American

Investor
APRIL 2011
Vol. XXI, No. 4 • ISSN 1506-3240

© American Chamber of Commerce in Poland 2011 www.amcham.pl

Thou shalt Company Profile:3M

CEO Forum: Business Angels

innovate!
Monthly Meeting: Prof. Michał Kleiber
Photo Page: St. Patrick’s Business Mixer

Poles begin to realize that business must think new to move forward
 AmCham online

Investor COVER STORY:

American

Thou shalt
APRIL 2011 Vol. XXI, No. 4

what’s on

Do not miss the opportunity

www.amcham.pl
Your online guide to AmCham activities

Download this magazine!

innovate!
Poles begin to re-
to sponsor AmCham events American Investor is available in full as
a pdf for download from the www.am-
cham.pl website. Go to "About Us" in
alize that business
in 2011!
the horizontal menu, and choose
American Investor Magazine from
the pop-up menu. You can download must think new to
past issues of American Investor dat-
ing back to October 2010. move forward, but
We encourage companies to sponsor our Business Mixers, CEO Forums, 4th of July Picnic and other events.  Calendar
a lot of chal-
Business Mixers By clicking on red links in the Calen- langes lie ahead
You can sponsor AmCham Business Mixers through the rest of 2011 (except for July and December). To find out more dar you may visit photo coverage of

about sponsoring Business Mixers, visit www.amcham.pl, click on the Events & Activities link on the horizontal menu bar,
our past events. Blue links will take
you to the announcements of upcom-
when it comes to
and choose Business Mixers.
ing events.
being innovative, page 12;
Plus, ten tips to consider before you
Events
CEO Forums AmCham Monthly Meetings are one of
A high-level discussion panel followed by a cocktail reception, for AmCham CEOs only, held just 3 times a year. To find out the flagship events organized by the
chamber. While American Investor cov- launch your own startup, page 17.
more about AmCham CEO Forums, visit www.amcham.com.pl, click on the Events & Activities link on the horizontal menu ers each Monthly Meeting exten-
sively, including full-page pictorials,
bar, and choose CEO Forums. you can search through picture

4th of July Picnic archives of past events that include

never previously printed material. Just
MONTHLY MEETING
From brawn to brains To find its place in the innovative economy of the future, Poland
Scheduled for Saturday, July 2, 2011, at Królikarnia Palace, Warsaw. To see pictures from last year’s picnic, go to www.am- go to Events and Activities, pick
Monthly Meetings and scroll down for
must change its mindset to foster collaboration, from government ministries on down, a
leading scientist tells AmCham, p. 20
cham.com.pl, click on the Events & Activities link on the horizontal menu bar, and choose 4th of July Picnic. links to archived events.
CEO FORuM
Annual General Meeting & Christmas Reception in December Regions
A life between vision and risk Before they become a force behind the innovative economy
AmCham may be closer than you business angels have to learn to live with risk while aspiring entrepreneurs have to learn to
To see pictures from the last AGM & Christmas Reception, go to www.amcham.com.pl, click on the Events & Activities link think. Apart from Warsaw, AmCham understand their objectives, p. 23

on the horizontal menu bar, and choose Annual General Meeting. has two regional branches which are
active all year long and offer many ex- COMPANY PROFILE
Regional events citing opportunities to interface with
regional business leaders and politi-
Changing the world through R&D American Investor's Tomasz Ćwiok talks with Xavier
Douellou, Managing Director of 3M Poland, about how the company manages for innovation
In addition to Warsaw events, your company can also support AmCham activities in Kraków, Wrocław and Katowice. cians. To find out more about our ac-
tivities in Kraków and the region of
and how he sees the challenges facing 3M’s Polish operations, p. 26

southern Poland, and Wrocław, go to EXPERTS

Regions in the horizontal menu bar, Raise your capital, lower your tax There are cost-effective ways of raising the share capi-
For information about our events organized by AmCham Kraków in Kraków and Katowice, please contact and pick your region of interest. tal of your company, p. 28

Monika Pilarska at +48 608 027 172 or krakow@amcham.pl. Policy Watch The art of the lease Renting office space may seem straightforward, but details can be-
devil, p. 29
Intelligence: For AmCham position
papers, policy statements, official let- Electronic investigators in action Corporate misconduct can be traced, documented and
For information about our events in Wrocław, please contact ters to government ministers and re-
search papers, visit the Advocacy link
proven in court, p. 30

Joanna Bensz at +48 605 678 817 or amcham.wroclaw@pmg.pl. on the horizontal menu to download
the latest AmCham position papers.
Managing the tough conversation Enlightened leaders know there are planned methods
for defusing a conflict, p. 31

Other useful sites EVENTS

For additional information contact Anita Kowalska at +48 22 520 5994. U.S. Chamber of Commerce
AmCham Monthly Meeting, p. 32
AmCham CEO Forum, p. 33
http://www.uschamber.com AmCham St. Patrick's Business Mixer, p. 34-35
American Chamber of Commerce
to the European Union DEPARTMENTS
http://www.amchameu.be
AmChams in Europe From the Editor, p. 2, From the Executive Director, p. 4, Newsline, p. 5, Agenda, p. 8,
http://www.amchamseurope.com Content summaries in Polish, p. 36, Guide to AmCham Committees, p. 37

APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 1

 Special
YOUR AMCHAM FROM THE EDITOR

BOARD OF Facebook exclusion American subscription offer

DIRECTORS
The American Chamber of Commerce in Poland
Investor for non-member
The official magazine
companies
Joseph Wancer – Deloitte
Chairman

Judith Y. Gliniecki – Wierzbowski Eversheds of the American Chamber

Vice Chair
of Commerce in Poland

I
richard lada – Telesto n January, following the announcement of the royal marriage of Prince
Vice Chairman

peter kaY – KPMG Polska

Secretary
William and Kate Middleton, Facebook barred two of its members who hap-
pened to share first and last names with the princess-to-be from using their Subscribe to American Investor for
the promotional price of PLN
accounts on the social networking site. The two women, a healthcare assistant
stan popoW – Finacorp in Northamptonshire and a mother from Kent, were identified by Facebook as
Treasurer
impostors of the famous Kate. Their access to their profiles on Facebook was
MEMBERS
Tony Housh John Lynch
blocked, including contacts to their Facebook friends. When questioned by
the BBC, Facebook said it reviews thousands of items of content a day and
800 per year and have AmCham
intelligence delivered to your
APCO Worldwide Lynka
“took action to ensure the website remains a safe and trusted environment.”
Paul Fogo Mac Raczkiewicz The claim that the site is a safe and trusted environment (for users, one

desk—including chamber policy,

Miller Canfield Ex officio
would assume) is dubious. Although created with the intention of serving as a
Piotr Jucha Roman Rewald
McDonald’s Weil, Gotshal & Manges friendly online social gathering, Facebook may be as dangerous as any other
tool in the hands of dangerous people. For instance, South Carolina is consid-
Thomas Kolaja
Alvarez and Marsal
Anna Sienko
IBM ering stiff penalties for prison inmates who smuggle smartphones into prison
to access Facebook for the purpose of organizing crimes and intimidating
committee work, agendas, mem-
ber company news, coverage of
Robert L. Koński
Kulczyk Investments their victims. It seems there is little Facebook can do to disable this type of
threat.

SPONSORS
Ensuring a safe and trusted environment on Facebook is a challenge that is
hard to deliver in practice. Problems will mount and carnage will follow. So far CEO Forums, discussion points
three Polish brands have fallen victim to Facebook’s political correctness. First
was Obsessive, a lingerie brand. Someone notified Facebook that the Obses- with chamber guests, photo cover-
sive profile on Facebook featured pornography, and the brand’s profile, which
had attracted 2,000 fans, was shut down.
That was nothing compared to the losses that Polish clothing manufacturer
age of AmCham Monthly Meetings
LPP suffered because of a virus that infected the Facebook profiles of three of
its brands, Cropp, House and Reserved. Facebook shut down the Cropp and
and other premium events. Just fill
House profiles and limited the functionality of the Reserved profile. Cropp had
260,000 fans, House 240,000, and Reserved 245,000. in the form below and fax it to Tom
Facebook’s decision to close the corporate profiles was handled clumsily,
and in stark contrast to what Facebook is programmed to do when users de- Ćwiok at +48-22-520-5998
cide to close their own profiles. Then the service begs you to reconsider your
decision, displaying pictures of your Facebook friends and saying that each of
them personally will miss you.
Perhaps a dose of the same thoughtfulness would be in order when Face- I order the annual subscription of American Investor for the
book itself decides to close down your profile? Maybe just an e-mail? promotional price of PLN 800 including VAT!
But Facebook may not be thinking about its users any more. It seems more
focused on building a safe and trusted environment for its investors. Earlier in
January, Facebook was on everybody’s lips following the announcement that it Company Name:....................................................................................................................
had raised USD 500 million from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a
transaction that valued the company at a staggering USD 50 billion. The deal Contact Person:......................................................................................................................
would also allow earlier shareholders, including Facebook employees, to cash
out at least some of their holdings. It would make many of them millionaires. Full Address:.................................................................Postal Code......................................
Facebook followed none of the known business models, but developed as
a unique phenomenon. Many of its staff, including cofounder Mark Zucker- Phone:.......................................................................... Fax:...................................................
berg, were not experienced businesspeople, because they were far too young
for that. The prospect of holding a stake in a company valued higher than NIP (for invoicing):..................................................................................................................
companies like eBay, Yahoo and Time Warner, which have been in business
for much longer, may have given Facebook officials an air of sanctity about
themselves when it comes to ensuring that Facebook is a trusted environment Signature................................................... Date:................................................
for investors. But if you don’t look like an investor, but a marketer taking advan-
tage of free access to the social network, you had better watch out.
Your subscription will be activated with the next month’s issue!
AmCham Auditor: Tomasz Ćwiok

2 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011 APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 3


FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR YOUR AMCHAM
Dear AmCham Members! AMCHAM STAFF
Dorota Dabrowski
Executive Director
director@amcham.pl
Marzena Drela
A
Deputy Director
t the beginning of March I attended a conference organized by AmCham EU marzena.drela@amcham.pl
which included a transatlantic component on innovation. We reviewed some Anita Kowalska
highlights of The Transatlantic Economy 2011, the latest edition of a report is- Events & Media Manager
anita.kowalska@amcham.pl
sued each year by AmCham EU and the European-American Business Council.
Joseph P. Quinlan of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins Uni- Robert Kruszyna
Office Manager
versity pointed out that neither the E.U. nor the U.S. is doing as poorly as percep- robert.kruszyna@amcham.pl
tions would have it. In particular, the U.S. is still a strong manufacturing base, even Barbara Pocialik-Malinowska
though we perceive that all manufacturing has moved to China. The E.U. is still the Membership and Committees Coordinator
barbara.pocialik@amcham.pl
FDI powerhouse, investing far more in the U.S. than in all the BRIC countries com-
Marta Pawlak
bined. What is of concern, however, is the pace of change and progress. If the de- Research and Policy Coordinator
veloped countries remain complacent, then the fast-developing countries could marta.pawlak@amcham.pl
outpace them by 2020. Innovation and successful commer- Robert Chomik
Project Assistant
cialization of innovation are one important way to stay ahead. robert.chomik@amcham.pl
Here in Poland, AmCham has been talking innovation from
AmCham in Kraków
the beginning of the year. Transfer of technology and com-
Monika Pilarska
mercialization of innovation are a particular challenge in krakow@amcham.pl
Poland, and for all of Europe it seems. The United States is
tops in terms of success in innovation commercialization, AmCham in Wrocław
and this model is something from which we would like to Joanna Bensz
amcham.wroclaw@pmg.pl
help Poland learn. We are starting with small steps, by im-
proving the cooperation of academia and business to create American
Investor
the right atmosphere for making money off of intellectual ac-
Dorota Dabrowski
AMCHAM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR complishments. We started this work with a study and sur-
Published by the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland
vey of members’ experiences and are increasingly working
with universities and R&D centers on their strategic endeavors. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ART & DTP
In mid-March, we hosted a delegation from AmCham EU focused on Poland’s tomasz ĆWiok
tomasz.cwiok@amcham.pl
upcoming E.U. Presidency. A delegation of 14 corporate representatives attended
EDITOR-AT-LARGE
a series of 20 meetings with key players and decision-makers in the Polish govern- christopher smith
ment to discuss areas of key interest, like data protection, the Common Agricultural christopher.smith@neostrada.pl
Policy, carbon emissions, better regulations, transatlantic cooperation, the Services Printing
Q Invest Ltd
Directive, E.U. patent reform, and transportation. The delegation had the opportu- +48 22 424 6600
nity to meet with key ministries and with former Prime Minister Jan Krzysztof Bi-
elecki, advisor to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and to have a working lunch in the To contact AmCham
please write or call:
Presidential Palace with Olgierd Dziekoński, Secretary of State in the President’s
ul. Emilii Plater 53, WFC
Office. On our part, we were pleased to see the high level of competence and pre- 00-113 Warsaw
tel: +48 22 520 5999
paredness of the Polish government representatives on all topics addressed. fax: +48 22 520 5998
Besides the E.U., transatlantic topics are also on our mind. In May, AmCham will e-mail: office@amcham.pl
www.amcham.pl
send a small delegation to Dallas and Denver to encourage select companies to
invest and do business in Poland. This will be the first time AmCham organizes
such a mission on its own, so we are curious to have the experience and to see © American Chamber of Commerce in Poland 2011.
the results. More importantly, at the end of May, U.S. President Barack Obama will
All rights reserved.
visit Poland for a summit of Central & Eastern European heads of state. This will be American Investor is the official publication of the Ameri-
can Chamber of Commerce in Poland. It is a voice for for-
his first visit to Poland during his presidency and an important opportunity for both
eign investors and the business community in Poland.
countries.
The magazine strives to keep our members and other
readers up to date by following chamber news and report-
ing on the leading trends in business and policy.
letters to the editor should be e-mailed to
tomasz.cwiok@amcham.pl
4 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011
Newsline
News from AmCham and its members
AmCham EU
The Presidency Group of the American Cham-
ber of Commerce to the European Union was
in Warsaw on March 15–17 to meet top offi-
cials in the Polish government. The delegation
of 14 business leaders from a wide range of
industries held 20 meetings in two days. The
delegates discussed the preparations for the
upcoming Polish Presidency of the Council of
the E.U. and presented the top business priori-
ties identified by AmCham EU that should
boost the investment climate across Europe
and the E.U.’s competitiveness.
“We have five big, overarching horizontal
priorities,” said AmCham EU Managing Direc-
tor Susan Danger. “Those are in innovation,
sustainable growth, the completion of the sin-
gle market, achieving a low-carbon economy,
and people power, which is building human re-
sources for the future economy in Europe.”
According to Rory Macmillan, who chairs
the E.U. Presidency Group, “AmCham EU
looks forward to engaging with key Presidency
stakeholders before, during and after the Pol-
ish Presidency. They include policymakers in
Warsaw and Brussels who are responsible for
working on E.U. policies. As the Presidency
starts to work, our committees tend to engage
in a more detailed dialogue with the various
people as policy decisions are made and new
legislation is going through.”
Macmillan said that Poland has a unique
opportunity to have a successful first Presi-
dency if it focuses on closing issues that are
on the table rather than introducing new ones.
Danger also underlined that AmCham EU
had superb cooperation with AmCham Poland
in organizing the visit. “AmCham Poland has
been extremely helpful in the way it organized
the meetings,” she said. (Pictured: AmCham
Poland Executive Director Dorota Dabrowski,
first from left, with AmCham EU Presidency
Group members, including AmCham EU Man-
aging Director Susan Danger, third from left,
and Rory Macmillan, eighth from left.)
Avis
Car rental specialist Avis is celebrating its first
20 years in Poland. Avis has grown from an
operation with 16 cars and six employees
working from offices at the Warsaw airport and
the Marriott Warsaw to nearly 1,500 cars and
100 people at all airports across the country.
By the end of 2011 Avis will have offices in the
20 largest cities in Poland.
“We started when the timing was right for
new business ventures and in subsequent
years consistently worked to build our posi-
tion,” said Radosław Lesiak, Country Man-
ager of Avis Polska. “Today we can be proud
to have a well-integrated team of employees
and our customers’ respect.”
Baker & McKenzie
Law firm Baker & McKenzie has handled the
PLN 76.6 million IPO of Avia Solutions Group
on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Avia is the
first listing on the WSE by a company based in
Latvia. Baker & McKenzie is now working on
similar projects for companies in Poland as
well as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia
and Ukraine. B&M partner Jakub Celiński
said that the WSE is now considered closely
by companies all over Central & Eastern Eu-
rope who plan to go public.
Chadbourne & Parke
The Warsaw office of international law firm
Chadbourne & Parke has advised Polish Air-
ports State Enterprise and Port-Hotel Sp. z
o.o. in negotiations with Marriott International
for a 30-year franchise to operate a new five-
star Renaissance Hotel at Warsaw Chopin Air-
port. Construction will begin this spring, with
completion scheduled for the first half of 2013.
Chadbourne previously advised the Polish
airport authority and Port-Hotel on develop-
ment of the Courtyard by Marriott, the first
hotel at Warsaw Chopin Airport.
CB Richard Ellis
CB Richard Ellis has been named the premier
global brand in commercial real estate, ac-
cording to a Lipsey survey of industry profes-
sionals worldwide. CB RE has been voted the
industry’s top brand for 10 consecutive years.
More than 25,000 professionals participated in
the 2011 survey, including property owners, in-
vestors, lenders, brokers and property man-
agers.
CB RE has also been named to the annual
roster of the Most Admired Companies in the
real estate industry compiled by Fortune mag-
azine. The survey covers 57 industries and is
one of the most definitive report cards on cor-
porate reputations. CB RE is the highest-
ranked commercial real estate services com-
pany on the list. It scored particularly well in
global competitiveness (#1) and in quality of
services, people management and social re-
sponsibility (all ranked #2).
In other news, CB RE reports that investors
have shown a clear strategic shift in their in-
vestment preferences in Europe in favor of
Germany and Central & Eastern Europe as the
most attractive markets to purchase real estate
in 2011. A survey of 350 European real estate
investors by CB RE revealed that about a third
of investors intend to target acquisitions in
Germany in 2011, compared to 18% in 2010,
and around a quarter of investors have CEE as
their top investment target this year, up from
16% last year. The results were announced at
CB RE’s European Investment Briefing in
Members on the move
Baker & McKenzie
Dr. Kamila Tarnacka has
joined Baker & McKenzie as a
local partner to head the 8-
person energy practice at the
Warsaw office. Tarnacka has
several years of experience in
regulatory and transactional
matters, dispute resolution
and privatization for the en-
ergy sector, including conven-
tional and unconventional energy. Along with Tar-
nacka, three young lawyers joined the Baker &
McKenzie energy practice: Oskar Waluśkiewicz,
Edyta Barwicka and Małgorzata Kliczkowska, all for-
merly with CMS Cameron McKenna.
Artur Kubiak, who has
worked with Baker & McKen-
zie since 2007, has now quali-
fied as a legal adviser. Kubiak
specializes in capital markets,
investment funds, and corpo-
rate and administrative law.
He focuses on public and pri-
vate bond issues on the Pol-
ish capital market. He repre-
sents clients in dealings with the Polish Financial Su-
pervision Authority, the National Depository for Securi-
ties, and the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
CB Richard Ellis
Natalia Pradelska has joined
the retail team of real estate
agency CB Richard Ellis. She
is responsible for marketing
and leasing of shopping cen-
ters and outlets across
Poland, as well as securing
new retail clients. Pradelska
has over 10 years of profes-
sional experience working for such companies as
DTZ, Unibail-Rodamco, WR Consulting Polska and
Sisim Polska. Pradelska graduated from Karol
Adamiecki University of Economics in Katowice.
Sean Doyle has been pro-
moted to associate director in
the capital markets depart-
ment of CB Richard Ellis.
Doyle has 8 years of com-
mercial real estate experi-
ence in the U.S., the U.K. and
Central Europe. He joined CB
Richard Ellis in 2010. Doyle
focuses on sales and acqui-
sitions of retail, logistics and
office properties. Doyle is a member of the Royal In-
stitution of Chartered Surveyors.
Cisco
Dariusz Fabiszewski has re-
placed Paweł Malak as gen-
eral director of Cisco Poland.
Fabiszewski has 15 years of
experience in senior manage-
ment in IT and business con-
sulting. Before joining Cisco,
Fabiszewski worked for Ernst
& Young as head of the IT
team. Before that he was gen-
eral director of IBM in Poland and managing director
of Fujitsu Siemens Computers for Eastern Europe.
Fabiszewski earned a degree in telecommunications
from the Warsaw University of Technology.
APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 5
 HOT DATE

Newsline News from AmCham and its members

Apr.06.11
Event: AmCham Monthly Meeting
Place: InterContinental Warsaw
Time: 7:30 A.M.

