AMCHAM SECOND MONTHLY MEETING IN JUNE - American ...
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
The official magazine of the American Chamber of Commerce
in Poland
3/2020
VOL III, No. 3 • ISSN 2545-322X
AMCHAM SECOND MONTHLY MEETING
IN JUNE
ADHERING TO SANITARY REGULATIONS IMPOSED BY POLAND'S EPIDEMIOLOGICAL
AUTHORITIES, AMCHAM HAS BEEN FORCED INTO A LOCKDOWN AND HAS HAD TO
CANCEL ALL EVENTS SCHEDULED FOR MARCH, APRIL, MAY AND JUNE.
BY ADOPTING ONLINE COLLABORATION TECHNOLOGY, AMCHAM WAS ABLE TO
SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCT A NUMBER OF VIDEO-CONFERENCES IN JUNE AND JULY
THAT GENERATED HUGE ONLINE AUDIENCES OF AMCHAM MEMBERS.
IN THIS DISPATCH WE PRESENT THE FIRST MONTHLY MEETING IN JUNE WITH GUEST
SPEAKERS B.BIX ALIU, US EMBASSY CHARGE D’AFFAIRES; MARK LOUGHRAN, GEN-
ERAL MANAGER OF MICROSOFT POLAND; SŁAWOMIR S. SIKORA, PRESIDENT AND
CEO OF CITI HANDLOWY; ALAIN SIMONNET, MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR EAST EU-
ROPE AT 3M; AND ADAM PIEŃKOWSKI, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF MCDONALD’S
POLSKA, WHO DISCUSSED HOW COMPANIES ARE ADJUSTING TO THE CHANGING
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC CONTINUES.
AMCHAM.PL QUARTERLY Vol. III, No. 3
MONTHLY MEETING
JUNE
THE ART OF
ADAPTATION
BATTLING THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF THE COVID-19
PANDEMIC ON BUSINESS, COMPANIES NEED TO MOVE
QUICKLY TO SALVAGE CASH FLOW AND JOBS. THOSE WHO
THINK IN INNOVATIVE WAYS AND MAKE GOOD USE OF
NEW BUSINESS TOOLS ARE THE WINNERS.
The topics of discussion at the second sess the long-term impacts that they may Sikora said that after stabilizing the situa-
AmCham Monthly Meeting in June were experience from the crisis and build back- tion during the economic lockdown, the
the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on to-growth strategies for the market. main question for the banking sector now
American business in Poland in areas in- is how quickly the economy will recover
cluding regulatory framework, workforce, ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE and if there will be a second wave of the
the investment environment, and how In discussing the impact of the crisis on Covid-19 pandemic.
the pandemic drove companies to innova- the economy, Citi Handlowy’s Sławomir According to Sikora, market analysts of-
tive to adjust to this new reality. The Sikora said that the economic lockdown in fered a very pessimistic forecast at the be-
meeting was conducted online via a Cisco Poland started relatively early, with only ginning of the crisis in mid-March,
interactive platform. The speakers were 68 Covid cases across the country. The predicting a contraction of the economy
Mark Loughran, General Manager at Mi- early lockdown proved effective in slow- of over 10 percent for 2020. However, eco-
crosoft; Sławomir S. Sikora, President & ing down the spread of the virus, but also nomic data for March and April showed
CEO of Citi Handlowy; Adam Pieńkowski, led to many companies losing their cash there were grounds for optimism. In June,
Managing Director of McDonald’s Polska; flow overnight. market analysts calculated that the econ-
and Alain Simonnet, Managing Director At the time, the two major questions omy had dropped by 9.5 percent in the
East Europe Region of 3M. The discussion banking sector professionals and their second quarter of 2020, which led them to
was moderated by AmCham Chairman clients were asking were how long the estimate that Poland’s economic growth
Tony Housh. lockdown would continue and how to en- will decrease by only around 5 percent in
The meeting was opened by the US Em- sure liquidity while the economy was 2020.
