American Investor January 2011

American

InvestorJANUARY 2011

Vol. XXI, No. 1 • ISSN 1506-3240

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

Growth between the ears

Rising GDP is nice to have, but to see if it is sustainable PwC looked behind the figures to find out if Polish companies have a healthy mental approach to business development

Agenda: Zeus mixes with mortalsGE Hitachi: Powering forwardAmCham: Growing stronger

AmCham: Paving the way to successAgenda: Saving on defense

General Meeting: Befriend the Friendly State

AMCHAM GENERAL MEETING

Befriend the Friendly State American companies in Poland offer a valuable perspectiveon government that works, p. 17

AMCHAM MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY

Corporate members Alphabetical list of AmCham member companies, p. 19Individual members Alphabetical list of AmCham individual members, p. 22

FOCUS

Growing stronger every year Just as 2010—the 20th AmCham anniversary year—comes to an end, American Investor talks with Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Executive Di-rector, about the chamber’s progress, how it helps its members, and the significance ofAmerican business for Poland’s economy, p. 23

Paving the way to success Roman Rewald, former AmCham Chairman who held officefor three consecutive terms and now is an ex officio Board Member, talks to American In-vestor about what AmCham has achieved, where it is going and where it may be 20 yearsfrom now, p. 24

Powering forward As Poland thinks about building nuclear power plants, GEH is alreadylending a helping hand, p. 26

EXPERTS

Up in smoke A new system for moving excise goods around the E.U. starts this year, andsmokers will pay more for their fix, p. 30

Catch them if you can Deloitte’s Central Europe technology survey identifies the region’sfastest growers, p. 31

Are you building your leaders? “Leadership is action, not position,” p. 32

New order for mortgage regulations Now mortgages will be a more effective instrumentfor securing claims, in line with current lending practices, p. 33

The price of predictability Poland’s competition authority seeks uniformly high penaltiesfor abuses—if the courts allow, p. 34

What next in cross-border CIT? The heated debate on how to reform U.S. internationaltax rules continues, p. 35

EVENTS

International Christmas Evening, p. 36; Winter Business Mixer, p. 37; AmCham GeneralMeeting, p. 39; Business breakfast, p. 39

DEPARTMENTS

From the Editor, p. 2; From the Executive Director, p. 4; Newsline, p. 5; Agenda, p. 8;Content summaries in Polish, p. 40; Guide to AmCham Committees, p. 41

JANUARY 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 1

what’s on

www.amcham.com.plYour online guide to AmCham activities

Growth between the earsRising GDP is nice to have,but to see if it is sustainablePwC looked behind the fig-ures to find out if Polish com-panies have a healthy mentalapproach to business devel-opment, page 12

Toto, we’re not in Kansasanymore... American in-vestors need to be awarethat Poland’s version of afree market includes a Eu-ropean and socialist bent,page 13

Other useful sites

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

http://www.uschamber.comAmerican Chamber of Commerce

in the European Union

http://www.amchameu.beEuropean Council of American

Chambers of Commerce

http://www.amchamseurope.com

COVER STORIES:American

InvestorJANUARY 2011 Vol. XXI, No. 1

Calendar

By clicking on red links in the Calen-

dar you may visit photo coverage ofour past events. Blue links will takeyou to the announcements of upcom-ing events.

Download this magazine!

American Investor is available in full asa pdf for download from the www.am-cham.com.pl website. Go to "AboutUs" in the horizontal menu, andchoose American Investor Magazine

from the pop-up menu. You can down-load past issues of American Investor

dating back to October 2010.

Policy Watch

Intelligence: For AmCham positionpapers, policy statements, official let-ters to government ministers and re-search papers, visit the Advocacy linkon the horizontal menu to downloadthe latest AmCham position papers.

Regions

AmCham may be closer than youthink. Apart from Warsaw, AmChamhas two regional branches which areactive all year long and offer many ex-citing opportunities to interface with regional business leaders and politi-cians. To find out more about our ac-tivities in Kraków and the region ofsouthern Poland, and Wrocław, go toRegions in the horizontal menu bar,and pick your region of interest.

Events

AmCham Monthly Meetings are one ofthe flagship events organized by thechamber. While American Investor cov-ers each Monthly Meeting exten-sively, including full-page pictorials,you can search through picturearchives of past events that includenever previously printed material. Justgo to Events and Activities, pickMonthly Meetings and scroll down forlinks to archived events.

AmCham online

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2 AMERICAN INVESTOR JANUARY 2011

BOARD OFDIRECTORS

The American Chamber of Commerce in Poland

SPONSORS

Roman Rewald – Weil, Gotshal & MangesActing Chairman

Judith Y. Gliniecki – Wierzbowski EvershedsVice Chair

RichaRd lada – TelestoVice Chairman

PeteR kaY – KPMG PolskaSecretary

Stan PoPow – FinacorpTreasurer

MEMBERS

Tony HoushAPCO Worldwide

Paul FogoMiller Canfield

Piotr JuchaMcDonald’s

Thomas KolajaAlvarez and Marsal

Robert L. KońskiKulczyk Investments

John LynchLynka

Mac RaczkiewiczEx officio

Anna SienkoIBM

Joseph WancerDeloitte

AmCham Auditor:

Infrastructure needsmore than money

The keynote speaker at the AmCham Annual General Meeting, former

Deputy Minister of Economy Adam Szejnfeld, told the congregation of

American businesses in Poland that in 2011 they should consider enter-

ing into public-private partnerships, because the PPP Act now offers flexibil-

ity to all parties to projects carried out by commercial entities in conjunction

with the public sector—without interference on the ministerial level and with

the opportunity to achieve solid, long-term, sustainable profits.

The public sphere needs private investment capital to finance some of its

projects. But as much as private money, it needs to acquire other assets of

private enterprise—business knowhow first of all. A businesslike attitude in-

cludes such qualities as the determination and stamina of the management

to succeed in fulfilling the company’s statutory obligations. Then comes a

grownup sense of responsibility and readiness to bear the consequences of

failure.

The lack of these characteristics has been dramatically displayed by the

recent havoc at the Polish rail companies, all but one state-owned enter-

prises. In November the early snow brought train service to a near standstill.

On the first day over 800 trains were cancelled throughout the country. Hun-

dreds of trains were late, with delays sometimes longer than the entire

scheduled travel time from the first to the last station. Some trains that were

in service carried fewer cars than usual, and commuters could not board be-

cause there was not enough room. I saw trains with malfunctioning doors.

Some doors would not open, and passengers had to dash through com-

partments at the last moment to find a functioning door to make it out at the

station. Some doors would not close, letting freezing wind and snow into the

cars. Some trains were freezing cold inside; others were sweating hot. Being

a commuter required patience, a lot of free time, and a sturdy constitution.

The chaos did not end in the few days after the outbreak of winter, as one

might have thought would be long enough for the railway companies to take

things under control. It continued, with more intensity, when new train sched-

ules were introduced on December 12 without proper information or coordi-

nation. Reportedly, train companies intentionally did not reveal their new

schedules because they did not want their competition to know.

The Polish railway companies became so dysfunctional that Minister of In-

frastructure Cezary Grabarczyk said publicly that their CEOs and deputy

Tomasz Ćwiok

YOUR AMCHAM FROM THE EDITOR

CEOs will be deprived of their annual bonuses as a form of punishment. Three of the CEOs published apologies in the re-

gional press, hoping that would be enough to absolve their incompetence. Shortly before the holiday break, when thousands

of people travel for Christmas, Prime Minister Donald Tusk held a crisis management meeting with Grabarczyk and the CEOs of

Polish railway companies to decide what extra measures the companies should take in order not to collapse. As reported by

the media, they came to the conclusion that in case of heavy snowfall, train platforms should be cleared of snow; in case of

delays, passengers stranded at train stations should be served hot drinks free of charge; and extra engines should be on

standby to rescue trains that break down in the middle of nowhere. But does free coffee at point A make up for a transportation

company’s lack of the competence to transport the passenger to point B?

Eventually, the frustrated prime minister fired Juliusz Engelhardt, the deputy minister responsible for rail infrastructure. Engel-

hardt blamed the mess on technical problems caused by the winter weather. Somehow the technology excuse did not wash

for an invention that came around in the 19th century and has long since become an essential part of the infrastructure of civi-

lized countries.

Back in the summer of 1969, a unique collaboration of government, academia and business, known as the Apollo program,

successfully sent men to the moon and safely returned them to Earth. In terms of extreme temperatures, that mission was ex-

posed to –270ºC in outer space and +2,000ºC on reentry. There were thousands of ways in which the mission could have

failed. But most of them were identified, solutions were found, procedures tested theoretically, then implemented and re-

hearsed on the ground. All that took place at a time when the combined computing power of all research institutes that took

part in the project was just a tiny little fraction of what is available today for a company such as Polish State Railways.

Poland in winter is not the moon. Every technical problem has its solution.

What was striking about the train service crisis was not so much the extent of the mess, which actually happened a year be-

fore, but the excuses offered by the people responsible, which boiled down to this: you can expect Polish train services—all

subsidized—to fulfill their statutory obligations only in good weather. When the mercury drops and snow falls, as it does every

Going nowhere?


winter, it is normal for the system to break down. Snow blocks the tracks and downs power lines, and cold snaps the tracks.

All in all, this is like blaming an air crash on gravity.

The lack of responsibility on the part of people operating Poland’s infrastructure is not an issue unique to train companies.

Thousands of people experienced power outages in many parts of Poland (the grid operator is a state-owned company).

Thousands went without heat (generated by municipal companies). When services are most needed, the public sector does

not deliver.

Now Poland has announced a nuclear program. The government insists that the power plant be run by a state-owned com-

pany and not a private one. Will a nuclear breakdown be regarded as business as usual for a state-run operation? Will the rem-

edy then implemented by the government and government-appointed managers be to distribute free drinks with iodine iso-

topes?


We are at that time of year that brings freshness of new beginnings to match the

crisp January air. We all seem optimistic about the end of the global crisis,

waves of which hit us here in Poland to a greater or lesser extent, and about

what the year 2011 holds in terms of new business. Certainly expectations are high.

Hoteliers and other service providers are particularly excited about Poland’s upcom-

ing E.U. Presidency and all the meeting, conference, and hotel rooms that will be

booked for the endless delegations coming to meet with Polish President Bronisław

Komorowski and the E.U. Presidency team.

For AmCham, 2011 signifies new beginnings as well with a new Chair (still un-

known at print time). Roman Rewald’s three two-year terms have been joyful and

successful but have come to their inevitable end. AmCham’s new Chair will

bring new ideas, new priorities, and certainly a new leadership style. We are ready

and waiting.

No less importantly, we have three brand-new members of

the AmCham Board of Directors. Anna Sieńko heads IBM

Polska, Piotr Jucha heads McDonald’s Polska, and Thomas

Kolaja runs the local branch of Alvarez & Marsal. AmCham is

fortunate to have three such strong additions to the Board. All

three individuals and their companies have already been

heavily involved in the work of AmCham, and they represent a

valuable mix of industries and issues important to our busi-

ness community. Please be sure to heartily welcome Anna,

Piotr and Thomas.

From the AmCham staff point of view, I can predict some

new directions for us this year. Public procurement is an issue

we will be focusing on because it is a persistent difficulty in

doing business for so many of our members in a variety of ways. We will continue our

interest in business-academia cooperation, but with a concrete plan of action to im-

plement, both in Warsaw and at our branch offices in Kraków and Wrocław. We also

plan to develop a program of events around women’s issues and for the women

within AmCham. For some reason that seems more fun and appropriate than focus-

ing on men’s issues.

In February, we will host a door-knocking delegation from AmCham EU in prepara-

tion for our E.U. Presidency. Later in the year, we will organize our own mission to the

U.S. to promote investment in Poland. This will be a learning experience for AmCham

and one we hope will succeed in bringing more U.S. investors to Poland. We are ex-

cited about having these new challenges to experience and directions for our cham-

ber to grow. We are glad to have all of our wonderful members along for the ride and

helping us every step of the way.

Looking forward to a fantastic year,

American

Investor

© American Chamber of Commerce in Poland 2011. All rights reserved.

American Investor is the official publication of the Ameri-can Chamber of Commerce in Poland. It is a voice for for-eign investors and the business community in Poland.The magazine strives to keep our members and otherreaders 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 [email protected]

AMCHAM STAFF

Dorota DabrowskiExecutive Director

[email protected]

Marzena DrelaDeputy Director

[email protected]

Anita KowalskaEvents & Media Manager

[email protected]

Robert KruszynaOffice Manager

[email protected]

Barbara Pocialik-MalinowskaMembership and Committees Coordinator

[email protected]

Marta PawlakResearch and Policy Coordinator

[email protected]

Robert ChomikProject Assistant

[email protected]

AmCham in KrakówMonika [email protected]

AmCham in WrocławJoanna [email protected]

Dear Readers!

Dorota DabrowskiAMCHAM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Published by the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland

YOUR AMCHAMFROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

AmCham General MeetingAt the Annual General Meeting, AmChammembers approved the 2010 annual reportand the 2009 audit report, and elected themembers of the AmCham Board of Directorsfor another term. The new members areThomas Kolaja of Alvarez & Marsal, Piotr

Jucha of McDonalds and Anna Sienko of IBMPolska. The rest of the new board is made upof the members who stood for reelection: Paul

Fogo of Miller Canfield, Judith Y. Gliniecki ofWierzbowski Eversheds, Tony Housh of APCOWorldwide, Robert Koński of Kulczyk Invest-ments, Rick Lada of Telesto, Stan Popow ofFinaCorp, and Joseph Wancer of Deloitte.Former AmCham chairs Mac Raczkiewicz

and Roman Rewald serve ex officio.AmCham members applauded Rewald (pic-

tured) for his achievements in his three two-year terms as AmCham Chairman. “I havebeen privileged and honored to be the chair ofthis organization for so long,” Rewald said,adding that he had to resist some suggestionsfrom AmCham members to have the organiza-tion’s bylaws amended so he could continueas chairman for yet another term. “We needroom for another person with more energy,”Rewald said.

The new chair and other AmCham officerswill be elected by the Board of Directors thismonth.

AmCham Real Estate Commitee

John Banka (pictured) of Colliers Internationalhas joined Halina Więckowska of K&L Gatesas co-chair of the Real Estate Committee.Banka joined the Colliers International Invest-ment Advisory Group in 2002, coming from theReal Estate Group at Andersen/Ernst & Youngin Warsaw, where he was a senior manager. Hemost recently advised SEB on its EUR 93 mil-

NewslineNews from AmCham and its members

lion acquisition of Trinity Park III in Warsaw andis currently involved in various investmenttransactions throughout Poland valued at ap-proximately EUR 175 million. Banka’s major in-vestment clients have included Skanska Prop-erty Development, St Martins, Pramerica,Buma Group, Prochem SA, Orco PropertyGroup, Unilever, Bank BPH, ING Real Estate,Eurocash SA, UBS, and Europlan Capital.Banka is a native of Chicago. He has an exten-sive background in economic developmentprojects and urban design, and came toPoland in 1996 as the investment manager forthe Warsaw Financial Center project.

AmCham Telecom CommiteePiotr Muszyński (pictured below) of Telekomu-nikacja Polska SA has joined Jarosław

Roszkowski of Crowley Data Poland as co-chair of the AmCham Telecom Committee.Muszyński started his professional career in1990 at Eastern Europe Investment Ltd. as apartner and project manager responsible forstrategy, marketing and business development.In 1993 he joined Rema 1000 Poland as man-agement board member and managing direc-tor, and in 1999–2001 was president of themanagement board. At the meantime, in 1996–1998, he was management board member atIntersport Poland, responsible for the opera-tional launch of the company. He has been atTP since 2001, first as director of the customercare division, then in 2005–2006 as sales andservices division director. In 2006–2008Muszyński was TP Group executive director incharge of sales and services, in 2008–2009 TPGroup management board member in chargeof operations, and since November 2009 vicepresident of the management board.

