Executive Summary
This report stems from the trip to Poland undertaken by myself with the 09’ Cohort during April 19 2008 – April 25 2008. I am summarizing my trip experience from different perspectives including communicating with locals, observing people, media, organization, managers, businesses, culture and historical perspective. Major objectives of the trip are to understand the current economic and business events. This report will encompass aspects related to Geography, History, Politics, Economics, Religion and Business. It was really fascinating to see how each and every above mentioned aspect plays a critical role in the development of Poland. For e.g. if we take religion, 96% of polish are catholic. This is important to understand the shared values of a culture and also to understand how people perceive and prioritize objectives.
Krakow Visit
We were a team of 10 including 2 professors left from Boston to arrive at Krakow on a Sunday morning. Krakow Airport was not big, in-fact it resembled a sophisticated Boston bus station. We could see many military flights parked near the airport facilities. After getting some rest, team departed for an afternoon city tour around Krakow. It is a beautiful city, most of the places are covered by lush green pastures and beginning of spring is beautiful with various blossoming flowers. Tour guide was excellent; she had so much energy on a Sunday afternoon, she gave us a brief overview of Krakow history and then took us to the main square of Krakow which consists of St. Mary’s Basilica, lot of tourists, shopping place, several street drink bars with nice chairs. We did notice several restaurants, currency exchange, and clubs in and around Main Square.
From Main Square we walked our way to Wavel castle which housed kings who ruled Poland from 1038 until 1596. In 1364 Jagiellonian University the oldest and best known university was founded as Cracow Academy. Krakow has 11 university or academy level institutions offer courses in the city with 170,000 students and 10,000 faculties in addition to 12 colleges. Within Wavel castle we had a great experience to touch a bell which is at-least 10 feet tall. We also noticed large bone structures hanging from the church walls, there is a mythic belief that if these bones fall off the chain then the world will see the end. We saw a metal dragon pumping fire in the air along the river vistula.
Krakow University of Economics Visit
After the memorable city tour we continued our next day by visiting Krakow university of Economics. We met Professor Andrzej Wojtyna who is a member of the monetary policy council. He was quite incredible; his knowledge of the system from a macro and micro perspective was very prominent. He helped us to understand decoupling of polish economy from world economy, labor market in Poland, emigration in Poland, Impact to zlotys after joining EMU, role of EURO2012.We had a lively discussion around the role of a federal reserve system and its role in setting the target fed fund rate. Discussion revolved around what would happen if the free market controls the interest rates.
Some of the key outcomes of the meeting were related to the fact that Poland economy is highly tied to European and US economies. There was a genuine concern raised in terms of government spending after major EU initiatives such as EU2012 championship and joining of EMU. Recent experiences with Italy and Spain can be a learning curve for Poland and its central government to not make the similar mistakes.
After the morning session we had the first taste of Polish meal. We started with borshch which is a beet soup with pierogi (meat dumplings). We had coleslaw, grilled chicken and fried potato balls (My favorite); to top it all we had ice-cream and dessert. Personally I wasn’t sure if I was prepared for Polish food, but I liked it and it was great.
Arcelor Mittal Visit
After having a sumptuous lunch we went to visit Arcelor Mittal at outskirts of Krakow. Apparently this site was selected by Soviet Union to build steel plant and hence to address the high unemployment issues in Krakow. Following are some information from Siemens website, which provided the key support for building the plant.
“ With the new 2250 mm high performance hot strip mill, Mittal Steel Poland will operate one of Europe’s widest plants of this kind with an annual capacity of 2,400,000 t/a. Since ten years this is the first new hot strip mill to be implemented in Europe”
Plant Data
- Location
Mittal Steel Poland, Cracow works - Start-up
Commercial production beginning early 2007 - Project Execution Siemens VAI Linz
- Output Strip dimension
Thickness 1.2–25.4 mm, Width 750–2,100 mm - Capacity
Annual Capacity 2.400,000 t/a
As the team arrived at the Arcelor Mittal corporate office, we were greeted by a young polish lady who had great command over English language; subsequently we found that she was the official interpreter for the Director of the plant. We met 2 senior officials; first person was the manager in-charge of the newly constructed hot strip mill and the second was the director of the entire plant. Director spoke in polish and his interpreter did a great job in terms of translating engineering and financial terms from polish to English. Personally this was a great learning experience for me to see how local language plays a significant role as part of the local culture. I could sense a preferential treatment when it came to people who can speak Polish and people who didn't.
