dive deep into one of the sectors that is really hot in Poland: the talent market in the IT sector, where increasing competition domestically (from international investments) and external opportunities like remote work are pushing competent work ers expectations for both wages, benefits and convenience.
NAREWSKIPIOTRBYPORTRAIT
I wish you an interesting read and a successful autumn. And my team and I look forward to bringing you more stories about Poland’s business and economy in the coming months.
GROEN IS A UNIQUE HOUSING ESTATE IN KONSTANCIN LOCATED BY THE BOTANICAL GARDEN AND THE POWSIN PARK. The modern and orderly architecture, the surroundings of the health resort and nature reserve – the Kabaty Forest, as well as the proximity of Warsaw are undoubtedly the advantages of this prestigious and green location. • Less than half an hour by car to get to the Warsaw Chopin Airport • Only 10 minutes by bus to get to the nearest metro station – Kabaty • 25 minutes drive to the centre of Warsaw • Prestigious American School of Warsaw within a distance of several hundred metres Want to know more? Contact our sales office: Warszawska Street, Konstancin-Jeziorna Entrance from the Warszawska Street 171, next to Carrefour BIO 600 113 contact@groenkonstancin.comwww.groenkonstancin.com113 FRIENDLY PAYMENT SYSTEM 25 % PAYMENTFIRST 75 % OFDELIVERYUPONKEYS
4 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
Nikodem Chinowski's interview is on Page 50
ON THE COVER
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Robert Rękas, CEO, Polska Sieć Handlowa Lewiatan
Nikodem Chinowski Rafał JakubAlexMariuszAnnaSergiuszAndżelikaMałgorzataFerberFibakiewiczMadej-KowalProkuratRzhevkinaSzałaganWebberWnęk
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Contributors
Paweł Michalik, head, ING Hubs Poland
An accomplished executive with more than 10 years of experience in IT, finance, commerce and general manager positions, Paweł was ap pointed head of ING Hubs Poland — a global shared services branch located in Katowice and Warsaw.
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Mariusz is a senior manager with many years of experience and is currently a management team mem ber at ING Hubs Poland, responsible for the work of over 450 people, in diverse teams from the IT and support areas.
Sankhyayan Datta Managing Editor sdatta@valkea.com
REVIEWIN SHUTTERSTOCK
The number of tourists in Zako pane, a resort town at the foothills of the Tatra mountains, during the long August weekend was higher than during New Year's Eve, Karol Wagner from the Tatra Chamber of Commerce said. Private accom modations in nearby towns, such as Poronin, Biały Dunajec and Witów were also in high demand. In addition, some tourists traveled to campsites.Hoteliers and restaurateurs were prepared to receive such a large number of tourists but the services were not ready enough, Wagner added. For example, there were traffic jams on the road leading from Zakopane towards Morskie Oko, the largest and fourth-deepest lake in the Tatra Mountains, and to the popular thermal baths.
ZAKOPANEMMIŁOŚĆMIŁOŚĆ,W
8 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
10 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
PM Mateusz Morawiecki extended the decision obliging energy companies to buy and import coal suitable for
JOB MARKET
to the same period last year, according to No Fluff Jobs. The median lower and upper salary ranges increased for both labor and B2B contracts. In the first half of 2022, the earnings range was be tween PLN 14,500 and PLN 21,000 net (+VAT) with B2B contracts and between PLN 11,000 and PLN 17,000 gross with labor contracts, the portal says. “In the first half of 2022, the number of ads published on No Fluff Jobs increased by 96.55% compared to the same period last year. It is an impressive and encouraging result, especially taking into account that positions not strictly related to programming played a large part," said Tomasz Bujok, founder and CEO, No Fluff Jobs, an IT job board.
Poland to import more coal
Environmental agencies are investigating the causes of water pollu tion in the Oder River after regional newspapers reported dead fish had been found along its entire length. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote in a Facebook post that the pollution of the river is a scandal and vowed that everything would be done to explain the matter and bring the culprits to justice. “The case will be appropriately investigated, clarified and the guilty severely punished," he promised. The Polish Anglers As sociation has appealed to residents asking them not to catch or eat fish from the river and avoid staying close to the water. The organization also recommends canceling any fishing competitions planned on the Oder until the water test results. The research covers the entire Lubuskie sec tion of the Odra River.
The number of IT vacancies rose by 97% in the first half of 2022 compared
IN REVIEWNews SHUTTERSTOCK
ENERGY
ECONOMY
As many as 28% of hoteliers or restaurateurs are counting on more guests and orders, according to the EFL Barometer for the hospitality indus try. Sub-index for the third quarter increased by 3.2 points quarterly and amounted to 50.2 points. However, a year ago, the index was almost 60 points. According to the report, 22.5% of hoteliers and restaurateurs are afraid of lower orders compared to previous months and 49% do not expect major changes compared to the last months of 2021. "Since August, many Poles have embarked on 'payment holidays' and they will certainly allocate part of the released funds to holiday trips. And this will be a certain impulse for the hospitality industry. But the effect will be short-term," said Radosław Woźniak, EFL president. The authors of the report indicate that 46% of industry represen tatives believe that the situation will worsen in the coming months compared to 32.5% in the second quarter.
individual households until the end of the heating season. "We are on track to secure enough coal not only to meet the demand to the end of the year but also the end of the heating season,” Morawiecki claimed, adding that he prefers that Poland has too much coal than too little. In mid-July, the PM issued a decision obliging PGE Paliwa and Węglokoks to buy and import by the end of October a total of 4.5 million tonnes of coal for households.
ENVIRONMENT
High inflation
Poland, with inflation at 15.5%, went one position down in the world's ranking of countries with the highest price in creases. It is now ranked 15, just ahead of Macedonia. Hungary, although it relies on Russian resources, is only two points behind Poland. The world record for inflation in July was set by Zimbabwe at 257%. It is followed by Turkey (79.6%), Sri Lanka (60.8%) and Iran (54%). In all these countries, inflation clearly accel erated compared to June. Among the EU countries, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are ahead of Poland: the average price increase in the three Baltic states in July exceeded 20%. Overall, in the eurozone, the price increase accelerated from 8.6 to 8.9%.
BUSINESS Growth in orders expected
IT vacancies up
River Oder pollution investigated
The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) imposed on Farma Mleka more than PLN 150,000 fine for misleading consumers, while encour aging them to invest money in the company's development. The company encouraged customers to grant loans for the purchase of cows and then derive profits from the sale of milk. The business owner promised a return of up to 16% per year. He presented the offer to potential investors during webinars and on leaflets. During meetings with potential investors, Farma Mleka's president assured that the company cooperates with seven farms and has about 300 cows, and in 3-4 years it plans to enlarge the herds to 10,000 head of cattle in 50 farms. In reality, the company had only 11 cows during its entire activity and a contract with only one farm.
Energy giant PGNiG discovered a natural gas field in Sierosław near Poznań containing about 650 million cubic meters of nitrogen-rich natural gas, the company said. The Sierosław field is lo cated in the geological formations of the Rotliegend, which has been one of the main areas of PGNiG's exploration activ
In July, employers in Poland published 288,000 job offers, which was 6.3% less compared to a year ago, a Grant Thornton report shows. July is the third month with an annual decline in the number of job offers. “Considering the situation in Ukraine, the increase in operating costs and inflation, these declines are so far rather shallow and they are also affected by the high base, i.e. a record number of new job offers a year ago,” Monika Smulewicz from Grant Thornton said in a statement. She added, however, that there is no doubt that the period of record-break ing numbers of job offers in Poland is rather over.
Adam Glapiński, head, the National Bank of Poland (NBP), said recently
ity in western Poland for several years. "PGNiG is planning further exploration work in this area. If further fields are discovered, their exploitation will have a positive impact not only on the possibil ity of securing gas supplies but also on the financial condition of local govern ments with oil resources and gas," the company said in a statement.
JOB MARKET Job offers fall
Polish banks have so far received some 850,000 applications for payment holidays from mortgage holders out of about 2.1 million borrowers, banking lobby ZBP head Krzysztof Pietraszkie wicz told TVN24 news channel. Asked about the expected total number of ap plications to be filed in, Pietraszkiewicz mentioned ZBP's estimates of about 85% but said the number could even reach 95% of all entitled loan takers. Borrowers can submit applications from July 29. Pietraszkiewicz pointed out that if a borrower takes credit vacation and at the same time applies for a new loan, banks will take into account that the person still has other obligations. Asked whether such consumers will be treated as those who failed to repay the loan, Pietraszkiewicz said that "each bank will act individually and will take into account many factors."
The European Commission has given Poland a green light to join the group of countries which can exchange crossborder electronic prescriptions. Such
WBJ.PL 11 IN REVIEWQuote News >>>
ENERGY
HEALTH Cross-border e-prescription
Quote of the month
“There is enormous pressure from one of our neighbors to introduce the euro in Poland… and that Poland should participate in the building of the so-called European state. At the same time, as long as I am the president of the NBP, Poland will not enter the eurozone”
Natural gas field discovered
prescriptions allow EU citizens to obtain their medication in a pharmacy located in another EU country. The approval of the EC is the first step toward enabling Poles to use their e-prescriptions in other EU countries, whereas EU resi dents will be able to buy medicines in Polish pharmacies. “Soon Poles will be able to buy their medicines abroad with an electronic document," the e-Health Centre told PAP.
DOMESTIC 850k payment holiday applications
AGRICULTURE Company fined for cheating on cows
ENVIRONMENT PLN 330m for charging stations
to Glapiński, an autonomous monetary policy makes it possible to react faster to the needs of a given economy.
EMPLOYMENT Staff shortages
GreenWay Polska plans to invest PLN 330 million in the development of the charging stations network, the com pany said. By 2026, the company will build 825 charging stations with 1,500 car charging points, of which 70 sta tions (120 points) will be built in 2022. GreenWay Polska will also replace this year 60 charging stations with a power of 50 kW with more powerful technolo gies. Most of the new stations installed in the public GreenWay network will have a capacity of 150 kW and the company also plans to install 200 kW stations in selected locations.
12 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL SHUTTERSTOCK IN REVIEWNews
DOMESTIC Living independently
The EY Work Reimagined 2022 report shows that one in three companies (35%) struggles to find employees. The challenge is not new but combined with rising inflation and the consequent high cost of hiring professionals, it is forcing a great deal of flexibility and the development of new employment formulas. The past two years have shown that many employers, in the
ECONOMY Glapiński for Polish currency
Young Poles leave their parents’ hous es later compared to the European av erage, according to a report published by the statistical office in Zielona Góra, citing Eurostat sources. On average, Poles decide to live independently at the age of 29. Young people start living on their own the earliest in northern Europe, in particular, in Sweden (19), Finland (21.2) and Denmark (21.3). When it comes to professional activity for people aged 15-24, in Poland the rate is 31% compared to the EU of 39.3%. The research was conducted for the International Youth Day celebrated on August 12.
face of government recommendations and expectations of employees, have introduced remote or hybrid work ing. The end of the pandemic has not brought a return to the old status quo. The flexibility of companies and the ability to provide work from anywhere have ceased to be just a nice-to-have incentive on the list of benefits. They have become an essential element expected by the candidate, as the EY report confirms. Respondents' answers show that 80% of employees want to work remotely a minimum of two days a week, while one in five employers (22%) try to ignore this, expecting a return to offices.
TRANSPORTATION New Wizz Air routes
The central bank’s head Adam Glapiński told in an interview with Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper that Poland's currency and monetary policy absorb negative global shocks in the Polish economy and giving up złoty in the current conditions would be a huge and costly mistake for Poland. He explained that individual countries belonging to one currency area may require separate actions in monetary policy because they are in different positions on the cycle or have differ ent levels of indebtedness. According
Hungarian Wizz Air will launch four new routes from Warsaw Chopin Air port this winter season: to Aqaba in Jordan, Venice in Italy and Valencia and Bilbao in Spain, the carrier announced recently. Wizz Air will start flying to Valencia on December 12, to Aqaba on December 13, to Venice on December 14 and to Bilbao on March 28. In addition, the carrier will increase the frequency of flights from Warsaw to Barcelona, Malaga, Kutaisi, Basel and Alicante. The company said that it had added the ninth plane to its base at Chopin Airport. In total, Wizz Air has five bases Poland: Katowice, Kraków, Warsaw, Wrocław and Gdańsk.
SAVE THE DATE Warsaw 06.06.2023 There’s only one CEE A Gala. CEE A.com
First Covid-19, now war. The world has changed. People have changed. Real has to change as well. This edition Property will be held under THE CHANGE.