March at MIPIM, the international real estate

event held annually in Cannes.
In Poland, CB RE represented Pekaes SA,
part of the Kulczyk Holding group, in the
March sale of a site in the center of Warsaw to
OKAM Capital. The 1.2 hectare site in the Wola
district is slated for residential and retail devel-
opment.
Cushman & Wakefield
According to a report published by commercial
real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield,
global investment in commercial real estate will
continue to recover in 2011, with a broader
focus on emerging and second-tier markets, in-
stead of just the main business centers that trig-
gered most investor attention last year. Accord-
ing to the International Investment Atlas 2011,
which monitors investment flows in commercial
Hewlett-Packard
HP has introduced a new family of fast-perform-
ing network access points to help companies
improve productivity: HP E-Series Mobility E-
MSM460, 466 & 430 Access Point. The new ac-
cess points allow for wireless data transfer at
900 Mb/s and enhance coverage areas with
beam-forming technology. According to HP, the
technology offers the best performance in the
marketplace today.
hotel in Poland to provide kosher catering. The
certification gives the Marriott the green light to
cater Jewish weddings and other events with
kosher requirements. The Marriott’s kosher
menu includes cold starters, soups, main
dishes and desserts.
Obtaining the kosher certification was “an im-
portant and long-planned investment project,”
according to Albert Helms, general director of
the Marriott Warsaw. He said that kosher food,
apart from being targeted to individuals who
and Slovakia. “The Czech Republic and Slovakia
have great investment potential in the public sec-
tor, especially in public-private partnership,” Mur-
phy said, adding that the energy sector also
looks promising for investors. PM Group plans to
hire about 100 people at the two offices in the
next three years.
In other news, PM Group has developed a
feasibility study for redevelopment of the former
Remy Automotive Poland plant in Świdnica, fol-
lowing the company’s departure from Poland in
Trusiewicz & Siwko
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has selected
law firm Trusiewicz & Siwko to provide legal
services related to the selection of business
partners for Poland’s upcoming Presidency of
the Council of the E.U. Trusiewicz & Siwko is
involved in negotiations for transportation,
telecommunications, IT services, and food and
beverages. So far agreements have been final-
ized with such suppliers as Coca-Cola, Mi-

Members on the move property in 56 countries, global investment vol-

umes grew 42% in 2010, to USD 564 billion.
Kelly Services
observe kosher traditions, represents an excel-
lent addition to the existing cuisines available at
2008. The new investor is American Axle & Man-
ufacturing. The factory holds 12 hectares of land
crosoft, Peugeot, Orange, and Scania.

Investment in Europe, the Middle East and

More than three-quarters of Polish respondents
the Marriott Warsaw. in Invest-Park, the Wałbrzych Special Economic Volantis (renamed Antenna)
Marriott Africa rose nearly 50% in 2010, to USD 155 bil-
lion, with Central & Eastern Europe up 60% would be willing to move for the right job, with
Zone.
Antenna Software, a developer of mobile ap-
and Western Europe up 56%. Investor demand many even prepared to relocate to another Orco Property Group plications, has acquired mobile Internet soft-
Gavin Baxter has joined the
Marriott Warsaw as executive picked up late last year after a slow summer country or continent in order to secure their ProLogis ware company Volantis Systems. After the
chef. Baxter, who comes from due to sovereign debt worries. Demand has fo- preferred position, according to a recent survey Global provider of distribution facilities ProLogis merger, the company will operate under the
Australia, has 20 years of ex- by HR specialist Kelly Services. The most mo- Antenna brand. It will continue to provide full
perience managing kitchens
cused on the most liquid markets, with the reports that it signed leases for more than a mil-
U.K., Germany, France and Sweden seeing the bile workers are in General Y (age 18–29), who lion square meters of space in Central & Eastern support for Volantis products to its current
at five-star hotels in Norway
and Austria, and on cruise most activity and aggressive bidding on core are more footloose than Generation X (age 30– Europe last year—61% of it in Poland alone. It is customers, prospects and partners, through
ships. Baxter oversees all of assets. However, as yields in these markets 47) and more fancy-free than Baby Boomers the most space ProLogis has ever leased in its existing locations, including Kraków as well
the restaurants at the Marriott, have fallen, some investors have begun to look (age 48–65). Poland or the region in one year. In Poland Pro- as teams in the U.S., the U.K., India and Hong
including Parmizzano’s, Lilla The findings are part of the Kelly Global Kong.
Weneda, Chopstix, the Lobby
at other areas such as Poland, Russia and Logis has over 2.1 million sq. m. of space in 105
Turkey. Workforce Index, a survey in late 2010 and buildings in 25 distribution parks, with a 33% The addition of the complementary Volantis
Bar, Panorama Bar & Lounge, Champions Sports Bar,
Vienna Café and La Patisserie. Baxter is in charge of Michael Rhydderch, head of EMEA Capital early 2011 of some 97,000 people in 30 coun- market share. technology will allow Antenna to immediately
staff supervision and training, menu creation, cost Markets for Cushman & Wakefield, said, “It is tries, including Poland. The survey also re- In the first two months of 2011, ProLogis offer its customers a significantly broader
control, quality control and supplier selection. clear that the volume of assets coming to the vealed a significant number of people working signed five new leases and one lease extension range of mobile web solutions, including the
market is increasing substantially as a result of in “unconventional arrangements,” involving Construction of the 18th floor of the Złota 44 for warehouse space at its distribution parks in underlying architecture for mobile commerce
banks forcing or encouraging action. At the long or unusual hours, multiple jobs, living residential tower (pictured) was finished in the Silesia, for a total of nearly 60,000 sq. m. and enterprise app stores. “Our customers
PricewaterhouseCoopers same time the volume of equity in the market is away from home, or heavy travel. first half of March. Developer Orco Property can go to a single provider for all their mobility
“In an environment where the market for tal- needs across myriad devices,” said Antenna
Mateusz Walewski has
joined the marketing, com-
ever greater and debt is, selectively, becoming
more affordable and available. We are expect- ent is becoming global, there is a growing real-
Group has now completed a third of the tower’s
total height of 192 meters. Orco founder and
Salans CEO Jim Hemmer.
munications and business ing an active trading environment and contin- ization that many individuals may decide to re- president Jean-François Ott said the cold shell In March, Salans Warsaw partner Piotr
development department at ued pressure on prime yields during 2011.” locate for work, rather than simply hope that the phase should be complete by the summer of Nowaczyk won the International Law Office
PwC as an economist. work will come to them,” said Agnieszka Wal- Client Choice Award in the field of arbitration, for
In other news, Cushman & Wakefield has 2012, and construction is now progressing ac-
Walewski has long-term expe-
rience in economic advisory, been appointed lead letting agent for Eurocen-
trum, a 64,000 sq. m. office building to be built
ter, Country Manager at Kelly Services Poland.
In Poland, jobseekers are most willing to re-
cording to schedule. As construction draws to a
close, Ott said, a new storey should be added
the second year in a row.
The ILO awards are based on a survey of sen-
Members on the move
working abroad in Europe
and Asia. Prior to joining PwC on Al. Jerozolimskie in Warsaw. It will be a locate to other European countries (60%), fol- every week. ior corporate counsel only, with this year’s win-
Walewski was a member of green project and has applied for LEED Gold lowed by North America (16%) and Asia-Pacific ners chosen from a pool of more than 2,000 indi- White & Case
the strategic advisory team of (12%), with South America at 4%, the Middle vidual client assessments. Established in 2005,
the Prime Minister of Poland. He is a graduate of the
certification.
Cushman & Wakefield represented Ardom in East at 3%, and Africa at 1%. Panattoni Europe the ILO Client Choice Awards recognize law Paweł Pietkiewicz has joined
University of Warsaw and the University of Sussex. White & Case LLP in the dis-
the sale of the Panorama Shopping Center in Carl Panattoni, the founder, owner and chair- firms and partners around the world that stand
pute resolution practice in War-
Ewa Boguszewska has
joined the MCBD department
Krasnystaw to First Property. The 5,200 sq. m. Manpower man of Panattoni Development Company and
numerous affiliates in the Panattoni group, in-
apart for the excellent client care they provide
and the quality of their service.
saw. Prior to joining White &
Case, Pietkiewicz worked for
of PwC as marketing and shopping center was opened in March 2009.
In the recent Employment Outlook Survey from cluding Panattoni Construction and Panattoni CMS Cameron McKenna,
communications manager. Cushman & Wakefield has been appointed
global HR specialist Manpower, Polish employ-
Boguszewska has over 13
years of professional experi-
exclusive agent for commercialization of the 4-
ers report stronger job prospects for the sec-
Europe, is the winner of the 2011 CEEQA
award for Lifetime Achievement in Real Estate.
Sheraton Warsaw where he headed its dispute
resolution practice in Poland.
star Rialto Hotel to be built by MOT Sp. z o.o. He has advised on a wide
ence in international financial ond quarter of 2011. Of the 750 Polish employ- The award, sponsored by the Financial
on Ostrów Tumski, the island in the historic cen- range of matters and has
institutions, including Volkswa- ers surveyed, 16% anticipate adding to their Times, was presented at the annual CEEQA in- broad experience in demand-
gen Bank Polska, where she ter of Wrocław.
workforce, 4% plan reductions (down from 12% dustry awards gala at the Warsaw Marriott in ing sectors. He is ranked in Tier 1 in the Chambers Eu-
worked prior to joining PwC.
in 1Q 2011), and 76% expect no change. March. It is given each year to an inspirational rope and EMEA Legal 500 directories.
Boguszewska is a graduate of
the Warsaw School of Economics and completed a General Electric “The outlook for Poland is upbeat and repre- leader who has made a significant and durable Wierzbowski Eversheds
postgraduate program at the Chartered Institute of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy VP Danny Roder- sents moderate improvement over the first- contribution to the real estate industry in the
Marketing in London. ick met with the Polish parliamentary task quarter forecast,” said Iwona Janas, Country New Europe. Dr. Lech Giliciński has
force on nuclear energy to showcase GEH’s Manager of Manpower Poland. “Polish employ- In other news, Panattoni Europe has ex- joined Wierzbowski Ever-
Salans advanced nuclear technologies, as part of the ers are among the most optimistic in the 20 panded its Silesian warehouse park portfolio. sheds as a partner. Giliciński
countries surveyed in Europe, with approxi- has extensive experience in
Salans has appointed Paweł
technology review for Poland’s nuclear energy The new projects, Panattoni Park Gliwice I and corporate and financial re-
program. Poland plans to start the construc- mately one in six anticipating growing their pay- Panattoni Park Gliwice II, include three build-
Grabowski as a partner. structurings, banking, fi-
Grabowski advises strategic tion of its first nuclear power plant in 2016, for rolls in the coming quarter.” The percentage of ings totaling 30,600 sq. m. The first tenant at nance and private equity.
and financial investors on all connection to the national grid in 2020. Roder- employers planning staff cuts is the smallest Panattoni Park Gliwice II is Saint-Gobain Glass The Oriental at the Sheraton Warsaw is featur- Giliciński was a principal
types of investments in Poland ick underlined GEH’s extensive experience in since 3Q 2008, she pointed out. Polska. ing Asian poultry. Chef Aprochet Inboom (pic- legal adviser to the Minister
and internationally. His key ex- Industries that should see increased hiring in tured) serves delicate duck dishes prepared in of Justice and EBRD in the
perience includes major M&A
building nuclear reactors that are safe and in- Panattoni Europe is also expanding Panat- process of implementing the
expensive to run. He also stressed that GE 2Q 2011 include construction, mining, manu- toni Park Wrocław II by another 11,500 sq. m. many traditional ways with popular Asian
transactions, real estate proj- Polish Bankruptcy and Restructuring Law. He is also
ects, corporate restructurings, employs over 10,000 people in Poland and co- facturing, finance, insurance, real estate, and spices. The dishes include Chinese soup with the World Bank’s country partner in Poland in the
business services. duck meatballs, vegetables and soy pasta,
and complex domestic and
cross-border joint ventures. Grabowski is admitted to
operates with Poland’s academic and scien-
tific communities. Earlier, GEH signed a coop-
PM Group crispy duck with vegetables and mandarin
area of insolvency and restructuring. Giliciński grad-
uated from the Faculty of Law and Administration at
the bar in Poland and New York and has also qualified
as a solicitor in England and Wales. A graduate of the
eration agreement with the Polatom Institute of Marriott Warsaw Con Murphy, managing director of project
management consultancy PM Group Poland, is
sauce, and duck breast in pepper and garlic
sauce. The Oriental specializes in traditional
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and the Uni-
versity of Oxford, and earned an LL.M. at the Univer-
University of Warsaw and Harvard Law School, he has Atomic Energy, which advises the Polish gov- sity of Connecticut School of Law, where he was a
The Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, extending his responsibility to cover PM Group dishes from Thailand, China, Japan, Indonesia
been working for Salans since 2001. ernment on nuclear energy issues. Fulbright Scholar.
has certified the Marriott Warsaw as the first offices opened recently in the Czech Republic and Malaysia.

6 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011 APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 7

Agenda Intelligence from AmCham and its committees
For the AmCham Guide to Committees see inside back cover

Environment & Energy Committee Financial Services Committee

duction sector is very emission-intensive.
Meanwhile, as agreed, in 2013 the European
emissions trading system will introduce new
rules governing the allocation of CO2 emis-
sion allowances. This means that from 2014
on, producers of electricity will not be eligible
for any free emission quotas, but will have to
pay for the CO2 they release to the atmos-
phere.
Managing debt
of 2009 Warsaw sold debt worth PLN 1.5 bil-
lion, but other cities only a fraction as much:
Kraków sold debt worth PLN 250 million, Bi-
ałystok PLN 80 million. Apart from those of-
fers, other debt sold by municipalities in
Poland targeted the banking sector.
With long-term demands for financing In 2010, agreements were signed with the
Warsaw does its best to be creditworthy European Investment Bank, among others,
for a total of PLN 200 million of new debt to

According to Katarzyna Kłaczyńska, an as-
sociate at CMS Cameron McKenna, the new
ETS regulation will have a fundamental im-
pact on electricity producers in Poland.
“Right now, the electricity sector gets more or
less 70-80% of what they need for free,” she
said. However, as Kłaczyńska added, the
new E.U. member states, including Poland,
whose power sector is outdated and emis-
sion-intensive, may nonetheless be given
more time to adjust to the new emission
regime. Those countries will have an option
to apply for free emissions allowances for
2013–2020.
One problem is that the application
Poland’s power generation is emission-intensive and in need of an eco overhaul process is complex and time-consuming. An-
T
he volatile investment atmosphere
around the world, including high aver-
sion to risk, which in turn increases
bond yields, and volatility on the local market
as well, both have the City of Warsaw worried
about its potential to pay down its debt on
time. This was the main message from Bog-
dan Nawrocki, deputy director of the Debt
and Financial Policy Department at Warsaw
City Hall, when he met with the AmCham Fi-
nancial Services Committee in February.
As if this were not enough to worry about,
the recent government plans to cut the por-
tion of public pension contributions paid to
the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) that are
allocated to the open pension funds (OFEs)
changes in municipal finance law in 2010.
The law has imposed two types of limits on
municipalities: they maintain a balance in
their current budget, while financing it, as well
as their debt servicing, from surplus money,
borrowing or sale of assets. “There are some
discussions about introducing further limits
on municipal finance, regarding their deficits,
but we do not know how this discussion will
evolve,” Nawrocki said.
In May 2009, the City of Warsaw issued
five-year maturity euro bonds at the Luxem-
bourg Stock Exchange worth EUR 200 mil-
lion, at a yield of 7%. Two months later, War-
saw issued 10-year maturity bonds for PLN
600 million at Catalyst at a yield of 7.38%. In
be sold to EIB in 2011.
In February 2011, the City of Warsaw
signed an agreement with PKO Bank Polski
and Bank Pekao, the two biggest banks in
Poland, to organize bond issues on the do-
mestic market in 2011.
Nawrocki said that a good time for issuing
fixed-rate bonds would be before mid-May, a
time when a lot of issues are planned on the
European markets. He also said that in a con-
servative case scenario, where OFEs only
reinvest their money, the potential purchase
of municipal bonds is estimated at approxi-
mately PLN 1.5 billion in 2011.
Nawrocki said that the estimated supply of
debt next year may reach a total of PLN 23.5

Clearing the air

other is that Poland and the European Com-
mission tend to disagree on how to interpret
certain provisions of the transition agree-
ment. “The truth is that the option for transi-
As international efforts to cut carbon emis- tional periods was included as a last-minute
sions become more definite, new E.U. concession,” Kłaczyńska said. “It is very am-
biguous and self-contradictory in some as-
member states need to clarify whether they pects. Member states that would like to pur-
will qualify for transitional relief from 2014 sue the option read these provisions differ-
onward. ently. The unfortunate circumstance here is
that in the end, it is the European Commis-
from 7.3% to 2.3% of the entire ZUS fee
poses more question marks for the city, ac-
cording to Nawrocki. This is because the
OFEs are among the major investors in
bonds in Poland. Reducing the funds that go
to the OFEs for management would reduce
their ability to buy municipal bonds in the fu-
ture and significantly limit the inflow of capital
into the domestic financial market.
“In 2010 OFEs received PLN 23 billion in
contributions,” Nawrocki said. “If the new reg-
February 2010, Warsaw sold another PLN 300
million worth of debt at Catalyst with a matu-
rity of 12 years and 7.03% yield, followed by
another tranche of 12-year-maturity debt at
Catalyst in April 2010 worth PLN 300 million
with a 6.519% yield. In May 2010 Warsaw sold
another PLN 300 million in bonds with 7-year
maturity and a 5.95% yield, at Catalyst. In Oc-
tober 2010, through a private placement, War-
saw sold nearly PLN 100 million worth of debt
with a 15-year maturity and an undisclosed
billion, including PLN 16.2 billion from munici-
pal governments, PLN 0.8 billion from public
companies, PLN 15.7 billion from BGK bonds,
and PLN 2.8 billion from corporations.
Nawrocki estimated the demand for debt at
PLN 10.5 billion, including PLN 6.7 billion
from OFEs, PLN 0.8 billion from banks, PLN
1.5 billion from mutual funds, and PLN 1.5 bil-
lion from insurance companies.
Based on these estimates, the gap in de-
mand is PLN 13 billion, and it is not clear who