Accreo TaxandPoland is one of the least expensive countrieswhen it comes to the taxation on investmentsin both commercial real estate and residentialreal estate, according to a report by tax advi-sory firm Accreo Taxand. The report found thatin Poland, taxes make up a relatively smallportion of the final price of real estate transac-tions, third from the bottom of 23 countries inEurope surveyed by Accreo Taxand, at about4.28% of the total transaction price, due to rel-atively low income tax in Poland on real estatesales and equally low real estate tax. The re-port found lighter real estate taxation only inCyprus and Romania.

Baker & McKenzieBaker & McKenzie advised Unicredit as themanager of the IPO of Milkiland N.V., a dairycompany registered in the Netherlands but ac-tive in Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere in CIS,on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Milkilandraised over PLN 200 million on the issue. Thestock rose 6.6% from the issue price on the firstday of trading on volume of PLN 7.4 million.Jakub Celiński, the partner at Baker & McKen-zie who managed the Unicredit account, saidthe task was complex as it involved workingwith Milkiland offices in five different countries.He said he was happy that the whole projectwas accomplished within only five months.

BoeingBoeing has shipped its first 737-800 Next-Gen-eration passenger aircraft equipped with theBoeing Sky Interior (below) to the German air-line TUIfly. Boeing Sky Interior offers a moreopen cabin that features modern, sculptedsidewalls and window reveals and more roomfor carryon bags in the new stow bins. The binsare larger but take up less space as theysweep up toward the ceiling. Along the ceiling,passengers have new lighting, which can por-tray different color schemes, such as a softblue sky or a relaxing pallet of sunset colors.The new lights are also longer-lasting and moreenergy-efficient, with an estimated 40,000hours between replacements, compared to

4,000 hours for the previous lighting standard.Over 1,400 of the 737 Boeing Sky Interiorplanes have already been ordered, by some 60airlines around the world.

CB Richard ElllisCB Richard Ellis Group was named Best Inter-national Property Consultancy 2010 at the In-ternational Property Awards, announced inLondon in November. The event, held in asso-ciation with Bloomberg Television and the New

York Times, is one of the foremost propertyaward competitions in the world, in existencefor more than 15 years.

CBRE was selected for this “world’s best”award over other top-scoring regional winnersfrom the Americas, Europe/Africa, Asia/Pacific,Arabia, and the U.K. CBRE was also the winnerof the Best Commercial Property Consultancyaward for London, qualifying the company forconsideration in the overall international award.The International Property Awards were deter-


EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ART & DTP

tomaSz Ć[email protected]

EDITOR-AT-LARGEchRiStoPheR [email protected]

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ready to face potential cyber-threats.

KPMGThe market in naming rights for sports facilitiesin Poland is growing, according to a report is-sued by consulting company KPMG. KPMGfound that by 2012 there will be 72 sports are-nas in Poland, including open-air and indoor fa-cilities, offering naming rights to sponsors, andthe total annual value of naming rights in Polandmay reach EUR 19 million. KPMG said that 85%of the total will be generated by stadiums and15% by indoor convention and sports facilities.

“Similarly to other European countries, nam-ing rights for sports arenas should be consid-ered by companies in the finance, telecommuni-cations and energy sectors,” said KPMG partnerTomasz Wiśniewski. He added however that inthe case of some sports arenas, sale of namingrights may face opposition from the public. Hesaid that while the new National Stadium in War-saw has the greatest cachet, it is unlikely thatthe name will be sold.

In other news, companies in the manufactur-ing sector in Poland have the highest economicconfidence in the world, according to the latestedition of the KPMG Pulse Global Business Out-look Survey. Nearly 65% of manufacturing com-panies surveyed in Poland expect to increasetheir business in 2011, 18% expect to continueat the same level, and 12% expect a decline.The optimism ratio measured by KPMG for Pol-ish companies is 53.2, compared to a medianfor all European Union countries of 39.4.

“We have not seen such upbeat attitudes ofPolish companies since the summer of 2007,”said KPMG partner Leszek Wroński.

The report reveals that 57% of manufacturingcompanies in Poland expect to increase theirrevenues within the next 12 months, 20% thinkthey will continue on the same level, and 17%expect a decline. When it comes to investmentoutlays in 2011, 51% of the sample plan tomaintain them at 2010 levels, 25% intend to in-crease them, and 13% plan cuts. Wroński said,“Companies anticipate new orders and revenuegrowth, but are prepared to use this for furthermarket expansion to a lesser degree than be-fore.”

Mamaison La Regina WarsawMamaison Hotel Le Regina Warsaw contributedto the cookbook Gotuj z Sercem (Cooking from

the Heart), published by NGOs Polish Humanitar-ian Action (PAH) and Just Cause. “The sale ofthe book will support 40,000 hot meals deliveredby PAH to needy children,” said Paweł Oszczyk,chef of La Rotisserie restaurant at MamaisonHotel Le Regina Warsaw. “I selected threerecipes for the book. I hope that those who lookfor culinary inspirations will pick up the book andhelp the children who are included in the PAHnutrition program.”

ManpowerPolish employers report conservative hiringplans for 1Q 2011, according to the ManpowerEmployment Outlook Survey released by Man-power Poland. The Net Employment Outlook, an

Norton RoseA cross-border corporate team at internationallegal practice Norton Rose LLP has advised thePolish State Treasury on the IPO and listing ofthe Warsaw Stock Exchange on its own tradingplatform. Trading of WSE shares began on No-vember 9, 2010.

Market capitalization of the WSE upon listing,based on the offer price for institutional in-vestors, was EUR 486 million. The State Treas-ury, as the selling shareholder, raised EUR 304million in the offering. The transaction did notinvolve offering of new shares by the WSE itself.

Piotr Strawa, head of Norton Rose PiotrStrawa and Partners LP in Warsaw, said that itwas the second-largest IPO Norton Rose hadrecently advised on in Poland. “We advisedTauron Polska Energia on its listing earlier in theyear,” he said, “and both have been strategi-cally important transactions for the Polish gov-ernment. Warsaw now has one of the largestnational stock exchanges in Central & EasternEurope and one of the fastest-growing ex-changes in Europe.”

Orco Property GroupOrco has relaunched its high-rise Złota 44 res-idential project in central Warsaw, and an-nounced that the new general contractor thatwill resume work on the landmark project isthe Italian consortium Inso/Consorzio Cooper-ative Costruzioni.

“This project is very important to me and theentire Orco Property Group,” said Orco CEOJean Ott. He explained that Orco had tofreeze construction because of the global eco-nomic crisis, but now he was personally confi-dent that the project will be accomplished suc-cessfully.

Złota 44 had been halted for over a yeardue to financing issues and opposition fromneighbors, who succeeded in stripping thepermit issued for the project until it was rein-stated recently.

PM GroupPM Group acted as contract engineer for aEUR 36 million sewage modernization projectin Kraków, which was successfully finished inNovember 2010. The municipal sewage sys-tem of Kraków consists of over 14,000 km ofpipes, many of which are located under themedieval core of the city. Some of the pipesthemselves are as old as 300 years. In 2005Kraków received an E.U. grant for the projectof EUR 21.5 million, which at that time repre-sented half of the estimated cost of the proj-ect.

ProLogisProLogis has signed a lease for more than6,000 sq. m. of modern warehouse space atProLogis Park Poznań II with Solid Logistics, aprovider of export and import logistics serv-ices. Solid Logistics has also extended two ex-isting leases for 8,500 sq. m. at the same facil-ity. Solid Logistics now occupies 27,500 sq. m.of warehouse space at ProLogis distribution

indicator of employers’ willingness to hire newpeople, stands at +5%, among the most opti-mistic forecasts among the European countriessurveyed. Of the 750 Polish employers surveyed,17% anticipate adding to their workforces in thecoming quarter, 12% plan reductions, and 68%expect no change.

“The Manpower Employment Outlook Surveydata indicates a slowdown of the local labormarket in the first quarter of 2011,” said Iwona

Janas, Country Manager of Manpower Poland.“Still, we see some reason for optimism, espe-cially if we compare the results over time. Em-ployers in the manufacturing sector anticipatean upbeat hiring pace in the first three monthsof the year, and the forecast is considerablybrighter than we saw in much of 2009 and early2010. Hiring intentions in the transport, storageand communications sector are at the strongestlevels since the third quarter of 2008. Job seek-ers in the public and social sector can continu-ally look forward to solid hiring activity.”

In a quarter-on-quarter comparison, the mostsignificant decline, of 15 percentage points, isreported for the agriculture, hunting, forestryand fishing sectors, while employers in miningand quarrying report a 12 pp decrease. De-clines of 11 pp and 10 pp are reported in theconstruction sector and the public and socialsector, respectively. Meanwhile, hiring inten-tions have strengthened in the transport, stor-age and communication sectors.

Compared with the first quarter of 2010, em-ployers in five industry sectors report improvedhiring plans. Considerable improvement, of 18pp, is reported for the manufacturing sectorand for the public and social sector. However,the employment outlook in five sectors has de-clined, including restaurants and hotels, wherehiring plans are down by 7 pp.

JANUARY 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 76 AMERICAN INVESTOR JANUARY 2011

mined by an independent panel of judges.CBRE CEO Brett White said, “Winning this

highly coveted award is a strong endorsementof our people and platform as well as our abilityto develop innovative solutions that enable ourclients to succeed throughout market cycles.”

CiscoAs many as 60% of office workers and IT spe-cialists do not need to be physically present atthe office to work efficiently, according to a sur-vey conducted by Cisco among 2,300 individu-als in 13 countries. The highest ratios of officeworkers ready to work efficiently outside of theoffice were in Asia and Latin America, at 97%.The study also revealed that the freedom tochoose where they work is increasing amongstaff, with 13% of the sample indicating that itmay have an impact on job loyalty. Worldwide,66% of the sample said they would accept anew job offer with lower pay but more flexibleaccess to the Internet and online communities.Spain had the highest percentage (78%), de-spite the economic crisis in the country.

In other news, Cisco Systems and BMC Soft-ware have entered into a strategic alliance todevelop and market new solutions for large-scale multi-tenant cloud computing infrastruc-tures. Under the alliance, the two companiesare aligning product development roadmapsand technology architectures to offer worldwidecustomers a complete suite of solutions to sim-plify and automate the delivery of cloud serv-ices. As part of the alliance, Cisco and BMC an-nounced the availability of a new cloud solu-tion, the Integrated Cloud Delivery Platform,which is designed to meet the requirements ofservice providers and large-scale private cloudcomputing environments. This new joint solu-tion helps cloud providers easily deploy end-to-end cloud services running on a cloud comput-ing infrastructure that spans data center net-works, computing systems, storage and appli-cations.

Cisco Systems has also announced the re-sults of the latest Internet Routing in Spacetesting, marking the first-ever software up-grade of an Internet Protocol router aboard acommercial satellite (above) while in orbit. Inaddition, Cisco completed the industry's firstVoice over Internet Protocol call made withoutthe use of any terrestrial infrastructure to routethe call.

This achievement represents a radical de-parture from current communications satellitetechnology, which relies on ground-based

hubs to convey voice and video signals be-tween satellites and end users. Benefits of thisnew capability include the ability to routevoice, data and video traffic between usersover a single IP network more efficiently, andwith greater cost effectiveness, than is cur-rently possible over today’s fragmented satel-lite communications networks. In addition, thecapability to upgrade the software of the Ciscorouter and onboard modem from the groundincreases the flexibility of the system to imple-ment future capabilities and the lifespan of thecommunications system.

Cushman & WakefieldThe number of hotel guests in Polish mountainresorts is expected to grow steadily in the up-coming years, according to a new forecastfrom Cushman & Wakefield, the global real es-tate advisory firm.

There are now 269 hotels operating in thePolish mountains, providing 24,180 beds,which represents over 13% of the country’shotel stock and 27% of the total number ofbeds offered in lodging establishments in theregion.

“Two- and three-star hotels account for thelargest share of the hotel stock in the Polishmountains,” said the author of the report,Michał Kuliński from the Valuation & AdvisoryDepartment of Cushman & Wakefield. “The re-gion still lacks high-standard schemes, which,in our opinion, will lead to a rise in demand forthis type of facility.”

The Karkonosze, the Silesian Beskids, theŻywiec Beskids and the Tatras are the Polishmountain areas with the most-developed hotelaccommodations and highest occupancy lev-els. A wide range of additional services, suchas spa and wellness, conference and recre-ational amenities, as well as the presence offour- and five-star hotels, are among thebiggest assets of the Polish mountain region,with growing interest in recreational and sportsfacilities. The Bieszczady and the Low Beskidshave the least-developed hospitality market.

Hewlett-PackardA recent global study by HP concluded that56% of companies in the U.S. and 38% in Eu-rope have not undertaken any measures tocounter cyber-attacks, believing they wouldnot be targeted. However, 78% of companiesin the U.S. and 60% in Europe anticipate majornetwork communication problems in theircountries as a result of cyber-attacks in thenext two years. Fully 88% of the sample admit-ted that cyber-attacks are difficult to detect,while 86% said that their effects are difficult toremedy quickly. Despite the growing under-standing of cyber-threats that companies areexposed to, only 38% of the companies sur-veyed said they had raised their investment insoftware to counter cyber-attacks, while 53%said their budgets were not big enough forsuch expenditures. Based on the results of theresearch, HP designed a computer program,code-named Cybersecurity Readiness Tool, tomeasure the level at which companies are

Members on the moveAon Hewitt PolandEdward Stanoch has beennamed managing director andmanagement board memberof consulting firm Aon HewittPoland. Prior to this nomina-tion, Stanoch was managingdirector and managementboard member of Hewitt As-sociates Sp. z o.o., responsi-ble for business developmentin Poland, Russia andUkraine. Stanoch has 15 years of experience in busi-ness consulting and strategic advisory. He joinedHewitt in 2002.

SalansProf. Aleksander Chłopecki,a legal advisor specializing incivil law, capital markets, cor-porate, commercial, bankingand insurance law, has joinedthe law firm Salans in Poland.Chłopecki is a graduate of theUniversity of Warsaw and theUniversity of Bonn. He is presi-dent of the Arbitration Court atthe Polish Financial Supervision Authority and an in-dependent member on the supervisory boards oflisted companies. He previously served as VicePresident for Legal Affairs at the former Polish Secu-rities and Exchange Commission, a managementboard member of the National Depository for Securi-ties, and chairman of the supervisory board of PZUSA.

Prof. David O’Keeffe hasjoined the Global EU Com-petition Group of Salans asSenior Counsel. O’Keeffespecializes in E.U. law, withparticular emphasis on stateaid and public procurement.He will work primarily inBrussels. O’Keeffe has ad-vised national governmentsand major international insti-tutions, such as the E.U. Presidency, the EuropeanParliament, and the House of Lords, as well as largemultinational corporations. O’Keeffe is Emeritus Pro-fessor of European Law at University College Lon-don and has taught at many top universities in Eu-rope. He speaks English, French, Italian, and Dutchand is a regular speaker at international confer-ences. He has written over 200 publications on E.U.law. He was a member of the European Commis-sion’s High Level Panel on the Free Movement ofWorkers and has handled cases at the EuropeanCourt of Justice.

NewslineNews from AmCham and its members

centers in Poznań and Gdańsk. “We have signed several leases in Poznań

and are seeing an increased level of demandfor this region,” said Dariusz Proniewicz, leas-ing manager of ProLogis Poland. “Due to thelimited amount of available supply we expectgrowth in rents in the short to medium term.”

ProLogis Park Poznań II is a strategically lo-cated distribution centre comprising sevenbuildings and a total of 120,000 sq. m. of mod-ern warehouse and office space.

New MembersConstruction and engineering specialist Curb-Tec

Europe (www.curb-tec.pl) has joined AmCham.

The CEO is Chris Hutchinson.

Education, training and executive search company

Dale Carnegie & Associates (www.dale-

carnegie.com.pl) has joined AmCham. The general

manager is Pablo Martinez.

Pittsburgh Glass Works (Poland) (www.pgw-

glass.com), a producer of glass for vehicles, is a

new AmCham member. The European Operations

Manager is William Hill.