Forum
year’s
estate
the motto
www.propertyforum.pl 2 days of panels, talks and sessionsthematic20meetingsinspiring>100exceptionalspeakers 19–20 September 2022 Sheraton Grand Warsaw RegisterHotelnow
of
OFFICE Kraków reports the highest office take-up of all regional cities
>>> LOKALE
InvestmentHospitalityMarketLogisticsMixed-useOfficeResidentialRetail Find more daily at wbj.pl/real-estate ParkOceanCavatina’sOfficeB
In the first half of 2022, leasing activity in the Kraków office market reached 109,000 sqm, accounting for 70% of 2021’s total and repre senting a 44% increase y/y. Looking ahead, Kraków is expected to see gradual rental growth soon driven by rising construction costs and high inflation, says Savills. According to Savills latest report, Kraków’s total office stock reached 1.66 million sqm in the first half of 2022, up by close to 4% y/y. At the end of June 2022, the occupancy rate for office buildings completed in 2022 stood at 75%, with just 11,800 sqm remain ing
(covering)
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INDUSTRYIMMOBILIAREALESTATENEWS
Thevacant.office development pipeline in Kraków currently amounts to 156,800 sqm, the second highest result for Poland’s regional cities, just behind Wrocław. The largest projects underway include Cavatina’s Ocean Office Park B (26,500 sqm), Ghelamco’s Kreo (23,000 sqm) and Echo Investment’s Brain Park (23,000 sqm and 21,900 sq m) in the center of the city.
The number of residential units for which building permits were issued fell by 24% year-on-year to 21,987 in July this year and by 36.8% m/m),monthobtaineding(GUS).accordingmonth-on-month,toStatisticsPolandInvestorsconstructbuildingsforsaleorrent14,017permitslast(down16.9%y/yand46%theGUSalsoreported.
RESIDENTIAL
LOKALE IMMOBILIA NEWS
RETAIL
RESIDENTIAL
Residential building permits down
OFFICE New chapter of ALTEN Polska
A new chapter in the history of ALTEN Polska is beginning in a modern office building at 23A Lubicz Street in Kraków. Employees have already been using the new office space for two months but the opening ceremony took place on July 22, with invited guests including ALTEN Group board member Gérald Attia, Deputy CEO, and CEE director Axel Girardetti. AL TEN Group is a major technology partner for global clients and has become a leading provider of engineering and technology consulting services in recent years. It operates in industries such as automotive, finance and banking, energy, aerospace and rail, pharmaceuticals, manufac turing automation and robotics, as well as the development of innovative mobile and web ap plications.
FACEBOOKRIGHTSHUTTERSTOCK,LEFTPAGETHIS`PHOTOGRAPH 16 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
Shopping centers and retail real estate operator Atrium opened more than 50 stores in the first half of the year with a total area of 14,000 sqm. “We feel that the market is stabilizing after the pandemic and is going back on track,” Scott Dwyer, group manag ing director for retail, Atrium European Real Estate, said in a statement. Sports clothing brand Under Armor and Rituals Cosmetics opened in the group’s flagship facility Prom enada in Warsaw. Other openings in the capital include the Italian brand O bag and the British sports chain JD Sports, which chose Atrium Targówek for their debut.
Apartment sales rise
Over 50 Atrium stores open in H1 2022
In July, developers in the seven largest cities sold apartments with a total area of 2,400 sqm, which is 12% more compared to June, data from real estate portal Rynekpierwot ny.pl shows. Still, the result is 31% lower compared to July 2021. The highest increase in sales (41%) was recorded in Gdańsk, where in May, sales of new apartments fell by 40% and in June by another 29%. The situation was similar in Łódź, Kraków and Warsaw, where after two months of sales drops, July showed increases of 32%, 22% and 11% respectively.
Modern apartments of the Granaries Island in Old Town of Gdansk
Daniel Radkiewicz CEO INWI
SALE LEASEBACKAND –A GOOD ALTERNATIVE FOR BANK LOANS
WBJ.PL 17 PARTNER HIGHLIGHTS
“Our experience shows that sale and leaseback processes run extremely smoothly. They do not require so detailed analysis of compa nies, various reports or in-depth legal analyses as is the case when applying for bank financing. Both parties bene fit from the sale and leaseback trans action. The seller receives significant funds and the buyer receives longterm, regular inflows,” says Mariusz Stępień, CFO INWI.
The property seller bears the costs of monthly rent independent of WIBOR, which is particularly beneficial at a time of increasing interest rates. The parties agree on the agreement pro visions, such as service fees, preemption rights or purchase options. A lease agreement may be signed for the period of even 30 years with an option to extend it, even for an indefi nite period of time.
A sale and leaseback transaction consists of two interconnected agree ments. A company sells the prop erty to an investor and then signs a lease agreement. The company’s fur ther operations at the facility do not change at all. One of the most impor tant benefits of selling the property by way of the sale and leaseback transaction is acquiring funds at the full market value of the property, without the reduction by own con tribution. The ways to use the funds obtained in this manner are unlimited. Usually, it involves reinvestments, payment of liabilities or dividends. Further business expansion becomes much easier when such a significant amount of new funds is obtained.
“In order to adjust to the new mar ket reality, we need to analyze pos sible funding offers from a broader perspective. To our clients — compa nies with turnover exceeding PLN 200 million, whose assets include manu facturing, warehouse or office proper ties — we offer the sale and leaseback option. Sale and leaseback transac tions, quite popular for a long time in the Western markets, are gaining pop ularity in the domestic market,” says Daniel Radkiewicz, CEO INWI.
For more, visit www.inwi.pl
T
he global growth in the prices of raw materials and of some goods, as well as prolonged disruptions in supply chains, contribute to the increased dynamics of drawn loan obligations of large compa nies. Sale and leaseback transactions may turn out to be a cheaper and faster alternative to obtaining financing than loans. It is a good time to consider the benefits of sale and leaseback as a form of company funding.
CFO INWI
INWI invests in the sector of lands, housing, office, trade and logistics properties. The company is actively looking for land and buildings for its own construction projects or in coop eration with market-leading investors.
Mariusz Stępień
A natural consequence of increasing interest rates is growing WIBOR, and hence loan installments. High inflation and the increase in electric ity, gas and fuel prices bring about an increase in the costs of running a business.
REAL ESTATE
RETAIL
Demand for housing loans slumps
Demand in the segment of large flats and houses for sale may deteriorate in the coming months as interest in the rental market is expected to increase, according to a survey conducted by the Nieruchomosci-online.pl. "In the third quarter, the demand situation is likely to deteriorate mainly in the segment of large flats and houses for sale. For large flats, a further decline in interest is predicted by 56% of respondents and for houses by 52%," the survey says.
REAL ESTATE
LOKALE IMMOBILIA NEWS SHUTTERSTOCKRIGHTMATERIAL,PRESSLEFT,PAGETHISPHOTOGRAPHS 18 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
“The Covid-19 pandemic posed a real challenge for the entire construction sector. However, in the EMEA region, it has remained resilient. And after an initial slowdown companies have returned to a reasonable level of profits. Despite the increased investor activity, the uncertainty related to the return of employ ees to offices is still noticeable on the market due to the imple mentation of the hybrid workplace model and focus on savings on occupancy and office fit-out costs. The war in Ukraine, tight ening supply chains and the challenges of construction materi als availability have directly led to upward pressure on fit-out costs per square meter this year”
The housing loan demand index fell by almost 67% in July yearon-year, the Credit Information Bureau (BIK) data shows. This is an even worse result than in June when the drop was 60% and the outcome was the low est in the history of the index, reported since January 2008. In July, only 14,110 applica tions were submitted compared to 43,760 a year ago. This is a decrease of 67.8%. The average monthly number of applications in 2021 was 43,000. The average value of the requested hous ing loan is, however, relatively stable. In July, similarly to June, it amounted to PLN 339,800, which is a decrease of 1.7%.
Bogumiła Kompowska, design & build lead, project & development services, Cushman & Wakefield, said recently. According to Cushman & Wakefield, with office fit-out costs in Warsaw averaging €1,010/sqm, the Polish capital came third in the CEE region behind Belgrade (€1,121/sqm) and Prague (€1,037/sqm). London takes the top spot in EMEA with an average fit-out cost of €2,798/sqm
Colliers to advise manufacturers
Due to the growing interest of companies in locating their business in the CEE region, Colliers, a leading commercial real estate advisory firm, has launched a new business line within its strategic advisory department — business consulting, which will cover the entire CEE market. Jan Kamoji-Czapiński, an expert with long-term experience in strategic consulting for foreign companies, who has been supporting Colliers' clients in the EMEA region for the last year, will be responsible for its development.
‘Residential properties’ demand to fall’
It fulfils dreams of peace and quiet and at the same time the proximity of the city with all its advantages - a rich cul tural offer, restaurants, and convenient public transport. It is an ideal choice for families as well as for people without children. The natural values of the neighbourhood, many bicycle routes and green recreational areas in the vicinity of the estate, as well as the American School of Warsaw, make this place extremely attractive.
More information can be found at: Saleswww.groenkonstancin.comoffice:+48600113113
ts residential project in Konstancin-Jeziorna – Groen - is an intimate estate of houses inspired by the Dutch style, situ ated in a green area and perfectly connected with Warsaw.
The first residents who will move into their homes in autumn of 2022 emphasize its ideal location, intimacy,
Investing in real estate is a reasonable solution to protect money from inflation. When making such important decisions in life, it is worth choosing a trusted, proven partner with many years of experi ence and international portfolio - such as the Belgian Ghelamco, which has been successfully implementing its projects in Poland for over 30 years.
GROEN KONSTANCIN –A RESIDENTIAL ESTATE CLOSE TO NATURE
and the highest quality of workmanship, warranted by the developer – Ghelamco, who is regularly awarded for their innovative office and residential projects. A well-thoughtout design and convenient solutions, as well as efficient implementation, punctuality, and the best materials used, make the Groen Konstancin estate unique. An additional advantage and help in designing the interior of your dream home is the assistance of experienced architects. As a result, even the most demanding customers feel fully taken care of.
To meet customer expectations, the investor has devel oped a convenient 25/75 payment system - when sign ing the contract, the customer only pays 25% of the house price, and the remaining 75% upon collecting the keys. Such a business model will allow the buyers to use their own funds, and only before collecting the keys and financ ing from a loan or sale of another property. During con struction, the investor provides funds for implementation, so it is worth relying on a stable and predictable developer with an established position, as well as knowledge and experience of a reliable financial advisor. Therefore, when researching the real estate market for a safe investment, it is wise to check the developer's history and read in-depth expert analyses from the financial market.
PARTNER HIGHLIGHTS
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Hence its name - groen in Dutch means green. The project is not only about modern and orderly architecture but also a neighbourhood community and security. Thanks to the unique location, the proximity of the Culture Park in Powsin and the Botanical Garden, residents can enjoy the charms of nature.
20 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
THE POLISH OFFICE MARKET HAS MORE THAN 12.6 MILLION SQM OF MODERN SPACE AT THE END OF Q2 2022.
Kraków
The total volume of investment transactions in the Polish commercial real estate market in the first half of 2022 increased by 44% year-on-year, Cushman & Wakefield has reported. "In the first half of the year, many large investment transactions with low capitalization rates were finalized and more will be completed by the end of the year,” Paweł Partyka, partner, capital markets, Cush man & Wakefield Polska was quoted as saying. From the beginning of the year, the investment vol ume increased to €2.88 billion, which is higher than the five-year average by 15%. "The vacancy rates in warehouses and industrial facilities are at a record low level and a supply gap is forecast in the Warsaw office market in the next 18-24 months,” Cushman & Wakefield said. The prospects of rising rental rates are encouraging investors to increase their activity, it added.
LOKALE IMMOBILIA NEWS
Tri-City (1,010,900 sqm)
Warsaw (6,270,30 sq m)
(1,666,200 sq m), Wrocław (1,284,500 sq m) IMMO.AXIANDASSOCIATIONPINKFROMDATA
Office market in Poland Q2
Commercial real estate investments up
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New flat sales down
Developers managed to sell a total of 9,200 flats in Poland's six largest prop erty markets in the second quarter of 2022, according to a report from JLL. As the real estate services firm notes, this is half less than in the same period a year ago. From April to June 2022, developers sold a total of 9,200 new flats in Warsaw, Krakow, Wrocław, the Tri-City, Poznań and Łódź. It is 11% less than in the first quarter of the year and 53% less than in the same period of 2021. The drop in sales is mainly the result of higher mortgage interest rates and stricter credit rating rules, the JLL report indicates. The situation is aggravated by the fact that, despite falling demand, flats are not getting cheaper. market in Poland Q2
THE NUMBER OF UNITS WHOSE SALES FORMALLY STARTED IN Q2 TURNED OUT TO BE VERY HIGH: OVER 19,000, BUT IN FACT ONLY APPROX. 11,500 OF THEM CAN BE TREATED AS ACTUAL NEW SUPPLY. LOKALE IMMOBILIA NEWS 1,400 1,0001,500 1,800 800 2,700 No. of units sold un Q2 2022 Average price of unit on offer (PLN/sqm) PLN 12,300 PLNPLN10,20011,200 PLN 12,400 PLN 8,900 PLN 13,600 2022Q2POLANDINMARKETRESIDENTIALREPORT:JLL Total* 11,500No.9,200ofunitssold " “Real” new 43,200supply “Real” offer at the end of Q2 2022 *aggregated data for the Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, Tri-City, Poznań andŁódż. Residential
Wrocław is a Polish major IT center and one of the key cities for the development of the modern business services sector. It is also one of the most rapidly growing metropolitan areas in Poland. The city is known for its businessfriendly attitude: many wellknown Polish businesses, such as debt collector Kruk, game maker Techland and coffee chain Etno Cafe were started up here.