T
he climate conference in Cancun, Mex-
ico, in December 2010 was a major
success because all countries at the
negotiating table, including both more- and
less-developed economies, agreed to ac-
knowledge their shared responsibility for
global climate change, according to Tomasz
Chruszczow, director of the Department of
Climate Change and Atmosphere Protection
at the Polish Ministry of the Environment.
Speaking at a meeting of the AmCham En-
ergy & Environment Committee in February,
Chruszczow said that all the negotiators in
Cancun took a realistic approach by focusing
on areas universally viewed as achievable
and deciding to leave more difficult issues to
be addressed at future summits.
Among the key elements agreed in Copen-
hagen in 2009 and incorporated into the
Cancun Agreements were those governing
targets for emissions reductions, a mecha-
nism for financing the process estimated to
cost USD 100 billion, the technology, and the
transparency of process implementation.
Discussing the financial solution, known as
the Green Fund, which is now being built,
Chruszczow said that it is impossible for the
public sector to raise this much and therefore
the business sector should become involved
in the process. Even more importantly, he
said, developing countries should be a part
of the financing solution.
Technology is another important point, as
it is supposed to help the developing coun-
tries mitigate the negative results of emission
cuts. Chruszczow noted that this is an oppor-
tunity for business to develop new technolo-
gies and find new markets. “It is also an op-
portunity to adapt existing technologies to
the needs of developing countries,” he said.
Chruszczow added that soon the division
into eco-friendly and non-eco-friendly tech-
nologies will be an artifact of the past, as all
technologies in use will have to be eco-
friendly. “Any technology that helps save re-
sources helps the climate,” he said. “So does
any technology which saves energy.”
Another speaker, Magdalena Kostulska,
Private Sector Coalition Specialist at the
United Nations Development Program, said
that the Cancun Agreements offer a new par-
adigm change toward building a low-carbon
society. “A low-carbon society should still
support substantial opportunities for growth
and sustainable development,” she said, “but
this will require innovations and also more
sustainable production, consumption, and
lifestyles.”
The issue of technology is an important
one for Poland, a country whose power pro-
sion who assesses the applications from the
member states and can accept or reject
them. In other words, while member states
read the bill in their own way, the European
Commission has the final say. That is how it
works.”
Kłaczyńska suggested that the applicants
should figure out how the European Com-
mission approaches the regulations so that
they are in a position to draft their applica-
tions in a way that makes it hard for the Com-
mission to reject them.
This problem also means that Poland does
not know whether its power industry will be
getting any free CO2 allowances or not. “The
commission will have six months to assess
an application,” Kłaczyńska said, “so it will
take a long time before an applying country
knows anything.”
It is safe to say that the Polish power in-
dustry is disadvantaged compared to coun-
terparts in other E.U. member states. As
Kłaczyńska explained, “They will not be eligi-
ble for any free CO2 allowances, but they
have had since 2009 to adjust their opera-
tions to the new regulations. In Poland the
problem is that if we do not get any free CO2
allowances, we will have only six months to
adjust our industry to the E.U. regulations.”
ulations become reality, that amount will fall to yield. may be counted on as a potential buyer.
PLN 7 billion.” However, the supply of municipal bonds Nawrocki said it is anybody’s guess how
Nawrocki said that the role of OFEs in fi- targeting institutional investors, such as much of the debt will be purchased by foreign
nancing both central government and munici- OFEs, has been very low. Since the beginning investors.
pal debt is significant. “In 2010 OFEs alone
bought PLN 9 billion out of PLN 11 billion of
road construction bonds from Bank Gospo-
darstwa Krajowego,” Nawrocki said. “As of
the end of January 2011, OFEs had invested
PLN 118 billion in Treasury bonds and PLN
16.7 billion in non-Treasury bonds.”
So far, OFEs have purchased 72.54% of the
City of Warsaw’s debt, worth PLN 1.1 billion.
By comparison, insurance companies bought
a total of 16.67% of the debt (PLN 250 mil-
lion), banks 8.53% (PLN 128 million), mutual
funds 2.00% (PLN 30 million), and brokerage
houses 0.26% (PLN 4 million).
Another problem is the relatively high de-
mand in Poland for variable-rate bonds, while
Warsaw is the only issuer of fixed-interest
bonds so far listed on Catalyst, the bond mar-
ket at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. In its debt
portfolio Warsaw has PLN 1.5 billion in bonds
issued at fixed rate and only some PLN 500 Every year in March the AmCham Tax Committee and KPMG organize a seminar
million in bonds issued at a floating rate. about tax issues for U.S. citizens living and working in Poland. This March speak-
To make matters even worse for Warsaw, ers Dagmar Gessner-Gaspar and Lisa Xu (pictured) from the KPMG U.S. Tax
the banking sector is not eager to lend as it Center in Frankfurt presented new U.S. tax developments that affect individuals
living abroad, while Mateusz Kobyliński from KPMG International Executive Serv-
waits to see what happens with municipal ices in Warsaw talked about the most recent Polish personal income tax regula-
debt throughout the country following tions that concern expatriates.

8 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011 APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 9

Agenda Intelligence from AmCham and its committees

European Union Affairs Committee Consumer Products Committee

The Jessica program, which in Poland covers only two provinces, focuses on supporting urban revitalization projects The national stadium can be adjusted to suit not only sports events but a wide scope of other commercial events

An explosion of euros No white elephant

BGK administers E.U.-funded lending programs to shore The National Sports Center, operator of the National Sta-
up Polish regions threatened with social implosion and to dium under construction in Warsaw, is selling naming rights
help grow technology to the stadium and looking for sponsors for the numerous
commercial opportunities offered by the stadium complex
P
roject finance opportunities available to 3.77% interest, which is the reference rate set Polish provinces, is called Jeremie and

small and micro enterprises from Bank
Gospodarstwa Krajowego, Poland’s
only wholly state-owned bank, were on the
agenda in March when the AmCham Euro-
pean Union Affairs Committee organized a
meeting with BGK CEO Tomasz Mironczuk.
One set of opportunities stem from BGK’s
participation in the European Commission’s
Jessica program, which aims at changing the
way financial aid is distributed in the E.U.
from a system of grants to a system of finan-
cial injections that are eventually repaid by
the companies, organizations or institutions
that receive them. The idea is that money in-
vested in a project should in time be re-
turned, to be doled out again for the benefit
of other pro-social projects. The money is
made available to investors at very low inter-
est and for long periods.
The Jessica program, which in Poland cov-
ers only two provinces, Wielkopolska and
West Pomerania, focuses on supporting
urban revitalization projects, for which BGK
manages an urban development fund. But
“urban revitalization” means more than just
commercial redevelopment of run-down city
areas. It is about making unattractive districts
attractive again for business, entrepreneurs
and inhabitants.
BGK has PLN 290 million to distribute in
the two Polish provinces to investors who
have interesting urban development projects
to help stem the tide of social implosion of
the target areas. The bank lends money at
by the National Bank of Poland. For projects
that deliver earlier than planned, the interest
rate may be lowered to 1.75%. The financing
is available for up to 20 years. Investors have
until 2014 to submit projects for the program.
After 2014, submissions will not be accepted.
Mironczuk said that so far BGK, which is in
charge of handling the fund, has looked into
20 projects submitted by potential investors.
Most of them were shopping centers. But
while BGK welcomes commercial projects, it
also hopes to see projects that combine
urban development with social engineering,
in a creative and smart way, to create condi-
tions for socially degraded areas to recover,
so that they attract new inhabitants and busi-
nesses and eventually contribute to the over-
all social and economic development of the
city they are part of.
Such projects are of crucial importance for
Poland, especially along the western border,
where inhabitants often relocate to nearby
Germany in search of better jobs and new
perspectives. While the German economy
continues its robust growth, experts say that
this trend may intensify, which may lead to
social implosion in some areas of the
provinces covered by the Jessica program,
Wielkopolska and West Pomerania. Escala-
tion of this implosion would be difficult to
stop, and the areas affected by it would need
years to mend.
Another project finance program from the
European Union which BGK handles, in five
caters to small and micro enterprises in need
of capital for developing innovative technolo-
gies. BGK can either underwrite loans from
commercial banks or provide direct loans to
companies, known as “technology credit.”
BGK has PLN 2.7 billion to distribute by
2014. A single loan may be up to PLN 4 mil-
lion. The idea behind this program is to elimi-
nate barriers to obtaining financing that small
and micro enterprises may run into following
the introduction of stiffer lending criteria for
commercial banks.
Mironczuk said that regrettably only three
micro firms applied for technology credit in
Poland in 2010. For the program to be in full
swing, BGK needs to receive about 20 appli-
cations for financing a month.
Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego is the only
wholly state-owned bank in Poland. Its mis-
sion is to provide financing to the public sec-
tor, but it also supports financing for micro,
small and medium-sized enterprises. It may
become involved in investment projects as
well as trade contracts including underwriting
for up to two years. The bank has good rela-
tions with other financial institutions and is
building a roster of trading clients who spe-
cialize in exporting goods made in Poland.
The bank backs Polish exporters to such
countries as Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
and, recently, Turkey, Moldavia, Bosnia, Ser-
bia and Argentina. On average, BGK ap-
proves one project a week for financing.
P
oland’s National Stadium in Warsaw will
be the most modern sports arena in Eu-
rope when it holds its grand opening in
June 2012, according to Piotr Kwiecień, mar-
keting director of the National Sports Center,
the state-owned company that manages the
facility. At a meeting with the AmCham Con-
sumer Products Committee in March,
Kwiecień argued that the new Warsaw land-
mark will offer exceptional business opportuni-
ties for the owner and partner companies.
The National Stadium, built to accommo-
date the Euro 2012 European Football Cham-
pionship, will be buzzing with activities before
and after the soccer is played there in June of
next year.
Kwiecień stressed what he said were
unique aspects of the stadium. Location is
one. The stadium is 4 km from the center of
Warsaw (the Palace of Culture) and 12 km
away from the only international airport serv-
ing Warsaw today. As an integral part of the
fabric of the city, the stadium offers opportuni-
ties to make money not only on sporting
events, but also on live concerts and other
events for various types of audiences. The
complex will offer a total of 200,000 sq. m. of
enclosed space, and the stadium itself will
have 55,000 seats under a fully retractable
roof. Thanks to the roof, which will make it
possible to host major events in the winter,
there will be no dead season at the facility.
The operator is already planning several
major shows and is confident that the stadium
will be regarded as an important venue for big
musical events. The stadium will fit 70,000
spectators when the stage is placed in the
center of the playing field and the rest of the
field is filled with additional seating. Techni-
cally speaking, there are four gateways to the
playing field, with two of them big enough to
handle trucks carrying heavy equipment.
Kwiecień noted that the stadium can be ad-
justed to suit other events requiring fewer
seats. There is a lower ring, with approxi-
mately 20,000 seats, which is permanent. The
upper ring can be covered or used as a tech-
nical area for lighting so it does not look
empty. Kwiecień said that the stadium could
then appear full at an event for 20,000 people.
The stadium will offer shopping and serv-
ices on a promenade on the ground floor and
four upper levels. There will also be 8,000 sq.
m. of office space overlooking the nearby
park.
The complex will include a conference cen-
ter totaling 16,000 sq. m. in two separate halls
and two other event venues: the Business
Club, with a 2,600-seat auditorium, catering
services and a business center, as well as the
Fun Club, with 2,200 seats as a venue for less
formal events.
An ecumenical chapel inside the complex
will offer commercial opportunities as well,
through weddings and other faith-based
events. The chapel can be converted in min-
utes to a Christian or Jewish wedding layout.
With all the advantages the location offers, it
comes with some limitations as well. Unlike
other big sports arenas, the National Stadium
will not have a huge parking lot, due to space
limits. The parking lot will hold only 1,700 vehi-
cles. Because of this, one of the official poli-
cies of the National Stadium will be to encour-
age sports fans to arrive by Warsaw’s excel-
lent public transit system. The stadium will be
served by tram, bus and commuter rail, and,
eventually, the east-west line of the Metro,
which is under construction. According to
Kwiecień, public transit has the capacity to
move 70,000 to 100,000 people to or from the
facility per hour.
For now the National Sports Center is look-
ing for companies interested in purchasing
naming rights to the stadium. Kwiecień said
that so far the biggest deal for naming rights in
Poland was a five-year deal for PLN 35 million
at Baltic Arena in Gdańsk, known at the mo-
ment as PGE Arena. Kwiecień said that the
operator definitely expects to beat that deal
both in price and duration.
Kwiecień said that so far construction of the
stadium has generated a lot of interest, and
many consulting companies have expressed a
willingness to work with the National Sports
Center. Polish and international media and in-
dustry experts have also devoted a lot of at-
tention to the project. In 2010 alone, the com-
bined media coverage of the facility, in Poland
and abroad, in print, TV, radio and Internet
was worth the equivalent of PLN 60 million.

10 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011 APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 11