bassy Chargé d’Affaires, B. Bix Aliu, who frozen. Sikora added that companies as well as
said that the American business commu- The banking sector reacted swiftly to consumers began to adapt to the new re-
nity in Poland rose to the challenge of meet the new needs of its clients. Starting ality relatively quickly, which was benefi-
fighting the pandemic, as over 80 US in late March, essential payments were cial for the economy. “There were some
firms (including AmCham member compa- postponed or extended over 6 months. interesting trends in business which took
nies) have donated support, with the Over 1 million institutional and individual off during the pandemic and helped to
total value of their aid exceeding PLN 16 clients benefited from that program. The take the economy out of the hole, and are
million. “With this, the US business com- government then implemented the “Eco- expected to stay for a long time,” Sikora
munity demonstrated its values and the nomic Shield,” a program aimed at help- said. “The first one is work-from-home,
strength of the US-Poland bilateral rela- ing companies retain liquidity. Program and another is the digital transformation.
tionship,” the chargé d’affaires said. funds were sourced from the government While the former is obvious to all corpora-
He added that the pandemic rose aware- and distributed through a number of tions, it is interesting to know that nearly
ness to the fact that many jobs can be ac- banks. With this, the banking sector dis- all sectors of the economy make good use
complished remotely, saving significant tributed around PLN 50 billion within 9 of online interaction tools, including con-
overhead costs. It also increased the need weeks to companies and their collective sumers who increased their spending
for better remote access necessary to 2.6 million employees. Sikora noted that through digital channels.”
support telework and other work based the government program was a massive
outside of the traditional office. Now, the help to companies and amounted to 12 A MAJOR TURNING POINT
goal for US companies in Poland is to as- percent of the country’s GDP in total. 3M’s Alain Simonnet also underlined the
1
AMCHAM.PL QUARTERLY Vol. III, No. 3
need to innovate to find new ways in re-
sponding to the Covid-19 situation. The com-
pany globally manufactures over 55,000
different products (including over 20,000
products in Poland alone) used in nearly all
sectors of the economy. 3M suffered a dou-
ble-digit decline in demand from the automo-
tive, aerospace, and transportation sectors
due to the pandemic. In dentistry, demand
for oral care and orthodontics dropped to al-
most zero in the first months of the pan-
demic, as clinics focused on
coronavirus-related problems. On the other
hand, the pandemic boosted demand for in-
dustrial safety solutions, not only for respira-
B.BIX ALIU tors, but also for IT and telecom. This ADAM PIEŃKOWSKI
Charge D’Affaires a.i. at the US Embassy in included remote working solutions, packag-
Managing Director of McDonald’s Polska,
Warsaw, B. Bix Aliu returned to the US Em- ing solutions for catering services, safety so- Pieńkowski began his career at Levi Strauss
bassy in Warsaw to serve as the Deputy Chief lutions for food and drinks, and some special Poland and later moved to Kraft Food, Inc. He
of Mission in June 2019. In 2005, Bix was a solutions for pharmaceuticals and biophar- joined McDonald’s in 2006 as the Marketing
Vice-Consul and Deputy Cultural Attaché at and Research Manager and took over respon-
maceuticals.
the Embassy. Most recently, Bix served as the sibility for Marketing in 2008. In 2009, he as-
US Consul General in Kraków. Prior to return- 3M found itself at a major turning point, and sumed an additional two-year assignment,
ing to Poland, Bix was the Deputy Chief of it was clear that its priorities should be set working with the European Marketing Team
Mission at the US Embassy in Montenegro, around health and safety of the employees, to develop a marketing strategy for European
where he often served as Chargé d’Affaires, uncompromising ethics and business conti- countries in Sport Sponsorship. Adam was
a.i. A career member of the Senior Foreign promoted to Senior Director of Marketing in
Service, class of Counselor, Bix began his For- nuity.
McDonald’s Germany, moving to Munich in
eign Service career in Macedonia, where he The company began by investing in very July 2013. In September 2014, Pieńkowski
was involved in the Rambouillet Peace Ac- stringent safety measures, and successfully moved back to Poland. He returned to Poland
cords as a member of the delegation of the implemented them at all production sites. In in September 2015, in the position of Multide-
US Special Envoy to Kosovo. partment Senior Director.