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Moreover, the city claimed 6th place for Economic Poten tial, 9th place for Human Capital and Lifestyle, 2nd place for Cost Effectiveness and 10th place for Connectivity in the ranking.
BUSINESSATTRACTSWROCŁAW
The main train station is Wrocław Główny, the largest railway station in Poland by the number of passengers served followed by Poznań Główny and Kraków Główny. Last year, Wrocław station transported more than 17 million people. There are direct connections to Szczecin, Poznań and Warsaw Central (through Łódź Fabryc zna station). In addition, there are regular trains to Berlin Hauptbahnhof and Vienna Cen tral T (Wien Hbf).
22 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
AerialAbove:view of the Sky Tower
Right: Finnish UPMindustryforestcompanyBusinessHub
SPOTLIGHTCITY WROCŁAW
Wrocław's investment attrac tiveness is confirmed by the fDi magazine ranking, where the city was ranked 15th amongst the best cities to invest in in the world. In the medium and small cities category, Wrocław landed in the first place, ahead of Zurich and Vilnius.
Location
airport which offers daily flights to Munich, Frankfurt, Copenha gen, Düsseldorf and Warsaw. Last year, it transported more than 1.4 million passengers.
Wrocław is the capital of Lower Silesia located on the Oder River, in southwestern Poland, near the border with Germany. It is situated between Warsaw, Berlin and Prague, with each of the three cities accessible by road in roughly four hours. Other European capitals can be easily reached from Wrocław
By Anna Rzhevkina
The city is also bicyclefriendly with around 1,200 kilometers of bike paths.
Investment potential Wrocław is the most popular Polish city among entrepre
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Notable investments carried out in Wrocław in the last two years include US producer of power transmission belts and fluid power solutions Gates Corporation, Finnish forest in dustry company UPM Business Hub, Finnish manufacturer of bathroom and kitchen faucets Oras and Florida-headquar tered Klika Tech, specializing in innovative hardware, firmware and cloud nesses,favorableandectstionregion.toworkingDevelopmentWrocławsolutions.AgglomerationAgencyhasbeenformorethan15yearssupportentrepreneursintheThenon-profitorganizahasbeenmanagingprojsuchasInvestinWrocławStartupWrocławtocreateconditionsforbusiincludingstart-ups.
A city to live Spread across 12 islands on the Oder River, Wrocław is connected by more than 120 bridges, which became one of its symbols. The oldest part of Wrocław is Ostrów Tumski and other distinguished buildings include the Old Town Hall and the Aula Leopoldina, a Baroque assembly hall at the university.
City area: 293 square km Population: 642,000 Population of agglomeration: about 1 million 1000-year-old city Wrocław was selected as a European Capital of Culture in 2016 along with San Sebastián, Spain operationbusiness by some the “Venice of the North”, settled on Odra River, Wrocław is a city of more than 100 bridges and 21 islands.
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due to the city’s popularity among investors. The four main business districts in the city are Śródmieście, Stare Miasto, Fabryczna and Krzyki, a peace ful district with many parks and green areas. Average prices for 20-30 sqm offices are in the range of PLN 44-65/sqm, ac cording to real estate company Morizon.
Education
neurs who plan to invest in the geographical development of their company, the Business Environment Assessment Study (BEAS) recently conducted by HR firm Antal found. The aver age rating of the city was 7.2 on a 10-point scale, which is an increase of 0.2 compared to 2019 and puts Wrocław in first place, together with Warsaw.
The city hosts the Jazz on the Oder Festival and the Wratislav ia Cantans, a festival held every September that ranks as one of the most important music events in Poland. This year, it will take place on September 9-18.
Wrocław is the third largest office market in Poland after Warsaw and Kraków, offering around 670,000 sqm of office space. The city has for years at tracted the attention of shared service centers and outsourcing companies looking to offshore operations to a cost-effective destination with qualified pro fessionals. Marcin Siewierski of Cushman & Wakefield, cited by Antal, notes that Wrocław is perceived by investors as a mature business center with a diverse offer, able to respond flexibly and effectively to the changing market conditions.
Facts about Wrocław Type of
IT 43.1% SSC 24.4% R&D 21.1% BPO 11.4% Called
The city has emerged as the largest R&D center in Poland, according to real estate com pany JLL. Nearly 20 companies with R&D divisions, such as Nokia and Whirlpool, sev eral independent R&D centers, including Wrocław Research Center EIT+ and the Wrocław Academic Hub — Poland’s first cooperation platform for local government and academic in stitutions, create a base for ad vanced research and innovation in the fields of IT, biotechnology, nanotechnology, engineering andOfficemedicine.rental prices in Wrocław are similar to Warsaw
Office space
Wrocław is one of Poland's most influential academic centers, where about 110,000 students receive their education every year. The city’s oldest and largest university is the Univer sity of Wrocław, which has ten faculties with courses taught in Polish and English. Established in 1702, the university boasts of being closely associated with nine Nobel Prize winners since the beginning of the 20th centu ry. In total, there are almost 30 universities in the city, including the top technical university: the Wrocław University of Science andKatarzynaTechnology.Sławińska of Antal notes that Wrocław has been Poland’s top city for engineering education. “Engineering gradu ates provide the most attractive talent pool for the investors of the Wrocław economic zone,” she said, adding that new investments in the Lower Silesia region have been grow ing thanks to engineers’ high expertise.Wrocław’s universities are open to working with busi nesses. For example, the Center for Cooperation with Business operates as part of the Wrocław University of Economics, while the Center for Cooperation Be tween Academia and Business is active within the Wrocław University of Technology.
24 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
In which sectors are these changes already taking place? The increase in rental rates, both headline and effective, is very well visible in the office, and
Małgorzata Fibakiewicz of Business Intelligence HUB & Consultancy, BNP Paribas Real Estate Poland tells the WBJ which sectors will be most affected.
There has been a lot of discussion about rental growth recently. How do you see it? Is it already happening? What are the drivers?
SHUTTERSTOCK OPINION
Asian ports, high transporta tion costs, limited availability of raw materials and construction materials whose costs exceed successive barriers or outflow of Ukrainian workers from various sectors, are additionally building up the size of this crisis. Should we add local factors, such as the supply gap in the office sector, we end up in a situation, in which the rents simply need to grow.
Ukraine conflict to impact commercial real estate
One could say that recently we have been dealing with a dance of academic black swans. We are facing the unstable situation in Eastern Europe caused by Rus sia's invasion of Ukraine, which resulted in stronger economic challenges, such as inflation breaking the levels we have not seen since the 1990s. Fragile supply chains, partially due to the zero tolerance approach to Covid-19 in China and other
WBJ.PL 25 logistics and industrial sectors.
Quarter-to-quarter the asking rents increased on average by approx. 9%, while the effective ones by around 14%. There were zones, like Warsaw II, where the increases of the asking rents exceeded 20%.
The balance between demand and supply is a factor shaping the relations between owners and tenants. In the event of a deficit in any of them, we are dealing either with the tenant's or landlord's market. The latter we are experiencing in the office sector. In such an environment we may face not so much as a further increase in headline
rent rates, but a reduction in incentive packages offered by landlords, e.g. rent free periods or fit-out contributions, which elements so far have been sig nificantly reducing the effective rents. In the logistics and indus trial sector, these processes are slowly starting. Only in the last quarter did we see that the num ber of square meters built on a speculative basis had fallen. And the demand, even if still at a high level, is also not breaking further thresholds in terms of volume. Yet, it is worth noticing that construction processes in the logistics and warehouse sector last shorter, so we can already look for the supply gap specter in 2023.
What else can we expect in 2023?
FibakiewiczMałgorzata Head of ParibasIntelligenceBusinessHUB&Consultancy,BNPRealEstatePoland
Undoubtedly, the indexation of rents and the annual recon ciliation of service charges. Indexation will affect rents in all sectors, also in the retail sector, where we do not see any increase in rents today. Eurodenominated rents are gener ally indexed by the HICP index, which is dangerously approach ing double-digit levels. If we add to these service charges, the reconciliation of which may be painful for tenants due to energy costs, an inflation-wage spiral driving the salaries up in 2022, we have a gigantic increase in operating costs to be incurred by tenants, who simultaneously will be running their businesses in a weaker economic climate.
How will the new situation translate into the owner-tenant relationship?
roughly 230,000 sqm is under construction, out of which about 60% is planned for delivery this year. Therefore, not too much to choose from in the follow ing years, which is confirmed by the statistical data after Q2 showing an 11.3% decrease in the dynamics of the construc tion and assembly production.
High construction costs, the outflow of hands to work in the construction or transport and forwarding sectors and struc tural shortages of construction materials have greatly contrib uted to the situation, in which the project excels were coming in red. In the office sector, the supply gap is an additional factor driving rent growth. Due to the pandemic and the hybrid work model optimizing tenants' demand, developers were not in a hurry to obtain building permits for new office build ings. Currently, in Warsaw,
Average asking rents quarterto-quarter in offices in Warsaw increased already by €0.5/sqm on average. In the logistics and industrial sector, for which the pandemic and following change in consumer behavior has been a great accelerator, we do not have a supply gap yet – approx. 4 million sqm is still under construction. However, the rest of quoted factors are already driving up the rents.
We have a gigantic increase in operating costs to be incurred by tenants, who simultaneously will be running their businesses in a weaker economic climate
CREATINGFUTURETHE
(OF TEAMS)IMPACTFUL
INTERVIEW S BY MORTEN LINDHOLM PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAŁ PAWŁOWSKI, COLLAB STUDIO
We meet up with Paweł Michalik, head, ING Hubs Poland, and Mariusz Sosna, tribe lead, business support tribe, to learn how their tenures at ING Hubs Poland have led them to maintain their high standards of performance.
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You are based in Poland but your teams work inter nationally and the impact is global. Can you give us a quick rundown on how it works? We are trying to capture the best knowledge, the best competencies, and the best specialists around the world to create value for ING. And this is why our modern HUB concept was introduced — ING has five hubs in location terms but we don’t count them as geographically placed units anymore. We like to look at the hubs in a more content-based way instead. Hubs don’t work in isolation but as cross-location and cross-global organizations. No matter where in the ING organization certain special ists and experts are working — cyber-security, risk, or KYC (transaction-monitoring) — we want them to work together.
ING Hubs Poland was established in 2003 to build value for the ING group by building a higher standard of infrastructure services eventually entering into security, especially cyber-security. Currently, ING Hubs Poland is one of the global hubs providing technology, data, and risk services for ING units all over the world. With offices located in Katowice and Warsaw, their IT areas include IT security, remote application, and hosting services. Their operational services are provided by units such as Risk Hub, Cards Hub, Know Your Customer, Centralized People Services Hub, and Compliance Hub.
Paweł Michalik
COVER STORY
For almost 20 years they have been undertaking challenges and demonstrating that they are a trustworthy partner supporting ING in digital transformation. Steady growth and an expanding portfolio of services made them change the name from ING Tech Poland to ING Hubs Poland to better reflect the scope of their capabilities. In the last five years, they also become involved in more operational and business functions linking their experience and competencies in technology to contribute as much as possible to other areas of their operation. That includes the risk-related modeling activities and anti-money laundering that they do in Warsaw through “Know Your Customer” management, and lately, anti-fraud which they started to build for the entire ING
BriefGroup.
In our view, the role of the leader is not to set the direc tion. It is to facilitate how teams cooperate and how parts of the organizations cooperate to get as much value as possible from the teams and let them decide on the strategy.
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This is a matrix structure that helps in the management of risks and proper placements of financial flows as well. We want to make sure that the responsibility and the majority of the decision-making are actually done where the majority of competencies are placed. Kind of the next level of matrix organizations.
This sounds like a matrix organization…
Our structure is different from the model where there is one leader and everyone supports the strategy that this leader introduces. We instead influence the strategy with teams that are cross-located. This is obviously difficult because it also requires a different leadership approach, which is not yet so common in organizations.
What is your role in the structure?
Firstly, they know they are making an impact. Secondly, we really want them to grow, especially, in terms of combining different skills and different activities to create more com prehensive solutions. Through the marriage of technology and operations in business, we don’t seek to create one team that is responsible for operations and another team responsible for technology. We want those teams working together because that creates development opportunities forTheeveryone. thirdpoint would be the environment we create. This means the physical place that we introduce our employees to, the flexible models of work that we offer them, and from a more psychological perspective, we want to listen to them and create a safe environment in terms of the stabil ity of plans, the transparency of our way forward, and the transparency of influence or contribution of everyone to the overall picture.
Any thoughts about the competitive Polish labor market?
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Tell us about the anti-fraud services you are developing. Anti-fraud services describe out intention quite well. It is one of the projects we are working on right now, though not the biggest. This brings us back to the concept of hubs. We began building anti-fraud support for ING a few years ago but right now we are accelerating this support by creat ing an anti-fraud hub. More specifically, this means that we would like to collect and combine the experience and knowledge of anti-fraud experts from around the world. This function will help all of the ING countries to counteract the fraud threats out there. This is not unique to ING. Cyber and fraud threats are rising in all environments and institu tions. So, this is certainly a very hot topic now with a lot of money involved and many financial institutions allocating big budgets to investments in this area.
we have a strong brand and we can offer em ployees to be involved in defining, designing, and support ing the strategy of ING. This is what we emphasize: being with us means having an impact and influence on what is happening at ING.