COVER STORY: Innovative economy
Thou shalt innovate!
Poles begin to realize that business must think new to move forward
B
efore 1939, Poland was renowned for
its technological advances in many
areas. It was for instance one of the
few countries that successfully experi-
mented with transmission of television sig-
nals, as far back as 1931. A bomber plane,
codenamed “Łoś,” designed entirely by
Polish engineers, was the most technically
advanced airplane in 1938. Polish designs
of train engines—steam and electric—
were world leaders in their day.
But then came the destruction of World
War II, and after that Poland’s economy
was nationalized, along with its research
centers. The long story of Poland’s inept-
ness in innovation and industrial design
began, and in time came to resemble a
kind of cultural tradition.
Faced with the postwar demand to re-
build the country, engineers had to devote
their talents to developing basic aspects of
the economy, such as civil engineering and
the steel industry, which in particular was
then viewed as the backbone of social and
economic progress. And because of the
reigning ideology, there was little state-
sponsored encouragement to develop
products more advanced than those made
by the leader of the bloc, the Soviet Union.
So even though engineers at the Polish au-
tomotive plant FSO came up with ad-
vanced models for the flagship car at that
time, the Syrena, the projects were stalled
by the politburo. Today, the advancement
and technical sophistication of the work of
FSO engineers can be appreciated only by
studying the old documentation for the
Syrena and pictures of such models as the
Syrena Sport, the Syrena Mikrobus, and
the Syrena 104 Laminat, developed in the
1960s.
innovation unwelcome
With a political grip that kept at bay all in-
novative thinking and design, Poland in-
evitably began to decline into a technically
backward country. In time, innovative,
modern design began to be perceived as
something that could not originate at home
but had to be bought from the West, in the
form of a production license. Poland’s de-
pendence on technology developed by the
Soviet Union was universally felt in almost
all aspects of industry, from aircraft con-
struction to nuclear power (which ulti-
mately was never implemented).
Even when Poland was able to buy a li-
cense to manufacture products developed
in the West, the designs were outdated by
the time they were introduced in Poland.
For example, the model for the Fiat 125
passenger car that Poland bought from
12 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011
Italy was already 20 years old by the time
production commenced at FSO in Warsaw.
When FSO engineers began to experiment
with the Fiat design to take it to a higher
level of technological advancement and
consumer-oriented esthetics, they were
dealing with such an outdated concept in
the first place that what they eventually
came up with in 1978, the Polonez, turned
out to be an exorbitant misfit in the auto-
motive industry—drawing guffaws in the
U.K. when some units were sold there.
The only foreign market of any commercial
significance that embraced the Polonez to
some extent was China—thanks only to the
“friendly” relations between the two so-
cialist states.
Given such history, it is little wonder
then that when in 1989 Poland began its
political and economic transformation
from a centrally-planned economy to a free
market, the country’s entrepreneurs paid
little attention to research and develop-
ment as a means of gaining a competitive
advantage in the marketplace. The model
of looking to the West for better, more
technologically advanced products was still
in force. A factory owner who wished to
improve productivity simply had to buy
some worn production equipment in the
West at a bargain price to replace the even
older, exhausted equipment still in opera-
tion at home. With this “new” equipment,
company owners could produce more with
fewer workers on the production line. The
economic results that stemmed from such
simple replacement of equipment were
staggering. But again, what mattered was
money (to buy the old equipment) rather
than creative thinking. The attitude of in-
difference to creativity, research and devel-
opment continued unchallenged.
When the going is good, people’s atti-
tudes change slowly, and for this one to
change there were few incentives even
after Poland entered the European Union.
With unlimited access to all E.U. markets,
Polish exporters realized their products
were highly competitive on price with
those from other member states. But the
advantage was not a result of more innova-
tive production, but of the big gap in wages
earned by workers in Poland and countries
to the west, and other production costs
such as utilities. This gap was (and still is
in many cases) so huge that Polish ex-
porters found their products cost-competi-
tive when sold in the West even though the
efficiency of their labor force in Poland was
well below the E.U. average. Differences in
labor cost, for instance, allowed farmers in
Poland to export tomatoes to Greece, de-
spite the fact that Greece has much more
favorable weather conditions for growing
tomatoes than Poland.
nothing to brag about
Under such political and economic cir-
cumstances, it is little wonder that 20 years
after Poland’s entry into the free-market
economy, there is still almost nothing that
Poland can boast about when it comes to
the innovative economy. This is well de-
picted by the recent study of the innova-
tiveness of E.U. member states by UNU-
MERIT—Maastricht Economic and social
Research and training centre on Innovation
and Technology, for the European Com-
mission. Published in February, Innovation
Union Scoreboard 2010 takes into account
performance across 24 indicators, such as
the number of patents registered, the
number of innovative products launched in
the marketplace, expenditures on R&D,
and national programs linking money with
innovative research. The study places
Poland in the category of “moderate inno-
vators” together with the Czech Republic,
Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Portugal,
Slovakia and Spain—countries that scored
from 10% to 20% below the average for the
27 member states.
The “innovation leaders” atop the rank-
ing, with a performance 20% or more
above the E.U. 27 average, are Denmark,
Finland, Germany and Sweden. Just below
them are the “innovation followers,” with
an innovativeness score from 10% to 20%
above the E.U. 27 average (Austria, Bel-
gium, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Ireland,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia
and the U.K.) The lowest-ranked— “mod-
est innovators,” below 50% of the E.U. 27
average—are Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania
and Romania.
As the report underlines, the countries
at the top of the ranking share a number of
strengths in their national research and in-
novation systems. “While there is not one
single way to reach top innovation per-
formance, most innovation leaders perform
very well in Business R&D expenditures
and other innovation indicators related to
firm activities,” the report says. “All of the
innovation leaders have higher than aver-
age scores in the Public-Private co-publi-
cations per million population indicator,
[which] points in the direction of good
linkages between the science base and
businesses. All European top innovators
also excel in the commercialization of their
technological knowledge, as demonstrated
by their good performance on the indicator
License and patent revenues from abroad.”
Furthermore, the report stresses: “The
overall good performance of the innovation
leaders reflects a balanced national re-
search and innovation system. While each
country has its own specificities, policy re-
sponses should attempt not only to address
relative weaknesses in national research
and innovation systems, but also to have There are signals, however, that this
more balanced performances across all trend is being limited by the agencies in
categories of indicators.” charge of distributing E.U. aid. Out of PARP has helped set up 1,300 companies
Poland is characterized by the authors as 1,850 persons who applied for money from representing all types of e-business. With
a country whose relative strength is HR the Polish Agency for Enterprise Develop- this the mission of Priority 8.1 has been ac-
performance. But Poland’s weaknesses are ment (PARP), which administers distribu- complished, and now the agency is in-
a lack of open, excellent and attractive re- tion of aid under Priority 8.1, only 160 were clined to grant funds to support only truly
search systems, a failure to link entrepre- successful. In money terms, out of the innovative ideas for e-business. But they
neurship with money, and a lack of proper budget of PLN 350 million for 2010, only are few and far between.
commercial utilization of intellectual as- about PLN 75 million was granted to en- Apart from the shortcomings on the pol-
sets. The report also found “a relatively trepreneurs. According to PARP, the agency icy level that the Innovation Union Score-
strong decline in SMEs innovating in- had to apply stricter criteria for evaluating board 2010 captures (see also the article
house and innovative SMEs collaborating projects submitted for financing, because on page 20) our sources within the busi-
with others.” It found other dimensions to most of the applicants could not prove in ness angels community have pointed to
be below the E.U. 27 average. any way that their businesses would ever some other problems. It may seem puz-
break even. zling, but the lack of sufficient knowledge
in the dark Most of the business ideas submitted to of English among graduates of Polish poly-
By and large, Polish entrepreneurs learned PARP were not innovative, but were copy- technics is a problem for companies that
about the importance of innovativeness for cats of earlier developed models. PARP VP fish for talent among recent graduates. In-
economic development after Poland en- Patrycja Zielińska said in an interview for novation today is delivered through cooper-
tered the European Union. This knowl- Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily that so far ation among specialized research teams.
edge was linked with many E.U. funds de-
signed to support the innovative economy,
including innovative products as well as
business models.
But the availability of money to support
innovativeness in the economy created less
than the desired effect. Instead of being
perceived as a must-have element of an en-
vironment in which the authors of innova-
tive ideas can rely on financial support to
develop them into commercially viable
projects, E.U. funds were tapped into by
entrepreneurs who lacked any particularly
valuable business ideas but knew how to
negotiate the complicated application sys-
tem.
“In recent years many firms in Poland
were created just in order to tap into E.U.
grants,” said Szymon Kurzyca, an expert
with Lewiatan Business Angels, a network
affiliated with Poland’s largest employers’
organization. “They were getting grants to
start their own companies, consuming
them, and going bankrupt. This is evident
especially in Priority 8.1, which supports
the creation of e-companies. But when
people know that they can get financing for
85% to 100% of the cost of setting up a
company, they are for it no matter whether
there is a reason why the company should
be established. It is good from the point of
view of those people, but not necessarily
good from the point of view of the econ-
omy.”
APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 13
COVER STORY: Innovative economy
This type of work requires communica-
tion skills in English on a level that allows
for crystal-clear communication of often
complex technical and scientific concepts.
The quality of the knowhow available in
Polish polytechnics can be disappointing.
One source complained that when it comes
to the science of active packaging (packag-
ing for food products with chemical prop-
erties extending the shelf life of the prod-
uct or providing information about the
quality of the food inside), only the infor-
mation in English is valuable, while the
available information on the subject in Pol-
ish is riddled with errors.
Another problem comes from lifestyle
differences between the new generation of
university graduates and older, experi-
enced scientists. Individuals with long-
term academic backgrounds and research
experience often find it difficult to adapt to
working in the egalitarian environment of a
modern company. They find it especially
difficult to accept that the person leading a
project they are working on may be much
younger than themselves.
Scientists in Poland also do not have the
kind of culture that would help them think
ahead to commercializing the results of
their research. Even those with excellent
innovative ideas do not know what to do
next to turn them into a business.
The noble aspirations of Polish re-
searchers can even prove a hindrance to
development of innovation. Many are
14 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011
driven by a Nobel Prize ethos, and in a de-
sire to be perceived as distinguished scien-
the chemical and expressed its intention to
place an order worth some EUR 1 million a
tists they focus on publishing as many sci- year, Bieniek realized the institute could
entific papers as possible. They forget that not cover the necessary cost for increasing
once an innovative idea is published, it is production capacity. Bieniek quit the insti-
in the public domain and they may no tute and established a company with the
longer be able to patent it. Nonetheless, help of Academic Incubators of Entrepre-
they imagine that they would still have an neurship. With a formal structure, he was
edge over the potential competition if they able to sign a contract with the drug pro-
were the first to manufacture their inven- ducer and issue an invoice. That was in
tion. This is an illusion, as every experi- 2008.
enced entrepreneur knows, because if you But Bieniek wanted to grow his innova-
do not have the intellectual rights to the tion to the point that it would support a
product you will soon see it produced bet- full-fledged commercial operation, with a
ter and cheaper by somebody else. client roster and R&D. He found financing
Another problem is that universities are through Lewiatan Business Angels and de-
infiltrated by companies searching for in- cided to locate his company, Apeiron Syn-
novations and inventions. When they come thesis, at Wrocław Technology Park. The
across a good idea, they quietly take it away park itself agreed to cover the cost of the
to develop it further commercially else- equipment necessary for full-scale produc-
where. tion of the chemical. Today Apeiron Syn-
Unlike in the U.S., where universities thesis is one of the rising stars in the
own a stake in innovative companies they Lewiatan Business Angels stable, with a
help to establish, and profit from them, value estimated in the millions of dollars.
universities in Poland see no incentive to
take that approach. Quite to the contrary, a slow dawn
they see innovative members of the faculty U.S. companies affiliated with AmCham
as pain points, rather than assets, due to have long been advocating the need to im-
the costs associated with turning an inno- prove national policies for cooperation be-
vative idea into a business proposition. For tween academia and business, as well as
instance, patenting costs, which may run state-sponsored mechanisms for pro-
EUR 100,000–150,000 in the case of global pelling the innovative economy. But along
patents, are viewed as a burden huge with educating decision- and policy-mak-
enough for many a university to abandon ers, innovative American companies that
commercialization ambitions altogether. established research and production here
Another problem is have had a huge impact on the way innova-
that even if scientists tiveness in the economy is understood and
understand why they approached in Poland. The main message
need to patent their is that innovative products are ones that
innovations, the per- are anticipated by the market, and when
spective on how they they are actually delivered there is a de-
are going to benefit mand for them.
from it does not go In December 2010, IBM, a company that
beyond the idea of has been innovating for the last 100 years,
selling a license to it. revealed its annual list of the “Next Five in
This is not the best Five”: five innovations that it anticipates
approach, because will have the “potential to change the way
final control over the people work, live and play over the next five
product quality lies years.” The innovations were as diverse as
within the reach of their areas of application. A technology for
whoever buys the li- beaming 3D holograms in real life is sup-
cense, instead of the posed to change not only the way people
proprietor. use electronic entertainment (with holo-
The systemic fail- gram display technology in mobile phones
ure of the academic and computers) but the way participants in
system to embrace video conferencing interact. A battery
what it does com- technology enabling 10 times longer bat-
mercially is best il- tery use on mobile phones and laptops
lustrated by the story than conventional batteries today, and
of Michał Bieniek. A power technologies that use kinetic energy,
young chemist at the will make electronic devices even more
Institute of Organic permanent in our lives. New network tech-
Chemistry of the Pol- nologies will enable sensors and measuring
ish Academy of Sci- devices in our computers to convey data
ences, his research from real life to data centers where scien-
led him to create a tists will access it in a systematic way,
chemical that is thanks to new algorithms, and use it to
sought after by drug learn about important aspects of our envi-
companies. When ronment. Computers, we are told, will also
one company tested be able to analyze traffic conditions in real
time and offer “route recommendations”
to drivers so they steer away from traffic Innovation Union Scoreboard 2010
jams on the way to their destination. IBM
also predicts that servers will be used as a E.U. member states’ innovation performance in 2010
heat source to supplement the energy sys- Innovation leaders perform above 20% or higher of the E.U. 27 average; innovation followers from
tems in cities. between 20% above to 10% below of the average; moderate innovator perform from 10% to 50%
below the average; modest innovators perform below 50% of the average.
While these predictions are based on
market and social trends that IBM expects
will change our lives, what they all have in
common also is that they are in sync with
technologies that are emerging from IBM
labs around the world that can make these
innovations feasible.
Many scientists in Poland will find it dif-
ficult to accept that such great innovations
are not being developed by scholars in
ivory towers, driven by lofty ambitions and
protected by academic tenure. Instead, in-
novation is being developed by people who
embrace life in the marketplace—who un- European performance vis-à-vis main competitors
derstand technology, but also understand The performance of E.U. 27 against selected countries. The values in the graphs represent the
people and their consumer needs. relative performance of the country indicated compared to that of the E.U. 27. E.g. the U.S. in
"2010" is performing 49% better than the E.U. 27 and China in "2010" is performing 55% worse
So far many Polish entrepreneurs may than the E.U. 27.
think the innovative economy is something
that was invented by the European Union.
But more and more of them are beginning
to realize that economies have always been
driven by invention. Behind every great
brand, there is at least one great invention,
properly executed.
George Parker was a teacher who sup-
plemented his income as a part-time rep-
resentative of the John Holland Fountain
Pen Company and sold pens to his stu-
dents. But his customers frequently com-
plained to him about the poor quality of
the pens. Parker investigated the problem
and found out that the feed-shaft needed a
few improvements. With simple tools he
began to make new shafts for the pens he
was selling. Soon he decided to manufac-
ture a pen under his own name. He Evaluation of selected criteria
patented his fountain pen and founded a The charts below represent member states' innovation performance across selected criteria that
have critical contribution to the effectiveness of the innovative economy.
company capable of producing it on a mass
scale: the Parker Pen Company. The rest is
a history of constant design change to suit
evolving customer tastes.
The Parker example—the chain of
events from consumer demand to innova-
tion, patent and production—is character-
istic of nearly every commercially success-
ful product, whether aimed at the mass
market or a niche market. With the appear-
ance of business angels organizations (see
the article about the AmCham CEO
Forum in March, on page 23), as well as
seed capital providers, global manufactur-
ing firms and technology giants (which
usually have cooperation programs in place
with polytechnics), more and more entre-
preneurs and aspiring innovators in Poland
are learning about the need to be part of
that process in order to be successful.
When its hour comes around at last,
Poland may bring forth an innovative prod-
uct that is a game-changer on the global
marketplace.
Tomasz Ćwiok
Charts: Innovation Union Scoreboard 2010
APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 15

Ten tips to consider before you
launch
Rafał Stroiński, a partner in CMS Cameron McKenna’s Warsaw
Corporate Department who is both a Polish lawyer and a member of the
ww.amcham.pl
New York bar, has studied startups in the Silicon Valley and Poland. He
combined theory with experience to compile a list of dos and don’ts that
best suit the Polish reality.
Download this magazine!
American Investor is available in full
as a pdf for download from the
www.amcham.com.pl website. Go to
"About Us" in the horizontal menu,
and choose American Investor
Magazine from the pop-up menu.
You can download past
issues of American Investor dating
back to October 2010.
American Investor
Your ultimate source to AmCham Poland
Call to find out about advertising opportunities +48-22-520-5993
16 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011
COVER STORY: Innovative economy
your own
1 Whose idea was this?
Before any idea finds a fully practi-
cal application for business, we
share it with friends, talk about it with ac-
quaintances, take it apart and put it back
together with potential business partners
and other individuals who, we think, will
give the idea a commercial edge. In time
the idea may look quite different from the
way it looked at the time of inception. It is
vital to keep control of whose idea you are
talking about and not exclude people
whose intellectual input was critical to its
commercial development.
2 too many partners
Any extension of ownership in a
company decreases the value of
shares held by each partner. But perhaps
not everyone who you think deserves a
share in the startup is going to have a
vital input to the startup’s day-to-day de-
velopment. Perhaps they deserve some
remuneration for what they have done,
maybe some option rights but not imme-
diate ownership. Make sure that whoever
you choose for your shareholders bring
value to the startup. Plus, too many own-
ers make a company unmanagable.
too-complex
3 legal structure
You may think that setting up your
startup in a tax haven is a good idea. Wait
until you know your startup is a viable
business. In fact it is at risk of not taking
off. It needs time to mature in the busi-
ness world, and you need to focus on that
and not on the least expensive taxation
structure. After all, you may find it irk-
some to track down the right notaries in
Cyprus or talk to the register court in the
Netherlands when your primary goal
should be to develop your startup into a
business.
4 keep things in order
A mess, no matter what you do, im-
pedes your functioning. And effi-
cient functioning and fast response to the
situation, including enquiries from poten-
tial investors, is the key to the success of
your startup. If they find your documents
are in a mess or you cannot produce
something that they request on time, it
will only create a negative impression
about your startup and the people behind
it. It is about people’s psychology and
common sense and you cannot undo it.
5 keep things formal
People involved in startups are
often, by their entrepreneurial na-
ture, not very sensitive to formal proce-
dures a business requires. The lack of
documentation that, say, your startup has
the IP rights to the things it produces,
will surely impede its further develop-
ment. Formalities are important and if
left unattended may lead to conflicts be-
tween individuals who have contributed
to the development of your startup and
impede further business growth.
startup
7 don’t throw
your money away
Your startup may be your first
business venture, but it does not mean
you need to have an expensive sofa in
your office to impress your potential in-
vestors and clients. The ideas your
startup is working to develop into a busi-
ness are the assets your potential in-
vestors will look at. But you may find
yourself regretting having bought that ex-
pensive sofa when you run short of cash
to pay your bills or pay for other services
that are vital to your business develop-
ment.
6 stick to your guts
A startup is not a good place for
individuals with a high aversion to
risk in business. You may buy an expert’s
opinion about almost anything these
days, but don’t get carried away by too
many experts’ opinions, especially if you
get them for a discounted price or for
free. Stick to your guts and remember
that a startup is about taking risks.
8 don’t ignore new
sources of money
Entrepreneurs behind startups
are most often determined to make it on
their own, according to the original plan,
without looking at additional opportuni-
ties that may come their way, especially if
those opportunities come from highly in-
stitutionalized sources. But Poland is a
country where public financial sources
are available through numerous funds,
managed by such institutions as the Pol-
ish Agency for Enterprise Development
(www.parp.gov.pl) and others. Sure, it
takes an effort to fill in the application
form and show you meet the criteria. But
remember that even a small cash injec-
tion into your business may make a big
difference. Every zloty may be worth its
weight in gold for you.
9 network, network,
network!
People with ideas are often intro-
verts. But they need to remain open to
other people and human networks. A
lawyer you know may know a financial
whizz who could help with the financial
strategy your startup needs—but only if
the lawyer knows about your problem.
Lawyers often can see beyond the legal
aspect and may have a unique grasp of
the business side of your startup. A grow-
ing number of lawyers in Poland under-
stand risk management and may offer in-
teresting solutions for you. Plus, remem-
ber that if you manage to get someone
onboard with high esteem in the busi-
ness world, the credibility of your startup
will get a huge boost. It is invaluable!
10 control
burn rate
your own
Working for your startup should
give you fun and fulfillment. You have to
make sure that what you do is exactly
what you want to be doing. Don’t let
yourself be overridden by emotional
stress. If you do you may as well get your-
self a different, more secure job.
APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 17
COVER STORY: Innovative economy

Global firms are active globally and see
business in broader terms than a one-time
cash injection to a given R&D project. It
seems that corporate income tax incentives
for companies that invest in R&D in Poland
not only could help create more R&D cen-
ters in Poland, but could also increase
Poland’s CIT revenue, because such in-
centives would be available only to compa-
nies that pay CIT in Poland—which as-
Rzeszów, plastics in Tarnów, IT in Gdynia
and Rzeszów, and the maritime industry in
Gdynia. On the other hand, R&D centers
are developed across Poland without any re-
gard to whether their location will actually
help them tap into the knowledge base cen-
tered in the given region.
at the level of national policy, what is
missing in poland that would help de-
I think there is a clear need for identify-
ing areas of economy with highest innova-
tion potential and focus support on them.
For instance, the E.U.-funded Innovative
Economy Operational Program seeks to
support companies’ activities aimed at
R&D capacities development. Meanwhile,
the tax system in Poland offers premiums
to companies that act to the contrary. For
instance, companies can get tax deductions