Poland, 95 percent of the company’s office
workers were ready to work from home
within 7-10 days from the start of the eco-
nomic lockdown. “We saw to it that all value
streams showed satisfactory productivity,”
Simonnet said. “There were no broken
processes anywhere in the company.”
The company applied a wide range of digital
solutions, including augmented reality man-
agement tools, to maintain production re-
motely by allocating required resources
based on data. These changes had a wide
reach, affecting the 4,000 people working in
3M production plants in Poland.
At the same time, 3M reprioritized its invest-
ment plans for 2020. The company was
forced to postpone some investment proj-
ects originally scheduled for this year. How-
MARK LOUGHRAN ever, it decided to proceed with all of its
SŁAWOMIR S. SIKORA
investment projects in sustainability and in-
General Manager at Microsoft Poland, novation development. Sikora has been the Chief Executive Offi-
Loughran worked for GlaxoSmithKline cer of Bank Handlowy in Warsaw S.A.
before joining Microsoft. For 6 years, he 3M learned a lot from through the Covid-19 since 2003 and was a member of the Citi-
managed the company’s business in Cen- crisis, with company managers learning how group Management Committee in New
tral and Eastern Europe. He worked and to efficiently use IT collaboration tools to York from 2005-2008. He served as Chief
lived in Poland for 4 of these years, as support the back office, sales department, Executive Officer of American Bank in
General Manager and President of the Poland from 2001-2001. Sikora was the
engineering and production. “We discovered
Management Board at GSK Poland. Dur- Head of Corporate and Investment Bank-
ing this time, he led the merger of Polfa that we could talk to suppliers and cus- ing at Powszechny Bank Kredytowy S.A.
Poznan with the international business of tomers and our colleagues in the company, from 1994-2001. Prior to this, he held a
GSK. Loughran also sat on the board of and work efficiently,” Simonnet said. “It is number of senior positions at the Ministry
the Confederation of Polish Employers not always ideal, but we work to improve on of Finance in Poland, including the Head
(KPP). He also held the position of Sales of Banking and Financial Institutions
Director, and later, General Manager at that.” (1989-1994). Sikora is a graduate of the
Nokia UK & Ireland. Loughran has an MA Warsaw School of Economics (SGH) and a
and PhD from the University of Cam- RETURNING TO GROWTH Konrad Adenauer Research fellow at the
bridge. As the company settled into the so-called University of Cologne.
2
AMCHAM.PL QUARTERLY Vol. III, No. 3
3M began to explore Industry 4.0 solu- crisis, McDonald’s went into the recovery
tions. “We are only at the early stage of phase and managed to reopen all of its
the change and we are going to continue restaurants. However, the takeout part of
to invest in it,” Simonnet said. the business was still generating more in-
The company revised its model for en- come than its dine-in business, and the
hancing the employee experience that had company had to rebuild its sales. For in-
initially focused on equipping more teams stance, Morning Business Breakfast sales
with online communication tools. But it were almost zero at that time, and the
soon transpired that to be successful, the sales of other menus were much lower
company would have to improve its em- than in the same period of 2019.
ployees’ skills so they could use the new The biggest challenge for the company
tools confidently and creatively. “This is a was in reopening its McDonald’s restau-
must-have,” Simonnet said. “We need to rants in shopping malls, due to the high
learn. We call this challenge a Flexibility 2.0 rent at these locations as well as lack of
Company Framework and implement it drive-thru options.