What are the benefits people get when choosing to work for ING?
My job is to make sure that our employees and teams are sufficiently skilled in finding and using synergies, coopera tion between different areas, and that we also use expertise outside of the organization to contribute to the bigger pic ture. I make sure job positions correspond to their maturity and their competency.
Labor markets are hot now. This is not something unique to Poland as it is what we see when we look across all the markets. It is a global trend now, not easy for everyone, but this is something we must take as a given and be preparedFortunately,for.
My perspective is to build trust not only in terms of our strategy and cooperation with our partners at ING but also between the management team and employees. This is crucial for me.
In some business areas, we are still going to grow up, strengthen our competences, secure the pool of special ists and experts, and make sure that such approach is the basis of our strategy. The next step will be not to grow up so rapidly but focus on impact we create on our custom ers, services we provide
The future bank products and services should come from hubs. Not only from my part of the organization but, in general, we must make sure we now deploy the technol
ogy that is going to make it possible to scale our support faster than the growing volumes. This is our game and our goal. This is a broader discussion at ING. We are now building a capacity or capabilities in certain locations, the next step is to use technology to a greater extent, building competency in the hubs and powering them with technology to scale the impact.
What is a bit different for us is exactly how we do it. For example, we get experts from the most developed markets. Markets with more digital exposure are most heavily affect ed by threats and we want to use specialists from those markets to contribute to the central solution and help the countries and the markets that are less developed.
What are your plans for further developing ING Hubs Poland?
COVER STORY
In terms of the development of your people’s managerial, leadership skills and business skills, what kind of programs or systems do you use?
Do you think it will mean that they have to travel more again or is everything doable digitally?
Our program aims for the development of leaders and it is pretty broad. So, it is not closed to the MT's small leadership team but targets the whole management layer. This is important as we expect slightly different things from the managers now. I mean extending their expertise outside of their current domains. We seek to expand technical profiles with business knowledge, and business profiles with technical understanding. This is in general a developing activity. I would say that this is a must for the future. We have been pretty successful so far and we already see many development opportunities for our leaders and managers. This is an appealing story that we are making now.
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This explains the concept of hubs quite well. We collect the best knowledge that is out there and help the ones that lack this knowledge and competency in their local markets.Thisidea breaks the practice of building centralized functions in bank headquarters, as was typically the case in the past. Wherever the headquarters were placed, the expertise of that location’s market was used. We want to change this by using hubs. We want to find the best experts, not only in the central location but maybe in the Polish market, which is much more experienced and much more affected by cyber security threats and fraud threats because the market is more advanced and more digital.
I think this is also something that should be men tioned. It is a journey. You can talk about this kind of transformation only when you are ready, only when the foundation has been built. It's when you already have a team that is competent and can make this next step. They understand the impact of the activities being done. This is the kind of concept that we have now, that we want to look for other business areas in which we are perhaps not as involved, maybe not so well developed in terms of competencies and we want to help here to be able to take the next step.
We are now building a capacity or capabilities in certain locations, the next step is to use technology to a greater extent, building competency in the Hubs and power them with technology to scale the impact
People are always going to be at the heart of our strategy. We will continue to have investments in various areas that develop our technology support, going much deeper with the responsibilities that we have, having more influence in tech, more influence in AML, and more influence in risk management. This is going to be our strategy.
30 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
Our intention would now be to make sure that we align the teams that are in different locations. Not only or not always on the receiving site or strategic steering site. We are rather going to visit other locations, maybe not only headquarters, so it's still going to be important to travel. Probably less than we did before the pandemic but I also believe in personal contact because if you really want to understand what challenges the teams face you need to be with them. It doesn’t matter whether you are a line manager of a small team or a department head. You need to be with the people to know the work, to get the context, help them, and see their struggles. This is exactly the role of a leader now. Understand why people are struggling and make their environment bet ter, not only set directions.
What will your future focus be on?
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The second is the competition for talents and making sure that we retain competency and talent. I don't want to treat this as a crisis that is going to be over soon. This is going to be a new reality. Therefore, we need to find a good response for it. I believe we do this well now, but it is going to be even more demanding in the future.
The world has changed. It’s easier to switch jobs now with more flexible models. Also, companies are more trans parent with their goals, so it is much easier to compare what a certain entity or environment is going to give you. People are also very much aware, or getting more aware, of their lives and finding balance. This has already changed, so we are not going to reverse it and probably we shouldn't because the majority of these changes are good ones.
What are the biggest challenges for you and ING in the near future?
Never waste a good crisis, someone said. So we need to make use of this change and this kind of “crisis” situation that we are all in now, because this is impacting the whole technology industry as well, and we need to find a way. >>>
I think that there are two. On the strategic side, I would say that we need to be fast in deploying our digital strategy because the volumes and expectations of financial institutions are go ing to be growing rapidly and we need to be prepared for that.
There are new areas of expectations toward financial in stitutions like the whole environmental agenda right now, which is becoming more and more important. I personally fully support this because financial institutions can make a notable impact in driving environmental strategy signifi cantly forward. We are going to play an even more impor tant role here.
With the rise of new challenges and threats that are out there with cyber security, fraud, and money laundering, and with the world now changing rapidly — not always in the direction that we would like it to — the rise of these threats is enormous and we need to prepare ourselves.
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In addition, employee turnover was really low throughout the first two years of the pandemic. People were probably not that willing to change jobs and wanted some security in their lives. Yet, on the other hand, we were recruiting hav ily, so some were still looking for a change.
Let’s start from the beginning. The pandemic started a sort of transformation that had never been planned. We had all sorts of crisis committees and we had to make a lot of deci sions but when I look at it from a different perspective and compare it to what I’ve seen elsewhere, I think we did well. We quickly decided to start working from home. We had the tools we needed. We did not experience any serious issues with continuity or loss of productivity; also thanks to our employees who simply stood up to the challenge.
How do ING Hubs Poland employees currently work?
projects that required many people.
Mariusz Sosna
Any consequences of this transformation?
We quickly adapted to recruiting people in a new way. I think we overcame all of the challenges and the processes we had in place, and that, in turn, allowed us to gain some advantage in the market. We recruited heavily — 1,000 people during the first year of the pandemic. It was the biggest recruitment drive we have ever had. It was not the effect of the pandemic, but it was a time of delivering huge
During the second year of the pandemic, the IT sector started to see some serious issues with the way the world had changed. The fact that all our employees were working from home and that our offices were largely empty seemed like a Somethingdisadvantage.hadchanged. The first thing was the problem of increasing employee turnover in the sector. The prob lems we faced were how to properly introduce the employ ees when we don't have them or their team members next to us, how to instill a sense of belonging among them, what the company stands for, its culture, and what is expected of the newcomers.
really sharing the negative impact of the whole situation, but for us it was evident. If you want to innovate you need to have people working closely together. Finally, when we did open the office, we realized people had already gotten used to staying and working from home. That meant a lot of explaining and discussing, building new ways of working, and understanding how we could combine the expectations of employees with those of the company.Let’sstart with the newcomers. Imagine you start a new job at a company you don’t know. Day 1: Your manager spends 1-2 hours with you, tells you what the company does and what your job will entail, and then leaves you. You stay at home, at the same desk that you had been working at for your previous company, and you don’t know a lot about your new workplace. It will take you months to pick up small details during remote meetings. Some people are good at it. They reach out to their new colleagues and arrange a virtual coffee and ask around. They learn quickly and build connections. But not many people have such skills.
So what is your solution to this challenging situation? We want to build teams. We are against the remote-only work solution. This is a paradigm that we want to stay with and this is at the center of our discussion. Not only for the newcomers but also for the growth of our people, for build ing a culture, an understanding of a common goal.
Employees staying at home and in solitude for long peri ods of time has its consequences and affects their condi tion not only physically but also mentally. This was another major setback, as a result of which we are witnessing a decline in Companiesinnovation.weren’t
how it should be done. We have told everyone that we do not want our employees to come to the office just for the sake of being there.
And if you want to build teams it is not enough to have people working scattered across countries or cities. Some teams work remotely and work well. I have seen that and know it is possible. However, many of those are experienced teams, built over long periods and they work efficiently together.
Another issue a lot of companies face is when they get employees to come to the office once in a while because they want their people to be part of the company. However, when they choose to come in on different days, there is no integration.Thisisnot
We expect employees to find reasons for coming to the office and what will be productive for them
For me finding people and retaining them is like the blood stream of our company. Everything we do heavily relies on finding and keeping the right people. Sure, on the one hand, right now it is getting harder but, on the other hand, we have been delivering really good results when it comes to recruitment in the last couple of years. Also keeping our talents in now more important than it ever was.
Instead, we expect employees to find reasons for coming to the office and what will be productive for them. It can be, for example, scrum rituals or project planning, team meet ings, onboarding of new colleagues, training, celebration, and face-to-face meetings with management or peers.
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We give our teams a lot of freedom. They define the rea sons to meet in the office. They need to plan when to do it and trust that everyone will be there to make use of the fact that they can make direct exchanges. We expect every team >>>
We want to have a solid proposition of compensation and benefits, but in the end, I think people also stay with us because they simply like the company and enjoy working here. They can be part of a global team. We have roles and functions that are truly global and the importance of our teams and our people has grown steadily over the years.
How is ING Hubs Poland unique? What are the recruitment challenges?
I see that there are many people who are supportive of our approach. Also, a lot of them want to work for a com pany that has an office, a strategy, and a culture, where you meet people and make friends. An important aspect of people staying with us was always the culture of our company, and it still is. Our greatest job is to make sure we do not lose it, especially with the growth we have.
Our employees tell us a lot, which can often be challeng ing, but we get plenty of feedback from them in terms of when their expectations change:: that they have oppor tunities to change companies, work remotely or abroad. And some also tell us that the work strategy that we have adopted is not the one they like. It is important to get these responses because then you can actually have a dialogue.
One of the pillars of our culture is listening to people. We host all kinds of open question sessions and we always end big meetings with the option of asking or commenting anonymously to get honest questions and feedback.
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I’ve seen teams, maybe a group of teams, but I haven’t seen a big structure, like over 100 people, that was effec tive while working fully remotely. I know it is possible but extremely hard to do and replicate.
to find a solution for their way of working in a hybrid model. A challenging model that works from the bottom up is the core of our approach.
COVER STORY
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34 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
You can find BIO’s of our interviewees on page 4
Culture is very difficult to describe. Some say it is what people do when nobody is watching. I feel that the people are at the heart of our culture but it’s also about how we build our teams and how important the people are in the strategy.Webelieve that employee growth is more important than delivering business goals because if we help people grow and allow them to be successful, they will deliver the busi ness
But it’s not like the old office. There are no desks for everyone. How does that work?
Not everyone enjoys sports but for those who do, we would like to get the message out there that we can help and connect them with others. The biggest events we take part in are the business runs. We also sponsor one of them — we have more than 100 teams and roughly 500 partici pants. We also support employees with a “Mental Helpline,” a series of workshops on wellbeing, and an active “BeWell” community that monitors the situation and prepares solu tions to respond to the current needs.
We believe that employee growth is more important than delivering business goals
Weresults.nurture our leadership team, our middle managers, and product owners. We want to make sure that they take care of other people in the company and also build teams. I know there are many people who stay with us because they simply want to grow and learn.
Before the pandemic, company benefits focused on food days or sporting activities. Is it less important now?
I think it is still important. We care about the wellness of our employees and especially now. Throughout the
How do you integrate your employees and create the right culture?
we launched a more inclusive proposition and employ ees can choose how they want this benefit to be delivered. Again, this involves more belief in people and the fact that they are capable of organizing themselves. We, as a com pany, just need to help them and give them the opportunity to, for example, rent a football court or connect people with each other. We also encourage good examples such as com ing to the office by bike.
Any last thoughts on transformation?
We want our employees to be active. In addition to the sport card benefit that we offer, this year
pandemic, we have been studying how much of a negative impact it has had, not only for people infected by Covid and struggling to recover but also with mental health issues.
Yes, in the previous office everyone had their own station. Some people still need to go through that transformation as they loved their desks. They had their cups and photos and stickers on them.
The office space is now comprised of collaboration zones. These could be all sorts. It could be a fun zone, a “library” (a quiet zone), a collaborative chilling spot, or the gravity point on the ground floor.
Something I like to look at is simply the smile on people’s faces. That for me is like a KPI. I see it a lot, especially now in our new offices. I get a lot of positive energy when I see employees enjoying and spending time with their teams.
How are the new offices built? How are they different from the old offices?
Feedback is even better than I expected! I was expecting it to be positive but people are complimenting it a lot. The new office has been a huge success since its opening. For the first time in two years, almost all the parking spaces are taken. We have to queue to get coffee — it’s proof that people enjoy this.