A government job
sumes that global companies find it prof-
itable. The European Commission is cur-
rently running consultations on how the fi-
nancial instruments for R&D should look
like after 2013 so that more R&D results
are successfully implemented. This may
American Investor's Tomasz Ćwiok talks with Magdalena Burnat-Mikosz, a be a good occasions also for Poland to re-
velop the innovative economy?
Innovativeness is a broad term and includes
many sectors of the economy. R&D is only
one aspect that defines innovativeness and
competitiveness. Along with R&D, other im-
portant aspects are the availability of busi-
ness infrastructure, the readiness of scien-
if they buy knowhow but they get no tax de-
ductions if they invest in R&D. Companies
that invest in R&D can only include the
cost in their overall business costs like any
other company. Another problem is that the
Innovative Economy Operational Program
promotes the creation of industry clusters

partner at Deloitte who is head of R&D and Government Incentives for Cen-
tral Europe, about problems with implementation of a coherent policy for
developing the innovative economy.
the Innovation Union Scoreboard 2010
says that in the long-term perspective
the technological gap between
poland and other european countries
will hobble poland’s economic com-
petitiveness. does this mean that
poland’s relatively low costs of labor
and production will lose their signif-
icance?
In a long-term perspective, the advan-
tages of low costs of production will not
play any decisive role in shaping the com-
petitive aspect of Poland’s economy. Even
the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India
and China) seem to realize that their
cheap labor will not last for long, and they
are intensifying their innovative skills. A
recent study from the World Intellectual
Property Organization into the number of
patent submissions in 2010 showed over-
all growth of 4.8% in patent submissions
as compared to 2009. But the number of
patents submitted in China grew by over
56% and in South Korea by 20.5%, while
in the E.U. and the U.S. they dropped.
Today as many as 7.6% of all patents are
registered in China. This means that in
order to be competitive, Poland has to be
innovative in many different ways.
one of the conclusions by the authors
of the Innovation Union Scoreboard 2010
is that polish companies have one of
the lowest levels of cooperation be-
tween state-owned r&d centers and
academia. does this mean that busi-
ness cannot find good partners to work
with?
There is no one reason why this does not
work properly. Academia lacks enough de-
termination to work for business, but on
the other hand business also has its stereo-
types about academia. For instance, a big
company that commissions research will
usually want to retain the intellectual prop-
erty rights to the resulting invention. Sci-
entists find that difficult to accept. Poland
is a part of the global economy, and Polish
scientists and scientific centers can pitch
for research business from foreign research
institutes. They have the potential. For in-
stance the International Collegiate Pro-
gramming Contest in 2003 was won by a
team of Polish mathematicians headed by
University of Warsaw professors Jan Madey
and Krzysztof Diks.
Another problem is that there is not
enough demand for R&D services in
Poland. The economy is comprised in bulk
of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Big companies make up only 0.5% of all
companies. What is more, among SMEs,
over 95% are micro-firms that employ
fewer than 10 people. Their drive to resort
view our strategy. tists to cooperate with business, and adapt-
ing the education system to new economic
on the one hand, but on the other hand it
promotes the creation of R&D operations
What regions of poland are most inno-
vative?
challenges. But the most important thing is
that innovativeness is not perceived as a goal
by companies that create at least 10 jobs
and invest in research infrastructure.I
R&D centers are dispersed in Poland. But
Wrocław is a good example of a city that has
in itself. Without determining the goals that
innovativeness should serve, it is difficult to
think this process should be optimized on
the central level so it is in sync with a na-
to R&D is minuscule due to the cost and incorporated R&D into its development determine financial mechanisms that would tional strategy for development of the in-
the risk factors involved. SMEs have a dif- strategy. It created the EIT+ research cen- help support reaching those goals.I think novative economy. A government czar with
ferent focus, on maintaining cash flow, ter, which promotes cooperation in R&D that today the public funds earmarked for the rank of deputy prime minister to over-
and if they choose a new technology to between businesses and academia. There supporting the innovative economy are dis- see the implementation of this strategy
grow they tend to use one that has been are some regions in Poland where clusters persed among dozens of programs that are would be the best solution.
tried before, to minimize risk on their specializing in certain technology have all aimed at supporting innovation but lack
way to meeting their business goals. It is been established: aviation technology in one coherent strategy.
nothing Poland-specific, but a strategy
used everywhere. The problem is that big
concerns centralize their R&D centers, in
most cases outside of Poland. This is why
their regional subsidiaries lack formal
competencies and scientific potential to
innovate. A thorough analysis of the situ-
ation will perhaps lead to some conclu-
sions as to what needs to be changed to
improve the situation so that we attract
R&D to Poland.
Yet another problem is that most of in-
centives available for development R&D
works in Poland promote buying
knowhow from third parties. It seems
that the lawmakers believe that innova-
tions developed abroad are more worthy
of being put into commercial use in
Poland than innovations developed inside
companies. That really does not make
sense. But the fundamental thing is that
the decision of corporations to invest in
R&D in a given location is conditioned by
several factors, including financial aid avail-
able in a given location, the scale of re-
search in question, the security of the R&D
program. Poland today is not an optimal
destination of choice for R&D. It has noth-
ing to do with the quality of researchers and
scientists available in Poland, but with
business conditions for such ventures,
mostly related to tax regulations. Even with
the relatively low cost of human resources
in Poland, the main problem is the lack of
well designed financial incentives for com-
panies who do R&D in Poland and sell in-
novations in Poland and abroad. This is why
companies are more inclined to establish
their R&D centers in Hungary or the
Czech Republic rather than in Poland.

18 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011

MONTHLY MEETING: Innovative economy and economic policy

rent system of subsidies for innovation must
be improved, and tax incentives must be in-
troduced to a larger degree. Wherever possi-
ble, best practices need to be set out and
adopted from the countries that excel at
leveraging innovation to drive economic
growth.
deep-rooted disregard
This problem may be even more difficult to
solve than it sounds, because a disregard for
innovative thinking is deeply rooted in the
Polish culture. According to Prof. Michał
Kleiber, president of the Polish Academy of
Sciences, who was the keynote speaker at
the AmCham Monthly Meeting in March,
this is the weakest points of all contributing
to Poland’s low innovativeness ratio, which
is plain to see in a statistical comparison of
Poland with other E.U. countries. Poland
ranks even with the Czech Republic, Hun-
gary, Italy, Portugal and Slovakia. Countries
at this level are often referred to as “moder-
ate innovators.” But, Kleiber pointed out, all
these countries are well below the E.U. av-
erage, which means that they are actually
poor innovators.
ministration approaches the economy—that
is, how ineffectively and often irrationally it
treats economic issues in the lawmaking
process. “We need to improve general gov-
ernment policy toward the economy as
such,” Kleiber said. “We have to put in place
better national governance mechanisms at
the central government level, and we have to
improve the methodology of how we create
law. There is not much consolation in the
fact that many countries have a similar situ-
ation to Poland. But in Poland it is really ir-
relevant the way we make law generally. The
execution of the law is another matter, but it
also has an impact. So all those factors play a
very important role.”
no big picture
Another problem that has a negative impact
on the development of innovativeness is the
lack of a coherent approach to different as-
pects of innovativeness across different gov-
ernment ministries. While the Ministry of
Economy is the main power center for stim-
ulating implementation of pro-innovative
solutions in government policy, it does so in
disregard to the role that the Ministry of
tions in the defense sector, are anti-innova-
tion. We have to find a way for a coordinated
approach on the part of different ministries
to the process of lawmaking and the innova-
tive economy.”
low social capital
For Kleiber the importance of the develop-
ment of human capital in boosting a nation’s
pro-innovation attitudes seems an obvious
point. “The bigger the capital the bigger the
chance that Poland will succeed economi-
cally,” Kleiber said. Meanwhile, when it
comes to adult training and education,
Poland has one of the lowest ratios in the
European Union. “When you take the work-
force in Poland, only 5–7% of employees un-
dergo ongoing schooling of any sort,”
Kleiber said. “Other countries in Europe, a
group to which Poland aspires in a sense,
cover up to 50% of their workforce with dif-
ferent types of education programs at work.
This is an essential message to workers that
they have to upgrade their skills and knowl-
edge to be productive and progress with the
overall progress of the economy.”
When it comes to social capital, Kleiber’s

From brawn to brains

Speaker Prof. Michał Kleiber, president of the Polish Academy of Sciences with Rick Lada, AmCham Vice Chairman The key to Poland’s poor innovation score
lies in the past, Kleiber argued. “For histori-
cal reasons, Poles do not appreciate the sig-
nificance of innovation these days,” he said.
“It is culture, not politics, that determines
the success of the society. We have to praise
Science and Higher Education plays in the
equation. In turn, the allocation of financial
support for innovation development from
the E.U. is in the hands of the Ministry of
Regional Development, which acts on its
own priorities without synchronizing its ac-
criticism is focused on the lack of under-
standing of how important it is for a society
to teach and promote the art of collaboration
between individuals. “If I were to select one
major problem which Poland faces in terms
of the development of its economic potential

To find its place in F

or the past few years Poland has come
across as the European Union’s
young economic powerhouse, able to
the innovative crank out positive growth in gross domestic
product at a time when most other
economy of the economies in the E.U. had negative growth.
But this robustness, experts say, has been a
result of the relatively low cost of labor,
future, Poland which in turn has to do with undervaluation
of the zloty against the euro, rather than any
must change its particularly smart approach to generating
revenues by coming up with innovative
products and services.
on both micro- and macroeconomic levels.
When the experience of AmCham mem-
ber companies is studied, it indicates that
“It is culture, not politics, that determines the success of the soci-
the innovative environment in Poland, de-
spite significant improvement, still has
ety. We have to praise innovators, we must find ways to promote
innovators, we must find ways to become proud of those who
quite a way to go. One area in which Am-
Cham sees a great opportunity as a driver of
growth is cooperation between industry and
have succeeded in innovation. The lack of those things is a real
academia. Compared to other countries in
the European Union, Asia and North Amer-
weakness of the Polish society.”
ica, this type of cooperation is not utilized to
a sufficient degree. Barriers remain, includ-
ing mental ones, which discourage market
innovators, we must find ways to promote
innovators, we must find ways to become
tivities with other ministries. When it comes
to implementation of IT infrastructure in
in the future, I would probably point to the
low social capital,” he said. “Again, this is

mindset to foster While being commercially creative is not

an easy task, cheap labor will not remain
participants from effective participation in
the system. AmCham believes that support-
proud of those who have succeeded in inno-
vation. The lack of those things is a real
central administration and government-run
agencies, that is the task of the Ministry of
historically conditioned, but that is no con-
solation. We have to change the way we edu-

collaboration, from Poland’s competitive edge forever. In fact,

the business community in Poland is in-
creasingly worried about the country’s
ing entrepreneurship and innovation in
Poland demands systemic changes as well as
institutional environments, such as science
weakness of the Polish society.”
This should prompt questions in the pub-
lic mind about what the competitive advan-
the Interior, which, again, acts on its own. In
general, there is no coordination between
different ministries when it comes to imple-
cate people so they learn how to collaborate
with one another, how to develop the appre-
ciation of working with others and the un-

government growth potential in the years to come.

Poland needs to plan its growth within the
parks and technology transfer centers, that
allow for concentration of resources:
tage of Poland will be 10 years from now and
how Poland will be attracting foreign invest-
menting regulations governing the new
economy.
derstanding of the importance of collabora-
tion.”

ministries context of the world economy, from global

manufacturing to foreign relationships. And
within the broader context of international
human, capital and organizational.
Poland, like other countries in the region,
has to overcome the European paradox:
ment. “There are hundreds of questions
which should be put forward to politicians,
but no journalist asks them,” Kleiber said.
That is only the tip of the iceberg. The
same neglect in the legislative process leads
to creation of laws that ignore the complex-
Kleiber also noted that while the level of
trust is at its lowest today, especially when it
comes to trust in authorities, unlike in the

on down, competitiveness, one of the most critical

factors that must be focused on is innova-
while good at basic research, science has to
go a step further to encourage the right fi-
“This is because of the lack of understand-
ing of the economy and its problems, in-
ity of innovation implementation altogether.
“Ministries responsible for implementing
past there is now no reason why people
should not trust the institutions of a demo-

a leading scientist tiveness.

Experts say that the ability to innovate is
an absolute must to ensure the continued
nancing. In order to do that, Poland needs
an innovative strategy that breaks down
structural and bureaucratic barriers. It must
cluding the issue of innovativeness in the
economy.”
Another impediment to Poland’s success-
innovation do not talk to one another,”
Kleiber said. “The result of this is that
many crucial laws, including public procure-
cratic society, and trust one another. But
they do not. “This is something which has
to be changed,” Kleiber noted. “But this will

tells AmCham growth of the Polish economy. This ability,

however, is shaped by complex relationships
think about how it can develop new legisla-
tion that really drives innovation. The cur-
ful embrace of an innovative economy is
“deeply rooted” in the way the central ad-
ment, public-private partnership, and the
offset law which compensates for acquisi-
take time.”

20 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011 APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 21

MONTHLY MEETING: Innovative economy and economic policy AMCHAM CEO FORUM: Business angels

mad money
Poland has laws that commit both the public
and private sectors to invest in R&D. The
problem with the regulations, however, is
that they do not work. Kleiber said that
Poland does distribute huge amounts of
money through grants to R&D, but in fact
the money that comes from European
Union cohesion and structural funds is
squandered.
Trying to invigorate R&D by offering
grants to selected research programs cannot
be effective, Kleiber said. “Grants are not a
good way to stimulate the growth of R&D
projects because behind every grant there is
an administrative decision,” he argued. He
added that the process of doling out grants
is a bureaucratic one and by definition is
never competent, “even if the bureaucrats
ask experts for advice.” Instead, business
should be encouraged to invest in R&D by a
system of tax incentives. Such a system has
yet to be invented. In order to do so, Kleiber
noted, Poland should resort to best practices
try. Kleiber said that it is natural that cer-
tain regions are more innovative than others.
“If you look at Europe and the U.S., there
are places that are highly innovative and
places that are not. It is a fact of life. We
should not try to make the entire country an
innovative village. It is not going to work. We
have to focus on building innovativeness
where it should be, because there are re-
gions that have good links between acade-
mia and business and financial institutions,
and there it is relatively easier to establish
what it takes for a successful innovative
company.”
The last stereotype Kleiber identified is a
belief that scientists are responsible for in-
novation. “Scientists have to be consulted,
invited to collaborate in an innovative
process,” he explained, but the fate of inno-
vations should be in the hands of those who
take the risk of inventing things. “Entrepre-
neurs are the leaders of innovation.”
the way forward
The next niche worth investing in, ac-
cording to Kleiber, is carbon-based chem-
istry. Again, the issue is to cut emissions.
Looking ahead at Poland’s plans to de-
velop a nuclear energy program, Kleiber said
that it offers opportunities for innovation in
the area of nuclear and coal-based energy
generation. “It is a very sensitive, sophisti-
cated, and promising area,” he said. “This
gives new opportunities for intelligent
power grids and dispersed energy systems.”
complementary assets
But apart from specific areas in which
game-changing innovations would benefit
the entire economy, the foremost problem is
that when it comes to boosting innovative-
ness there are certain complementary as-
sets, such as openness of the society, pro-
motion of openness, and promotion of gen-
eral creativity in the society. All of those
things are important in terms of shaping the
general attitude toward innovation. The lack
of positive attitudes about innovative think-
The idea of business angels is slowly taking off in Poland

A life between vision and risk

already developed by other countries.
harmful stereotypes
Another systemic problem that impedes the
creation of a good legal framework for
boosting innovativeness is false stereotypes
that lawmakers have when it comes to inno-
vativeness. Among them if a belief that only
individual entrepreneurs may be innovators.
Kleiber made the point that if innovative-
ness is to be meaningful for Poland’s econ-
omy, pro-innovation policies should focus on
selected areas of the economy. As he ex-
plained, “No single country, not even the
U.S., can excel in being innovative in every-
thing.”
For Kleiber, the critical sectors of the
economy in which innovative breakthroughs
would make a difference for the entire coun-
ing in Polish society is a problem.
And as a society, Poles need to have the
courage to dream of great ideas and prag-
matic ways to implement them. “This is
something that America has excelled in,”
Kleiber told the audience of businesspeople
from American companies. “Making dreams Before they become a force behind the innovative economy business angels have to learn
come true is a symbol of American entre-
preneurship and the freedom of economic to live with risk while aspiring entrepreneurs have to learn to understand their objectives
activity. People there know how to dream.

“Big companies are innovators, too,” he
pointed out. “The iPhone was not built in a
garage.”
The next harmful stereotype on Kleiber’s
list is that only sectors of the economy like
biotech, IT, or nanotechnology can be inno-
vative. In fact, Kleiber said, innovativeness
can bring groundbreaking change to any
sector of the economy, and therefore all sec-
tors should recognize the importance of in-
novativeness and support it.
Another universal illusion is that innova-
tiveness has to be spread more or less evenly
in geographic terms across the entire coun-
Meet the speaker
try are those connected with the need to re-
duce Poland’s emissions of CO2. The coun-
try is obliged to do so, but being dependent
on coal as the primary source of energy for
the power sector, the obligation amounts to
a dramatic change in the way Poland pro-
duces energy. “Poland is also a country
which sits on coal,” he said, “and therefore
is determined to use it as an energy source
for at least the next 20 years. Everything
that relates to clean coal technologies
should be a priority for Poland. Poland will
not give up on coal for the next 10 to 20
years.”
Prof. michał kleiber has been the pres-
ident of the Polish Academy of Sciences
since 2007 and has just begun his second
term, ending in 2014.
Kleiber, a mathematician, has headed
the Department of Computational Sci-
ence at the Institute of Fundamental
Technological Research of the Polish
Academy of Sciences since 1986.
He has lectured and conducted re-
search at numerous universities around
the world, such as the universities of
Stuttgart, Hannover, Darmstadt and
Bochum in Germany, Berkeley, the Uni-
versity of Connecticut, and universities in
Tokyo and Hong Kong.
In 1998–2001 Kleiber represented
This is perhaps something that we can learn
from you.”
Tomasz Ćwiok
Poland in the E.U. Joint Research Cen-
tre as a member of the Board of Gover-
nors and in the Sustainable Growth
Steering Committee of the 5th Frame-
work Program.
In 2001–2005 he was Minister of Sci-
ence and Information Technology in the
Polish government. In 2005, he was
elected a member of the European Re-
search Council and chairman of the Eu-
ropean Materials Forum.
In 2008–2010 he was a member of the
Governing Council Steering Committee
of the European Science Foundation in
Strasbourg. He also served as a pro bono
science and technology advisor to the
President of Poland (2006–2010).
T
he institution of business angels—
individuals who take the risk of in-
vesting in startups in return for
above-average profits if the startup takes off
commercially—play a recognized role within
the economic equilibrium in the U.S. and
Western Europe. In Poland, however, the
concept is in the initial stages of develop-
ment.
The AmCham CEO Forum in March was
devoted to analyzing specific issues sur-
rounding business angels in Poland. The
panel of experts consisted of AmCham Vice
Chairman Rick Lada, a Silicon Valley veteran
who brought Apple computers to Poland and
Motorola to Kraków and is CEO of the inno-
vation-driven company Telesto Mist Sys-
tems; Błażej Moder, vice president of the
Łódź Regional Development Agency and
head of the Business Angels Guild head-
quartered in Łódź; and Piotr Wilan, founder
of the Pascal publishing house and a co-
founder of Onet.pl, who after exiting Onet
became a business angel and now has stakes
in a dozen innovative companies in Poland.
The panel was moderated by Tomasz
Wróblewski, a journalist with significant ex-
perience in the news media in the U.S. who
is now editor in chief of Dziennik Gazeta
Prawna, one of the largest dailies in Poland.
it takes two
In an age when outside-the-box ideas can
change markets and even the world as we
know it, offering financial assistance to a
group of enthusiasts who think they have a
great business idea—and the only thing they
need to prove it is money—may be a very lu-
crative proposition. At least, the panelists
agreed, that is what the people with the
ideas—the would-be entrepreneurs—think.
But the reality of raising money by startups
is quite different. As Tomasz Wróblewski
said, it is never a problem to find people with
ideas. Nor is it a big problem to find people
who are willing to put their surplus money
into a hot investment prospect that they are
positive will bring returns no other invest-
ment mechanism available in the market-
place can bring. The real problem is to
match people with business ideas with peo-
ple with extra cash who also share the same
vision of how to best develop the business in
question and sell it on at a profit. This can
happen, but it is a long and winding road.
Frustration
Wróblewski said that on investors’ blogs on
Bloomberg there is a lot of frustration ex-
pressed by both sides of the equation. People
with money complain that the projects they
get for consideration usually lack good busi-
ness plans. When potential investors crunch
the numbers, they run into a motivational
bump when they realize that inevitably they
will be in the red.
On the other hand, people with ideas com-
plain that they do not get enough time to run
their presentations to potential investors
properly, and the expectations that the people
with money have are overoptimistic when it
comes to the risk they should take and the
profit they should expect. According to Błażej
Moder, this is because business inexperience
(represented by the people with ideas) meets
up with business experience (in the form of
the angels), and the result is skepticism.
“The people with ideas do not have a vision
of how their ideas may develop commer-
cially,” Moder said. “It is a difficult process to
explain to them that they need to have this vi-
sion. So this is a frustration for them.”
As Moder explained, “On the other hand
people with money do not want to waste their
money and their time on learning about ideas
that have no commercial potential. They do
not want to talk about potential business
projects that are not prepared or developed
for a kickoff. They also want to see dedication
to the commercial success of the project on
the part of the project authors. Investors ex-