Education and training company Right Manage-

ment Poland (www.rightmanagement.pl) has

joined AmCham. The contact person is Agata Dul-

nik, principal consultant.

Staffer (www.staffer.pl), a personnel outsourcing

provider, has joined AmCham. The company is rep-

resented in Poland by the president, Ari Hecht.


On cloud nineThe cloud computing model allows businesses to hold costs in line with turnover

Outsourcing/High Tech Committee

The benefits of cloud computing—thenew model for providing computer serv-ices where customers access software

and computing power hosted online by theservice provider—were underlined by MichałJaworski, national technology officer at Mi-crosoft Polska, who met with the AmChamOutsourcing/High Tech Committee in late No-vember.

According to Jaworski, soon companieswill be able to forget their in-house IT prob-lems, as all the software infrastructure theyneed will come from external providers mak-ing their servers available via Internet—or, asthey say, in the clouds.

In terms of how server storage space isused, cloud computing is much more effi-cient than the first-generation model, wherecompanies run their own IT infrastructure in-cluding Internet servers. In this model the en-ergy efficiency is only 7%. The energy effi-ciency of the “virtual server” model, whichlets companies lease disc space on a serverhooked up to the Internet, is 40%, Jaworskisaid. With the energy efficiency of cloudcomputing at 70-80%, it seems this model isa major step toward trimming the carbonfootprint of the IT industry globally.

The environmental aspect of cloud com-puting is not the only factor important forbusiness. Cloud computing allows for pool-ing resources according to the needs of theuser. A simple PC computer can thus be-come a powerful computing tool, because allthe computing power and software it takes toaccomplish a task through cloud computingare executed on the cloud server, while the

final result of the action is displayed on thecomputer of the actual user. This is especiallyimportant to companies whose businessesgrow and change so rapidly that it is hard forthem to keep up by implementing local IT so-lutions.

This model also offers location independ-ence for clients, because cloud applicationscan be accessed from any point of the WorldWide Web.

It also offers new business opportunitiesfor providers of cloud services, due to thefact that the service is fully measurable.Clients may be charged for their use of com-puting processing power or for use of soft-ware. Microsoft has already rolled out its fa-mous Office package in a cloud version,called Office 365 to highlight that the newestversion of the program is available 365 daysa year, 24 hours a day. Another well-knownMicrosoft product, its Windows operatingsystem, will soon be available through a Mi-crosoft cloud under the name Windows Azur.

Although the benefits of using cloud com-puting are many, and as a business model ithas been developed for quite a while now,with such companies as Google paving theway, there are still impediments holding theIT industry back from fully embracing cloudcomputing. The impediments are many,ranging from the fear of compromising datauploaded to the cloud, to legal issues, andsustainability, security and safety issues.

Jaworski explained that the providers ofcloud services use state-of-the-art technolo-gies that offer much higher standards of datasecurity and safety than those that can be im-

plemented by companies whose core busi-ness is not IT. For instance, Microsoft has twohuge server centers in Europe, where thou-sands of servers are wired to the network.The power is delivered by three different sup-pliers, and in case all three are down, eachcenter has a power generator capable of de-livering electricity for 24 hours, plus a batterysupport that extends the supply by another1.5 hours.

Jaworski said that the content of theservers can also be moved to another Mi-crosoft server center, so in the event of a per-manent loss of energy supply to one servercenter no data will be lost.

Jaworski noted that there are still somecompanies, such as banks, that prefer to relyon their own data safety and security.

According to Jaworski, the process of mi-grating from the traditional model of softwareand computer use to the clouds will be grad-ual but inevitable. Cloud computing allowscompanies to match their IT expenditureswith their revenue, and does not require up-front investment in IT to assure computersupport for growing turnover.

Jaworski said that Microsoft is analyzing allpotential issues that may pop up with cloudcomputing, including legal issues. He saidthat the American approach to cloud comput-ing and the legal issues surrounding it ismore practical than the approach in the Euro-pean Union. Jaworski said of the U.S. ap-proach: “First you try to use the model, and iflegal problems arise you bring lawyers into it.But you don’t try to anticipate all potentiallegal problems that may or may not arise be-fore you actually see how the whole modelworks.”

Apart from legal concerns, cloud comput-ing may stir up some antagonism from the ITpeople within companies, who may not beenthusiastic about implementing cloud com-puting, which would inevitably limit their au-thority over such issues as software updatesand network management—not to mentionputting many of them out of a job.

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AgendaIntelligence from AmCham and its committees

JANUARY 18, 2011 Time: 2:00 P.M.Event: Defense & Security Committeemeeting with Ludwik DornPlace: AmCham Board Room

JANUARY 19, 2011 Time: 9:30 A.M.Event: Employee & Labor Relations Com-mittee workshop on the implementation ofHuman Capital strategy for businessPlace: AmCham Board Room

FEBRUARY 3, 2011 Time: 9:30 A.M.Event: Employee & Labor Relations Com-mittee workshop on leadership developmentprocess for high impactPlace: AmCham Board Room

For updates on our events visit:www.amcham.com.pl

Mark your calendar

For the AmCham Guide to Committees see inside back cover

Zeus mixes with mortals

The administrator of Poland’s social in-surance programs, the Social Insur-ance Institution (popularly known by its

Olympian acronym ZUS), is set to launch anew way of dealing with the business sector,which carries the bulk of the system’s finan-cial burden. ZUS president Zbigniew Der-dziuk met with the AmCham Employee &Labor Relations Committee in December todiscuss how the new approach should helpmaintain good communications and bilateralunderstanding between businesses andZUS, as well as introducing new options forbusinesses that may have trouble meetingtheir statutory compliance deadlines, whilemeeting the expectations of beneficiaries.

“There are three angles at which one canlook at ZUS,” Derdziuk explained: “The clientperspective, the ZUS financial perspective,and the ZUS development perspective.These are the three pillars of the new ZUSstrategy.”

When it comes to the financial perspec-tive, ZUS faces the reality of sourcingmoney from over 1.2 million workers whoare self-employed and therefore pay socialinsurance for themselves. This requires ef-ficiency in dealing with each individualpayer. When it comes to big payers, ZUSmay rely on only the 1% of companies inPoland that employ over 100 people. “Theproblem is to match the money source ef-ficiently, which is about the use of people,infrastructure and IT systems,” Derdziuksaid. He noted that the development of ITsystems offers the most in terms of mak-ing ZUS more efficient.

But the question of efficiency will not besolved by IT alone. ZUS has recently im-plemented a new management systemthat defines every process ZUS executes.“This helps ZUS officers understand whatexactly needs to be achieved from the per-spective of ZUS clients,” Derdziuk said.

Although all legs of the reform are im-portant, the most significant change fromthe perspective of the business commu-nity is going to be the one that Derdziukdescribed as dealing with companies whopay social insurance for their employees.“Instead of being penalized for not payingtheir contributions on time, ZUS will beopen to negotiate deals with them,”Derdziuk said. This will empower ZUS offi-cers to set up more acceptable criteria forcompanies who are late paying their contri-butions. “The main reasoning behind thischange is that business is a friend of ZUS,

because if businesses do not pay ZUS feesthere must be a reason why they don’t. Abankrupt company will not pay social insur-ance, so it is better to help troubled compa-nies pay their ZUS fees in a civilized mannerinstead of trying to execute the payment re-gardless of the company’s financial situation.But each time ZUS agrees for a company todelay its social insurance contributions, itamounts to public aid, and ZUS will beobliged to evaluate the credibility of thepayer with respect to the potential to pay offthe debt. It will be similar to a bank’s evaluat-ing credit risks of potential clients.”

Derdziuk underlined that the new ZUSstrategy has been developed internally bykey ZUS managers. His team defined 578processes, from management to operationaland support. Now they are being optimizedand integrated. “The challenge is to devise

new, efficient processes instead of finding ex-cuses for maintaining bad, inefficient prac-tices,” Derdziuk said.

In order to achieve that goal, ZUS needs tomake more of its content available online. Italso will open a call center. This will be thefirst step to measure the reaction of clientsand beneficiaries to the new reform. “Wehave to see how effectively it works for ourclients and how effectively our clients canuse it,” Derdziuk said. “Every six months, ap-proximately, ZUS will upgrade its IT system tomeet the growing demand for online contentaccessibility.”

When it comes to the ZUS front office, thecompany will measure efficiency and qualityof customer service. It was only recently thatZUS decided to poll its customers on theirsatisfaction with ZUS service. “This is an im-portant part of the overall ZUS reform strat-egy, which is aimed at ensuring that all thereforms improve client satisfaction,” Derdziuksaid. “ZUS does not want to be caught in thetrap of being exclusively focused on the in-side, measuring the efficiency of its internalprocesses without juxtaposing them againstthe way the company is viewed from the out-side.”

ZUS has 43 regional branches, 219 localinspectorates, and 64 small offices in ruralareas. When the front-desk reform is through,ZUS clients will enjoy the same proceduresand service standards no matter where theycall into a ZUS office.

Boosting its efficiency also means, forZUS, finding new delivery methods for themoney it pays to its beneficiaries. In ruralareas approximately 60% of ZUS beneficiar-ies have their money hand-delivered by lettercarriers from Poczta Polska, which is about20 times more expensive than delivery viabank transfer. While ZUS foots the bill, it triesto engage private banks in opening free ac-counts for ZUS beneficiaries. Derdziuk saidthat when one bank surveyed its senior citi-zen customers about the type of accountthey would prefer, 27% of respondents saidthat online access to their bank account is amust or they are not interested. But even if itmeans some initial financial burden for thebanks to set up new accounts with online ac-cess, the banks will ultimately benefit fromoperating them. Every month ZUS pays PLN4 billion to senior citizen beneficiaries.

Other cost-cutting measures that ZUS istaking include cutting its labor force. Accord-ing to Derdziuk, ZUS idles approximately1.5% of its entire staff a year. “The cost ofstaff is the highest cost for the agency,”Derdziuk said. “The average per person isPLN 44,000 a year.”

Poland’s largest government agency, the Social In-surance Institution, has initiated reforms that shouldbenefit the business community at large

Employee & Labor Relations Committee

More than an image problem: Not onlymust the Social Insurance Institutionchange its perception of being busi-ness-unfriendly, but it also needs to im-plement modern management methodsto achieve its mission.

Saving on defenseTechnology is a weapon, but the military needs totrim costs wherever it can

Defense & Security Committee

A veteran of 34 years of active militaryservice, Dr. Malcolm Ross O’Neill re-tired as a Lieutenant General in theUnited States Army following a highlydecorated career. Some highlights ofhis career included serving as Direc-tor of the Ballistic Missile Defense Or-ganization for the Department of De-fense, which followed his position asDeputy Director of the then-StrategicDefense Initiative Organization(SDIO); Director of the Army Acquisi-tion Corps and Deputy for ProgramAssessment and International Coop-eration in the Office of the AssistantSecretary of the Army for Research,Development and Acquisition, nowthe Office of the ASA(ALT); Com-mander of the U.S. Army LaboratoryCommand; Director of Kinetic EnergyWeapons at SDIO; Program Manager(PM) for the Multiple Launch RocketSystem; and Deputy PM for NATO’sPatriot Management Organization inMunich; as well as PM for StrategicFire Control and Talon Gold at the De-fense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency.


In December the AmCham Defense & Se-curity Committee met with Dr. MalcolmRoss O’Neill, Assistant Secretary of the

U.S. Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Tech-nology, who was visiting Poland for talks withhis Polish counterpart, Deputy Minister of De-fense Marcin Idzik. O’Neill, a former generalas well as a scientist, is the man who mustsign off on all major procurement contractsentered into by the U.S. Army. He met withthe American business community in Polandto talk about his priorities for the U.S. Army,how they influence his acquisition strategies,and how they should influence the strategiesof Polish high-tech companies interested inbidding for contracts awarded by the U.S.Department of Defense.

The show must go onO’Neill said that his first priority is to supportthe ongoing operations of the U.S. Army, cur-rently active in Afghanistan and Iraq. If thereis a need for the Army to undertake a missionelsewhere, O’Neill is ready to support that aswell. “We have to take care of our soldiersand our allies no matter whether they arePolish, American, British, Canadian orFrench,” O’Neill said.

Armored men and womenAnother priority is developing new armor forthe soldier of the future. “The twist that I haveadded is a decisive advantage for the Ameri-can soldier,” O’Neill explained. “Right nowthe American soldier looks very much like asoldier from World War I, World War II or Viet-nam. The only difference is that he has chestand back protection which covers approxi-mately 30% of the entire body. Still unpro-tected is the head, face, arms and legs of thesoldier. That is something I want to changeand we will work on that in the future.”

AffordabilityWhen it comes to the bills, the public pays forstate-of-the-art defense technologies so theycan be used by the military. O’Neill admittedthat taxpayers are used to big numbers, butexpensive equipment can make that atremendous burden. “An American fighterplane, the F-22, is about USD 200 million. Wejust cannot afford to pay those kinds of bills.”

One approach is to bridge the gap in un-derstanding between the military and the de-fense industry. “The industry builds theequipment and weapons that the militaryuses,” O’Neill said. “The problem is that themilitary does not tell the industry what it reallywants.”

He noted that when he worked for Lock-heed Martin, he had a large R&D programwhich he wanted to review for the military sothat experts in the U.S. Army, Navy and AirForce would know what Lockheed Martin

was up to. But the armed forces rejectedO’Neill’s offer, arguing that if they took part inthe review they would have to accept invita-tions from other private defense companiesas well. This attitude meant that none of theservices knew what Lockheed Martin’s capa-bilities were. In practice this cost money forboth the private company and the public sec-tor. “Very often we would have a researchprogram, and the Army would have the sameprogram funded with Army money,” O’Neillsaid.

This experience led O’Neill to revisit the at-mosphere of secrecy. As head of acquisitionsfor the Army, he meets twice a month with in-dustry representatives. He said he is smartenough not to reveal government secrets.

“We have been working over the last sevenmonths with Dr. Ashton B. Carter, Under Sec-retary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology& Logistics, trying to find ways to have amore efficient relationship with the industry,”O’Neill said. “The first thing is that the indus-try wants to make sure that the equipmentthat we buy is affordable. If you buy a truckwhich can go 39 miles per hour for PLN 1million and you want to get a truck that goes40 miles per hour for PLN 22 million, it is anobvious decision that you will buy the slowertruck even though you lose one mile perhour. So you make a curve of capability ver-sus cost. The capability will start to comedown as a function of cost. You stop at a cer-tain point.”

Productivity and competitionAnother way of bringing the cost down is toincrease the work efficiency of teams in-volved in developing key components ofequipment or systems for military use. Thiscan be achieved by incentivizing key man-agers. O’Neill gave an example: “A programmanager for a missile defense program wasgiven a bonus of nearly a million dollars formaking his team work extra time to debugthe software on time so the program was notderailed. The bonus was worth it, becausethe program cost billions of dollars. If youhave the talent and you have the drive andthe support from the management, there isnothing you can’t do in the industry.”

O’Neill said that this is the best way tostimulate the effectiveness of companies, es-pecially new entrants to the market that haveto compete with big market players.

Another way of bringing the costs down forthe Army is to promote competition betweencompanies bidding for military business sothey compete on product quality but also onprice. “In the past we had favorite compa-nies, but it is not the correct thing to do,”O’Neill said. “There is a law now which saysthat if you do not have competition I have tojustify to my management why this is the only

company in the world who can make this par-ticular product.”

Service contractsToday it is no big deal when an army out-sources some of its functions to a third-partycommercial company. But when O’Neill tookoffice in March last year, he realized that over50% of U.S. Army investments were servicecontracts. The Army paid big fees for differ-ent services and did not take the opportunityto review the economic rationale of the con-tracts. O’Neill decided to change that and in-troduced managerial supervision of thosecontracts. As a result, for instance, the com-pany that provides drinking water to the U.S.troops in Afghanistan cut their price to a thirdof what it had been.