It’s been a challenge. We started construction just before the pandemic hit Poland. So we had to change the entire approach along the way. We knew we didn’t need the office as we did before. We decided to put a very strong emphasis on collaboration. I have seen a lot of great offices with col laboration zones, something you will see increasingly more of, especially in Warsaw. We have pushed it a bit further, once you enter the office you step into a huge space (2,000 sqm) which we call “gravity point” and it is an open space for everyone. It is like a huge café where you can spend your whole day working but you can also organize a meet ing or invite somebody from outside, bring your kids, take your dog — anything is possible! There are no desks.
One more thing to mention is that I really feel we are in the middle of the transformation, not even close to the end. It is a huge discussion in our company still. Like I said before, there are people who simply say they don’t like it and want to work remotely. To some extent, we allow it. It’s a fraction of the company. But I think it is key to acknowledge that this is a transformation that is taking place and we need to monitor it, observe it, and make decisions as we go.
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36 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
POLISH MARKETSGLOBALCONQUERSSECTORIT
BY ANNA RZHEVKINA
Once known as a costattractive location for basic IT services, Poland has outgrown the role of a basic service provider and today creates products that conquer the world’s markets.
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FEATURE IT MARKET
In addition, Poland is ranked by Future of IT as a top Emerg ing Europe destination for information technology outsourc ing (ITO) followed by Romania and Czechia. Agnieszka Belowska Gosławska, Vice President for Technology at the Association of Business Service Leaders notes that IT ser vices account for 45.1% of all business services provided in InPoland.March, Google announced an investment of about PLN 2.7 billion on a new office complex in Poland, it is the largest ever single office transaction in all of East-Central Europe. This was
“POLAND HAS SHOT PAST THE HEAVYWEIGHTS”WORLD’SSIDEINGNOWGORYMARKETEMERGINGCATE-ANDISPLAY-SIDEBYWITHTHE
In the second quarter alone, Poland saw a 76% increase in start-up venture funding, with investment value totaling PLN 916 million, a report by PFR Ventures and Inovo Venture Partners revealed. The top deals were PLN 540 million for spacetech start-up ICEYE, PLN 170 million for a tech company to fight financial crimes Silent Eight, and PLN 109 million for a customer service platform Tidio. The average transaction value increased to PLN 9.9 million from PLN 7.9 million a year ago.
There are dozens of universities, offering computer sci ence education all over the country: in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Kraków, Wrocław, and smaller cities. In total, about 86,000 students are enrolled in IT programs, and about 11,000 new specialists graduate per year.
In Poland, there are around 50,000 software companies, and the sector is further evolving amid the ever-growing demand for IT services. The IT industry constitutes about 8% of Polish GDP, employing over 430,000 people, Polish Invest ment and Trade Agency estimated.
Poland stands out with its strong start-up scene and pow erful gaming industries. There are 400 development studios employing 10,000 people and generating 470 million euros of revenue. Polish companies developed games popular among players from all over the globe, such as the Witcher and This War of Mine.
oland is ranked second among the most competitive IT sectors in Central and Eastern Europe, right after Estonia and ahead of Czechia, a report Future of IT by Emerging Europe revealed. The ranking looks into IT infrastructure, available talent, economic impact, business environment, and the room for potential growth. “Poland has shot past the emerging market category and is now playing side by side with the world’s heavyweights,” the report notes.
“The needs of the market have changed. Today's reality demands much more from an IT professional than knowledge of one or
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GLOBAL TECH PLAYERS HEAVILY INVEST IN POLAND
not the first big investment of the U.S. tech giant in Poland. Last year, Google launched its Europe's largest cloud technology develop ment center in Warsaw. Its rival Microsoft in 2020 also announced that it would develop a data center in Poland as part of a $1 billion investment plan in the country.
On top of that, Poland is among Intel’s des tinations to develop its most advanced tech nology. In March, the company announced plans to spend 33 billion euros to expand its European semiconductor ecosystem across France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, and Spain. Under the program, Intel will increase its lab space by 50% in Gdansk by 2023, With international players, expanding their presence in Poland, the competition for qualified specialists is fierce. Gosławska from ABSL notes that in the labor market, there is an increased demand for skills pri marily related to process automation, cloud solutions, and big data analytics. However, as Poland moves from a role of follower to that of an innovator, core competencies are no longer enough.
The complexity of services provided in Poland is systematically increasing. There is a clear trend towards a more significant role of complex processes generating higher added value, Gosławska said. For the first time, the share of highly specialized knowledgebased services, which include IT services, exceeded 50% of all services performed in centers located in Poland, she noted.
Linguistic competencies (42.1%), a dominant factor a decade ago, only came in fourth.
WORK IN POLAND, EARN IN EURO ManpowerGroup's "Talent Shortage" report shows that 64% of companies in IT sector are experiencing difficul
ABSL’s report shows that it is now on average four times more difficult to hire developers and data science professionals than in the same period in 2021. As a result, 85% of the sector’s companies in Poland are considering looking for employees located outside their city of operations, while nearly 54% are looking outside Poland.
“There is currently a lot of sal ary pressure in the IT market. Salary increases remain one of the key moti vators for job changes in this sector,” she said. Mazur expects that the short age of IT professionals will continue to increase, which will lead to higher financial expectations and higher prices for IT service providers.
Salaries of IT specialists jumped by about a third in a year, and with a gross salary of PLN 18,843 they are – apart from managers – the best-paid employ ees in Poland, recruitment company Antal calculated. Monika Kiliańska, Team Manager IT Services at Antal, notes that the IT industry is in need of experienced professionals, but – due to the lack of such – is reaching out to candidates who have switched to IT or
To attract qualified specialists, close to 90% of companies in Poland allow IT professionals to work remotely. The trend is especially noticeable in regional cities such as Lublin, Byd goszcz, Kielce, Toruń, Rzeszów and Białystok, Belowska Gosławska says.
are beginning to gain their first profes sional experience in this area.
Two years ago, the Polish govern ment launched a program called Poland.Business Harbour to support Belarusian companies and IT special ists to relocate to Poland. Last year, the scheme, which offers fast immi gration procedures to ICT experts and their family members, was extended to include Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia and Russia.
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two programming languages. We are looking for people who can manage the process and maintain the relationship with the customer,” she said. Managers of modern business service centers in Poland name among the key skills they look for competencies in predic tive analytics (56.1%), tech-savviness (46.3%), and leadership skills (43.9%).
ties in finding employees with the right skills. “Polish employers are no longer competing only locally for employees – foreign companies have also joined the competition for domestic special ists,” Justyna Mazur, business line leader responsible for IT recruitment at Experis told Warsaw Business Journal.
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• during the period when it is temporarily impossible for the employer to provide safe and hygienic working conditions at the employee's current place of work due to force majeure — if the em ployee submits immediately before the order is issued a statement in paper or elec tronic form that they have the premises and technical conditions for performing remote work. If the employ ee's premises and technical conditions change making it impossible to continue work
1. in an agreement between the employer and the company trade union and in the case where the employer has more than one company trade union organizations, in an agreement between the employer and these organi zations,
A: The bill stipulates that, in the case of an agreement to perform remote work made in the course of employment, the article of the Labor Code, according to which a change in the terms of the employment contract requires written form, shall not apply. In our opinion, this should be in terpreted to mean that a change in the terms of the employment contract caused by the above arrangements will not require a written form.
2. in the regulations, after con sultation with employee rep resentatives selected in ac cordance with the procedure adopted at the employer’s (if there are no company trade unions at the employer’s), 3. respectively, in the order (in struction) to perform remote work or in the agreement concluded with the em ployee, when the agreement referred to in item 1 above has not been concluded or
The employer will also be able to revoke the remote work order with at least one day's notice.
>>>
Can remote work be done at the request of the employer?
ing remotely, the employee will be obliged to inform the employer immediately. In such a case the employer will immediately revoke the order to perform remote work.
Is the employer bound by the employee's request to perform remote work?
• during a state of emergency, state of epidemic or state of epidemic emergency and for a period of three months after their cancellation
The bill stipulates that remote work may be performed at the order (instruction) of the em ployer if the following circum stances exist:
Will the arrangements between the parties of the employment contract during the course of employment to perform remote work require an amendment to the employment contract in writing?
In the Polish parliament, a bill on amendments to the Labor Code and some other laws regulating remote work already exists. Experts answer the most popular questions.
FAQs:remote work regulations
In some cases. e.g. a pregnant employee or an employee rais ing a child up to the age of 4, the employer will be obliged to grant the employee's request to perform remote work, unless it is not possible to perform remote work due to the organi zation of work or the type of work performed by the employee. The employer shall inform the em ployee of the reason for refusing to grant the request in paper or electronic form.
Andżelika Madej-Kowal: Ac cording to the bill, the agree ment between the parties of the employment contract regarding the employee's performance of remote work may take place either at the conclusion of the employment contract or during the course of employment, in the latter case at the initiative of the employer or at the request of the employee submitted in paper or electronic form.
According to the bill, remote work should be performed ac cording to the rules for perform ing remote work set forth in, among others:
Should the employer regulate the rules for performing remote work, and if so, what should be included in such "regulations"?
When should the parties of an employment contract make arrangements for an employee to perform remote work?
3. cover costs other than those specified in #2 above directly related to the performance of remote work, if the reim bursement of such costs is specified in an agreement with the unions in the remote work regulations, in the remote work order (instruc tion) of the employer or in an agreement with the employ ee;
4. provide the employee per forming remote work with the training and technical assis tance necessary to perform such work.
Familyrepealed.Business
and the amount of material used for the employer's needs and the market prices of this material, as well as the norms of consumption of electricity and the cost of telecommunications services should be taken into account in particular.
FEATURE REMOTE WORKING SHUTTERSTOCKSPREADPREVIOUS
mance of remote work, or cover the necessary costs associated with the installa tion, servicing, operation and maintenance of work tools, including technical devices, necessary for the perfor mance of remote work, and cover the costs of electricity and performanceservicestelecommunicationsnecessaryfortheofremotework;
The employer and the employee may establish rules for the use by an employee performing remote work of work materials and tools, including technical equipment, necessary for the performance of remote work, not provided by the employer. In such a case, an employee performing remote work using private work materials and tools shall be entitled to a cash allow ance in the amount agreed with theTheemployer.draftalso stipulates that the obligation to cover the aforementioned costs or to pay the above equivalent, may be re placed by the obligation to pay a lump sum, the amount of which corresponds to the expected costs incurred by the employee in connection with remote work.
• the principles of control of compliance with security and information protection requirements, including procedures for the protection of personal data;
the regulations referred to in item 2 above have not been issued.
According to the bill, the em ployer is obliged to:
In determining the amount of the above equivalent or lump sum, the norms of consump tion of materials and work tools, including technical equipment, their documented market prices
2. provide the installation, servicing, operation, main tenance of work tools, including technical devices, necessary for the perfor
• the principles of installation, inventory, maintenance, soft ware updates and servicing of work tools entrusted to the employee, including techni cal equipment.
Initiative Association (IFR) is a Warsawbased alliance that groups entrepreneurs who own family businesses, as well as experts and scientists who support this community. Andżelika MadejKowal, an IFR expert and attor ney in the law firm Brillaw by Mikulski & Partners, deals with labor law, among others.
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• the rules for determining the cash equivalent or lump sum;
• the rules for covering the costs of remote work by the employer;
• the principles of control in the field of occupational health and safety;
According to the bill, the "amendment" to the Labor Code regarding remote work will enter into force within 14 days of its promulgation. At the same time, as of the date of entry into force of these planned regulations, the previous provision relat ing to remote work contained in the Law of March 2, 2020, on Special Solutions for the Preven tion, Prevention and Control of Covid-19, Other Communicable Diseases and Emergencies Caused by them will be probably
1. provide the employee per forming remote work with the materials and work tools, including technical devices, necessary to perform remote work;
• the principles of control of the performance of work by an employee performing remote work;
Q: What is the planned effec tive date of remote working regulations according to the bill?
In addition, the above regula tions should specify the follow ing:•the group or groups of em ployees who may be covered by remote work (this does not apply to #3 above);
What should an employer provide for an employee doing remote work?
• the rules of communication between the employer and the employee performing remote work, including the method of confirming the presence of the employee performing remote work at the workplace;
It is good that these issues will finally be regulated in the code, curbing the arbitrariness of some companies that have shifted the burden of "remote ness" to employees. In the cur rent amendment, there is a point about providing access to "necessary work tools," but also the cost of the training and technical assistance needed to perform remote work.
OPINIONEXPERT’S
Rafał Ferber is a remote work practitioner and consultant with nearly 20 years of experi ence. He has worked as a remote worker in the IT sector, run his own remote business employ ing more than a dozen people and authored the first online course on hybrid work in Poland.