22 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011 APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 23

AMCHAM CEO FORUM: Business angels
pect that innovators are ready to devote their
resources to the successful commercial de-
velopment of the project. Having an idea to
play with on the marketplace is just not
enough for them. So they are frustrated
about it as well.”
But according to Rick Lada, a lot of the
frustration that people with ideas have is be-
cause of their lack of understanding about
the people they are talking to. “Business an-
gels, just like any other investors, are out to
make a profit,” Lada said. “There is nothing
necessarily friendly or angelic about business
angels.”
Piotr Wilan said that the problem is that
while there are a lot of ideas for business
around in Poland, bare ideas are not what
business angels are looking for. “Every great
idea for business should go together with a
person who is capable of executing it,” Wilan
said. “It is about personal responsibility for
developing the idea into a commercial suc-
cess. It is about the execution of the idea.”
money
While would-be entrepreneurs seem to have
overrated expectations regarding the impor-
tance their business ideas may have for po-
tential investors, they also seem to over-
charge when it comes to the amount of
money they wish to raise. “It is typical for
people to ask for PLN 2 million when usually
they need PLN 200,000,” Wilan said.
He noted that every business idea has to
be developed gradually, with as little cost as
possible. According to Wilan, “In many cases
PLN 100,000 or even PLN 50,000 is enough
to start and get to the point of delivering
sound proof of the concept.” He said in-
vestors do not want to put too much money
into a startup, because at such an early stage
of commercial development of an idea, risks
are everywhere. “They are execution, people,
markets, and business,” he explained. “Busi-
ness angels have to limit the risks, and one of
the aspects of limiting risk is to lead the de-
velopment in such a way that it requires as
little money as possible. If you invest in
stages and if you really know what is going on
in the market strategically and in the com-
pany, then you are in a position to limit the
risks.”
For Lada, entrepreneurs who look for
money from business angels have to under-
stand the point of the business equilibrium
they are trying to tap into, and adjust their fi-
nancial expectations accordingly. “A business
angel is a private investor, somebody who is
taking his or her own money and putting it
into a startup,” Lada said. “The investor has
all the risk but will get all the rewards—or
will get zero back from it.”
Lada added that business angels are not
venture capitalists. “A venture capitalist is
somebody who is taking other peoples’
24 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011
money and investing it,” he explained. “Ven-
ture capitalists have a fee guaranteed for
what they are doing, so they are getting re-
warded no matter what they do. If the venture
is successful, they get a portion of the future
fruits of the venture.”
According to Lada, there is therefore a big
difference between a business angel and a
venture capitalist: “In extreme cases, their
behaviors can be very different. The venture
capitalist can be irrational, because since he
is getting big rewards, he may want to swing
for the home run. The business angel is
probably going to be more rational and is
going to be looking for a good exit from the
investment, since it is already a high-risk
venture anyway. And the amounts of money
are different, too. A business angel typically
throws in between USD 20,000 and USD
200,000 in the U.S., while a venture capitalist
looks at investments of a minimum USD 1
million.”
Wróblewski said that according to
Bloomberg, the average angel investment in
2010 in the U.S. was USD 30,000.
Big questions
When meeting people with ideas, business
angels have their ways of finding out whether
the people can really deliver commercially.
For Wilan the most important aspect of the
presentation is whether or not it embraces
the strategic direction in which the company-
to-be has to develop in order to succeed
commercially. First come questions about the
new product or service: “What need in the
marketplace does the new product fulfill?”
Wilan asked. “Why is this product useful, and
for whom? The answers must be convincing
that there is some demand for the product in
question.”
Lada observed that when it comes to the
proposed product, special consideration has
to be paid to the specifics of the marketplace
the product is going to be a part of. “It may
be a wonderfully innovative product, some-
thing that people want to have,” he said. “But
you need to pose a question whether or not
this is a regulated market segment and
whether or not the regulations allow for inno-
vation. There are some segments of the mar-
ketplace that are so regulated that they do not
allow for innovation. They have to fit into a
standard. Standards have been created on the
basis of previous technology, and it can be
that if this innovation does not fit into the
standard, even though it is fantastic and
meets the needs of customers, nobody is
going to buy it.”
Lada said that despite IT and the Internet
being relatively unregulated, even there,
products and services have to fit within the
rules of the game—as seen in the case of
Napster, a peer-to-peer network that allowed
for sharing media files between private com-
puters, which was found to violate copyright
and finally was outlawed.
Another big question for business angels is
whether the people behind the new product
really can deliver commercially. Wilan said his
concern is always about the individual who is
going to be the leader of the project. “Is this
person really able to devote a part of his or
her life to this project?” Wilan said. Lada
agreed that the proposed product or service
is one thing, but there has to be a group of
people behind it who are willing to take the
mission upon themselves and execute the
plan.
But the will and determination to succeed
is not all that business angels look for. “It is
really good when the people who are propos-
ing a new venture actually have a lot of expe-
rience in the field,” Lada said. “It is nice
when they have perhaps worked for a big cor-
poration or were part of a venture in the past.
Now they have some new innovation, but they
know the industry the innovation is going to
be a part of. The inside-and-out knowledge
of the industry is essential. They have to
know what the industry wants.”
Having said that, Lada pointed out that
this requirement also applies to the business
angels: “When you as a business angel have
this experience, and you know the industry
and have the right contacts in the industry, it
helps. One of the responsibilities of a busi-
ness angel is to try to help out the guys who
run the company you have invested in. It is
really good when you understand entrepre-
neurialism and the workings of it. Then you
become a guardian angel who brings together
all the skills and contacts necessary for the
venture to succeed.”
Business under control
All panelists agreed that it is in the best in-
terest of all sides concerned that they feel
they are in control of the development of the
new venture. For business angels, the con-
cern is obvious. Lada said that business an-
gels know what they want and are ready to
have their way in the company they invested
in. For instance, they may be determined to
interfere with the company’s affairs to the
point of running the CEO out of the com-
pany if they feel that the CEO is not perform-
ing up to expectations. As he said, “They are
determined because they have invested a big
chunk of their personal savings and want to
have the highest probability that they will see
the money come back at a much higher rate
of return on the investment than stocks and
other saving options would have given them.”
For Wilan the fundamental thing is to set
milestones for the project. “If the entrepre-
neur wants to change the milestone every
two months it means that there is something
wrong with the idea,” he said. “If the mile-
stones are solid and the company arrives at
them on time, it means that everything is
progressing the way it was meant to
progress.”
Wilan said, however, that smooth realiza-
tion of milestones does not automatically
mean that they do not need reconsideration,
because it is always good to think, at every
stage of development of a new business, how
things can be done in a better and more cost-
effective way.
Lada pointed out that even with a well-de-
signed roadmap to success, there may be dif-
ferent skills needed at different stages of
project execution. “There are people who
have the experience to take an idea from the
initial stage and commercialize it,” he said.
“That is not necessarily an easy thing to do.
For the overall success you may need to
change the CEO, because the person who
had the idea for the initial stage may not be
the right person to lead the company to
change from a turnover of USD 1 million to,
say, USD 20 million.” In other words, it takes
different skills, approaches and attitudes, and
business angels may demand that change at a
certain point.
Even when their idea is rejected as structurally wrong and one
that will never take off in the real world, the authors of the idea
should not give up if they really believe it will work.
Another aspect of business control is the
exit strategy for business angels. Even those
with a perfect understanding of the business
their company is in do not wish to be involved
in it forever. Lada said that often entrepre-
neurs may have the intention to start a family
business that they do not intend to sell. “If
you invest in that, you have sunk your money
and lost it. When they just do R&D and do
not commercialize anything, and no bigger
company is going to buy it out, then you lost
your investment. So as an angel investor, you
have to make sure that potential conditions
for your exit are in place.”
Lada noted that one solution is when busi-
ness angels have seats on the board of the
startup.
Wilan agreed that an exit strategy for the
business angels has to be one of the mile-
stones set up for the company’s develop-
ment. It is important for the investors, as
they never take over the majority stake in the
company, because the creator of the idea for
the business has to own it and be responsible
for implementing it. So with only minority
shares in the company, business angels
should not feel at any point that they may be
outvoted when it comes to the execution of
the exit strategy devised for them. “What it
takes is an attitude that in the future there
will be the exit,” Wilan said. “It is about the
conviction of all people concerned that the
business has a valuable product that can be
sold to a bigger investor.”
trust is a must
Along with this comes the issue of the mu-
tual trust between the people with ideas and
the business angels. Błażej Moder said that
too often people with ideas fear that when
they reveal them at the presentation with po-
tential investors, their ideas may be rejected
for financing but picked up by the people
who rejected them and executed under dif-
ferent circumstances with different people.
“We are still living in a culture where prop-
erty rights are perceived as not adequate to
effectively protect the rights of inventors,”
Moder said. “This is a huge challenge, to
create an environment where people with
ideas can feel secure when they share their
ideas with potential investors. This is a very
important aspect of developing the innovative
economy as such.”
But Wilan said that this problem reveals a
common misunderstanding among the peo-
ple with ideas about the whole concept of
business angels. He said that stealing ideas is
not what business angels are after. “They
look for people with whom they can form an
alliance for the mutual benefit of all individu-
als concerned,” he said. “It is about finding
people who can execute their business idea
commercially.”
Moder admitted that a huge focus of an-
gels networks in Poland is on building trust
between the providers of business initiatives
and the providers of financing. For instance,
many networks check the credibility of indi-
viduals who want to become involved as busi-
ness angels. The Business Angels Guild,
which Moder heads, does the same. “Our
mission is to build trust between investors
and innovators,” he explained. “Things will
never work out if there are people in the
equation who distrust their business part-
ners.”
rejection is not the end
All panelists agreed that people with ideas
should apply for financial help to a business
angels network, because such networks offer
the best way to validate the idea and the abil-
ity of the individuals behind the idea to exe-
cute it.
There are two main reasons an idea may
be rejected. Wilan said that the business net-
work the innovators applied to may simply
not have business angels who are interested
in investing their money in the market the
idea is intended to become a part of. “Per-
haps a different type of investor is needed,”
he said, “or some risks are not acceptable to
the business angels who have seen the proj-
ect. There can be plenty of reasons why, but
it does not mean that there is something
structurally wrong with the business pro-
posal. Not every business attracts the atten-
tion of every business angel.”
But even when their idea is rejected as
structurally wrong and one that will never
take off in the real world, the authors of the
idea should not give up if they really believe it
will work. “This is something the innovators
often do not want to hear,” Wilan noted. “But
again, a business angel can be wrong.”
Lada said that there are many examples
where business angels were wrong about
ideas that led to the creation of great busi-
nesses. “There was an extremely successful
company that got started on the 140th try by
the innovator,” he pointed out. “So 139 busi-
ness angels told the innovator no.”
Lada added that real life is the best verifi-
cation of whether business ideas are good or
bad, and innovators and business angels
should be ready to take the try. “As many as 9
out of 10 businesses fail, which means that
there are a lot of good ideas that get support
from business angels but somehow cannot
make it higher,” he said. “If you are a busi-
ness angel, be prepared to lose your money
too, and select carefully in order to increase
the probability that you are going to see a re-
turn on your investment. If you are an inno-
vator, stay away from people who are just
throwing away their money and putting a lot
of pressure on you in order to get a quick re-
turn on their investment, when they have no
idea what the industry is all about and the
situation that your startup is in.”
Tomasz Ćwiok
APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 25
COMPANY PROFILE: 3M
Changing the world through R&D
American Investor's Tomasz Ćwiok talks with Xavier Douellou, Managing
Director of 3M Poland, about how the company manages for innovation
and how he sees the challenges facing 3M’s Polish operations
For the general public 3m is perhaps
best known for the post-it® note and
scotch® tape. What are 3m’s main inno-
vative products today?
We provide innovations from 45 different
technology platforms, including adhesives,
abrasives, light management, micro-replica-
tion, non-woven materials, nanotechnology,
and surface modification. A list of our inno-
vative products therefore has to be a sum-
mary.
We also have a range of innovative products
for the renewable energy sector, including
photovoltaic and wind energy. Those are very
technology-intensive products.
In healthcare we have the Lava technology,
which makes 3D imaging of dental cavities,
which is used for dentistry. The technology
helps dentists understand what really needs
to be done. In healthcare we also have the
Littmann stethoscope, which allows general
practitioners to tune it for high- or low-fre-
quency sounds.
For aerospace we produce adhesive films
that bind metallic parts of the aircraft. Com-
panies such as Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier,
General Dynamics, Gulfstream and Lock-
heed all use our products to manufacture air-
craft to the highest technical standards. Our
honeycomb void fillers are used to reinforce
low-weight walls and floor panels in aircraft.
The products are extremely low-density, easy
to use and very durable, and meet the most
challenging fire, smoke and toxicology re-
quirements.
When it comes to tapes there it Extreme
Sealing Tape, a single-coated, pressure-sen-
sitive adhesive tape designed for difficult
sealing applications. Then we have the
micro-replication technology, which on abra-
sives helps improve their quality and makes
them more durable. It is used for road signs
and other traffic-control materials.
Thanks to our non-woven technologies, we
are the leader in both the small- and large-
particle categories. Our respiratory masks are
used in the automotive aftermarket: when
you repair your car and you polish the body-
work and use an abrasive, you need a mask to
prevent small particles from entering your
breathing system. 3M masks are also used in
copper mining, coal mining, and automotive
construction, and in the construction sector
by welders. They were also used in some
countries during the outbreak of swine flu
two years ago.
When it comes to welding, we have the
Speedglas technology, which is used in hel-
mets for welders. It uses an LCD sensor sys-
tem, which makes the glass go dark when the
26 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011
light increases and makes the glass go white
when there is no welding. With this, the work
of welding is much more efficient.
Another of our innovative product ranges
is 3M micro-projectors. They deliver quality
picture imaging for overhead presentations
from a device that is not much bigger than a
mobile phone. You plug it into your PC or
smartphone when you have to make a brief
presentation and do not have a conference
room at your disposal. Considerable demand
for our projectors has been signaled by the
military in Western Europe, for example.
how do you manage the process of in-
novation across so many areas?
There are two kinds of innovations. One is
breakthrough innovations, like the Post-it
note, when you come up with a completely
new concept and create a new market cate-
gory. Before the Post-it note was invented,
there was no such concept for communicat-
ing at the office or at home. But the Post-it
note idea took advantage of a re-positional
glue that had been invented 20 years before.
After it was invented there was no interest in
the re-positional glue. The technology just
waited in a fridge to be applied to something.
Eventually it was applied to a yellow piece of
paper, and it transpired that by writing some-
thing on this paper one can communicate
with others at the office or at home. It was a
brilliant idea!
However, most of the innovations that we
have today are based on customer require-
ments, understanding customer pain points,
working on them and delivering solutions
that meet customers’ expectations.
In order to do it right, the people in our
business labs spend a lot of time with cus-
tomers to find out what our customers’ ex-
pectations for solutions are. Our business
labs, which understand our technology and
know what products we can deliver, are also in
the position of really understanding cus-
tomers’ requirements. Then they communi-
cate those requirements to people in our cor-
porate labs who are responsible for technol-
ogy and innovation. In the end, the coopera-
tion between business labs and customers,
and business labs and corporate labs, brings
about answers where using our technology
and innovativeness we can deliver products
that meet our customers’ expectations.
In most cases we can. For the last 100 years
we have been focusing on innovativeness, and
it has become our way for the company’s or-
ganic growth.
So almost everything is linked to what cus-
tomers want. They are in the middle of the
innovations we do, because otherwise we
would spend time on products that have no
chance to go forward commercially.
Having said that, I must note that one of
the principles that we have is that we allow
our scientists to spend 15% of their research
time on their own projects. This is called the
McKnight Principle, after William L.
McKnight, who was CEO of 3M from 1929 to
1949 and who introduced this idea. It is about
letting people out of the box so they are able
to develop things like Scotch tape and others.
Sometimes you need crazy ideas to turn some
of them into great business ideas. They can
spend the time they need to develop products
they think make sense to develop. They can
use the lab, computers and software.
If their inventions fulfill our customer re-
quirements, that it is exactly what we want.
However, we are also open to pure business
ideas that so far have no demand on the mar-
ket. They have to be validated, through mar-
ket intelligence, marketing research, pilot
and marketing tests, whether they are really
fulfilling customer requirements. Of course,
we will not release a product into the market-
place before validating its commercial poten-
tial. But if there is no market demand for
those products, that is OK with us. The new
invention goes to the fridge, where we can
pick up any ideas in the future.
But we also ask people to take risks and
make mistakes—even in the lab. If your re-
search is not valid, it is not because you made
mistakes. You make mistakes because you are
entrepreneurial, and we need people to be
entrepreneurial.
3M operations in Poland grew at the average annual rate of 22.9%
in 2005-2009. The economic downturn in Poland was not so
strong so we have been able to leverage this and it is not a big
issue for us.
So we encourage innovativeness and risk-
taking. In fact, when you work at a 3M R&D
lab you have to be creative, because if you only
stick to the framework then you just deliver
what you are asked to deliver. By being able
to experiment freely and use your creativity
for thinking of something else, then you can
truly develop some breakthrough technolo-
gies.
can you give me one of the most recent
examples of an innovative success in
this customer-oriented approach?
Very much indeed! For instance we identified
a requirement on the automotive market for
catalytic converters. There was a pain point
identified with car manufacturers. It was
communicated to the 3M automotive busi-
ness lab. People from that lab worked with
different corporate labs to look for the tech-
nology that would be best to solve the prob-
lem. We found out that by using non-woven
technology we were able to develop the prod-
uct required by our customers. It is a high
temperature-resistant non-woven mat that
houses the catalytic converter and seals it. It
fulfills all customer requirements.
So we managed to bring a customer pain
point to the business lab, and, having the
business lab work with corporate labs, we
managed to solve the problem technically and
develop this idea into a product.
I’m happy to say that this product will be
produced in Poland. We have invested USD
20 million in a production line here in Poland.
It will supply all Eastern European markets
and Western Europe too.
What kind of corporate culture has to be
in place to connect the dots between
what your customers require and your
scientists and researchers can deliver?
Collaboration is the principle. We are in a big
matrix which comprises corporate labs, busi-
ness labs, sales and marketing, and cus-
tomers. You are required to have some very
streamlined processes to bring the customer
requirements back to anybody who will be re-
sponsible for product development. There is
a right process for that.
And you need to have the right collabora-
tion in place between the different scientists
and the people on the sales and marketing
teams, in order to make sure you are devel-
oping the right product. Thanks to this our
corporate research laboratories in the U.S.,
with contributors from China laboratories,
jointly developed a nanotechnology anti-fog-
ging coating. The basic chemistry was devel-
oped collaboratively in the St. Paul laboratory,
and 3M China adapted the technology to cre-
ate a disposable wipe to apply the coating to
the face mask of occupational health respira-
tors to prevent fogging.
Another example: 3M teams in Sweden
and the U.S. developed personal protection
for welders, using new materials and manu-
facturing techniques, to create what may be
the world’s most lightweight automatically
darkening filter and shield. This new shield
won the coveted Red Dot design award for in-
novation, functionality and ergonomics.
So collaboration is critical. But another
very important aspect of our corporate cul-
ture is leadership. By the way, good leader-
ship is a must everywhere. In our case we
have it in corporate labs, business labs, ap-
plication engineering, sales and marketing.
By having the right, competent leadership we
are able to streamline the process of innova-
tion and make sure that we develop every-
thing very quickly. We have processes in place
for acceleration of collaboration and leader-
ship.
But with this comes prioritization. No one
can develop everything at once for every cus-
tomer who comes in and asks, “What if...?”
You have to have the right process in place to
make sure that you are working on the prod-
uct that your customer really wants, and in a
timely fashion. It is about not promising
things you cannot deliver in a reasonable
time. We either deliver on time or we say,
“I’m sorry this cannot be done based on your
requirements at that time, but later.” So pri-
oritization is very important.
do you cooperate with the academic
community in poland in the search for
talent to hire?
Yes, we have to find links between our re-
quirements and what universities can pro-
vide. We are very happy with the quality of
people we have been able to hire for positions
in R&D as well as in sales and marketing.
When it comes to R&D, our corporate labs in
Wrocław cooperate with the Wrocław Univer-
sity of Technology. We have very good links
with the university when it comes to the
process of hiring, which assures that we have
the right talent to support in terms of the re-
quired skill sets. This works pretty well with
the university.
Our business departments also collaborate
with academia. Each department at 3M
Poland has a specific program of cooperation
with academia. So, for instance, we work with
the Gdańsk University of Technology on
seminars for students about road safety,
where we teach civil engineering students
about safety requirements in road construc-
tion in the European Union. We collaborate
on adhesives with the Faculty of Mechatron-
ics at the Warsaw University of Technology.
We have organized seminars with the Białys-
tok University of Technology about fiber op-
tics, for instance. So this is how we cooperate
with academia. We do not use external labs
for our R&D, however, as we need to make
sure we are able to fulfill all the quality stan-
dards that our customers require.
When it comes to staffing our sales depart-
ment, we look for people who can work for
such customers as the medical and dental in-
dustries, for instance. It requires some spe-
cific sets of skills, and it is not the universities
that really deliver those skill sets. We are look-
ing for expertise. And when we find experts,
we still have to invest a lot in those people. It
is not about adding one or two people, but
about making professional teams. We don’t
want to make it quick; we want to make it
right—to find the right person for the right
place.
3m poland was established in 1991 as a
subsidiary of minnesota mining and
manufacturing. today 3m poland has
five production facilities in Wrocław,
one near Grodzisk mazowiecki, and one
near rabka, and sales offices in katow-
ice and in kajetany, near Warsaw. What
are the main challenges for 3m poland
today?
All 3M operations in Poland were able to grow
the company’s revenue at the average annual
rate of 22.9% in 2005-2009. The economic
downturn in Poland was not so strong as it
was in other countries, so we have been able
to leverage this so far and it is not a big issue
for us.
Our challenge is to continue to accelerate
while at the same time continuing to invest.
We have invested over USD 250 million in
Poland in the last 10 years. Last year alone we
invested USD 20 million. We are investing in
manufacturing and in R&D and plan to in-
vest USD 60 million this year. We also invest
in sales and marketing people. So, with all the
investments that we do and that are ongoing,
we will be able to continue to accelerate at a
higher rate than we have for the last four
years.
APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 27
Expert: Corporate law Expert: Office leases