Reducing bureaucracyO’Neill understands perfectly well that work-ing with government may be a frustratingprocess for industry, because government isnot nearly as lean. While companies have tobe responsible to their stockholders, unlikegovernments, they do not have to be respon-sible to every man, woman and child in thecountry. “As a result we have a lot of reviewsand approvals,” O’Neill explained. “I did astudy on approving justifications for singlecontractors where there was no competition.It took almost six months to get an approvalfor awarding business to a company whichdid not have competition. That is totally unac-ceptable.”

Tapping into the supply chainO’Neill said that the U.S. Army will realign itsacquisition strategies in the direction theArmy is heading, to include a full spectrum oftypes of conflicts, from cyberspace to full-scale war, for which it must be prepared to becredible.

The transformation of the Army’s acquisi-tion strategy first and foremost stresses theimportance of strengthening relationshipswith the Army’s stakeholders, and that in-cludes international partners. “It is one of thereasons why I’m here today,” O’Neill said,“because you know how powerful Poland isand how much more powerful it can be. Wecertainly want Poland to be on our team.”

He observed that there is no reason Polishindustry cannot start the transition of thosetechnologies and go into business. As far ascompetition on the primary level—coopera-tion between the Ministry of Defense and Pol-ish industry—is concerned, it is early forboth. But for Polish companies the issue is tobecome very good at science. As O’Neillpointed out, Dow Corning is one of thelargest chemical companies in the world. “Tothe U.S. Defense Department they are alwaysa subcontractor. We treat them the same assomeone who makes, say, a bearing in a littleshop with four people, because Dow Corningdoes not build tanks, submarines or fighterplanes. Its materials, however, are very valu-able for us. We must use them. So you don’thave to be Boeing or Toyota to work with theDefense Department and make a lot ofmoney.”

O’Neill said that Polish companies shouldfind some niches where they are really good


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AgendaIntelligence from AmCham and its committees

and expand in those niches. “Work in the de-fense and commercial lines. Unless you workon a highly classified system where you areusing a technology that was developed fordefense applications, then before you trans-fer that into the commercial sector you haveto have permission.”

O’Neill noted that he is eyeing the potentialof private software developers in protectingthe Army systems from cyber-attacks. Hesaid that good, reliable systems are availableoff the shelf from such producers as SAP.“We are considering use of commercial soft-ware instead of spending millions of dollarsdesigning cryptologic security.”

For O’Neill, cyber security is just onesphere where Polish scientists have potentialthey can utilize by cooperating with the U.S.Army.

The importance of scienceIn today’s highly technological world the sci-ence an army has access to has a critical im-pact on the army’s defense capabilities, nowand in future. “The foundation for the Army istechnological,” O’Neill said. “We have doneabout all we can do with tactics and tech-niques. You attack from the left, you attackfrom the right, frontal assault. The Americansoldier is bigger, stronger, healthier than hehas ever been before. But the tactics ofNapoleon, Eisenhower, Bradley—we havedone everything we can about it. It is technol-ogy that will really make the difference in mili-tary operations.”

NetworksOn the Army’s priority list, networks are num-ber one. “Our Army units are moving frompoint A to point B,” O’Neill said, “and whilethey are moving they want to be able to cap-ture information, contact airplanes and allies,and contact their own units instantaneouslywith landlines and satellites. But they have todo the same thing in places with no landlinesand no wires or no satellites, or places wheresatellites only come by every few hours.”

Power and energy Power and energy is one of the strongest in-terfaces between the defense establishmentand commercial industry in the U.S. “Wehave many energy initiatives in the U.S. todayand some of them translate into defense ap-plications,” O’Neill said. “We are much morebound to the environment, which makes en-ergy very scarce, and we have to bring it withus. It would be very nice if we could use veryefficient solar cells instead of bringing gener-ators that run on gasoline.”

Autonomous systems scienceIn recent decades the U.S. Army has devel-oped a great fondness for robotics becauserobots save people’s lives. “One of my vi-sions is for every soldier to have a roboticfriend who will go into harm’s way before thesoldier does,” O’Neill said. For him the idealway for the American military to do their jobwould be to have a robot moving in front ofthe troops to reconnoiter.

However, O’Neill noted that there is amoral aspect to it. You have to make surethere is no flaw in your software so the robot

does not stick something into a child’s eye. “Ithink you will always have to have man as theinterlocutor. But there is so much that the au-tonomous systems can do. It is like having aGPS in your car. But wouldn’t it be nice, in-stead of the GPS just telling you where youare, to get into your car and say, ‘Take me tomy office, and be careful, it is snowing!’There is no technical reason why you couldnot have it. But you have to be in control of it.If the automatic starts speeding, you shouldbe able to put on the brakes.”

NanotechnologyAccording to O’Neill the potential of nan-otechnologies for the defense sector is un-matched. “Very small firms do very sophisti-cated projects,” he said. “One produces afabric that you can put into your clothes. Thefabric has acoustical fibers in it that will am-plify the sound they get. If you have prob-lems hearing your partner because you arestanding next to a source of noise, yourclothes will resonate and amplify the desiredsound so you will be able to hear the personnext to you. In more military applications, youwill be able to hear the enemy coughing ormoving through the undergrowth because ofthe amplification system that you are wear-ing.”

Medical technologiesO’Neill said that because of certain culturaltraits associated with the “warrior ethos,” thedefense sector has never before looked atthe potential of medical science for savingsoldiers’ lives. O’Neill is a veteran of 34 yearsof active military service, including Vietnam.(He was commissioned in the U.S. Army as aField Artillery Officer in 1962 and served withthe 82nd Airborne Division, as an Advisorwith the 21st Recon Company of the 21stArmy of the Republic of Vietnam Division,

and as Assistant Chief of Staff (Ammunition)with the Danang Support Command in Viet-nam.) O’Neill said that when he was in themilitary the emphasis was on accomplishingthe mission. “If soldiers were killed or wewere hurt, that was considered a part ofbeing a soldier.” Yet, by the time he becameAssistant Secretary of the Army, this hadchanged. The emphasis is to have the sol-diers come back home. “If today is not agood day to fight, we will go back and wait tillthe time is right, because we don’t want any-one to die,” O’Neill said. He noted that ittakes tremendous technology to make thisnoble cause work in reality. But this is yet an-other area in which the private sector canhave a significant input. Polish companiesare more than welcome to pitch for the busi-ness as well.

By Paul Fogo

12 AMERICAN INVESTOR JANUARY 2011 JANUARY 2011 AMERICAN INVESTOR 13

COVER STORY: Corporate governance

Growth between the earsRising GDP is nice tohave, but to see if itis sustainable PwClooked behind thefigures to find out ifPolish companieshave a healthy mental approach tobusiness development

Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore...

American investment in Polandsince 1989 recently passed themilestone of USD 20 billion.

Today U.S.-based companies employ di-rectly more than 180,000 Poles, and indi-rectly another 180,000 in cooperation withlocally owned companies. By far thelargest concentration of investment is inthe automotive sector, followed by bank-ing, metals, electronics, food processing,white goods, logistics, energy and IT. Inaddition, American companies are se-lecting Poland with increasing frequencyto locate their global business process-ing and outsourcing centers.

The continuing growth and profitabilityof American investment in Poland is tes-tament to the improving business envi-ronment in Poland through more than 20years of political and legal reform sincethe Poles overthrew communism in Cen-tral Europe. But the transformation ofPoland to a free-market economy shouldnot be misconstrued to mean that therules of the game are identical to Ameri-can practice and custom. While the basicconcepts of the economy are similar,American investors need to be aware thatPoland’s version of a free market includesa European and socialist bent. The differ-ences, while appearing minor on the sur-face, do impact on the day-to-day opera-tions of businesses in Poland, whetherforeign or locally owned. Below is anoverview of the most significant differ-ences every investor should be aware ofwhen establishing operations in Poland.

Management board liabilityIndividual members of a company’s man-agement board may be held personallyliable for the debts of the company in cer-tain circumstances.

In the case of unpaid corporate taxes,individual members of the managementboard of a joint-stock company (SA) or alimited-liability company (sp. z o.o.) maybe held personally liable for tax arrears ifthe assets of the company are insufficientto satisfy the tax arrears and the man-agement board members failed to file forbankruptcy in the required time (gener-ally, within 14 days after a company be-comes insolvent). In egregious cases, in-dividual members of a company’s man-agement board may be imprisoned for upto 5 years for non-payment of corporatetaxes. The deadline to file year-end cor-

Judging by their contribution to the cre-ation of the country’s gross domesticproduct, Polish companies know a thing

or two about how to do business. In fact,with Poland being the only country in theEuropean Union that generated positiveGDP growth in 2009, which continued into2010, it seems Polish companies can delivergood business results under adverse condi-tions.

Obviously, Polish companies have come along way since the beginning of the free-market economy in Poland. With the inflowof foreign direct investment into the coun-try, they learned to use new productiontechnologies and started to apply modernmanagement techniques, which all con-tributed to boosting the efficiency of labor.With Poland’s accession to the EuropeanUnion, they learned to make their productscompete with those made in other coun-tries, mostly by lower pricing made possibleby relatively lower wages in Poland than inWestern Europe. This could only lead to in-

creasing sales and revenues. The bottomline is reflected in Poland’s GDP growth.

But there is a problem with GDP growthfigures: they only measure the money valueof an economy. This can be a deceptive indi-cator when it comes to evaluating the sus-tainability of business. Not far away fromPoland, Latvia was cranking out impressiveGDP growth of 10% year-on-year in 2005–2008, but now it is in the economic dol-drums. As Prof. Witold Orłowski from con-sulting firm PwC puts it, “There are manyexamples of countries and individual com-panies that were growing too fast economi-cally. Their growth created imbalances inthe economic environment they were partof.” When the imbalances became too big tobear for the market, an economic meltdowncame to reduce the gaps.

Polish GDP growth of 1% in 2009 was notsuch a bad thing after all, especially since itcontinued into the next year. Another con-clusion is that there are other indicators ofwhether business is sustainable—whethergrowth is healthy or not—than money gen-eration alone.

more than moneyAccording to Orłowski, economic growth fora company is healthy when the company hasdeveloped five pillars of competency, each ofwhich is adequately developed to match theothers:

• vision and strategy for the company’sdevelopment

• healthy finances• human resource management• brand management• risk managementIn other words, companies that have all

five of these aspects harmonized in theireconomic development should achievehealthy and sustainable business.

The importance of having a good strategyfor development is obvious. Without it acompany is unable to identify the best waysto achieve growth in the company’s value, orproperly weight its long- and short-termgrowth priorities. Healthy finances mean acompany’s ability to obtain proper sourcesof financing, manage them effectively andoptimize the cost of capital. When it comesto HR management what matters is an opti-mally efficient deployment of people, theirtalents and commitment. Brand manage-ment is about having a company that is ac-cepted and appreciated by the environmentit is part of. Risk management is the com-pany’s ability to come up with decisions thatminimize the downside inherent in the par-ticular business. Since risks cannot be elim-inated entirely, risk management is really anon-going strategic decision-making process.

A company without values shared by itsmanagement and employees would be ahouse of cards, prone to collapse at anyshakeup. That is why atop of the five com-petencies come values, in four different cat-egories:

• the company’s goals• the way the company treats its employ-

ees• the goals of the company’s owners• corporate social responsibility The first category, the company’s goals,

signifies the ability of a company to offerharmonious development in sync with thecompany’s stakeholders. The way the com-pany treats its employees is significant be-cause we live in a world in which a com-pany’s value will not be realized without theengagement of its employees in upholdingthe value. In turn, for a healthy company thegoals of its owners (i.e. shareholders) haveto be in line with the goals and interests ofall the other stakeholders, especially when itcomes to finding a solution to the dilemmaof short-term goals versus long-term goals.In terms of corporate social responsibility,only a company that realizes that it has tobear responsibility for the negative aspectsof its business that affect the public at large,or a specific community or environment,can expect to be appreciated as a part of thesociety.

how far can we see?In late 2010 PwC undertook a pioneering re-search project to evaluate Polish companiesto see where they stood in terms of the fivehealthy growth areas and four values identi-fied above. Survey responses were analyzedby a group of experts chosen by PwC in therelevant fields. The whole project rested onthe principle that the answers would revealif the respondents knew what they weretalking about or not. They were then gradedon a scale from 1 to 10 accordingly. For in-stance, for the question “Do you have a riskmanagement system in your company?” ifthe answer was “No, we don’t need one,”that scored a “0” because it revealed com-plete ignorance of the problem. If the an-swer to this question was “Yes, we have asystem and we use it every day,” that scoredthe highest because it indicated not onlythat the company knows about the impor-tance of risk management in theory but alsopractices it. An answer such as “We don’thave a risk management system but we areworking to implement one soon” scoredsomewhere in the middle.

As noted by Orłowski, the author of thestudy, the idea behind it was not to find outthe real status of Polish companies, but whatis in their heads. PwC did not try to verifythe answers against the reality of the com-pany. It instead measured the substance ofthe answers against the problems they re-ferred to. Another example: the survey in-cluded a question about whether or not acompany has substitute management inplace, in case the person who runs the com-pany on a daily basis is absent for a fewmonths. Answers such as “No, because ourCEO would never take such a long holiday”got low scores. Answers such as “Of coursewe do” got top scores, and answers like “No,


porate tax declarations is March 31 of thefollowing year.

Similarly, members of the managementboard of a limited-liability company mayalso be held personally liable for the com-pany’s debts to third-party creditors, in-cluding unpaid wages, if the members ofthe management board fail to place thecompany in bankruptcy by the requiredtime.

TaxesAmerican investments in Poland are sub-ject to the tax treaty between Poland andthe United States. Generally, the treatybenefits U.S. investors and enables themto offset their tax liability in the UnitedStates by the amount of taxes paid inPoland (and vice versa).

VAT, however, is another story. VAT,which has just risen to 23% for mostgoods and services in Poland, is due andpayable to the tax office by the 25th of themonth following issuance of an invoice,regardless of whether the invoice has ac-tually been paid. In other words, businessowners may be required to pay VAT to thePolish Treasury in advance of payment.The obvious disadvantage to business isthe negative impact on a company’s cashflow this requirement creates if paymentis made late or not at all.

Employee rightsInfluenced by European tradition and aholdover from the Soviet era, employeesenjoy greater protection in Poland than inthe United States. Group layoffs are reg-ulated, as are individual redundancies. Inorder to implement a group layoff, gener-ally understood to mean firing at least tenemployees in a company having up to100 employees or 10% or more of alarger company’s workforce, an employermust follow a set of procedures, includ-ing advance consultation with the em-ployees’ union in an effort to reach anagreed way forward to realize theplanned layoff, payment of up to 3months’ severance, depending on thelength of employment, and an obligationto rehire the employees if and when thefortunes of the company improve. Thesame requirements apply to firing an in-dividual employee for reasons not asso-ciated with the employee’s individual per-formance. Moreover, litigation by firedemployees is commonplace in Poland.

Additional restrictions apply to layoffsof employees by a company located in aSpecial Economic Zone. In exchange forobtaining tax breaks and incentives to lo-cate in a Special Economic Zone, the em-ployer has most likely agreed to maintaina certain level of employment over a de-fined period. Any reduction in employ-ment below this floor may very well con-stitute a breach of the investor’s agree-ment with the local authorities, resulting

in forfeiture of tax breaks and incentivespreviously received.

Finally, American managers should beaware that employees are entitled tomore generous parental leave in Polandthan in the United States. At present a fe-male employee is entitled to up to 22weeks of paid maternity leave, as well asadditional rights that include the possibil-ity to take unpaid leave for up to 3 years.Similar rights may also be exercised by amale employee in certain circumstances.

Work and residency permits American managers, employees and en-trepreneurs are all subject to Poland’sregime of work and residency permits. Awork permit is usually issued for one year,as are residency permits. Failure to obtainthe required work permit may in certaincases result in the imposition of a fine onthe employer and expulsion of the Amer-ican from Poland. The procedures to ob-tain the required permits are cumber-some and time-consuming, and have ledto the creation of a cottage industry in as-sisting American and other foreign na-tionals from outside the European Unionto obtain such permits.

but we are thinking about implementingsuch a system” scored somewhere in be-tween.