As it turned out, our legisla tion had a lot of space for free interpretation in terms of, for example, operating costs and higher energy consumption incurred by employees work ing remotely. There were many questions and doubts in the media, since companies no longer have to bear the high costs of offices, their mainte nance and supplies, maybe they should share some of
It's been almost two-and-ahalf years since the introduc tion of the "special Covid-19 law," in which the term "remote work" first appeared. Since then, it has been recited in all cases. Before the pandemic, only one in 10 employees had experience working remotely. Working from home, was mainly available to areas: IT, business consulting, advisory and marketing businesses, that operated mostly on b2b con Thetracts.pandemic situation has forced nearly 8 million Poles to change the mode of work they have known so far. Consider ing that there are about 23 mil lion working-age workers, this means that one in three Poles has experienced remote work. This includes those employed on a contract basis in SMEs, universities or governmental offices — places that were not prepared for this and did not work in such a model. Lack of training and technical support caused professional groups such as teachers and civil serv ants to have very bad memo ries of remote work. They had to spend more time and resources to implement the new reality.
bad and non-ergonomic place to do work. Few are aware that working in unsuitable condi tions has an impact on occu pational burnout, which is rec ognized as an occupational disease by the World Health Organization as of January 1, 2022.There remains the question of control. How to control an employee who works in "their space"? How to carry out an inspection while respecting the intimacy of the employee's "home"? These and other ques tions, are yet to be answered in thisChangesamendment.inthe work model are happening faster than leg islation, so it is good that after more than two years we will see an update and clarification of the framework for remote work that will not allow for discrep ancies in interpretation.
these "savings" with employees who had to work from home, using their own equipment. And after all, employees were also left with more money in their pockets. By working from home, they saved on the cost of getting to work or eating out. A completely separate currency is time. An average 41-minute one-way commute, meaning they saved an hour and a half per day on their daily commute.
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The pandemic has brought to light the fact that where we do our work has an impact not only on "workspace" issues but has consequences in other areas such as RODO, data secu rity and cybersecurity (because corporate networks are secured differently from home net works), legal and tax issues (in the context of the increas ingly popular "workation") or even health and safety issues. Coming to work in the office, everyone is given information on the ergonomics of the work station. There is still no health and safety training on work ing from home, according to a survey conducted by market ing agency CraftJack. Almost a third admitted to working from their bed, which is definitely a
There are many indications that Poland may face a technical recession: when GDP declines in two consecutive quarters. There is a growing belief that Poland is in danger of stagflation and that in the coming months, Polish society will become poorer. BY SERGIUSZ PROKURAT
PREPAREMUSTPOLAND FOR THE CRISIS
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4. The global economic slowdown, especially in the US and the EU, will also affect Poland.
Uncertainty
is the worst torture of all, argued Alexandre Dumas in his book “The Count of Monte Cristo.” Even when we know it will be bad, we would like to know exactly what awaits us. But it’s not that simple. Uncertainty is a silent killer following its own rules. You cannot get to know everything until it finally happens. The source of the uncertainty itself is the contradiction between expectations and what reality tends to bring. For example, Poles would like to live as before the war between Russia and Ukraine and before the pandemic. It may not be possible.
The Polish economy is threatened by the crisis due to several reasons:1.Thewar wreaks havoc and disrupts supply chains, which leads to limiting potential economic growth and inflation itself.
2. Someone has to pay for decisions made by governments in Europe, including Poland, during the pandemic — expensive measures to combat Covid-19. And those will be the citizens.
Banning Russia from the world’s financial systems was a moral act of solidarity with Ukraine. Unfortunately, it also means a smaller global GDP, due to limited trade with Russia. It is a bit like the sword of Damocles — sanctions and social pressure to isolate and close business with Russia have hit Russia, but also the business world itself. Russia simply cannot be taken out of the world’s economic map without a loss for all. The Russian market had a fairly large share in the financial market, especially in the eastern part of the world. The war combined with huge jumps in commodity prices is causing inflation. Escalation of the war between Russia and Ukraine, resignation from strategic raw materials previously supplied by the Kremlin, exceptionally weak złoty (PLN) and rising inflation in Poland and Europe create a state of anxiety.
Inflation in Poland is at its highest in the last two decades. Housing prices across the country have skyrocketed. Food prices in 2022 increased dramatically compared to the previ ous year, faster than the average basket of goods. In such a situation, people do not always make rational decisions. Two attitudes are visible among Polish consumers. The first and the dominating one is restricting consumption. Respondents declare that in the face of rising prices, inflation and higher interest rates, they will first limit certain services that may be considered luxurious, i.e. not necessarily essential for living. The second approach is to increase consumption in the name
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3. In recent years, ruling parties’ governance has been a festival of economic populism.
The cause of the crisis that Poland is on the verge of does not stem only from the problems of the world economy and the war between Russia and Ukraine. Poland fell into a spiral of populism, where the current ruling party’s political pro grams have been reduced to social promises. Two decades ago, Poles were highly entertained on hearing that 13th, 14th and 15th salaries and pensions were paid in Greece. In recent years, however, exactly the same institutions have been introduced in Poland. From a country with an economy shaped by liberal elites in the 1990s, Poland has turned into a pro-social country. The policy of redistribution is being imple mented at an enormous cost, the consequences of which are parlous — inflation has come along with a new increase in social inequality in Poland. Economics has proven that crises are related to unemployment. This phenomenon has not yet occurred. And yet an increase in expenditures may force enterprises to reduce employment after a crisis sets off.
The situation in Poland and Europe is bad. Central banks are forced to tighten monetary policy. Fighting inflation by raising interest rates is literally forcing people not to spend money by taking away “cheap money”: higher interest rates mean the end of low loan installments. As a result, many people have less in their pockets and thus less is spent on consumption and less goes to the industry and services. This may stifle economic growth and with the current high dynamics of price growth, it means a risk of stagflation. A stagnation and high inflation combined. Are we facing a crisis similar to the one in 1973, when the war in the Middle East first caused an oil crisis and then a global recession?
“POLAND’S REAL DEFICIT IS GREATER THAN THAT OF GREECE AT THE TIME OF THE CRISIS IN 2008”
It is interesting that economic crises so far have been the periods of the greatest triumphs of the Polish economy — Poland was the fastest at catching up with the level of devel opment in Western Europe. From 2008-2011, Poland’s GDP per capita increased from 56% up to 66% of the EU average. In the coming crisis, it will rather be different. Nothing is for sure, though.
debt statistics has amounted to the astronomical amount of PLN 1.5 trillion! And this equals three annual budgets of the entire state. The scale of the problem can be illustrated by the fact that Poland’s real deficit is greater than that of Greece at the time of the crisis in 2008. The Greeks also used false statistics before the crisis. And this practice is being repeated in Poland. Accounting tricks are only effective until we look behind the curtain of Poland’s finances.
The aforementioned Dumas in “The Three Musketeers” wrote that the happiness of the present moment always eclipses the uncertainty of the future. The last decade, excluding the pandemic time, was economically fabulous for Poland. Even too good and that’s why expectations are still high. Unfortunately, the bitter truth is that there is no way out of the spiral of populism. Whoever says that debts have to be paid off will lose. It is difficult to say the truth because the truth is pessimistic and therefore unpopular.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the minimum salary in Poland continued to increase without increased productivity. This is nothing else than an imbalance between supply and demand. The trend started even earlier. Since 2015, salaries have increased by 65%. At the same time, the increase in labor productivity has been 25%. During Covid-19, produc tivity tumbled, and the government pumped extra money into the economy under aid and shield programs. Salaries rose faster. This led to a gigantic imbalance and an inflation surplus, the result of which can only be one, i.e. rising prices. The government’s response comes down to making attempts to compensate the electorate for the inflation. The latest program of “loan holidays” passed in the summertime of 2022, offers all loan takers the possibility of suspending the repayment of installments for up to eight months. This may result in further projected increases in interest rates. The looming crisis will require maintaining high-interest rates at a level higher than in the richer countries that Poland wants to Arechase.we tightening the belt? Not really. Currently, Poland, instead of reforms, is witnessing another festival of prosocial promises. It is possible because a significant part of the state budget is beyond the budgetary law, parliamentary control and constitutional debt brake. Politicians are hiding the rising debts while pretending that the budget is in surplus. Since 2016, the sum of money spent beyond any control and official
Although Poland is not in danger of bankruptcy, it is evident that there are fewer and fewer people willing to loan money. The yield on treasury bonds exceeded 8% in July 2022 (when compared to 1.1% at the beginning of 2021). This means that the cost of the “cash handout,” a prosocial policy, has increased almost sevenfold in just a year and a half. Interest on this gigantic debt amounts to PLN 70 billion in 2023 and it will be repaid from further loans. Such debt gives rise to new debts. This is not just a problem in Poland – in the coming time it may turn out that several countries will go bankrupt. Sri Lanka and Lebanon have already filed declarations of insolvency. They are at the forefront of the distressed line of African and Latin American countries. Ukraine, which is in debt due to the war, may also run into trouble. Belarus will also face difficulties. In the European Union, the countries of the peripheries of the eurozone – Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain – will be the most threatened.
of the principle that it is better to spend money than wait for it to continue to depreciate. Poles feel that bank deposits with negative real interest rates (lower than the inflation rate) do not protect their savings. Which attitude is more rational?
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A bridge between two countries
INTERVIEW BY MORTEN LINDHOLM
WBJ: Tell us more about DrTURKPOLMehmetGöktürk İplikçioğlu: TURKPOL is an association that be lieves joint projects finished by foreign ers, businesspeople or academics can only be successful with participants from all parts of society. Our organization, which we started in 2009 with members from all parts of society where everyone has the right to equal representation has been continuing its activities with hundreds of members and key busi ness partners officially since 2016. The group focuses on the business sector with its Business Club branch. It aims to establish new partnerships by bringing businesspeople from Poland and Turkey together with the events it organizes throughout the year. Of course, it also supports the growth of the trade volume between the two countries. We are excited that this community will guide young people, academics and business people and contribute to the develop ment of their social lives.
INTERVIEW
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How do you evaluate the relations between Turkey and Poland in terms of trade capacity? How do you think this volume will be affected in the future?
While the trade volume between Po land and Turkey was €6 billion in 2019, today this rate has increased despite the pandemic. In Turkey, the trade ministry continues its efforts to encourage Pol ish investors to invest in our country. The trading capacity between the two countries is increasing every year. While Turkey is an export market for Poland, it is also one of Poland's best suppliers. There are active commercial activities, especially in the automotive and textile sectors. When we look at the foreign trade volume of Poland with Turkey in 2021, we can see an increase of 27% from the previous year. The trade volume in 2021 was $9.3 billion between the two countries. If we look at the current year, $3.5 billion had already been reached in the first four
MATERIALPRESS
The WBJ talks with Dr Mehmet Göktürk İplikçioğlu about trade, entrepreneurship and business in these post-pandemic times.
The decision processes take longer here. It is certain that foreign invest ment will increase if processes such as the waiting period for obtaining a work permit are shortened. The visa application and finalization process is time-consuming and shortening it will have a very positive effect on the parties. The absence of any business
War affects the whole world on a global scale. As part of civil society, we have accelerated our efforts to do our bit. We endlessly support the mutual solidarity network. Crises can create new bonds and heroes. Turkey plays a strategic role in the Ukraine crisis with both its de fense industry and diplomatic missions.
I suggest investors should head to wards the right sectors and identify the gaps and needs in Poland correctly. For example, Turkey is one of the most im portant commercial partners of Poland in the textile sector. Poland is among the top five importing countries. It will be more advantageous to be able to identify such high-capacity sectors or to see the gaps with commercial activ ity potential.
Turkish companies are actually quite fa miliar with the Polish market. In 2019, 39 different projects worth $3.4 billion were undertaken by Turkish companies in Poland. This reveals the volume of bilateral trade relations. In 2021, the total Turkish investment amounted to $450Turkishmillion.entrepreneurs who want to invest in Poland can establish a limited company. This process takes up to 60 days. Investors will then need work and residence permits. However, it can be said that a period of about six months is needed. Investors will be able to take more solid steps if they enter the
How big is the bilateral relations connected to tourism?
Polish citizens prefer Turkey in the summer season. In the last five years, 2.5 million Polish tourists have visited Turkey. The majority prefer the Turk ish resort city of Antalya. I think the most important factor facilitating this situation is that Polish citizens can enter Turkey with their identity cards. In the first seven months of 2022, overall, 392,135 Polish tourists came to Antalya. Successful implementa tion of the Safe Tourism Certification Program initiated by Turkey in 2020 and bilateral diplomatic relations have also boosted tourism.
How has the Covid-19 pandemic af fected your work? Were you able to maintain your active position?
months.Ifwetalk about the education sector, Turkish students who want to study in Europe prefer Poland over other coun tries. University graduates prefer pro fessions that will allow them to reside in Poland in the long term, especially in senior managerial positions.
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How did the war in Ukraine affect the trade relations between Poland and Turkey?
market with this information, and of course, follow the latest news.
There are many Poles in Turkey, in which sectors is this most felt?
visa application in Poland also has an effect. In addition, in the business area, partners prefer face-to-face communi cation more. Also, in Poland, a lot of attention is paid to working hours and public holidays. Apart from that, the use of English is not very common, I think it should be increased in addition to Polish in business life. Finally, I think that the transition to digital systems in Poland could be a little faster. There is a digital platform known as the "e-devlet" [in English: e-Government] in Turkey, and in this way, citizens can easily follow up on government services on the internet. This accelerates foreign investment transactions and we can fol low them more easily. The lack of this in Poland causes companies here to hire third-party companies even for simple paperwork.
The interest of Polish companies in Turkish markets, especially in textile, ready-made clothing, machinery and other industrial sectors has increased considerably recently. Companies can partially carry out their production in Turkey. Although this scale is gradually increasing, it is now more common for investors to introduce their brands to the Turkish market.