Raise your capital, lower your tax
There are cost- the par value represents only 1%
of the contribution for the
effective ways shares. In that case, the transac-
of raising the
tion tax will be applied to only
1% of the contribution, and 99%
share capital of of the contribution will be free
from transaction tax as a contri-
tions to cover share capital are
not included in the company’s
revenue for CIT purposes). This
view used to be shared by the ad-
ministrative courts as well.
However, in a resolution is-
sued on 24 January 2001 (Case
The art of the lease
Renting office maintenance costs
Provisions governing mainte-
claims of the landlord is to re-
quire the tenant to present a
space may seem nance fees, which usually con-
stitute a separate category of
bank guarantee or deposit equal
to several months’ rent (often
straightforward, fees, are very elaborate in office
leases, specifying the types of
gross rent plus gross service
charges). The claims of the ten-
but details can costs to be borne by the tenant, ant are rarely secured, as the

your company
bution assigned to the supple-
By Aleksandra Faderewska-
mentary capital.
Waszkiewicz
A capital increase with agio
tax adviser, Łaszczuk & Partners will not be satisfactory, however,
for companies that need to in-
and, if the space is in a multi- tenant’s main claim—for deliv-
bedevil
No. II FPS 6/10), the Supreme
By Monika Sitowicz, Advocate, unit building or office complex, ery of the premises—should
Administrative Court relaxed its
previous position and held that Counsel at Salans law firm the tenant’s percentage share of arise at the very beginning of
only expenditures that are ab- maintenance fees (usually re- the term. Nonetheless, it is pos-
solutely essential to the capital flecting the ratio of the leased sible to include security for the

I
premises to the total floor tenant’s claim for delivery of the

ncreasing the share capital is
a common method for share-
holders of a limited-liability
company to give the company a
cash transfusion. Below are some
tips on how to reduce the tax ef-
fects of a capital increase and re-
duce the costs of the operation.
First check the articles of
association
As a rule, increasing the share
capital of a limited-liability com-
pany requires an amendment to
the articles of association in the
form of a notary deed. However,
the Polish Commercial Compa-
nies Code provides the option of
increasing the share capital
through an ordinary sharehold-
ers’ resolution in writing, without
amending the articles of associa-
tion. This means the company
can skip a visit to the notary and
reduce the costs of the increase
accordingly. In order to take ad-
vantage of this option, it must be
provided for in the articles of as-
sociation, stating the maximum
amount by which the capital may
be increased without amending
the articles as well as the dead-
line for such increases.
consider how the contribu-
tion will be made
An increase in share capital is
subject to the tax on civil-law
transactions, at the rate of 0.5%
of the amount of the increase.
The capital may be increased
either by creating new shares or
by increasing the par value of the
existing shares, and the contribu-
tion to cover the increase may be
made in cash or in kind. A com-
mon practice when there are out-
standing shareholder loans to the
company is to cover the capital
increase through an in-kind con-
tribution in the form of the
shareholder’s claim for repay-
ment of the loan—thus convert-
T
ing debt to equity. crease the share capital as such, increase cannot be deducted as
revenue-earning costs. (The he purpose of an office lease for a few more years. How- space). Another special yet typi- premises (e.g. the landlord’s
Under the rule of single taxation rather than the supplementary
case involved CIT treatment of lease drives the terms. ever, the situation is now changing cal feature of an office lease is voluntary submission to en-
of contributions to a company, an capital. (An example of this situ-
expenses connected with an Since the tenant seeks to because, in 2009, businesses were the “add-on factor”: a specifica- forcement to compel delivery, or
increase in share capital covered by ation would be where the com-
issue of new shares in a joint- use the landlord’s space for busi- finally given the legal opportunity tion of the lease space for the a guarantee to cover a possible
an outstanding shareholder loan pany wants to raise the share
stock company, but the court’s ness purposes, the tenant’s per- to sign leases for periods of up to purposes of calculating the rent contractual penalty in the event
which was previously subject to the capital to avoid thin capitaliza-
holding should apply by analogy sonnel will mainly need to be 30 years. For instance, longer and maintenance fees as gross of failure to deliver the premises
tax on civil-law transactions, or a tion problems.)
to a capital increase in a limited- present during business hours. terms are now being provided in space, increasing the area of the on time), if, for example due to
tax on capital contributions in an- It should also be pointed out
liability company as well.) Other Nonetheless, 24-hour access is leases for large office spaces re- premises by a factor correspon- fit-out work, the delivery is
other E.U. member state, will be that contributions by sharehold-
expenses that are only indirectly now becoming standard practice. quiring considerable upfront ex- ding to the tenant’s share in the scheduled to take place several
exempt from the Polish transaction ers in cash or kind to cover share
related to the increase in share This also means that tenants ex- penditures. common area. months after the lease is signed.
tax. It is important to bear in mind capital, as well as agio in cash or
kind assigned to the supplemen- capital may thus qualify as de- pect to be able to do business
that this exemption will not be onsite without interruption. The standard and beyond
available if the shareholders resolve tary capital, do not constitute ductible revenue-earning costs. securing claims
technical standard of the prem- A typical standard lease for a large
to cover the increase in share capi- revenue of the company for pur- In light of this resolution by In the office market, there is
ises must satisfy the tenant, with office space includes highly de-
tal in cash, and then the share- poses of the Corporate Income the Supreme Administrative usually a standard package of
an uninterrupted supply of utili- tailed provisions concerning the
holder’s claim for repayment of an Tax Act. Court, it should be recognized security for the claims of the
ties and good telecommunica- relations between landlord and
outstanding loan is set off against that the expenditures on a capi- parties to the lease. The most
tions connections. tenant and the parties’ obligations.
the company’s claim for payment of take deductions from the tal increase that are excluded popular way of securing the
The agreement often varies the
cash to cover the capital increase. basis for transaction tax from deduction as revenue-earn-
ing costs include the court fee, specific requirements off-the-rack provisions of the Civil
As mentioned, the basis for the
tax on civil-law transactions in the publication fee, and (if appli- Tenants such as banks frequently Code, or, if permissible, even
think about an increase require special interior design or waives them altogether. Some
with agio the case of an increase in share cable) the notary fee and trans-
action tax, because the capital safety features (often standard- clauses must be stated in all
In a typical capital increase, share- capital is the amount by which ized across the corporation), leases: identification of the prem-
holders take up shares at par value, the share capital is increased. may not be increased without in-
However, before calculating the curring those costs. However, in- which means high outlays for the ises, the term of the lease, the rent,
i.e. the contribution (in cash or in fit-out work required in the rent adjustment if any, collateral if
kind) is equal to the par value of tax, this value should be reduced direct costs such as fees for
lawyers, auditors and other ad- premises. The upshot of this in any, and grounds for termination.
the shares taken up in the capital by (1) the notary fee (including
visers, and costs of preparing practice is that delivery of the Beyond these, a standard office
increase. Then the entire value of VAT) for preparing the deed that
analyses, opinions, valuations or premises may not happen for a lease should also provide for an
the contribution is subject to the includes the shareholder resolu-
tion on increase of the share translations related to the capital number of months after the lease exact indication of the standard
tax on civil-law transactions, be- is signed. It is common practice and technical parameters of the
cause that is the amount by which capital, (2) the court fee for increase, will be deductible as
the share capital has been in- amending the company’s com- revenue-earning costs.
creased. mercial register entry in the Na-
However, it is possible to follow a tional Court Register to reflect
The tax authorities take an
even more liberal approach to The most popular way of securing the
construction in which the share- the new amount of the share
holders make contributions that are capital (currently PLN 400), and
deduction of input VAT on in-
voices documenting expendi-
tures connected with an increase
claims of the landlord is to require the
tenant to present a bank guarantee or
worth considerably more than the (3) the fee for announcement of
par value of the shares they take up the entry in Monitor Sądowy i in share capital. Even though an
in exchange. The excess contribu- Gospodarczy (currently PLN increase in share capital is not an
tion, beyond the par value of the
shares, which is also referred to by
250). operation that is subject to VAT,
the tax authorities take the view deposit equal to several months’ rent.
the term agio, is assigned to the cit treatment of expendi- that the taxpayer has the right to
company’s supplementary capital. tures on capital increase deduct the full amount of input
Because the agio does not increase Previously the tax authorities VAT on expenditures for serv-
ices related to a capital increase, for landlord and tenant to split premises, basic insurance require-
the amount of the share capital, it had taken the view that any and
so long as the taxpayer itself the fit-out costs between them, ments, and possible relocation of
is not subject to the transaction tax. all expenditures incurred by a especially in long-term leases. the tenant should the premises or
There are no regulations specifying company in connection with an conducts business that is subject
to VAT. It is irrelevant in this re- building become unfit for use.
how great the agio may be in rela- increase in share capital could
spect whether or not such ex- long lease at last An office lease usually provides
tion to the par value of the shares not be deducted as revenue-
penditures also qualify as de- Office leases usually cover sev- exact rules governing alterations to
that are taken up. Thus the tax au- earning costs of the company eral years (typically 3 or 5). The the premises by the tenant and
thorities will accept a capital in- because they are related to the ductible revenue-earning costs
for CIT purposes. parties commonly include an op- sets out procedures for arranging
crease even where the agio repre- company’s non-taxable income
tion for the tenant to extend the alterations with the landlord.
sents 99% of the contribution and (as mentioned above, contribu-

28 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011

APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 29
EXPERT: Computer forensics
Electronic investigators in action
Corporate miscon-
duct can be traced,
documented and
proven in court
S
tealing company docu-
ments, illegal data copying,
or sending classified
clauses and contracts to the
competition: these are just a few
examples of misconduct by dis-
honest employees at thousands
of domestic and international
companies. Unfortunately, in
Poland as well, instances of
fraudulent activity by competi-
tors or former employees intent
on revenge, using company
computers or other electronic
devices, are on the rise. The
best solution to protect a com-
pany against serious financial
losses as a result of such wrong-
doing is to cooperate with com-
puter forensic experts.
According to data collected
globally by Kroll Ontrack, 43%
The computer forensic process consists of five
stages: gathering information, calculating the
control sum, recovering data, analyzing data,
and preparing a report outlining the actions
taken.
of enterprises worldwide have
fallen victim to electronic infor-
mation abuse. Over half of them
also suffered irreversible finan-
cial losses, in the millions of
dollars, and a third of such of-
fences were committed by an
employee. These data concern
not only the most developed
western countries, but also
countries where professional
data protection is not imple-
mented to a degree that fully se-
cures digital data—a group that
includes Central & Eastern Eu-
ropean countries like Poland.
In the case of suspected em-
ployee misconduct, it is best to
30 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011
By Marek Suczyk
Managing Director of the Polish
subsidiary of Kroll Ontrack
use the services of computer
forensic investigators, who help
to conduct an internal investiga-
tion by analyzing company hard-
ware and then provide electro-
nic evidence which the company
will be able to use in court.
What is computer forensics?
Computer forensics consists in
providing electronic evidence to
enterprises, institutions or indi-
viduals which will then be used
by certain law enforcement bod-
ies. It is a set of activities by
specialists that involves secur-
ing, locating and uncovering ev-
idence of abuse and offences
committed using a computer or
other electronic device. With
computer forensics the chain of
events of the user’s activity over
time can be recreated, drawing
on information inaccessible to
system users and administra-
tors. As a result, it should be
possible to answer the key ques-
tions: Who? What? Where?
When? How?
data security policy—the
key to success
When thinking about security in
a company, the place to start is
with creating a proper data se-
curity policy. That will make it
possible to protect against data
leaks caused by dishonest em-
ployees, but also in the event of
hardware failure or accidental
data erasure. It is estimated that
within the next few years com-
puter forensics will become a
permanent element of security
policy in many big Polish com-
panies and some SMEs. It is
very important to build aware-
ness about the use of electronic
evidence for the purpose of
fighting dishonest practices in
business.
The role of company proce-
dures in the computer forensics
process should be to discover
fraud early enough and then to
implement actions aimed at se-
curing evidence, making sure
not to obliterate the traces. If
this is not handled properly,
many traces of improper con-
duct, some quite obvious (like
e-mails or posts to social net-
working sites) cannot be used
later as electronic evidence.
Typical measures taken in
corporations operating in most
developed countries would in-
clude securing data from a
computer of an employee who
changes jobs. This is aimed at
protecting the interests of both
the company and the employee.
It also captures the current
state of affairs as of the time the
employee ceases to cooperate
with the company, and reliably
documents his or her activities
for the organization.
computer forensic process
The computer forensic process
consists of five stages: gather-
ing information, calculating the
control sum, recovering data,
analyzing data, and preparing a
report outlining the actions
taken. Each stage must be prop-
erly documented so that the
material retains its evidentiary
value, which is why the pres-
ence of professionals using
state-of-the-art tools is so im-
portant.
The result of the work of
computer forensic specialists is
a detailed report containing in-
formation about the data found
that are relevant to the case
being investigated. Establishing
the chain of key events should
also constitute an element of
the report. Because the con-
tents of the report must closely
correlate with the case, close
cooperation between specialists
in the laboratory and the people
investigating the case is neces-
sary. Another element of the co-
operation between the forensics
laboratory and the client is
presentation of the results in
court. Computer forensic inves-
tigators summoned by a prose-
cutor or a court to issue an
opinion present the body of evi-
dence as ad hoc expert wit-
nesses. Despite the fact that
not all cases come up for trial
(only about 20%), all activities
conducted in a computer foren-
sic process must be carried out
in such a way that the eviden-
tiary value of the materials is
unquestionable.
more threats, more prob-
lems…
Computer forensic activities are
particularly important at times
when layoffs in various sectors
of the economy intensify. An ex-
ample of such a period was the
recent global economic crisis,
which had an impact on nearly
every industry. When the num-
ber of laid-off employees was
increasing every day, companies
that were not protected faced
the loss of key resources. An-
other problem was the risk of
wrongdoing by employees who
stayed onboard but whose
salaries were cut.
The global crisis is only the
most striking example. A simi-
lar situation occurs anytime a
single company has financial or
staff problems. In such cases,
enterprises are not only vulner-
able to the loss of resources,
but they also jeopardize the
image and reputation that they
have been building for years.
EXPERT: Problem-solving
Managing the tough conversation
Enlightened the conversation. Enormous re-
spect is conferred upon leaders
gain credibility by carefully lis-
tening to different perspectives.
leaders know who are honest and upfront. Leaders who already have the
there are planned
answer will usually get superfi-
determine the cause cial compliance, but not mean-
methods for Rather than engaging in blame, ingful change from the other
person.
what is highly productive is to
defusing
determine what the multiple
By Peter Strupp causes of the problems were so Question and listen
a conflict president of the supervisory board
United Business Development
they do not happen in the fu-
ture. It is important to recog-
As participants are using the
conversation for the purpose of
nize that often there are mutual discovery, it is important that
T
reasons for why a bad circum- clarifying questions do not
here are several major well understood. There are also
stance or outcome occurred. It come across as a cross-exami-
competencies that dif- feelings and perceptions of inten- is the role of the leader to look nation. When there are points of
ferentiate senior leaders tions tied to the issue. In fact, the at a wide range of influences issue, it is important to seek
from lower-level leaders. One of feelings may be the main issue, that may have caused a problem specific information or evidence
these key competency differen- rather than the actual known con- to arise and to explore this to back up a participant’s claim.
tiators is that senior leaders flict which is requiring the con- openly with the person in the Leaders are able to acknowl-
possess strong interpersonal versation. In addition, the self- conversation. The critical issue edge the other person’s point of
skills, rather than simply the image of each participant in the here is not to let each individual view even if they do not agree
ability to complete tasks. These discussion is sensitive. All of this get away with simply their own with it. They are able to confirm
problem-solving people skills needs to be taken into considera- viewpoint, but to understand that they understand the per-
can be learned. Often they re- tion. where both parties may have ception. There are a lot of prac-
quire new perspectives when Equally valuable is to under- contributed to an unfortunate tical tools on the market that
dealing with problems and con- stand that participants in any dis- outcome and how to avoid such can work business professionals
flict. Leaders sometimes need pute may have different levels of situations in the future. through the root cause of a
to expose their feelings in a information and different inter- Excellent leaders are able to problem or aid in sequenced
given situation. It may be a diffi- pretations of the subject being take responsibility early in the decision-making based on facts
cult skill to acquire for some, discussed, and may have personal conversation for any role they rather than emotions. These
but it is much better than re- life experiences that have an enor- may have played that caused the tools can benefit the discovery
sorting to the “blame game” and mous effect on their reactions and problem under discussion. This process tremendously and also
non-productive arguments, behaviors. This also needs to be allows both parties to map out add further objectivity to the
which are still common within understood before the conversa- the causes and look at how to fix situation.
many workplace environments. tion takes place.
the problem. It should also be
Leaders are required to go Bring about action
noted that many leaders make
through sometimes awkward separate result from intentions the mistake of going for a quick Now it is the leader’s role to
and difficult conversations with Before you meet for your conver- frame the conversation in a way
fix of the problem, without un-
employees. Whether it is giving sation, make sure you are able to derstanding that the causes may that can bring about a solution
a poor performance review, pro- separate the action (for example a be deeper and more process-re- to the problem. Take the time to
viding sensitive feedback, or ob- mistake that was made) and the lated, which means they will re-
jecting to certain types of behav- intentions of the person. You may turn again and again unless the
look at multiple options that are
able to directly allay the con-
ior, these conversations need to make an assumption as to what
happen. The best leaders con- you think the intentions were, but
root cause is fixed. cerns and interests of the other
party. List them all on a
front difficult issues head-on,
since they know the problem
it is healthy to treat that as an un- Gain perspective
proven hypothesis rather than a
flipchart, if necessary, to look at
a wide frame of potential solu-
To gain insight, try to look at
will only get worse if left unat- fact. the conflict as a disinterested tions for how the problem can
tended. At the beginning of the conver- observer would look at it. What be overcome.
Are there roadmaps to such sation, it is a powerful action to is the real story—not simply Look for mutual actions and
conflicts? Here are some practi- articulate your feelings that you your take on the problem. Write measurable objectives from
cal areas of advice on framing have attached to the situation and down how an outside party both sides on what should
these types of conversations: let the other participant open up would view the situation. This change the situation. Focus on
on how they feel. Strong feelings is not easy, since we have our the mutual obligations required
define dimensions (such as anger and fear) are often own self-interest tied into any in order to solve the dispute.
Obviously, before a tough con- wrapped around difficult subjects. disagreement. However, if there Let the employee know that fu-
versation, preparation is needed. Self-confident leaders recognize is to be a resolution, there is a ture communication is available
What are the purpose and the that they have emotional disci- need to look at all of the diverse within the context of construc-
optimal outcome sought from pline, but also are able to show viewpoints. What is important tive solutions (not just griping
the conversation? Planning and how they feel emotionally about a for both parties is to understand or blaming).
preparation make for better out- given conflict. They are able to Einstein said, “Insanity is
how they perceive the situation
comes. look at their emotions as part of doing the same thing over and
as objectively as they can. This
It is important to understand the issue that is on the table. This requires mutual respect and the over again and expecting differ-
that there are several different exposure of feelings, done the ent results.” If you are seeking
ability to listen and not inter-
things going on within one con- right way, helps tremendously in better conflict outcomes, a well-
rupt the other party while they
versation. First, there is the ac- building trust and solving the thought-out plan is key.
are communicating their per-
tual issue at hand. But there is issue. It is a sign of both trust and spective. It should be noted that
also what is not being verbally strength that people are able to the senior leader holds more
articulated, and this needs to be articulate how they feel as part of power in a conversation and will
APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 31
EVENT: AmCham Monthly Meeting EVENT: AmCham CEO Forum