Report cardThe study culminated in a report entitled“Healthy Development: Report on the De-velopment of Polish Companies.” Accordingto the report, the average Polish companyhas a growing understanding of the impor-tance of such areas as risk management,brand management and human resourcemanagement. Its weakness lies in the area ofvision and strategy development for thecompany, and a lack of understanding ofcorporate social responsibility. PwC’s ex-perts graded the competencies of the com-panies surveyed in the five areas identifiedas crucial for healthy development. The av-erage score for vision and strategy for thecompany’s development was 5.5 out of 10,healthy finances 5.7, human resources man-agement 5.7, brand management 6.0 andrisk management 6.2.

As Orłowski summed up the findings:“The strength of each field of competencyis mediocre.”

Vision and strategyThe competencies of Polish companies ap-pear to be weakest in the area of creating avision and strategy for the company’s devel-opment. The answers given by the samplecompanies came in at an average of 5.5, thelowest of all five areas of competency inves-tigated by PwC. This does not mean thatPolish companies are not ambitious. A sig-nificant number of the sample said thatwithin the next five years they either plan tohave their company’s shares listed on thestock exchange (16%) or bring in an institu-tional investor (7%). Acquisition was indi-cated as a way to grow by 22% of the sample,greenfield investment 11% and consolida-tion 6%. But 61% of the sample said theywere bound by the limits of their businessdevelopment.

In their analysis of markets, 25% of thesample rely on information in the public do-main, while 33% use their own market intel-ligence experts or hire external experts. An-other 33% rely on their own “market intu-ition,” while 11% do not bother with suchactivities at all. “The ability to form a strat-egy for a company’s development is, beyondany doubt, the weakest area of competency,”Orłowski said. “There were different ques-tions penetrating this area, and all answersshowed that it is a weakness. Most compa-

nies prefer short-term thinking.”

healthy financesFinancial competencies scored 5.7 out of 10,which indicates that most of the sampleenjoy a stable financial situation. However,20% of the sample said their cash flow maybe in jeopardy, and 6% of the sample saidlate payments may lead them to bankruptcy.PwC experts say this is a significant im-provement over 2009, when the financial cri-sis peaked. It also means that many compa-nies have implemented different processesto optimize turnover management, or haveput more strict regimes in place to evaluatethe solvency of their customers. Having wit-nessed the global financial meltdown in2009, most companies are aware of the im-portance of monitoring cash flow to securehealthy business development.

When looking for funding, companies aremost likely to rely on bank loans (35% of thesample), 25% use financial institutions thatoffer leasing or other financial tools, whileonly 15% resort to external experts, and an-other 15% of the sample said that an IPO orfinancial investors are the way they intend toraise capital going forward.

human resources managementPwC evaluated the competency of Polishcompanies in human resource managementat 5.7 out of 10. Most companies in the sam-ple reflected in their answers a uniform un-derstanding of the role of HR departments:33% indicated they are strategic partners forthe company’s management board, but an-other 33% said HR departments deal exclu-sively with issues of workforce administra-tion (counting days off of individual workersand the like) and payroll. For 20% of thesample, HR departments are stand-alonecompany units charged with executing tasksappointed by the company’s managementboard.

As many as 40% of the sample said theyperceive human capital as a strategic issue

for the organization. Those companies havedeveloped detailed plans for workforce de-velopment and retention. At the same time,40% of the sample said they do not havesuch plans and limit their HR activities torunning employee training according to apredefined schedule, and 21% said theyraise their employees’ skills only when thereis a clear need to do so. Only 20% of thesample appeared to have a formal HR strat-egy in place that is coordinated with theirbusiness development strategy. Over 50% of

the sample appeared to have some HR de-velopment strategy, but only at an informallevel.

Interestingly, 53% of the sample said theirexpenditures on HR development (trainingand the like) in 2010 remained at the 2009level, and 12% said it decreased.

When it comes to wage and motivationsystems, most of the sample said they werehappy with their existing ones, with 20%saying they did not see any need to reviewthem. Others, 40% of the sample, are re-viewing their wage and motivation systems,including 6% who are using external expertsto do so.

Brand managementIn this category the median mark for thesample was 6.0. Regular client-satisfactionsurveys were valued highly by 67% of thesample. While companies seem to careabout what the public thinks of them, theydon’t care as much about what their ownemployees think, with only 20% of the sam-ple saying they run regular worker-satisfac-tion surveys. Over 30% of the sample saidthey know what their workers think aboutthem and therefore do not conduct suchsurveys, and 10% said they do not need such

surveys at all. Over 1/3 of the sample said they study

their brand’s perception, including 15%who do so on a regular basis. Only 6% of thesample said they see no need for such moni-toring, and 2% admitted they do nothing atall in this regard. Most companies (56%)adopt a middle-of-the road policy, conduct-ing actions to improve their image but notconducting research on how the company isperceived. In general, Polish companies areaware of the importance of the company’sreputation for business and are very prag-matic about it. However, they are willing torisk tarnishing their image by getting in-volved in activities that would not be well-received by the media or the public butwould generate short-term benefits. In thecase of a threat to their public relations,36% of the sample would conduct a long-term analysis of the impact on their busi-ness, 19% would assess the impact under acurrent cost/benefit analysis, while 13%would factor in the PR spin when looking atall financial aspects. Only 33% of the samplesaid they would not enter into any situationthat could potentially damage their imageexternally.

When it comes to business ethics, the

"The ability to form a strategy for a company’sdevelopment is the weakest area of compe-tency. Most companies prefer short-termthinking."

COVER STORY: Corporate governance


COVER STORY: Corporate governance AMCHAM: General Meeting

Product warranties Product warranties are commonplace inboth the United States and Poland. InPoland, however, warranties are man-dated by law. In general, consumer prod-ucts include a two-year mandatory war-ranty. Manufacturers are free to offer ex-tended warranties. Minimum warranty pe-riods apply in the construction industry aswell, and vary depending on the type andscope of construction. Merchandise pur-chased via the Internet includes an ex-tended right of return beyond that pro-vided for merchandise purchased in a tra-ditional store.

Real property The purchase of real property in Polandby an American or other non-E.U. citizenmay be subject to approval by the Min-istry of the Interior. In general an Ameri-can manager delegated to Poland is freeto purchase an apartment as his or herprimary residence without restriction. Re-strictions do apply, however, in the caseof a second home, land exceeding a cer-tain area, or property located alongPoland’s borders.

Court systemIn comparison to Poland, Americans area litigious bunch. American investorsshould note, however, that Poland’s legalsystem is based on a civil-law approach,as opposed to a common-law approach.In other words, cases are tried basedupon statutory law. Generally speaking, aPolish judge relies on the text of the law orregulation in deciding a case, and not onthe precedent from another court that ad-judicated a similar point of law earlier.With this in mind, an American investorshould think twice before resorting to aPolish court to resolve a dispute quickly.Alternative solutions exist, such as the in-clusion of arbitration clauses and provi-sions for liquidated damages withinagreements.

Despite these differences in the legalapproach to developing a free-marketeconomy in Poland, American investmentin Poland continues to grow, as docu-mented by the recent report by KPMG incooperation with the American Chamberof Commerce in Poland. American for-eign direct investment now ranks 5th inPoland, and by all accounts should con-tinue to increase. As evidenced by thetrack record of American investors to datein Poland, the key to success in Poland isfirst to identify the differences that do existbetween the U.S. and Polish approachesto a free market, and once they are iden-tified, to adapt accordingly in order toavoid potential pitfalls and liability.

The author is a U.S. attorney with the lawfirm of Miller Canfield and a member ofthe AmCham Board.

survey revealed that Polish companies arevery optimistic. Half of the sample said thatif unethical behavior is spotted at a lowerlevel in the company structure, they wouldbe able to get this information up to thehigher echelons of corporate management.Approximately 25% of the sample said theircompanies have open, transparent and ef-fective policies for enforcing ethical behav-ior which do not require the involvement ofhigh-level managers. On the other end ofthe spectrum was the 6% of the sample whosaid that lower-level unethical behaviorwould not be reported higher up the corpo-rate hierarchy, and another 6% said they

were unable to predict what would happenunder such circumstances in their owncompanies.

Prof. Orłowski stresses that brand man-agement has undergone significant im-provement over recent years in Poland.“Only a few years ago many companies un-derstood brand management as having theirlawyers silence unhappy customers,” hesaid. “This has changed significantly.Today’s company has become less hierarchi-cal, and the distance between the subordi-nates and their bosses has shrunk, whichboosts internal communications and there-fore creates a more supportive atmosphereto communicate instances of unethical be-havior.”

Risk managementThe competency of risk management scoreda median 6.2 out of 10 for the sample, whichwas the highest median result in all five cat-egories. This is a good average result, giventhat 64% of the sample said they do not haveany formal risk management system in placeand only 5% said they are considering im-plementing one in the future.

The downside continues. For 35% of thesample, losing one of their top three cus-tomers would lead to severe business conse-quences, and for 2% it would mean insol-vency.

Polish companies have a much better un-derstanding of the importance of risk man-agement when they deal with financial prod-ucts. However, only 15% of the samplewould outsource risk evaluation of the prod-ucts they are interested in to external spe-cialists, while 56% of the sample said theydo this on their own.

When it comes to internal risk manage-ment, 59% of the sample have their owncontrol systems in place, and 30% said they

rely only on informal structures.

Values that make firms strongAccording to Orłowski, where Polish compa-nies have huge room for improvement is thearea of the values they uphold. “Companies’attitudes toward their employees are oneweak point,” he said. “Many companies alsodefine their goals in a way that has a nega-tive impact on the companies themselves.”

Orłowski also points to the relatively weakunderstanding of corporate social responsi-bility. Many companies fail to notice thatthey are not in business solely for the bene-fit of the shareholders, or even just for the

benefit of both shareholders and workers,but that a business is a part of a wider envi-ronment to which it has responsibilities. AsOrłowski said, “CSR was the area with theweakest scoring on the principles of healthybusiness development.”

only the first stepWith all the shortcomings of a pioneeringidea, the PwC survey sought to find out howhealthy Polish companies are in their busi-ness growth. It is hard to overestimate theimportance of this issue following the re-cent global crisis.

The survey was compiled by PwC basedon data submitted by 70 companies, 41% ofwhich were classified as small, 39%medium-sized and 20% large. Of the 70,40% are publicly traded. For Prof. Orłowski,the study is a success if some valuable con-clusions can be drawn from the responses:“We wanted to see in what terms companiesthink about being in business. If the an-swers were in line with the theory, it at leastmeans that the company knows what is rightwhen it comes to business growth.”

The survey was just the first step in alarger project. As Orłowski explained, “Wewill reach deeper into having more sophisti-cated measurement methods, which will letcompanies themselves see where they standon the five areas of competencies and thefour sets of values that together make uphealthy business development.”

Befriend the Friendly StateAmerican companies in Poland offer a valuable perspective on government that works

The Anglo-American model of legalsolutions for business is an inspira-tion for Polish lawmakers in the cur-

rent government coalition led by the CivicPlatform party, said MP Adam Szejnfeld, thekeynote speaker at the AmCham AnnualGeneral Meeting in December.

Szejnfeld, the newly appointed head ofthe “Friendly State” parliamentary commit-tee, which is charged with getting rid of bu-reaucratic impediments to business, com-plemented AmCham on its input of solu-tions for the committee when it was workingon a set of acts collectively known as the En-trepreneurship Package. “AmCham not onlysubmitted its proposals of legal solutions tothe committee, but also offered valuable ad-vice on other regulations reviewed by thecommittee,” Szejnfeld said.

For Szejnfeld, ideas submitted by Ameri-can companies are of special value becausethe U.S. is a country that has successfullymade the most out of merging public andprivate spheres via public-private partner-ship programs, where the business expertiseand entrepreneurship acumen of the privatesector are applied to meet the needs of localand regional communities, to the mutualbenefit of both. “We tried to pattern manysolutions that we adopted in our Public-Pri-vate Partnership Act on models applied suc-cessfully in the U.S.,” Szejnfeld said. “I’mglad to conclude that in a legal environmentthat stems from the principles of Continen-tal law, these Anglo-Saxon solutions work aswell.”

He noted that the PPP Act has alreadyborne fruit, although much more is antici-pated by the government. “So far, a total ofPLN 1.5 billion has been invested in PPP

projects in Poland,” Szejnfeld said. “In itsfinancial scope, one may say it is a humblebeginning, but we should also be happy thatapparently the act is making a real differ-ence.”

And the act has huge potential. “Poland isthe largest building site in the EuropeanUnion,” as Szejnfeld pointed out, “withprojects estimated at over EUR 100 billion.Thousands of new investment projects willtake place in Poland in the years to come. Amajor portion of those investment projectsmay be carried out under the PPP legisla-tion. There are a lot of opportunities here,but what we lack is experience and best-practice guidelines. I know, however, that ahuge segment of the public administration,especially in local government, is open toPPP and is willing to apply it in practice.”

Szejnfeld said that he strongly recom-mends PPP to the private sector as well:“PPP projects create long-lasting jobs. Weknow of examples (not in Poland) of PPPprojects being undertaken for a span of 70or even 100 years.”

Szejnfeld noted that in PPP, the sides ofthe deal are free to set up theconditions for their coopera-tion that best suit their roles.“The PPP Act is the first actin Poland that includes noprovisions that would explic-itly prohibit either side fromresorting to certain legal solu-tions, nor require either sideto use certain solutions,” heexplained. “There are no pro-visions allowing governmentministers or other agencies to

have their say in extending or limiting theresponsibilities of either side in any otherway than is agreed by the parties. In otherwords, the terms on which PPP contractscan be entered into are solely to be decidedby the parties to each individual project.This will allow the private sector to enterinto long-term, fruitful cooperation pro-grams with the public sector.”

Business-friendly bureaucrats?For Szejnfeld, legal solutions that are not, bydefault, hostile to business and entrepre-neurs, but on the contrary take their needsfor granted, is only one leg of a truly busi-ness-friendly administration. Another partof the balance is civil servants and adminis-tration officials whose understanding ofbusiness requirements and willingness towork with business and support business intheir areas of competence are not dwarfedby the red tape they cannot avoid. “We aretrying to change the reality there as well,”he explained, “and resort to solutions thatyou may know from the U.S. and othercountries you do business in.” He notedthat the reason lawmakers in Poland look atdifferent solutions in different countries, in-cluding the U.S., is that their goal is to cre-ate the legal basis for a truly modern and ef-ficient administration. “We are looking atsolutions in many different countries thatdelivered results and worked for them.”

Adam Szejnfeld encour-ages commercial investorsto take the opportunity inpublic-private partnership

projects as theyoffer steady busi-ness for many yearsto come

Today’s company has become less hierarchi-cal, and the distance between the subordi-nates and their bosses has shrunk, whichboosts internal communications and thereforecreates a more supportive atmosphere to com-municate instances of unethical behavior.

Tomasz Ćwiok

changing the principles at the foundation ofthe state in its dealings with the private sec-tor.”

Rationalizing tax regimesThe rules under which companies are re-quired to pay certain taxes are also in thesights of the Friendly State committee. Mostsignificant of these is the requirement topay VAT on goods and services by a certaindeadline regardless of whether the remitterhas been paid by the purchaser. Under thecurrent regulations, companies have to payVAT once goods and services are invoiced,whether or not the invoice has been paid.“I’m doing a study on different aspects ofVAT regulations and other tax regulations asto their feasibility from a business stand-point,” Szejnfeld said. “I would like to havea draft of legislation making tax obligationsfor business feasible in Parliament in 2011.”

Reforming reformersThe Friendly State committee has beenaround for three years—long enough to lookinto its own efficiency and evaluate certainapproaches to lawmaking. According to Sze-jnfeld, it could have done much better had itconsistently followed up on the legislation itproposed, instead of letting other govern-ment ministries handle the rest of the leg-islative process. Szejnfeld said that under

his chairmanship, the committee will not letthe legislation it initiates “evaporate.”