Session with University Alumni Head
Our night outs were fantastic, polish people were very helpful, and service was exemplary. We spoke to locals; they really appreciated us when we tried to speak some polish words. On the following day we had a session with a Polish local Borys Skraba who apparently had five years of sales/marketing experience in US. He understood both the culture, indicated several important issues relating to the present and older generations. He listed the following areas as things which Poland needs to look after if they are really geared up for a long term growth.
- Research & Design
- Innovation
- Infrastructure development
- Corruption
On day 2 we visited Valeo – the French auto parts manufacturer. I saw several large manufacturers on route to Valeo viz., Delphi, Motorola. Route to Valeo was very similar to Indian technology parks with several major multi nationals springing next to each other. Valeo managers were very young and aggressive. They briefed us about their market share, major clients and gave a tour of their assembly line.
Motorola Visit
On day 3 we visited Motorola Software Division, I was surprised to know that this division is not involved in any cell phone related sectors. This team was mainly working on Motorola Tetra and other mission critical solutions.
“Motorola is acknowledged as a global leader in the supply of TETRA critical communication systems. As a leading provider of mission and business critical information and communication solutions, we have the experience and expertise to transform performance and deliver levels of network security and resilience, performance and value that until now have only been available to large government customers. ”
We were shown their data center which apparently had millions of wires. Our cohort member Dan commented "Totally Wired for a wireless company"
Delphi Visit
We visited Delphi, In my opinion this was the best part of our trip. We spoke to the senior management of Delphi Krakow. To my surprise they indicated that they are in Chapter 11 for last 3 years and haven't seen any issues relating to keeping existing customers, winning new clients, relationship with suppliers and even employees.
They didn’t even see any issues with attrition. They also indicated that their unit is currently up for sale and several entities are looking to buy them. Senior management was very patient to address all our curious questions. It was incredible to understand how a business can operate even during chapter 11 and be totally isolated from the parent company and be still profitable. Their short tour was very valuable. Learnt several aspects related to auto part stress testing mechanism.
Auschwitz Visit
After completing our trip to Delphi we took a trip to Auschwitz. Saddest part of our trip was at Auschwitz. It was really disturbing to see what really went on at Auschwitz I & II. It’s almost like walking down the history lane. One thing I learnt from my visit is the true capability of a human mind. We saw several thousands of visitors at Auschwitz representing several nationalities.
We got a great chance to mix with the locals. We met the EMBA students from university of economics. They were very friendly, courteous and highly knowledgeable.
Trip to Warsaw
Last 2 days of our visit centered on Warsaw. It is the capital of Poland. We could see a stark difference between the people living in Warsaw and Krakow. Warsaw's crowd was more business oriented and Krakow was more academic oriented. We had a session with the US Embassy at Krakow. Political Counselor David Van Cleve and Commercial Counselor John McCaslin briefed us on historical background, political environment, business opportunities, and business risks.
Warsaw Stock Exchange
On the final day of the trip we visited the Warsaw stock exchange which has seen some recent turmoil due to global stock market crashes. Their PR Manager showed us around the exchange and explained us about their index WIG and WIG20. We could see the great growth pattern for Warsaw stock exchange.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I am in total awe after this trip. I am really surprised I have learnt so many things about Poland culture, people, business, economics, religion, and politics. This is a great country with immense natural and human resources. It is in the center of strategic location from a European Union standpoint. Also they are going to be the gateway for the developing Baltic nations. Poland is making right strategic moves in terms of joining European Union, EMU, and EU2012. Next logical step for them is to deregulate their economy and continue their growth momentum to achieve a long term benefits for the people of Poland.
Post a Comment