Taking about the innovative economy Between inventors and investors

T T
he future of 1 2 he AmCham 1
innovativeness CEO Forum
was on the in March was
agenda of the Am- devoted to the intri-
Cham Monthly cacies of being
Meeting in March. business angels.
The keynote speaker
was Prof. Michał The venue for the
Kleiber, president of event, AleGloria
the Polish Academy Restaurant in War-
of Sciences. The saw, was filled to the
event was hosted by last seat. For more
the Hemisphere about the event read
Restaurant at the In- the article on p. 23.
terContinental War-
saw. For more read
the article on p. 18.
3 4 5 2 3 4

5 6 7
6 7 8

8 9 10
9 10 11

11 1. Tomasz Wróblewski, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna; Rick Lada, AmCham Vice Chair-
man; Piotr Wilam, business angel; Błażej Moder, Łódź Regional Develop-
ment Agency. 2. Błażej Moder; Richard Kałużyński, Kałużyński & Madeja. 3. Peter
Święcicki, Squire Sanders Święcicki i Krześniak; Stan Popow, AmCham Board Mem-
ber. 4. Alon Redlich, International Technology Sourcing; Agnieszka Walter, Richard
1. Joseph Wancer, AmCham Chairman; Rick Lada, AmCham Vice Chairman; Prof. Michał Kleiber, president of the Polish Acad- Baker, Kelly Services. 5. Beata Pawłowska, Royal Unibrew Polska; Tomasz Kra-
emy of Sciences. 2. Hemisphere at the InterContinental Warsaw was the venue. 3. Paula Wąsowska, Cezary Krasodomski, janowski, Richard Żabiński, Focus Research Polska. 6. Janusz Przeorek, Express
Cisco; Piotr Marczuk, Microsoft; Michał Kleiber. 4. Thomas Kolaja, AmCham Board Member; Lucyn Reyno, U.S. Embassy. Map Polska; Piotr Wilam. 7. Paweł Pudłowski, Marathon Oil; Adam Kapitan
5. Józef Sobolewski, Jacek Błocki, Hewlett-Packard; Jacek Stryczyński, Lionbridge. 6. Maria Kowalska, U.S. Commercial Serv- Bergmann. 8. Małgorzata Opalińska, Euromoney Polska; Adam de Sola Pool.
ice; Lucyna Jaremczuk, Ministry of Economy; Barbara Grabowska, U.S. Commercial Service. 7. Paweł Racis, UPS; Peter Kay, 9. Matthew Tebeau, Heidrick & Struggles; Judith Gliniecki, AmCham Vice Chair.
AmCham Board Member. 8. Paweł Wideł, General Motors; Bartłomiej Morzycki, 3M. 9. Agnieszka Jankowska, GE; Joseph 10. Alan Capodanno; Tomasz Wirth, Société Générale. 11. Dorothy Hansberry,
Wancer. 10. Judith Gliniecki, AmCham Board Member; Adam Kapitan Bergmann, Bergmann Associates. 11. Magdalena Burnat- Hansberry Competition; Peter Dembiński; Beata Balas-Noszczyk, Hogan Lovells.
Mikosz, Deloitte Poland; Tony Housh, AmCham Board Member.

32 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011 APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 33

EVENT: St. Patrick’s Day Business Mixer

Once a year on St. Patrick’s Day

I
n a grand tradi- 1 2 3 13 14 15
tion, AmCham
celebrates St.
Patrick’s Day together
with the Irish Cham-
ber of Commerce in
Poland. This year the
venue was the
Lemongrass restau-
rant. And what a party
it was!

16 17 18
4 5 6

7 8 9 19 20 21

10 11 12 22 23

22. Guests at a tasting of Jameson whiskey. 23. Interior of Lemongrass Oriental Restaurant & Bar.

1. Lee Feinstein, U.S. Ambassador to Poland. 2. Eugene Hutchinson, Irish Ambassador to Poland. 3. Con Murphy, PM Group.
4. Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Executive Director; Kenneth Morgan, Chairman of the Irish Chamber of Commerce. 5. Randy
Mott, Ceeres. 6. Kenneth Morgan; Eugene Hutchinson; Lee Feinstein; Joseph Wancer, AmCham Chairman. 7. Victor Jerez,
Wyborowa Pernod Ricard, with his wife; Ambassador and Mrs. Hutchinson. 8. Lee Feinstein; Rick Lada, AmCham Vice Chair-
man; Joseph Wancer. 9. Con Murphy; Joanna Bensz, AmCham Wrocław; Joseph Wancer. 10. Eugene Hutchinson; Kenneth
Morgan; Mrs. Hutchinson; Dorota Dabrowski. 11. Richard Lada; Beata Gabor. 12. Waldemar Saniewski, Warner Bros Entertain-
ment Polska; Davide Odella, Grupa Trip, and his wife. 13. Kenneth Morgan, Jacek Wasilewski, OCSC. 14. Randy Mott; Marek
Matraszek, CEC Government Relations. 15. Marzena Drela, AmCham; Lucyna Jaremczuk, Ministry of Economy. 16. Joanna
Bensz; Katarzyna Wojciechowska, Procter & Gamble. 17. Marcin Rogulski; Christopher Smith. 18. Irish musician John Illis.
19. Loic Fretard, Medicover; Adam Kapitan Bergmann. 20. Guests having a good time. 21. Shade cider from Royal Unibrew.

34 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011 APRIL 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 35

SUMMARIES: in Polish AMCHAM: Guide to Committees

W tym numerze:
For the most recent information about the work of AmCham Committees, and upcoming events: www.amcham.pl

COVER STORY Agri & Food European Union Affairs Pharmaceutical

www.amcham.com.pl/agri_food www.amcham.com.pl/eu www.amcham.com.pl/pharmaceutical
Polskie firmy coraz bardziej zdają Mission: To provide a plat-
form for discussing and
Mission: To provide
members with relevant
Mission: To discuss and
identify common interests

sobie sprawę, że bez innowacyj-

solving issues and identify- information on E.U.-re- and exchange information re-
ing opportunities for com- lated issues, including garding Poland’s pharmaceu-
panies in the agricultural E.U. funds, and to repre- tical market; to act as a repre-

ności nie będą mogły konkurować

and food sector by creat- sent American investors sentative body and collective
ing a base for dialogue and expertise leveraged before the Commission and the Polish govern- voice of pharmaceutical companies before governmen-
among producers, sector professionals, experts and ment. Co-Chairs: Magdalena Burnat Mikosz, De- tal institutions. Co-Chairs: Peter Koetsier, Bristol-Myers

na rynku. Jednak stare przyzwycza-

decision-makers. Co-Chairs: Andrzej Pawelczak, loitte; Jerzy Thieme. Squibb Polska; Roberto Servi, Eli Lilly Polska.
Animex; Maciej Łubieński, Universal Leaf Tobacco
Poland. Financial Services
Political Discussion Forum
jenia środowisk akademickich oraz
www.amcham.com.pl/financial
Consumer Products www.amcham.com.pl/pdf
Mission: The Financial
www.amcham.com.pl/consumer Services Committee aims Mission: To build relation-

brak regulacji wspomagających in- to identify and promote is- ships with key players in
Mission: To provide a
sues related to and in sup- Polish politics, regardless of
forum to share knowl-
port of the financial serv- whether within the govern-
edge and exchange ex-

nowacyjność są skutecznym hamul- ices sector, as well as to ment or not, in small groups
perience in all areas
provide a forum for dialogue among sector profes- and in private settings, to
common and relevant to
sionals and decision-makers in government. Co- serve as a vehicle into the
manufacturers and dis-

cem rozwoju innowacyjnej gospo-

tributors of goods. Co-Chairs: Małgorzata Surdek,
CMS Cameron McKenna; Agnieszka
Dzięgielewska-Jończyk, HP Polska.
darki, str. 12; 10 porad dla osób, Corporate Social Responsibility
Chairs: Andrew Hope; Adam Michon, MetLife. world of Polish politics behind official curtains. Co-
Chairs: Robert Koński, Kulczyk Holding; Marek Ma-
traszek, CEC Government Relations.
Health
www.amcham.com.pl/health
Mission: To provide a
Real Estate Committee
www.amcham.com.pl/real_estate

które myślą o założeniu własnej in-

united forum for U.S. com-
www.amcham.com.pl/csr panies to share their ex- Mission: To discuss issues
pertise on the healthcare regarding the complexities
Mission: To encourage and
system and exchange of the real estate market in

nowacyjnej firmy, str. 17.

facilitate responsible busi-
knowledge and experience Poland, and exchange infor-
ness practices among Am-
with national counterparts, contribute to the positive mation. To be an educa-
Cham members to support
developments in the sector and promote the U.S. ex- tional and networking forum
them to improve the quality
perience and capital while establishing the best con- for members and to lobby and influence legislative
and effectiveness of their
ditions and opportunities for investments. Co- departments of the Polish government. Co-Chairs:
CSR programs. Co-Chairs: Wojciech Arszewski,
Chairs: Elisabeth Asirifi, IBM Polska; Jolanta Halina Więckowska, K & L Gates; John Bańka, Col-
UPS Polska; Anna Jawor, IBM Polska.
Chlebicka-Dominiak, Johnson & Johnson. liers International.

Monthly Meeting sztuka leasingu Wynajem biur może wydawać się prostym bizne-
sem jednak kiedy zagłębimy się w szczegóły może wyłonić się zu-
Defense & Security
www.amcham.com.pl/defense
Infrastructure
www.amcham.com.pl/infrastructure
Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises
www.amcham.com.pl/sme
pełnie inny obraz, str. 29
od zera do innowacyjnej gospodarki Aby odnaleźć się w Mission: To serve as a Mission: To discuss is-
Mission: To provide a forum
globalnej gospodarce opartej na innowacyjności, w Polsce musi elektroniczne śledztwa Uchybienia w firmie, zaniedbania, oraz platform for defense indus- for exchange of ideas/best
sues of the development practices to improve the per-
zmienić się nastawienie administracji i instytucji państwowych przypadki łamiania przepisów i innych regulacji obowiązujących try issues and exchange of infrastructure; to pro-
relevant information. The formance of SMEs; to iden-
do współpracy z sektorem prywatnym, str. 20 firmy mogą być udokumentowane w formie danych komputerowych i mote infrastructure solu-
committee creates a net- tify and promote solutions to
wykorzystane w sądzie, str. 30 tions for cooperation be- facilitate and support the
working forum and fosters tween private and public
CEO Forum a positive working relationship with the government managerial and operational
trudne rozmowy Dobrzy menadżerowie znają metody rozwiązywa- partners. Co-Chairs: Krzysztof Wierzbowski, efforts of SMEs through educational, networking or lob-
nia trudnych konfliktów, str. 31 and people of Poland. Co-Chairs: Paul Zalucky; Wierzbowski Eversheds; Andrew C. Kapusto,
Stan Prusiński, Sikorsky Europe. bying efforts that leverage the resources and knowl-
Raytheon Homeland Security. edge of AmCham and its membership. Co-Chairs:
pomiędzy wizją i ryzykiem Zanim anioły biznesu staną się
Alain Bobet; Cezary Krasodomski, Cisco Systems.
RELACJE ZDJĘCIOWE
ważnym elementem w tworzeniu sukcesów rynkowych nowych Employee & Labor Relations
firm, osoby podejmujące się tej roli muszą nauczyć się podej- www.amcham.com.pl/labor
Intellectual Property Rights
mować ryzyko a autorzy innowacyjnych pomysłów, muszą www.amcham.com.pl/ipr
nauczyć się rozumieć prawa rynku, str. 23 Spotkanie Miesięczne, str. 32 Mission: To create an infor- Mission: To advocate for Tax
mation exchange forum of IPR protection and provide www.amcham.com.pl/tax
CEO Forum, str. 33 HR professionals and so- leadership that will bring
Mission: To provide a platform

PROFIL FIRMY cial policy experts from together interested part-

Mikser Biznesowy, str. 34-35 for identifying tax issues and
ners; to share information
multinational and local create an educational forum to
with decision-makers and
companies to share, dis- keep AmCham members in-
zmieniając świat przez innowacje Tomasz Ćwiok, redak- law enforcement. The police, judiciary, prosecu-
DZIAŁY STAŁE cuss and learn about the latest trends in HR man- formed on current and up-
tor magazynu “American Investor”, rozmawia z Xavier Douel- tors, customs officials, legislators and journalists
agement and collectively influence local policy and coming legislation. To create a
lou, dyrektorem zarządzającym 3M Poland, na temat strategii are among the target groups, while the curriculum
decision-makers for modern solutions in labor leg- network to share information, comments and best prac-
of law schools should have more emphasis on IPR.
firmy w zarządzaniu procesami innowacynymi, oraz wyzwani- Briefing redakcyjny, str. 2 tices. To lobby decision-makers in the government.
islation. Co-Chairs: Jolanta Jaworska, IBM Poland; Co-Chairs: Agnieszka Wyszyńska-Szulc, Philip Mor-
ami dla firmy w Polsce, str. 26 ris; Anna Lasocka, Łaszczuk & Partners.
Co-Chairs: Peter Kay, KPMG; Piotr Bartuzi, Bank BPH.
List Dyrektor Zarządzającej AmCham, str. 4 Peter Strupp, United Business Development.

Informacje o firmach członkowskich Izby, str. 5 Telecom

EKSPERCI Informacje o działalności Komitetów Izby, str. 8 Environment & Energy
zwiększ kapitał firmy, zmniejsz podatek Istnieją sposoby www.amcham.com.pl/environmental
Podsumowanie zawartości numeru w języku polskim, str. 36
na zwiększenie kapitału firmy, dzięki którym zapłacimy Mission: To help members
mniejszy podatek, str. 28 Przewodnik po Komitetach Izby, str. 37 develop their environmental
and renewable energy busi-
ness and help learn about,
identify and overcome any
© American Chamber of Commerce in Poland 2011. All rights reserved. difficulties connected with
environmental laws, and develop a discussion forum
American Investor to oficjalny magazyn Amerykańskiej Izby Handlowej w Polsce. Magazyn reprezentuje głos środowisk międzynarodowego biznesu w Polsce. Celem magazynu jest among members about environmental issues and
dostarczanie członkom Izby i innym czytelnikom aktualnych informacji na temat działalności Izby a także trendów biznesowych i polityce społecznej firm. maintain contacts with Polish authorities responsible
for making and implementing environmental policies.
Co-Chairs: Adam de Sola Pool, Jerzy Chlebowski, Mit-
listy do rekacji prosimy wysyłać na adres poczty elektronicznej: tomasz.cwiok@amcham.pl subishi.
Outsourcing/High Tech
www.amcham.com.pl/outsourcing
www.amcham.com.pl/telecom
Mission: To create a platform
Mission: To provide a plat- under the AmCham umbrella
form for discussing, identi- for the exchange of members’
ideas and views on trends in
fying and addressing com-
mon SSC/BPO issues re- the telecommunications sec-
lated to high-tech opera- tor in Poland; to take steps to
tions; to maintain contact influence decision-makers in telecommunications legis-
with local authorities, educational and governmental lation, policy and practice; to promote innovative
institutions to present a unified business perspective trends in telecommunications; to modernize communi-
and to suggest ways of possible cooperation. To cations technology for business and the average Polish
identify the possibilities/areas of state assistance, to consumer. Co-Chairs: Jarosław Roszkowski, Crowley
share experience and leverage knowledge. Co- Data Poland; Piotr Muszyński, TP SA.
Chairs: Marek Suczyk, Kroll Ontrack; Jacek
Stryczyński, Lionbridge.

36 AMERICAN INVESTOR APRIL 2011