Another necessary reform for the com-mittee is in the way it evaluates the impor-tance for business of the legal problems ithandles. According to Szejnfeld, in the pastthe committee got involved in tinkering withminor acts, and even if they had some nega-tive impact on business, the improvementsdid not mark any significant improvement ofthe legal system for business as a whole.“My intention is to have an impact on thelaws that have an impact on the system,”Szejnfeld said. “But to be successful, theFriendly State committee is not enough. In-volvement of strong social partners, includ-ing business organizations, is necessary.”

into the new piece of legislation. “It is myphilosophy to involve in the legislativeprocess those whom the legislation in ques-tion affects,” Szejnfeld explained. He addedthat the input from AmCham member com-panies is invaluable in this legislative work:“It is you who should single out the regula-tions that impede you in the process ofpitching for good public business.”

cutting administrative costsA huge cost item of many investmentprocesses in Poland is the obligation for theinvestor to obtain various types of certifi-cates from different authorities that merelystate what the investor already knows or caneasily document without bothering otherauthorities. The cost in obtaining needlesscertificates is not so much the fees involvedas the time and effort. The tradition of re-quiring certificates is strong in Poland.Sometimes in order to have a certificate is-sued from one authority, the investor firstmust obtain a certificate from another. It isalso not clear how much time different au-thorities have to issue each certificate.While some do so on the spot, based on anoral or brief written request, others hide be-hind red tape and are not forthcoming.

According to the experts from theFriendly State committee, this certificate-crazed culture should be replaced by an af-

firmation culture, where the authoritiescould rely on a formal statement issued bythe applicant itself. The administrationwould be able to review the truth of thestatement, and if it were inaccurate the ap-plicant would bear the consequences ofmaking a false statement to the public au-thorities.

Szejnfeld said it is his ambition to makethe same principle a standard for businessin all dealings with bureaucracy. If, for ex-ample, a company produces documentsshowing it has paid the social insurance(ZUS) contributions for its employees ontime for a given period, the authority thatneeds to ascertain this fact would be re-quired to accept the company’s statement orelse, within a certain time, determine other-wise through the relevant ZUS office. If theauthority fails to dispute the company’sstatement in the time allowed, the state-ment would be assumed to be correct andlegally binding in the company’s dealingswith the authority. “It is a huge challenge tointroduce such a mechanism,” Szejnfeldsaid. “But if we succeed it will amount to

closer to the u.S. The need for a broader Polish-Americanbusiness base is, for Szejnfeld, a must-have. This not only involves more U.S. in-vestment in Poland, but more Polish firmsgetting involved in business in the U.S. aswell. Szejnfeld praised AmCham for itsinitiative in creating a lobbying organiza-tion, the Pro-Polska Coalition, with themission of promoting Polish business inthe U.S. One of the main impacts of Pro-Polska is that it delivered a stimulus forlawmakers in the Parliament to write a billsetting the ground rules for state aid tohelp Polish companies promote theirgoods and services in the U.S. and otherforeign markets. “For several weeks, thelegislators on the Friendly State commit-tee have been consulting representativesof the private sector from different tradeorganizations about this,” Szejnfeld toldAmCham members. He added that the co-operation has been effective. “It is a greatexample of how politicians and business-people can work together for the benefit ofthe public at large. I hope that a draft ofthe bill will be ready for submission to theParliament next year.”

mass deregulationGroundbreaking legislation from theFriendly State committee that will have a

permanent impact on the reality of doingbusiness in Poland is yet to come. Code-named the “Deregulation Act,” it was sub-mitted to the Parliament as a government-sponsored bill in December. The para-mount importance of the bill is that in onesweeping act it would repeal nearly 100earlier acts that have a negative impact onthe development of business in Poland. “Inone legislative sweep we will stamp out allthose barriers to business,” Szejnfeld ex-plained, “instead of trying to doctor thenearly 100 individual acts.”

But repealing all of the laws will not au-tomatically create a much better legal en-vironment for doing business in Poland.Some acts, such as the Public Procure-ment Law, need doctoring if they are tobetter serve their purpose for both Polishand international companies. This is an-other area of reform for the Friendly Statecommittee in 2011. To come up with legis-lation that best serves the business com-munity, the committee needs to workclosely with business organizations thatcan input their expertise and knowhow


Tomasz Ćwiok

“My intention is to have an impact on the laws that have an impact on the system.”

AmCham General Meeting

1 3M POLAND Sp. z o.o. Claude Richard General Director www.3m.com.plA

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2 ABBOTT LABORATORIES POLAND Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Oleszczuk General Manager www.abbott.pl3 ACCREO TAXAND Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Antosik Management Board Member www.taxand.pl4 ACE EUROPEAN GROUP Ltd, Branch in Poland Przemysław Owczarek Director www.aceeuropeangroup.com5 ACXIOM POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Agata Szeliga Staszkiewicz Member of the Board www.acxiom.pl6 ADECCO POLAND Sp. z o.o. Anna Wicha Country Manager www.adecco.pl7 ADVENT INTERNATIONAL Sp. z o.o. Monika Morali Efinowicz General Director www.adventinternational.pl8 AECOM Sp. z o.o. Paweł Fert Country Manager www.aecom.com9 AGRI PLUS S.A. GROUP Louis Cerdan Ibanez President www.agriplus.com.pl10 AGS Warsaw Antoine Duquesnay Polish Branch Manager www.ags-worldwide-movers.com11 AIG/LINCOLN POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Brian D. Patterson Managing Partner www.aiglincoln.com.pl12 AIR PRODUCTS Sp z o.o. Piotr Wieczorek Member of the Board www.airproducts.com.pl13 ALCATEL-LUCENT POLSKA S.A. Andrzej Dulka President of the Board www.alcatel-lucent.pl14 ALVAREZ & MARSAL POLAND Sp. z o.o. Thomas Kolaja Member of the Board www.alvarezandmarsal.com15 AMERICAN EXPRESS POLAND S.A. Zbigniew Filipowicz Country Manager www.americanexpress.pl16 AMERICAN SCHOOL OF WARSAW Tony Gerlicz Director www.asw.waw.pl17 AMGEN Sp. z o.o. Krzysztof Adamcewicz Corporate Affairs Director www.amgen.com18 AMREST Sp. z o.o. Henry McGovern President, CEO www.amrest.eu19 AMROP, MMA I PARTNERZY Sp. z o.o. Rafał Andrzejewski Partner www.amrop.pl20 AMWAY BUSINESS CENTRE-EUROPE Sp. z o.o. Przemysław Siuda General Manager www.amway.com21 AMWAY Polska Leszek Kręcielewski General Director www.amway.pl22 ANIMEX Sp. z o.o. Andrzej Pawelczak PR Director www.animex.pl23 APCO WORLDWIDE Sp. z o.o. Tony Housh Senior Counselor www.apcoworldwide.com24 APOLLO-RIDA POLAND Sp. z o.o. David Mitzner President www.apollorida.com.pl25 ARUP Andrzej Sitko Director www.arup.com26 AVAYA POLAND Sp. z o.o. Marcin Dziedzic Country Leader Poland www.avaya.com27 AVIS Radosław Lesiak Vice President www.avis.pl28 AVON COSMETICS POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Dariusz Dzięcioł Senior Manager www.avon.com.pl

29 BAE SYSTEMS (POLAND) Sp. z o.o. David Burgess Managing Director www.baesystems.com30 Baker & McKenzie Gruszczyński i Wspólnicy Jur Gruszczyński Managing Partner www.bakernet.com31 BANK BPH SA Richard Gaskin President www.bph.pl32 BANK HANDLOWY W WARSZAWIE SA Sławomir S. Sikora President, CEO www.citihandlowy.pl33 BANK POLSKA KASA OPIEKI S.A. Andrzej Kopyrski Vice President www.pekao.com.pl34 BANK ZACHODNI WBK S.A. Mateusz Morawiecki President www.english.bzwbk.pl35 BANKOMAT 24/EURONET Sp. z o.o. Marek Szafirski President www.euronetworldwide.com36 BASELL ORLEN POLYOLEFINS Sp. z o.o. Paul Augustowski President, CEO www.basellorlen.pl37 BAXTER POLAND Sp. z o.o. Paweł Żelewski General Manager www.baxter.com38 BIS INDUSTRIETECHNIK Polska Sp. z o.o. Wieslaw Kempa Managing Director www.bis.bilfinger.com39 BMW POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Andreas Biehler Managing Director www.bmw.pl40 BOEING INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION Henryka Bochniarz President, CEE www.boeing.com41 BOSE Sp. z o.o. Witold Lisowski General Manager www.bose.pl42 BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP Sp. z o.o. Wojciech Sass Partner www.bcg.com.pl43 BOSTON SCIENTIFIC POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Marcin Gołębicki Regional Director www.bsci.com44 BOVIS LEND LEASE Sp. z o.o. Artur Dziubak Business Development Manager www.bovislendlease.com45 BP POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Jerzy Brniak Country President www.bp.pl46 BPI POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Michał Kurtyka President www.bpi-group.com47 BRAND NATURE ACCESS Sp. z o.o. Anna Kryszczyszyn Deputy Managing Director www.bna.pl48 BRISTOL–MYERS SQUIBB POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Peter Koetsier President www.b-ms.pl49 BROWAR NAMYSŁÓW Sp. z o.o. Ryan Gostomski Chairman of the Board www.browarnamyslow.com.pl50 BROWN-FORMAN POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Andrzej Janota Managing Director n/a

51 C.H. ROBINSON POLAND Sp. z o.o. Joseph Kozlak Branch Manager www.chreurope.com52 CA Sp. z o.o. Michał Furman Industry Solutions Director www.ca.com53 CAN PACK S.A. Małgorzata Podrecka Legal Counsel www.canpack.com.pl54 CAPGEMINI POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Frank Wagenbauer CEO www.pl.capgemini.com55 CARTOON PLANET S.A. Samuel Washburn President www.cartoonplanet.pl56 CATERPILLAR FINANCIAL SERVICES POLAND Jarosław Myszkowski Country Manager www.cat.com57 CB RICHARD ELLIS Colin Waddell Managing Director www.cbre.pl58 CEC GOVERNMENT RELATIONS Sp. z o.o. Marek Matraszek Director, Founding Partner www.cecgr.com59 CEERES Sp. z o.o. Randy Michael Mott President www.ceeres.eu60 CEDC William Carey President, CEO www.cedc-c.com61 CEVA Freight Poland Sp. z o.o. Piotr Zborowski Managing Director www.cevalogistics.com62 CGI POLSKA Dariusz Gorzeń General Manager www.cgi.com63 CH2M HILL POLSKA Ltd Sp. z o.o. Ruben Robles Vice President www.ch2m.com64 CHADBOURNE & PARKE LLP Włodzimierz Radzikowski Managing Partner www.chadbourne.com65 CHARTIS EUROPE S.A. Agnieszka Żołędziowska-Kulig Operations Director www.chartisinsurance.com66 CHEVRON POLSKA ENERGY RESOURCES John Claussen Country Manager www.chevron.com

Company Name Person in charge Position Company website


67 CHRYSLER JEEP DODGE - FGA Maciej Ratyński Managing Director www.chrysler.pl

Alphabetical list of AmCham corporate members, as of December 31, 2010. Corporate members

AmCham Membership Directory 2011


Company Name Person in charge Position Company website Company Name Person in charge Position Company website

77 COUDERQ & PARTNERS POLAND Pierre Couderq President www.couderq.com78 COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT WARSAW AIRPORT Iwona Świtek Sales and Marketing Director www.courtyard.com/wawcy79 CPC EXECUTIVE SEARCH Janina Obniska Managing Partner www.cpc-executivesearch.pl80 CREDIT SUISSE (POLAND) Sp. z o.o. Marek Gul Country Manager www.csfb.com81 CRESTCOM INTERNATIONAL Andrzej Kuras Partner www.crestcomtraining.com82 CROWLEY DATA POLAND Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Roszkowski President, CEO www.crowley.pl83 CROWN RELOCATIONS Sp. z o.o. David Muir Chairman of the Board www.crownrelo.com84 CURB-TEC EUROPE Sp. j. Chris Hutchinson CEO www.curb-tec.pl85 CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Richard Petersen Managing Partner www.cushmanwakefield.com

86 DALE CARNEGIE & ASSOCIATES Pablo Martinez General Manager www.dalecarnegie.com.pl87 DBM Piotr Kociołek Managing Partner www.dbm.pl88 DEBENEDETTI MAJEWSKI SZCZEŚNIAK David DeBenedetti Partner www.dms.net.pl89 DELL Sp. z o.o. Maciej Filipkowski Managing Director www.dell.pl90 DELOITTE Marek Metrycki Managing Partner www.deloitte.com/pl91 DELPHI POLAND S.A. Dariusz Adamek Country Director www.delphi.com92 DEWEY & LEBOEUF Jarosław Grzesiak Managing Partner www.dl.com93 DIRECT COMMUNICATION Sp. z o.o. Angelo Pressello President www.dir.com.pl94 DLA PIPER WIATER sp.k. Krzysztof Wiater Managing Partner www.dlapiper.com95 DOW CORNING POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Anna Lau Eastern European Region Director www.dowcorning.com96 DOW POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Chlebicki Managing Director www.dow.com97 DUPONT POLAND Sp. z o.o. Thierry Marin Director Central Europe www.dupont.com.pl

98 EC HARRIS Sp. z o.o. Marcin Klammer Partner www.echarris.com99 EDELMAN POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Barbara Kwiecień General Manager www.edelman.com.pl100 EEZ Sp. z o.o. Krystian Stachowiak President www.eez.pl101 ELI LILLY POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Roberto Servi Managing Director www.lilly.pl102 EMC COMPUTER SYSTEMS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Dariusz Chwiejczak Country Manager www.emc.com

104 ENTERPRISE INVESTORS Jacek Siwicki President www.ei.com.pl105 ENVIRON POLAND Sp. z o.o. Jerzy A. Kołłajtis Principal www.environcorp.com106 EPSTEIN Sp. z o.o. Janusz T. Lichocki President www.epstein.com.pl107 ERNST & YOUNG S.A. Duleep Aluwihare Country Managing Partner www.ey.com/pl108 ESTEE LAUDER POLAND Sp. z o.o. Magdalena Kamińska General Manager www.esteelauder.com109 EURODENTAL Ltd. Michał Siciński President www.eurodental.pl110 EUROMEDIC INTERNATIONAL POLSKA Piotr Janicki President of the Board www.euromedic.pl111 EUROMONEY POLSKA S.A. Martin Bauer President www.securities.com112 EUROPCAR Grzegorz Wendyński President www.europcar.com.pl113 EXPRESS MAP POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Janusz Przeorek President www.e-map.pl114 EXXONMOBIL POLAND Sp. z o.o. Armando Benavides Poland Lead Country Manager www.exxonmobil.pl

115 FCM TRAVEL EXPRESS Sp. z o.o. Tim Hyland Managing Director www.travelexpress.pl116 FEDERAL EXPRESS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Michael Muehlberger President www.fedex.com/pl117 FEDEX TRADE NETWORKS Michał Rene Country Manager Poland www.ftn.fedex.com118 FINACORP (POLSKA) Sp. z o.o. Stan Popow Managing Partner www.finacorp.pl119 FIRESTONE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS POLAND Donald Campbell CFO www.firestone.polandtrade.pl120 FIRST DATA POLSKA S.A. Janusz Diemko Managing Director www.firstdata.pl121 FISERV POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Aleksandra Gren General Director www.fiserv.com122 FLEISHMAN–HILLARD Sp. z o.o. Julia Kozak Managing Director www.fleishmaneurope.com123 FLUOR S.A. Dave Gibson General Manager www.fluor.pl124 FOCUS RESEARCH Sp. z o.o. Richard A. Żabiński President, General Manager www.focusmr.com125 FOREVER LIVING PRODUCTS POLAND Jacek Kandefer Managing Director www.flpp.com.pl126 FOSTER WHEELER ENERGIA POLSKA Jarosław Mlonka President, CEO www.fwc.com127 FRANKLINCOVEY CEE (DOOR Poland Group) Marek Choim Group President www.franklincovey.pl128 FRITO-LAY POLAND Sp. z o.o. Małgorzata Skonieczna Public & Government Affairs Director www.fritolay.pl