ALAIN SIMONNET across the globe in sync with local labor Another challenge was effectively enforc-
Managing Director of 3M East Europe Re- laws.” ing safety rules across the restaurants.
gion, covering countries including While some guests wore masks inside the
Poland, Ukraine, Czech, Slovakia, Hun- MOVING FAST restaurants, others were reluctant to do
gary and Georgia. He joined 3M in 1990
The franchise restaurant chain McDonald’s so. These guests apparently did not under-
and has since then held many manage-
ment positions related to sales and mar- runs 445 outlets in Poland and employs stand why they were supposed to wear
keting in Great Britain and France, some 25,000 people. It served around 1 masks, creating tensions among cus-
gradually expanding his responsibilities million customers a day before the pan- tomers and the staff.
from local to European. He has very demic. The company found itself in an un- Pieńkowski said that in order to adapt to
broad business experience and brings
several years of successful management precedented situation in the first 3 months the new normal, the company will need to
of complex organizations and customer of the crisis as its sales dropped by 60 per- create innovative solutions for business
experience to 3M. Simonnet holds a Mas- cent and the number of customers by 80 processes as well as for client service. The
ter in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineer- percent. The company had to close nearly innovations will also include interior re-
ing from ENIT in France and graduated
95 stores, most which were located in design and floor layouts so that customer
from the Chartered Institute of Market-
ing in the UK; he is also a certified Lean shopping malls. flow and delivery areas will not intersect.
Six Sigma Black Belt. “It was a dramatic drop and there was The company will also significantly invest
fear among our employees,” Pieńkowski in developing new functionalities for the
said, adding, “We had to act very quickly.” applications it uses, especially regarding
“resilience mode,” company managers As a global company, McDonald’s is able mobile orders and pay systems.
started thinking about how to return to to use its experiences in other markets to
growth. The first step was to redirect 3M’s apply the best safety solutions for its cus- SETTING NEW STANDARDS
global and local supply chains for sourcing tomers, workers and suppliers. The meeting’s final speaker, Microsoft’s
safety solutions, such as the M95 mask. The first phase of adapting to the pan- Mark Loughran, said that while a crisis like
“When governments in Europe and else- demic focused on securing the liquidity of Covid-19 can drive some companies to
where close their country borders, they the chain’s franchisees and securing jobs. their collapse, others can thrive if they
impede our supply chain,” Simonnet said. Pieńkowski said the government’s anti-cri- manage to refocus and use creative solu-
With this and all other aspects taken into sis program helped maintain the organiza- tions to grow their business. Loughran
account, 3M came up with a number of ap- tion’s liquidity. However, McDonald’s still noted that the Covid-19 crisis is caused by
proaches to ensure its path back to had to cut some jobs, as it was virtually im- a special type of behavior, human-to-
growth. First, the company worked to possible to keep all of its staff members human proximity. Companies and indus-
adapt its operation models to its cus- from the pre-pandemic phase. tries are thus working to implement
tomers in the e-commerce and business- The second phase focused on adapting so- specific changes in their business models
to-business environments. “There has lutions to help the company function in to change these behaviors. IT is one indus-
been an enormous growth in B-to-B trans- the “new normal.” The company had to try offering innovative solutions for mov-
actions, and we are doing very nicely reshuffle some business processes to be ing business models away from the need
there,” Simonnet said. immune to the dangers of Covid-19. Luck- for human-to-human proximity. “This un-
The company also made serious advances ily, around 70 percent of McDonald’s paralleled opportunity to use different dig-
in big data management. “We use big data restaurants in Poland already had drive- ital tools is used now to learn, do business,
to enhance our customers’ experience,” thru lanes, and the company also opened and even socialize,” Loughran said. Many
Simonnet said. “It is an important way to a phone order service, “McDelivery.” IT companies have entered the education
change our commercial approach. We use McDonald’s also created programs to ben- sector and offer online platforms for
virtual and augmented reality solutions to efit the local community, and McDelivery group interaction with the goal of replicat-
respond to customers’ problems and this provided meals for hospital workers, deliv- ing a classroom. They offer their solutions
is an area which we are discovering and ering over 50,000 meals to 50 hospitals in to support schools, teachers, and stu-
working on.” Poland. dents, and will continue to develop them
Regarding enhancing the efficiency of pro- in the months to come, as this new mixed
duction processes and the flexibility and RECOVERY PHASE economic model continues.
continuity of manufacturing operations, Having contained the initial effects of the
3
You can also read