What are the differences that draw your attention as a Turk in the Pol ish business sector?
Although the pandemic made it neces sary to take a break from fieldwork for a while, it revealed the technological ways of coming together. We tried to reach more people by turning the pro cess of staying at home caused by the pandemic into an advantage.
What are the main problems experienced by Turkish entrepreneurs in Poland? How can Turks enter the Polish market?
While the trade volume between Poland and Turkey was €6 billion in 2019, today this rate has increased despite the pandemic
50 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL INTERVIEW
Well, this task seems impossible to achieve, as it is against the laws of economics and the free market… In fact, many producers have already announced an increase in the base price of their goods due to rising production, raw material and labor costs. If we add soaring shipping and energy prices, combined with upward pressure on wages and the cost of keeping up with the ever-changing customer needs, we see general busi ness expenses sky-rocketing. This, in turn, must find its reflection in the retail prices that the consumers see in their local shops. Mind you, though, that by no means it is our goal to shift the burden totally on our customers.
It is our goal to keep Lewiatan outlets com petitive. As I said before, by no means do we wish to shift the burden of rising general business costs onto our customers. That is why, we use the economies of scale trying to negotiate favorable purchasing condi tions for the whole group like fuel, energy, etc. We are also optimizing our business processes by relying on operational syner gies. We are undergoing a digital transfor mation by offering new communication channels to our customers — like the “My Lewiatan” loyalty program and conditional promotions — to provide them with a bet ter shopping experience and extra benefits within the framework of our regular busi ness operation. Moreover, we are launching programs to offer key products at constant, attractive prices, like the so-called price TOPs or bundle sales resulting in low prices for individual pieces.
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Have you already observed any change in consumer behavior or growing or falling sales of some product groups? Inflation, diminishing disposable income and uncertainty as to the future must have made the price the most important crite rion while making a purchase decision. We are observing a trend of consumers going back to more rational and well-planned shopping. Not only is it manifested by markdown-hunting but we can also see people buying in large quantities for fear of rising prices. The sales figures of private label, “value for money” goods are grow ing thanks to their well-tested quality and acceptable price.
Due to inflation retailers have to curb and rationalize operating costs
OK, and what about expected changes in consumer behavior this autumn and up to 2023?
Decreasing disposable income combined with an uncertain political and economic situation related to the rate of inflation and the war in Ukraine is obviously shaping household expenditures. Polish consumers are starting to economize in other areas, such as holidays. Not only is it getting shorter, but often organized on a self-catering basis. As much as it is not easy to give up on your dietary habits from day to day, still we can expect the typical food basket to start shrinking as well.
You mentioned the “soaring shipping prices” as one of the main challenges. Are these higher costs going to trans late directly on a 1:1 basis into higher retail prices?
INTERVIEW BY NIKODEM CHINOWSKI | PORTRAIT BY MICHAŁ RADWAŃSKI
We are trying to counteract as much as we can in the current market situation. We rely on the economies of scale as we run over 3,200 shops while negotiating prices with service providers. Moreover, we are introducing technological tools and solu tions to boost the level of automation and cost-effectiveness of our business.
WBJ: What major challenges can you see facing Polish retailers in the context of raging inflation?
To cater to these new shopping prefer ences, we have launched stable-and-goodprice programs in our shops, offering our customers a chance to buy branded products at good prices. This year, we have also revised the strategic assumptions for our store-brand products. The new retail assortment strategy concerning individual product groups and brands will be visible on the shelves later this year.
Robert Rękas: The July inflation in Poland, measured with the Harmon ised Indices for Consumer Prices, hit the level of 14.2% and, according to economists, it is bound to grow. Some experts from Credit Agricole Bank Polska stand on a position that, this and next year combined, food prices will go up by a whopping 26%. This, unfortunately, means a further shock for Polish consumers who are already struggling with rising food-related expenditures. Given the above, main taining competitive prices without giving up on profitability, will be the biggest challenge for retailers in the months to come.
To keep healthy profit margins, at a time of high inflation and consumers’ shrinking disposable income, retailers have to curb and rationalize operating costs, says Robert Rękas, CEO of Polish grocery chain Lewiatan.
Can you observe any changes in the supply chain in the face of mounting negative external factors — the pandemic, war in Ukraine and global inflation?
Given all the above we talked about — how do you see the perspectives for retail in 2023? Most definitely, it will be a chal lenging year for all of us. We have been observing a growing trend of expenditure rationalization by our customers and, in my opinion, it is unlikely to change in the coming months. Consumers’ shrinking dis posable income will force retailers to make their offers more flexible and customer-oriented without neglecting healthy profit margins, which can only be done by curbing and rationalizing operating costs.
It is difficult to talk about competi tive advantage. However, what does make our stores different, is the rapport with the local customer. We shape the space in which we live, work and operate for the sake of our local community. We are close to our patrons and customers, who stress that in a world where shops basically offer similar goods, it is important that the Lewiatan shopkeeper knows, understands and can adapt to their specific needs. More often than not, such a shopkeeper is the customer’s
So as a local Polish company Lewiatan has an advantage over its French or German competitors in the context of being more flexible in adapting to the market situation?
You can find Robert Rękas BIO on page 4
So the economies of scale are enough?
• A Polish company One of the largest local grocery chains More than 3,200 shops Employing about 25,000 people Started in 1994
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neighbor. It happens, that our business partners add a particular item to the assortment just because it is sought after and requested by the local community. We build our strength on local relations between the customer, shopkeeper and local supplier.
I think that virtually every trade business has experienced turmoil in the supply chain and we do not seem to be an exception. Both the pan demic and the war have shaken the supply of goods and raw materials, thus leading to limited availability of selected products. We are doing our best to counteract such problems by diversifying supply sources and looking for alternative supply chan nels. It is our chain’s strength that we have largely based our assortment on locally-made goods. Within the framework of the “I choose locally” initiative, we cooperate with produc ers and suppliers from the neighbor
The third pillar of our strategy is competitiveness for the consumer. We are introducing new promo tion models and developing our loyalty program, as well as the My Lewiatan app. At the same time, we are running a number of marketing initiatives promoting shopping in our chain. In February, the concept of a small-format store “Lewiatan w chwilę” (“Pop-in Lewiatan” in English) was launched. Finally, our new advertising communication, on which we are working as we speak, is about to be released soon.
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ABOUT LEWIATAN
Some experts from Credit Agricole Bank Polska stand on a position that, this and next year combined, food prices will go up by a whopping 26%
ing area. Imagine that the average distance the goods need to cover to reach our shop is only 20-50km.
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INTERVIEW
52 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
Cost-effectiveness based on the economies of scale is our primary goal. In practice, it boils down to introducing cost-cutting solutions such as energy-efficient shops which are being promoted among our fran chisees. Earlier in spring this year, we created the first-ever Eco-Leader ranking that identified and awarded the outlets investing in eco-friendly and energy-saving solutions.
TECH
Last year was one of the largest ever in terms of computer hardware shipments to business customers. About 1.4 million computers were sold. This year will probably be only about 100,000 units less. A pandemic boom in the hardware market is slowly cooling down but demand is still high. In Poland, it is largely generated by the change to a hybrid work model and the education industry. "We are seeing a very large increase in the number of projects aimed at supplying computer equipment to schools, teachers and stu dents," Sebastian Antkiewicz, senior manager, products and solutions, at Dell Technologies Poland, said.
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Computer equipment demand high
NEWS
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ING Hubs Poland
TECH insights
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TechHEALTH firm helps save baby’s life Warsaw technology company Sygnis, specializing in 3D printing, has helped save the life of a newborn baby with an underdeveloped cranium by printing an exact model of their skull. The baby was born in Rzeszów and immediately after birth was transported to the University Children’s Hospital in Kraków. Sygnis received an urgent request for help from surgeons at the Upper Silesian Centre of
The model was made by using two laser techniques — Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) which uses a laser as the power and heat source to sinter powdered material and Stereolithogra phy (SLA) which works primarily with liquids — and printed with the help of two printers, a 3D FlashForge Foto 8.9s and Sinterit Lisa Pro. The Sygnis team managed to complete and deliver the model to doctors within just 26 hours.
Big Cheese Studio has signed a license agreement with Microsoft, under which its Cooking Simulator game will appear in the Xbox Game Pass service, the company has said. "Due to the long life cycle of our flagship project Cooking Simulator and the adopted development strategy, we consistently take care of expanding distribution channels,” the company stated. “Among the milestones for this year, we foresee the develop ment of the project in the area of VR and console versions,” it added. The game Cooking Simulator was launched in May 2020. The debut took place in a Nintendo Switch store. A few months later, the title appeared on the Xbox One device, and since May 2021, it is available on the PS4 console.
Hydrogen-poweredTRANSPORTATON buses over e-buses
Developer Develia has entered into a joint venture agreement with The Heart, a venture building company to create an apartment rental management platform aimed at institutional and individual investors. Capital expenditures for the project will total PLN 8.5 million over three years. The platform will be a rental service tool, covering the entire process starting from the marketing of flats for rent through carrying out the apartment rental process and rent settlement, to additional services for tenants, such as catering, cleaning and repairs.
RevolutFINANCE in Polish market of deferred payments
REAL DeveliaESTATEand The Heart join hands
TECH
More corporations and startups in Poland are working on hydrogen-pow ered models and more and more local governments are investing in testing or purchasing hydrogen buses. Hydrogenpowered cells are emission-free and provide an increasing range. Refueling a vehicle takes a few minutes and the infrastructure needed for this requires less investment than for charging electrics. "Hydrogen is fundamental to the transformation of public transporta tion if we are talking about low-carbon transportation,” Jacek Cichosz, CEO of Air Products, said. He noted that hydrogen transport allows for zero-emission and gives more flexibility for refueling such a vehicle compared to e-vehicles.
Child Health and doctors at the e-Nable Polska Foundation.
MicrosoftGAMING contract for Big Cheese Studio
MATERIALPRESSPOZNAŃ,OFCITYMATERIAL,PRESSRIGHT,TOLEFTPAGETHISPHOTOGRAPH
Digital banking platform Revolut has launched in Poland access to its Pay Later service which allows custom ers to spread the cost of purchases for up to PLN 5,000 in three installments. The service will be gradually used by 1.7 million of the company's custom ers in Poland. Revolut is also preparing the product debut in other markets in Europe, including Romania, where Pay Later is expected to appear later this year. Poland is among Revolut’s top five markets and the company’s secondbiggest office is located in Kraków.
BY MARIUSZ SZAŁAGAN AND JAKUB WNĘK
WBJ.PL 55 SUBSCRIPTION ECONOMY A REVOLUTION IN WHICH OWNERSHIP CEASES TO MATTER: IS SUBSCRIPTION A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR BUSINESSES? MORE AND MORE COMPANIES THAT FOCUS ON THE SCAL ABILITY OF THEIR BUSINESS SEE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO TRANSFORM IT IN LINE WITH THE SUBSCRIPTION MODEL. SAAS SOLUTIONS HELP TO MEET GROWING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS AND STAY AHEAD OF THE COMPETITION.
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ccording to data collected by ITportal.com, compa nies operating in accor dance with the subscrip tion economy can boast a five-times faster increase in revenues than the S&P 500 (and it is 18.2% compared to 3.6%!). The importance of subscriptions in global markets is constantly growing and their devel opment is getting into gear. Even the market crash caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has not stopped the growth of companies using subscrip tions to distribute their services and products. While many companies struggled to stay on the market and survive the plight, software company ZUORA's research found that as many as 51% of subscription businesses did not see any pandemic impact on subscriber acquisition and 18% of them even noticed a significant performance improvement.
So, it's fair to say that the subscrip tions have gone through a hard test and have passed it?
“Modern consumers greatly appre ciate the flexibility of subscrip tions. In uncertain times, especially for young people, no one is sure whether they will have a job in a month or two, let alone a year,” adds Szałagan. They do not want to make long-term commitments. What mat ters is here and now. Poles strug gle with many factors affecting their budgets. Rising inflation and rising interest rates, such as the reference rate, which has increased since the beginning of January from 2.25% to 6.50% per annum. We have been recording monthly increases since October 2021. All this means that there is less and less money left in our wallets, which we can spend on "additional" goods.
“The pandemic-driven crisis has put enormous pressure on private
ing. There is no need to be bounded by long-term contracts or spend large amounts of cash at once.
Making decisions that involve large amounts of money will not be easy. As many as 26% of Poles
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companies as well as public institu tions. The companies that can main tain or improve the quality of pro vided services while maintaining or reducing their own costs emerged victorious,” says Mariusz Szałagan, CEO of WeSub, a company that is a pioneer in the field of subscription solutions on the Polish market.
