On June 2, at the online conference organized by the Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy and its partners, the participating experts discussed, among other topics, e-commerce as a recipe for dealing with the crisis, remote team management and relations with clients in the virtual world. We also learned the winners of the Business in Women's Hands program and the Microentrepreneur of the Year 2019".
We are learning to operate in the so-called new normal. From where I stand, this new reality requires us, first of all, to be "agile" and quickly adapt to the new environment, and secondly - to accelerate digitization. It is an aspect that will diversify us, both in social and economic terms, to a greater extent than ever before. And lastly, it requires us to face the new work model, where the extent of applying remote work will depend on the specific nature of the conducted business. I am glad that we can talk about this with entrepreneurs today. We used to meet during the Citi Global Community Day in person, but I hope the online formula will still be helpful and inspiring for entrepreneurs, Sławomir S. Sikora, President of the Management Board of Citi Handlowy, emphasized during the event.
During the panel dedicated to e-commerce, the experts, that is Tonia Bochińska, President of the Management Board and co-owner of EarlyStage Sp. z o.o., Iwona Dziedzic-Gawryś, Spokesperson, ZnanyLekarz.pl Sp. z o.o., DocPlanner, Tomasz Karwatka, CEO, Divante, and Piotr Tymiński, EMEA Digital Head, Citi Commercial Bank, talked about the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on their companies. They used examples to show how they have managed to adapt their businesses to the new circumstances. Tonia Bochińska stressed that, at the beginning, it seemed near impossible to provide remote classes to 33,000 students, but they managed to do it. In 4 days. The participating experts arrived at a conclusion that they don't know a company that has failed when choosing e-commerce. The only losers are those that have closed down and those that were not prepared for a change. Piotr Tymiński from Citi summed it up in these words: the entire situation forced companies to immediately implement action scenarios planned to be implemented in a longer term.
The participants of the discussion about remote management of dispersed teams were: Joanna Grzeszkowska, Talent Acquisition Manager Citibank Europe PLC, Marta Rudowicz-Drożdż, Editor-in-Chief of the Polish edition of the ELLE magazine, Radek Zaleski, Head of Growth, Netguru, Jan Zborowski, Vice President, Software Development Association Poland SoDA, and Krzysztof Zdanowski, President of Summa Linguae Technologies SA. As was emphasized by Jan Zborowski, the breakthrough was so significant that remote work gave employers an additional opportunity to acquire talents not only from Poland, but also from across the globe. Joanna Grzeszkowska, on the other hand, pointed to quick adaptation of a corporation as big as Citi to the new conditions.
Professor Tomasz Grzyb (SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities) used the perfect words to sum up the panel about relations with clients: algorithms cannot substitute contact with another person. At a certain stage, a client needs an experience rather than a product, and experiences are provided by human beings. Those who understand this will survive. Other participants of the discussion included: Professor Aleksandra Przegalińska, Leon Kozminski University, Bianka Siwińska, PhD, CEO of Perspektywy Women in Tech, and Piotr Voelkel, owner of the VOX capital group.
The conference can be viewed on Citi Handlowy's channel under this link
The winners of the Microentrepreneur of the Year 2019 competition were announced during the conference. Sebastian Perczak, Commercial Bank Country Head, Citi, emphasized: We support micro entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs as Citi and as Citi Foundation. We do our best to foster Polish entrepreneurship, also during these challenging and uncertain times.
The title of the Microentrepreneur of the Year 2019 went to the company SVEP - manufacturer of pneumatic light masts used when saving people's lives - mainly in the vehicles of emergency medical services or during medical emergencies. A considerable number of the components are manufactured according to the company's own technology, solely for SVEP, by a network of subcontractors, while material logistics and intralogistics are carried out in compliance with the German VDA standards. In our everyday work, we use tools adequate to the industrial production of the 21st century and industry 4.0 both in terms of software as well as process-oriented approach and occupational safety. HERE you can watch a video about the winner.
The winners in other categories were the following: Nano Sanguis in the category PROGRESS (link to the video), Little Chef in the category SENIOR (link to the video), MusicON in the category Young Business (link to the video) and Laava Tech in the category START (link to the video).
During the event, the finalists of the Business in Women's Hands program were also announced.
The "Business in Women's Hands" Program is organized by the Foundation for Female Entrepreneurship and Citi Foundation in cooperation with the Warsaw City Council. The professional partner of the project is the Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy. It is a program addressed to women who want to start their own company. Thanks to lectures, training sessions and individual work with female mentors, each of the female participants has a chance to start a business. In 2019, the program had its new edition addressed to 60 women wishing to open a company in the territory of the Warsaw agglomeration. Support and mentoring of companies created as part of the program were continued. The project also covered 900 female students, who received support in the form of dedicated professional and enterprise competence development workshops.
"Microentrepreneur of the Year" is a competition organized by Stowarzyszenie Inicjatywa Firm Rodzinnych (Family Enterprise Initiative Association), Citi Foundation and Koalicja na Rzecz Mikroprzedsiębiorczości (Coalition for Microentrepreneurship), composed, i.a., of: Krajowa Izba Gospodarcza (the Polish Chamber of Commerce), Polska Agencja Rozwoju Przedsiębiorczości (Polish Agency for Enterprise Development), Polska Przedsiębiorcza (Entrepreneurial Poland), "Leviathan" Confederation, Pracodawcy RP (Employers of the Republic of Poland) and Związek Rzemiosła Polskiego (Polish Craft Association). The professional and organizational partner of the competition is the Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy. The aim of the competition consists in supporting entrepreneurship, encouraging people to set up their own companies and promoting the best of them as examples of effective economic actions.