129 GE INTERNATIONAL S.A. Lesław Kuzaj National Executive www.ge.com130 GENERAL MOTORS POLAND Peter Fahrni Manufacturing Director www.opel.com.pl131 GENZYME POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Paweł Miśkiewicz General Manager www.genzyme.com132 GLADSTONE POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Donal Charles Bailey Business Development Manager www.gladstonellc.com133 GOLD'S GYM Jay Spaid Leading General Manager www.goldsgym.pl134 GOODYEAR DUNLOP TIRES POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Jacek Pryczek President & Managing Director www.goodyear.pl 135 GTECH POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Wojciech Włodarczyk Site Manager for Poland www.gtech.com136 GUARDIAN CZĘSTOCHOWA Sp. z o.o. Zsolt Erdosi Managing Director www.guardian.com

137 HALCROW GROUP LIMITED Jarosław Karpiejuk Regional Director Poland www.halcrow.com138 HAY GROUP Sp. z o.o. Mik Kuczkiewicz Chairman of the Board www.haygroup.pl139 HBO POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Aleksander Kutela President www.hbo.pl140 HEIDRICK & STRUGGLES Matthew Tebeau Partner www.heidrick.com141 HEITMAN FINANCIAL Sp. z o.o. Dennis Dart Senior Vice President www.heitman.com142 HEWITT ASSOCIATES Sp. z o.o. Edward Robert Stanoch Managing Director www.hewitt.pl143 HEWLETT PACKARD Paweł Czajkowski Managing Director www.hp.pl144 HEWLETT-PACKARD GLOBAL BUSINESS CENTERJack Levernes Vice President www.hp.com145 HILL & KNOWLTON POLAND Agnieszka Dziedzic President www.hillandknowlton.pl146 HILL INTERNATIONAL Sp. z o.o. Jacek Żurawski Vice President www.hillintl.com.pl

147 HILTON WARSAW, Hotel & Convention Center Remco Norden General Manager www.hilton.com148 HINES POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Mieczysław Godzisz Managing Director www.hines.pl149 HJ HEINZ POLSKA S.A. Adam Dyszyński Managing Director www.pudliszki.pl150 HOGAN LOVELLS (Warszawa) LLP Beata Balas-Noszczyk Managing Partner www.hoganlovells.com151 HONEYWELL Sp. z o.o. Wojciech Krajewski Chairman www.honeywell.com.pl152 HYATT REGENCY WARSAW Josef Kral General Manager www.warsaw.regency.hyatt.com

153 IBM POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Anna Sieńko General Director www.ibm.com/pl154 ICAN Sp. z o.o. Andrzej Jacaszek Publisher, Board Member www.harvard.pl155 ILOOP MOBILE INC. S.A. Magdalena Bicz Administration Director www.iloopmobile.com156 IMPERIAL CINEPIX Sp. z o.o. Sunil R. Shah President www.imperial-cinepix.com.pl157 ING REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT Sp. z o.o. Piotr Wodzyński Management Board President www.ingrealestate.com158 INSTANT POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Anthony Narushka General Manager www.instant.com.pl159 INTEL TECHNOLOGY POLAND Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Klekowski Territory Manager CEE www.intel.pl160 INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL WARSZAWA Christian Henkemeier General Manager www.warsaw.intercontinental.com161 INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE Carina Pierre Rochard Regional Director www.global.nytimes.com162 INTERNATIONAL PAPER POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Berbeka President of the Board www.ipaper.com.pl163 IRON MOUNTAIN POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Iwona Wałach Commercial Director www.ironmountain.com.pl

164 JAVA COFFEE COMPANY Sp. z o.o. Glen S. Gregory CEO, President www.javacoffee.pl165 JOHNSON & JOHNSON POLAND Sp. z o.o. Magdalena Skopińska Managing Director www.its.jnj.com166 K & L GATES Maciej Jamka Managing Partner www.klgates.com167 KAJIMA POLAND Sp. z o.o. Masanori Iwasaki General Manager www.kajimaeurope.com168 KAŁUŻYŃSKI & MADEJA Sp. z o.o. Richard Kałużyński Managing Director www.kaluzynskimadeja.com169 KATO LABS Sp. z o.o. Janusz Wołejko President www.kato.pl170 KELLY SERVICES POLAND Sp. z o.o. Agnieszka Walter Country General Manager www.kellyservices.pl171 KLINEMAN ROSE & WOLF– POLAND Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Barylski President www.krw.com.pl172 KPMG Sp. z o.o. Peter Kay Partner www.kpmg.pl173 KRAFT FOODS POLSKA S.A. Stefan Golonka General Manager www.kraft.com174 KREVOX European Environmental Center Tadeusz G. Krężelewski General Director www.krevox.pl175 KROLL ONTRACK Sp. z o.o. Marek Suczyk Managing Director www.krollontrack.pl176 KULCZYK INVESTMENTS Dariusz Mioduski Management Board President www.kulczykholding.pl

177 LE ROYAL MERIDIEN BRISTOL Michael Goerdt Director General www.lemeridien.com/warsaw178 LEASEPLAN FLEET MANAGEMENT Sp. z o.o. Sławomir Wontrucki Managing Director www.leaseplan.pl179 LEMNA INTERNATIONAL, INC. Viet Ngo President, CEO www.lemnapolska.com180 LEVI STRAUSS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Dorota Gutkowska General Manager, President www.eu.levi.com/pl181 LIONBRIDGE POLAND Sp. z o.o. Jacek Stryczyński Country Manager, President www.lionbridge.com182 LITTLE LEAGUE Baseball & Softball EMEA Region Beata Kaszuba EMEA Region Director www.eteamz.com/llbeurope183 LOCKHEED MARTIN GLOBAL INC. S.A. Robert Orzyłowski Executive Director www.lockheedmartin.com184 LURGI S.A. Waldemar Winkler COO www.lurgi.pl185 LYNKA PROMOTIONAL SOLUTIONS John Lynch President www.lynka.com.pl186 ŁASZCZUK I WSPÓLNICY sp.k. Maciej Łaszczuk Managing Partner www.laszczuk.pl

187 MA MAISON LE REGINA HOTEL Krzysztof Olszewski General Manager www.leregina.com188 MAERSK POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Jeff Gościniak General Manager www.maerskline.com/poland189 MANPOWER POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Iwona Janas Country Manager www.manpower.pl190 MARATHON PETROLEUM POLAND SERVICES Carl R Hubacher Director www.marathonoil.com191 MARRIOTT HOTEL Albert Helms General Manager www.marriott.com/wawpl192 MARS POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Świgulski General Manager www.mars.pl193 MARSH Sp. z o.o. Richard Radford President www.marsh.pl194 MARY KAY COSMETICS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Ewa Kudlińska-Pyrz General Manager www.marykay.pl195 MASSIVE DESIGN Sp. z o.o. Przemysław Stopa President www.massivedesign.pl196 MATTEL POLAND Sp. z o.o. Sanjay Luthra Finance Manager www.mattel.com197 McDONALD'S POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Piotr Jucha Managing Director www.mcdonalds.pl198 MCKINSEY & COMPANY POLAND Sp. z o.o. Jacek Poświata Managing Director www.mckinsey.pl199 MEDICOVER Sp. z o.o. Loic Fretard Director of Medicover Hospital www.medicover.pl200 MEDTRONIC POLAND Sp. z o.o. Wojciech Jeżewski Finance Manager www.medtronic.com201 METLIFE AMPLICO Łukasz Kalinowski President www.metlifeamplico.pl202 MEYER TOOL POLAND Michał Sękowski Finance Director www.meyertoolpoland.com203 MICHAEL PAGE INTERNATIONAL Sp. z o.o. Jerome Lafuite Managing Director www.michaelpage.pl204 MICROSOFT Sp. z o.o. Jacek Murawski President www.microsoft.com/poland/205 MILLER, CANFIELD Richard Walawender Senior Partner www.millercanfield.pl206 MISZERAK & ASSOCIATES Sp. z o.o. Martin Miszerak CEO www.miszerakassociates.it207 MITSUBISHI CORPORATION Kunihiko Uchimura General Director www.mitsubishicorp.com208 MŁODE ORŁY S.A. Magdalena Mirski Member of the Supervisory Board www.mlodeorly.com209 MODIS POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Alf Davis Director www.modisintl.com210 MOTOROLA POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Ewa Porębska President www.motorola.pl211 MSD POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Łukasz Zybaczyński General Director www.msd.pl212 NALCO MOBOTEC POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Piotr Hajewski Sales Director www.nalco.pl213 NARODOWY FUNDUSZ Inwestycyjny Octava S.A. Piotr Rymaszewski President www.octava.com.pl214 NCR Polska Sp. z o.o. Andrzej Sowiński General Manager www.ncr.com215 NEUMANN INTERNATIONAL AG Zbigniew Plaza Principal www.neumann-inter.com216 NEUMANN LEADERSHIP POLAND Sp. z o.o. Marek Ambroziak Partner www.neumannpartners.com217 NORDSON POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Rutkowski General Manager www.nordson.com.pl218 NORTON ROSE Piotr Strawa i Wspólnicy Piotr Strawa Managing Partner www.nortonrose.com219 NOVARTIS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Don Bellamy CPO Head and Country President www.novartis.pl

220 ORANGE PRODUCTS EUROPE Sp. z o.o. Mariusz Leoniak Commercial Manager www.orangeproducts.com221 ORCO PROPERTY GROUP Alicja Kościesza Sales & Marketing Director www.orcogroup.com222 OTIS Sp. z o.o. Tomasz Begier President www.otis.com.pl223 PANATTONI EUROPE Robert Dobrzycki Regional Partner www.panattoni.com224 PEPSI COLA GENERAL BOTTLERS POLAND Andrzej Bruczko General Manager www.pepsi.pl225 PFIZER POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Patrick Vanginneken Country Manager www.pfizer.com.pl226 PHILIP MORRIS POLSKA Aleksander Grzesiak Managing Director www.pmintl.pl227 PITTSBURGH GLASS WORKS (POLAND) William H Hall European Operations Manager www.pgw.glass.com228 PM GROUP POLSKA Sp. z o. o. Con Murphy Managing Director www.pmg.pl229 POLISH ENERGY PARTNERS S.A. Zbigniew Prokopowicz President www.pepsa.com.pl230 POLSKA TELEFONIA CYFROWA Klaus Hartmann CEO, Director General www.era.pl

103 EMERSON PROCESS MANAGEMENT Tomasz Kosik Sales Director, CE Europe www.emersonprocess-powerwater.com

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AmCham Membership Directory 2011 AmCham Membership Directory 2011

68 CISCO SYSTEMS POLAND Sp. z o.o. Paweł Malak General Manager www.cisco.pl69 CLIFFORD CHANCE Nick Fletcher Managing Partner www.cliffordchance.com70 CMS CAMERON MCKENNA DARIUSZ GRESZTA Andrew Kozlowski Managing Partner www.cms-cmck.com71 CMS CORPORATE MANAGEMENT SERVICES Bogy Cimoszko Skowronski CEO www.cms-proalfa.pl72 COCA-COLA POLAND SERVICES Sp. z o.o. Paul Woodward Operations Director www.cocacola.com.pl73 COLGATE-PALMOLIVE POLAND Sp. z o.o. Wojciech Król General Manager www.colgate.pl74 COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL John Banka Partner Investment Services www. colliers.com75 COOPER STANDARD AUTOMOTIVE POLSKA Piotr Gąska Director of Operations www.cooperstandard.pl76 COPERNICUS FOUNDATION IN POLAND Jerzy Bystrowski Director of the Board www.woe.edu.pl

Growing stronger every year

oped structure of active committees, whichgenerate so much of our agenda and out-put. This is something I am particularlyproud of, because on the one hand I per-sonally believe in and support the commit-tee structure, and on the other hand it isthanks to the initiative of our members thatour committees are so active.

american business has been present inPoland for 20 years. over the years thenumber of companies and the scope oftheir ventures have been growing rap-idly. do you think there is still interestin investing in Poland? do americancompanies still perceive Poland as theplace to be, in spite of growing costs ofoperations?

Thankfully, the Polish wave is still on therise. In years past, there seemed to be aslowdown in traditional investments, withBPO filling the gap somewhat. But in 2010there was a clear revival of traditional in-vestments, with new factory openings,while BPO investments kept apace, withmany more to come. Poland continues to bea strategic investment location for reasonsof location and local market size, if not costsavings as much. The future looks brightfor years to come.

in your opinion, what is the biggestcontribution of amcham and ameri-can business to Poland?

The contribution of American businessto Poland cannot be overestimated. Today,Poland is naturally focused on E.U. issues,investments and funds, but we cannot for-get that it was American funds, investmentand knowhow that shaped the early years oftransformation in Poland. It was Americancompanies that invested most heavily andcreated market standards, with a total ofUSD 20 billion invested and 180,000 directjobs created to date. As an organization,however, we are a much-needed voice ofreason for wider business concerns. Al-though many Polish business organizationshave become strong advocates of reason,the need for AmCham’s clear position andAmerican point of reference does not di-minish.

on october 23, the amcham 20thanniversary Ball marked thestart of amcham’s third

decade. what were the beginnings ofthe american chamber of commercein Poland and how has it changedover the last 20 years?

AmCham started in 1990 with the initia-tive of about 10 individuals who were pri-marily Polish Americans. For the first 10years the chamber grew rapidly, with mem-bership tapering off to today’s 320+ es-teemed members, one-third of which areFortune 500 companies. The biggest differ-ence today is that we have developed into anestablished, professional business organi-zation that can handle quite a bit of output.

can any american company presentin Poland become an amcham mem-ber? how to begin the adventure withamcham?

AmCham Poland is actually the only Am-Cham in Europe to limit membership tocompanies that have a “significant Ameri-can presence” in terms of ownership. All ofour member companies have roots in theU.S. or significant business ties to the U.S.,which strictly defines who we are as an or-ganization and what we stand for. Thismakes us a stronger partner for the U.S.government dealing with Poland and for thePolish government dealing with business.Having said that, all of our companies areregistered in Poland, so ultimately we up-hold American business values to makePoland a friendlier environment for all in-vestors. Many American companies supporttheir local AmCham by definition, and weindeed want to capture all American in-vestors in Poland so that we are strongercollectively and so that we can serve thegroup.

what are amcham’s objectives? howdoes it support its member compa-nies?

Most importantly, we provide a platformfor member companies to discuss and acton common issues and concerns. This ob-jective we take quite seriously, and it is sup-ported by our committee structure, the ef-forts of our Board and the work of our staff.We reach out to the Polish governmentoften to raise these concerns.

the u.S. chamber of commerce, thelargest business federation in theworld, is present in every europeancountry. are there any differences be-tween amcham in Poland and othereuropean amchams?