Companies are switching to sub scription models because their customers expect them to do so. According to ZUORA, more than 78% of adults worldwide are already sub scribing. The perception of consum erism is changing, we are moving away from the need to own an object. Everyone wants to have a product or service available immediately, whenever they feel the need. And this need is primarily to use good and efficient equipment, access to streaming services or even account
56 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL TECH
First, it allows you to offer your products or services on a larger scale. The entrepreneur is able to reach customers who are not eager to invest or who find it diffi cult to make decisions with longterm effects. Additionally, it works great in building long-term relation ships. According to WeSub's statis tics, there is an average of 2.5 items per subscriber and as many as 85% of customers extend it for a further period after the end of their first sub scription contract. So, you can offer more items and maximize your sales potential. Device-related subscrip tions have guaranteed service and insurance. This allows us to provide our clients with additional care and show them that their satisfaction is important to us.
Jakub Wnęk is controlling direc tor at WeSub and specializes in business analysis, especially in the finance field. Wnęk has a mas ter’s degree in law and also knows about Big Data analytics.
Mariusz Szałagan is WeSub CEO. An expert in business consulting and innovative product development, he has been working in finance since 1995 and has worked with lead ing institutions like PKO Leasing to develop new products and sales channels.
In this way, the entrepreneur also gains full control over the life cycle of his product. He can observe how his item is used and take care of its technical condition. Therefore, one cannot forget about reducing the environmental cost. A properly used item, returned by a customer in very good technical condition, can be modernized and given to another user. With regular service, we can realistically extend the product life cycle by several years.
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The great advantage of a subscrip tion is its flexibility. The customer can constantly update the services
don’t have any savings at all and 33% aren’t saving any money right now, according to the results of the research commissioned by Millen nium Bank. In the latter group, only every fifth person declared that they have savings but can’t afford to keep saving. This means that only 41% of us save money regularly. The current crisis forces people to reach for the capital set aside — since the begin ning of the year overall 40% of the respondents had to reach for their savings.So,what are the real benefits from the perspective of the entrepreneur and the customer?
THE PERCEPTION OF CONSUMERISM IS CHANGING, WE ARE MOVING AWAY FROM THE NEED TO OWN AN OBJECT. EVERYONE WANTS TO HAVE A PRODUCT OR SERVICE AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY
he uses and choose the necessary accessories or extensions. The soft ware industry uses this heavily, con stantly improving its software as part of Fromsubscriptions.thecustomer's perspec tive, it is an additional alternative to a loan or leasing. A WeSub expert points out: “Lack of capital is one of the most frequently quoted reasons for stopping development or not starting your own business. Entre preneurs do not realize that they can use subscriptions to finance any equipment necessary to run their businesses and even office furniture or Asoftware.”subscription involves practically no risk at all. A short contract allows you to check whether the equipment suits you or if it meets the expec tations of your customers. Let's also consider how quickly newer and newer technologies appear. Often the effectiveness of our work depends on the quality of the equip ment we work on. Therefore, a sub scription allows us to replace it on a regular basis because we are not bounded in any way by the device. We don't stay with equipment that loses both efficiency and value every year. All of this is a part of a monthly subscription, related only to the pos sibility of using the devices, not their fullWhenvalues.we are facing important decisions from the company's stra tegic point of view, it is worth look ing at the new opportunities the market offers us and choosing the one that will fit best into our busi ness in the long-term perspective.
SUBSCRIPTION ECONOMY
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Life + Style POOLING TALENTS
Joining forces to create Tuna, one of this year's most talked about restaurants, we speak to award-winning chef Martin Gimenez Castro and his business partner, branding and design guru David Racchi, about their thrilling new project...
INTERVIEW BY ALEX WEBBER PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN DEMARIA
MGC: You can’t save on rent when it comes to restaurants. We looked at several locations, but we didn’t want to adapt the concept. Here, we’ve lost a lot of seating space because we installed a central bar, but that was key to our concept so we were never going to lose that. We were determined to give people in Warsaw a different way of enjoying their food.
Martin Gimenez Castro: I’ve had the concept for this place for a while – that is, a fish restaurant that would do something different. With David, it made sense bringing him on board because I realized there was the right chemistry between us. Chefs often think they know everything, but that attitude can often lead us in the wrong direc tion. Simultaneously, going into business with another chef was never an option because they would have had their own vision. David was someone whose opinion I fully trusted. I’ve grown up enough to real ize that I need to hear other views from someone on the other side of the counter.
This is definitely a high-risk time to be starting any business, let alone a restaurant…
MGC: We’re living in times where it’s difficult to plan anything and we’ve moved from one problem to another – but if you wait for the right time then you might find yourself waiting forever. We had to take a calculated risk. Definitely though, we have to be more focused than ever before. A small mistake can end up costing a lot of money. But as we say in Argentina, if you’re on the dance floor, you have to dance. There is no other way, you have to adapt. Either way, one thing you won’t find us doing is compromising on quality. Yes, we could buy cheaper fish, but we’re simply not going to do that.
WBJ: How – and why – did you join forces?
David Racchi: I worked on the branding for Ceviche Bar and we synced really well. We didn’t create Tuna just because we’re friends, but because we know how each other works. I remember before Ceviche launched, seeing Martin help out with the tables, and seeing the energy he put into his work – he’s very hands on, and in that respect he’s similar to me. He’s also very clear in what he wants and that’s vital when work ing with someone. I’m not going to get involved in the kitchen aspect of Tuna, but I do need to know what he’s thinking so that I can work on the relevant branding of, for instance, the menu. When someone can communicate what they’re looking to do, that makes things a lot easier.
What have learned from Ceviche Bar?
MGC: I’ve learned to trust my staff. Initially, I would worry whenever I wasn’t there, but if you build the right team then you’ll find that they relish being on their own – they want to demonstrate their capabili ties and show you what they can do. That’s why I’m not worried about owning two restaurants – if you have the right team, you don’t feel you need to be in two places at the same time.
“Everything goes together – when you have a brand and a concept, you need the location that suits”
DR: We didn’t want pictures of fish on the walls – that’s been done. For the interior, we worked with Medusa Group and they’ve got great form with getting the best out of existing, normal things. In this case, we’ve got 18,000 tuna cans on the wall laid out in way that gives the impression of fish scales. We made something very normal into some thing that was elegant and sophisticated. Moreover, it ties into the idea of sustainability. It was an organic way of designing, and we’ve even in corporated the cans into our bar coasters.
Tuna ul. Elektryczna 2 (Warsaw), tuna-restaurant.pl See David's work at walkwithdavid.com
60 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL DINING OUT
DR: Everything goes together – when you have a brand and a concept, you need the location that suits. The location needs to fit the concept, not the other way around.
On the subject of cost, you’ve chosen trending Powiśle as your lo cation – that’s not going to be cheap…
The bar is striking, but the rest of the space is also quite some MGC:thing…From the beginning, we didn’t want a space that was beauti ful in the traditional sense, but rather something that people would remember.
Making magic again
We all survived
62 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
performance post-lockdown of “I WILL SURVIVE” and other hit classics by Grammy-winning pop icon Gloria Gaynor closed the loop perfectly.
EVENTS
MATERIALPRESS
2022 CEEQA GALA, WELCOME BACK
The WBJ relives or looks forward to the most important events in the world of business and economy
The awards show kicked off with a live link-up with Kyiv-based developer Budhouse Group’s Maksym Gavryushyn, who highlighted the visceral impact of the Russian invasion on commercial infrastructure including clips and photos of missile destruction of commercial buildings including the company’s own Nikolsky Mall in Kharkiv, which remains operational despite the impact and which came second in the Retail Development of the Year category to Capital Park’s outstanding Norblin Factory project in Warsaw, among four shortlisted Ukrainian projects completed in 2021 that made the final cut.
Monika Richardson, back on stage welcoming guests and presiding over the award presentations, as usual, was joined this time by the new partner and CEO Svetlana Fedosova as well as founder and chairman Richard Hallward. The vibrant color and choreographed mayhem, the sumptuous hospitality and world-class entertainment were all back where they belonged as more than 650 guests partied well into the night — and many into the daylight — at CEEQA’s triumphant and spectacular return on June 29.
On the back of a tough and grueling ride for everyone, yet with plenty of magic delivered by sector operators including some incredible projects and schemes, a first live public
Ukraine Connect
were for Resilience Company, Industrial Developer and Netzero Company of the Year. Penta took the awards for Investor of the Year and Residential Development of the Year (MAISON Orechovka, first phase), while Portland Trust’s J8 office building in Bucharest picked up the NetZero Building and overall Building of the Year in Southeast Europe and Prague-based residential agent Svoboda & Williams was crowned Local Agency of the Year. The Investor of the Year award also went to Prague-based CPI Property Group. Relative newcomer, Accolade, joined the Czech charge with the award for Rising Star.
International companies active in the region enjoying success were Gleeds (Development Services), Erste Group (Lender) and Clifford Chance (Legal). However, a perceptible shift to locally-born companies was in the air as a tightrope walker hovered above the stage and the awards ceremony ended in a shower of rainbow confetti and an after-party that finished long after sun-up to mark the return of CEEQA. Welcome back, read the signs around the event.
There were also multiple winners further north, Warsaw-based Ghelamco winning awards for its ESG superstar office project Warsaw Unit, named Office Development of the Year and overall Building of the Year CEE, while Skanska SA and Skanska Commercial Development Europe shared the awards for Construction Company as well as overall Company of the Year, the latter decided by a live vote by Gala guests. CBRE also won big with the Capital Markets Agency award.
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Among the prizes, it was Czech mate in Warsaw as Prague-based players scooped the ice cream and popped the champagne as a hat-trick of awards showered on investor-developer CTP. Developers Penta Real Estate and Portland Trust both scored doubles along with Cush man & Wakefield, whose regional leader Jonathan Hallett walked off into the late morning with the awards for Industry Professional of the Year and Overall Agent of the Year under his CTP’sarm.prizes
The awards highlight was, as ever, the presentation of the awards for Lifetime Achieve ment in real estate. Given to an individual who has made a significant and durable im pact on the CEE property sectors development and growth since the region’s emergence onto the global capital markets following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, recipients of the award include a pantheon of iconic leaders in the sector including investors, develop ers, financiers and consultants.
Having led the expansion of Colliers International throughout Eastern Europe and built investment platforms including EPP and, more recently, industrial developer and fund MDC2, Hadley Dean took his place in the pantheon with his usual humorous yet instruc tive aplomb.
The dinner and the winners
Lifetime achievement: Hadley Dean
Other big Polish successes included Capital Park’s Norblin Factory, named best Retail Development and also shortlisted for Office Development of the Year, and Echo Investment’s transformative inner city refurbishment of Browary Warszawskie won a battle of the titans against other mixed-use projects for the Resilience Building award from Ghelamco’s Warsaw Hub and White Star’s Elektrownia Powiśle.
For more information and registration visit propertyforum.pl/2022/en/
64 AUG/SEPT 2022 WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL MATERIALPRESS
The war in Ukraine has shaken the commercial property portfolio, causing a high degree of uncertainty among investors. Key investors, developers and experts from Poland and abroad, as well as representatives of banks and financing institutions, and local government officials will talk about the current state of play in the commercial property market in Poland and Europe, the causes of the greatest concerns and also the new opportunities that have appeared for market players.
On September 6, the Golebiewski Hotel in Karpacz will host the 31st edition of the Economic Forum, which is the largest conference in Central and Eastern Europe. All this thanks to the Institute for Eastern Studies Foundation that, once again, organizes this unique event in coop eration with the city of Karpacz and the Lower Silesian Governor's Office. This year’s motto is “Europe in the face of New Challenges.”
Property Forum includes two days of heated debates, presentations showing the latest data on the property market, speeches by market leaders who will talk about their companies’ strategies and plans, and, as in previous years, the grand finals of the Prime Property Prize 2022 and PropTech Festival 2022 popularity contests.
The WBJ relives or looks forward to the most important events in the world of business and economy
PROPERTY FORUM 2022
The Program Council will present awards to eminent figures and the most distinguished companies and organizations in Europe. The categories are Man of the Year, Company of the Year and NGO of Central and Eastern Europe.
During the Economic Forum, the fifth edition of the Report of the Warsaw School of Economics and the Economic Forum will be presented. The report is a scientific study on the state of the economy of Poland and the CEE countries in 2022.
In addition to the substantive part, the organizers provide rich cultural and recreational programs which include meeting-the-author sessions, concerts, film screenings and presen tations of the region's tourist attractions.
31ST ECONOMIC FORUM IN KARPACZ
This year's edition includes over 400 debates featuring guests from all over the world. The conference agenda will include the topic of security, energy and international politics. A special place in the event's program is dedicated to the extended Ukrainian path.
Find out more on forum-ekonomiczne.pl/en/
The 12th edition of Property Forum — the largest event intended for the Polish commercial property market professionals — is ahead of us. First Covid-19, now war. The world has changed. People have changed. Real estate has to change as well. This year's edition of Property Forum will be held on September 19-20 in Sheraton Grand Warsaw Hotel under the motto THE CHANGE.
Among the heads of companies and experts in the real estate market, organizers will present the most important directions of changes in office buildings, shopping centers, hotels and warehouse and logistics facilities. Speakers will look for the answer to the question of how to prepare the real estate business for the new future and geopolitical, economic, social, environmental and technological challenges.
Within the last 30 years, the Economic Forum has evolved into one of the biggest and most valid meetings of key figures of CEE. Its international character is evidenced by numerous guests and media attention.
EVENTS