The AmChams make up one strong net-work, but are indeed independently runfrom country to country. The directors ofthe AmChams meet regularly, and the ex-change of best practices is an importantpart of these meetings. It is nice to notethat at 20 years, AmCham Poland is quitemature and serves as an example for oth-ers. Our AmCham is on the high end of ac-tivity, and we have perhaps the most devel-

Just as 2010—the 20th AmCham anniversary year—comes to an end, AmericanInvestor talks with Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Executive Director, about thechamber’s progress, how it helps its members, and the significance of Americanbusiness for Poland’s economy


FOCUS: AmCham

Company Name Person in charge Position Company website

Member Contact phone

238 RANDSTAD Sp. z o.o. Kajetan Słonina General Director www.randstad.pl239 RAYTHEON INTERNATIONAL, INC. Leda Zilinskas Country Manager www.raytheon.com240 RIGHT MANAGEMENT POLAND Sp. z o.o. Agata Dulnik Principal Consultant www.rightmanagement.pl241 ROYAL UNIBREW POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Beata Pawłowska General Director www.royalunibrew.pl242 RR DONNELLEY EUROPE Sp. z o.o. Jan Przepióra Vice President www.rrdonnelley.eu.com243 RUSSELL REYNOLDS ASSOCIATES Sp. z o.o. Dorota Czarnota Managing Partner www.russellreynolds.com244 SABRE POLSKA Michael Dietz Site Leader www.sabre-holdings.com245 SALANS Tomasz Dąbrowski Managing Partner www.salans.com246 SANOFI-AVENTIS Sp. z o.o. Marynika Woroszylska-Sapieha Managing Director www.sanofi-aventis.com.pl247 SERCOM SOLUTIONS LIMITED Sp. z o.o. Anna Achremienia Business Development & Commercial Manager www.sercomsolutions.com248 SHERATON WARSAW HOTEL Thomas Schoen General Director www.sheraton.pl249 SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT CORPORATION Stanley J. Prusinski Director, Sikorsky Europe www.sikorsky.com250 SITEL POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Antonio Dos Santos Director www.sitel.pl251 SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE S.A. Stéphane Hild Country Head www.sgcib.com252 SODEXO POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Yann Gontard Managing Director www.sodexo.pl253 SOFITEL WARSAW VICTORIA Jean Michel Lathuilliere General Manager www.sofitel.com254 SOFTEX DATA Wojciech Warski Chairman of the Board www.softex.com.pl255 SPENCER STUART POLAND Sp. z o.o. Andrzej Maciejewski Office Manager/Consultant www.spencerstuart.com256 SQUIRE SANDERS ŚWIĘCICKI KRZEŚNIAK Peter Święcicki Chief Accountant www.ssd.com257 STAFFER Sp. z o.o. Ari Hecht President www.staffer.pl258 STEELCASE S.A. Elżbieta Gajowska Dealer & Marketing Manager www.steelcase.com/uk259 SWIFT AVIANA CARGO SERVICES Sp. z o.o. Alam Chaudry Chairman www.swiftaviana.com

260 TELEKOMUNIKACJA POLSKA S. A. Tomasz Nowakowski Executive Director www.tp.pl261 TELESTO Richard M. Lada Vice President www.telesto.pl262 THE CONFERENCE BOARD Michał Zdziarski Director, Associate Service www.conference-board.org263 THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY Katarzyna Westermark Managing Director www.disney.pl264 TOP CONSULTING Sp. z o.o. Robert Dziubłowski President, CEO www.topconsult.pl265 TRADE MEDIA INTERNATIONAL Michael J. Majchrzak Managing Director www.trademedia.us266 TRANSEARCH INTERNATIONAL POLAND Beata Żytka Managing Partner www.transearch.com267 TRUSIEWICZ SIWKO Kancelaria Prawna Sp. k. Rafał Trusiewicz Partner www.ts-kancelaria.pl268 UBS AG Peter Isenberg Executive Director www.ubs.com269 UL INTERNATIONAL POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Bogdan Maliszewski Branch Manager www.ul.com270 UNITED BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Sp. z o.o. Peter James Strupp CEO, President of the Board www.ubd.pl271 UNIVERSAL EXPRESS Sp. z o.o. Stefan Hildt Member of the Board www.uer.pl272 UNIVERSAL LEAF TOBACCO POLAND Sp. z o.o. Wojciech Lik Chairman of the Board www.universalleaf.com273 UPC POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Simon Boyd President www.upc.pl274 UPS POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Piotr Sitarek Country Manager www.ups.com

275 VF POLSKA DISTRIBUTION Sp. z o.o. Marek Hińcz Managing Director www.vfc.com276 VISKASE POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Monika Pływaczewska Commercial Director www.viskase.com277 VOLANTIS SYSTEMS LIMITED Sp. z o.o. Jarosław Maślanka Branch Director www.volantis.com278 WARDYŃSKI & PARTNERS Tomasz Wardyński CBE, Founding Partner www.wardynski.com.pl279 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT POLSKA Waldemar Saniewski Managing Director www.warnerbros.com280 WARSAW DESTINATION ALLIANCE Alex Kloszewski Chairman, Managing Director www.destinationwarsaw.com281 WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES Roman Rewald Partner www.weil.com282 WESTLB BANK POLSKA S.A. Maciej Stańczuk Chairman of the Board www.westlb.pl283 WHIRLPOOL POLSKA Sp z.o.o. Tomasz Skołyszewski CFO www.whirlpool.com284 White & Case W. Daniłowicz, W. Jurcewicz i Wspólnicy Witold Daniłowicz Managing Partner www.whitecase.pl285 WIERZBOWSKI EVERSHEDS Judith Y. Gliniecki Partner www.eversheds.pl286 WINCOR NIXDORF Sp. z o.o. Mirosław Janik Chairman of the Board www.wincor-nixdorf.com/pl287 WOODWARD GOVERNOR POLAND Sp. z o.o. Dominik Kania Executive Director www.woodward.com288 WRIGLEY POLAND Tomasz Suchecki Managing Director www.wrigley.pl289 WS ATKINS - POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Stephen Novis Member of the Board www.atkinsglobal.com290 XEROX POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Marzena Tarkowska Country General Manager www.xerox.com.pl291 X-PRESS COURIERS Sp. z o.o. Adam Tomczak President www.x-press.com.pl

1 Adam Bergmann +48-664-444-7772 Alain Bobet +48-513-190-2083 Brian Bode +48-22-648-08414 Alain Capodanno +48-694-487-4675 Dario Cipriani +48-608-000-5116 Andrew Davis +48-22-456-45007 Adam de Sola Pool +48-22-756-32328 George Dembinski +48-603-681-5259 Richard Engel +48-508-047-51010 Ewa Esquerra +48-602-722-62211 Andrew Hope +48-668-691-884

Member Contact phone12 Adam Ilczuk +48-513-152-12013 Katarzyna Janota +48-510-217-91014 Sylwester Klarowicz +48-668-133-03415 Richard Knauff +1-908-790-085016 Jon Kolasinski +48-500-206-22717 Erika Kovalick +48-666-234-53018 Steve Krupa +1-847-564-193119 Matthew Lynch +48-22-622-715320 Deepak Malhotra +48-663-935-60021 George Michalski +48-606-917-00022 Anya Ogorkiewicz +48-510-419-141

Member Contact phone23 Magda Pachocka +48-22-646-124924 Adam Paszkowski +48-22-835-300025 Beata Plaskocinska +1-917-859-179826 Steven Rudofsky +48-32-251-029327 Alex Shannon +48-501-515-74028 Christopher Smith +48-22-616-006229 Tadeusz Szostak +48-22-834-332130 Jerzy Thieme +48-601-282-81231 Stanley Urban +48-502-709-19032 Andrzej Wróbel +48-501-305-56533 Paul Zalucky +48-606-802-998

T, U

V, W, X

Alphabetical list of AmCham individual members, as of December 31, 2010. Individual members

AmCham Membership Directory 2011

231 PRAMERICA Beata Andruszkiewicz President www.pramerica.pl232 PRATT & WHITNEY Zbigniew Gradowski In-Country Program Manager www.pratt-whitney.com233 PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS Olga Grygier Siddons Managing Director www.pwc.com/pl234 PRIME CAR MANAGEMENT S.A. Grzegorz Czarnecki CEO www.primecar.com.pl235 PROCTER & GAMBLE DS POLSKA Sp. z o.o. Marek Kapuściński General Manager www.pg.com236 PROLOGIS Ben Bannatyne President www.prologis.com

237 RABOBANK POLSKA S.A. Jacek Szugajew President www.rabobank.plR, S

the american chamber of commercein Poland celebrated its 20th anniversarylast year. 2010 also marked the anniver-sary of the Polish social, political andeconomic transformation initiated in1989. what has been the involvement ofamerican companies and institutions inthe changes that have been taking placesince 1989?

A book could be written about the partici-pation of U.S. companies and institutions inPoland’s economic transformation after 1989.I have lectured on this subject at the CracowUniversity of Economics, and this has beenone of my favorite AmCham speaking topics.However, there is no room here for a full lec-ture, so I will summarize it. It seems to methat we can talk about the huge impact ofU.S. institutions not only on the beginningsof Poland’s transformation, but also on themanner it has progressed in the last 20 years.The American contribution to Poland’stransformation can be divided into the con-tribution of the American government (e.g.the Peace Corps, USAID, and assistance increation of the Warsaw Stock Exchange andthe Polish tax and financial systems); assis-tance on the part of the U.S. Congress, e.g.in the form of the USD 200 million Stabiliza-tion Fund, which gave rise to the PolishAmerican Enterprise Fund, the largest pri-vate equity fund in Poland, succeeded by En-terprise Investors; and the contribution of-fered by U.S. companies, which from the verybeginning of the new system in Poland werethe largest and most enthusiastic investors inthis country, providing not only capital butalso knowhow, management skills and theirimmense contribution to the development ofthe legal culture and the law. The UnitedStates of America was the home of the fa-mous “generals” that President Lech Wałęsahoped would invade Poland: General Electric,General Motors and General Dynamics.

what differentiates Poland as an invest-ment location, compared with othercountries in central & eastern europe?Poland’s neighbors often offer investorsbetter conditions in terms of subsidiesand tax relief, and some of them offerbetter infrastructure. what makesPoland attractive for investors now, andhow can Poland’s competitiveness beimproved in the future? how can it sup-port foreign investments wisely?

FOCUS: AmCham

Paving the way to successRoman Rewald, former AmCham Chairman who held office for three consecu-tive terms and now is an ex officio Board Member, talks to American Investor about what AmCham has achieved, where it is going and where it may be 20 years from now

According to a survey of American in-vestors in Poland conducted by AmCham andKPMG for AmCham’s 20th anniversary,Poland is very attractive for American in-vestors for two main reasons: a great locationand a fantastic labor force. Tax incentives,grants and so forth are also important in dif-ferentiating Poland from neighbors compet-ing for the same investors. On the otherhand, for a foreign investor who is shoppingaround for locations of manufacturing facili-ties, Poland with its large population is an ob-vious choice. There is a lot to be done tomake Poland more attractive to American andother foreign investors. The two things iden-tified by AmCham from the outset were im-provement of the transportation infrastruc-ture and improvement of the promotion ofPoland as a good place for foreign invest-ments. With respect to the latter, Polandshould adopt proven solutions, such as theapproach followed by the U.S. CommercialService, while existing investors in Polandshould be given as much assistance and pro-tection as possible since they are Poland’sbest ambassadors for new foreign investors.

what role should the state play in acountry’s economy? Should sensitivesectors of the economy be protected, fol-lowing the model designed by the e.u.,or would the example of the u.S. provemore effective?

The state has a very well-defined and obvi-ous role in the economy. The state must actas the regulator that watches over competi-tion to level it for all participants. The otherimportant function of the state is to protectthe external and internal security of the coun-try, to procure the enforcement of contractsand protect the legal order, as well as takecare of those in society who are unable to takecare of themselves. From the investors’ pointof view, the most important aspect is the pro-tection of competition by the state. With re-spect to sensitive sectors of the economy, theonly protection that the state should extendis against those sectors’ being taken over byforeign state capital. If I were to choose be-tween state ownership, I would always prefermy own state’s ownership vs. ownership bysomebody else’s state. The United Statesprotects its private industry from acquisitionby a foreign state under the Exon-Florio law.In Europe no such legislation exists, so Eu-ropean countries may only accomplish this bykeeping state ownership in certain compa-nies. Of the two solutions, I prefer the Amer-ican approach, where there is no need tomaintain any state ownership in the industryat all.

adam Szejnfeld, former deputy minis-ter of economy in donald tusk’s gov-ernment, was the last person to make aneffort to reduce barriers suffocating thePolish economy. he was awarded a cita-tion by amcham for his dedication tospreading economic freedom and re-ducing barriers to entrepreneurship.

how can Poland’s economy be effec-tively deregulated and stimulated?

AmCham was involved in de-bureaucrati-zation efforts from the very beginning of thePolish transformation, starting with the fa-mous committee of then Minister of Financeand Deputy Prime Minister Leszek Bal-cerowicz. Later, we used our best efforts toreduce the administrative burdens on busi-ness and make investment easier in thiscountry. With Adam Szejnfeld we have a longtradition of fighting for reasonable solutionsin the Polish legal framework for businesses.We welcome his position as head of the Par-liament committee on reduction of bureau-cracy. As a member and chairman of the Pro-Polska Coalition, I have been cooperatingwith Szejnfeld in his effort to improve pro-motion of Poland. In terms of a generaloverview of deregulation in Poland, my long-standing view is that a lot of examples of howthe economy should be regulated—or ratherderegulated—should be taken from theUnited States, where the world’s largesteconomy is run efficiently with an amazinglylimited number of state regulations.

Stimulating entrepreneurship wouldfree up innovation to support the knowl-edge-based economy of the future. howto achieve that goal?

It is a common-sense assumption that ifentrepreneurship is stimulated, it would nat-urally flow and result in substantial innova-tion. In Poland, this notion could be particu-larly supported by the fact that the relativelygood education and spirit of entrepreneur-ship in Poland naturally leads Poles to go intothe most innovative industries and technolo-gies. The location of American research cen-ters in Poland has been uniformly successful.Thus, if you ask me how to achieve the goal ofgetting some innovation into the Polish econ-omy, my answer is consistently the same: re-move the barriers to entrepreneurship thatare still abundant in this country.

the Polish energy sector has recentlyfaced two new challenges, or rather twonew opportunities: atomic energy andshale gas. Poland joined the GlobalShale Gas initiative, consisting of coun-tries that can potentially become signifi-cant producers of shale gas in the world.in april, amcham was involved in aconference with minister of Foreign af-fairs Radosław Sikorski and u.S. ambas-sador to Poland lee Feinstein. the goalof the conference was to present theprospects of shale gas mining to the Pol-ish public. can development of the shalegas and nuclear energy sectors increaseamerican Fdi in Poland, changing thePolish energy sector and the Polish econ-omy?

Both the Polish and U.S. governments be-lieve that shale gas is definitely going to havea substantial impact on the geopolitical posi-tion of Poland and Europe as a whole. It justso happens that American companies have

the best and probably the only knowhow inthis respect in the world. So, naturally, the de-velopment of American-Polish cooperation inshale gas achieves two goals: it increases Pol-ish-American economy cooperation, and itmakes Poland a more free and independentcountry, which is always in the interest of theU.S. government and U.S. citizens. Nuclearenergy is another issue where American in-vestors could successfully be involved inPoland. Accordingly, these two energy issuesseem to be the most important factors in thePolish-American transatlantic cooperation. Ibelieve that this notion is more and more rec-ognized on both sides of the ocean, and therewill be substantial efforts to develop cooper-ation in these two areas. AmCham’s ambitionis to be in the forefront of this activity.

the slowness and inefficiency of Polishcourts handling commercial cases iswidely known. what is it like in the u.S.?can Poland benefit from applying amer-ican best practices?

Last year I taught a law school course andpresented some salient features of Americancivil procedure and how dispute resolution isorganized by the courts that could easily beadopted in Poland without substantialchanges to the law. It seems to me that themuch-proclaimed difference between com-mon law and civil law systems is highly over-stated. However, the Polish courts could lookinto the organization of American courts anddraw on examples of how to adopt more oralcourt proceedings and introduce betterdocket control. This, however, would requirePolish lawyers to look at the American systemwithout the prejudice that stems from theconviction that the two systems are incom-patible due to differences in the approach tolaw. Hopefully people will be able to see pastthis barrier one day.

what is your vision of the Polish econ-omy, the involvement of american in-vestors, and Polish-american economicrelations for the 20 years to come?

The involvement of American companiesin the Polish economy is substantial, althoughAmerican investors are no longer the biggestinvestors in this country. Poland is, after all, apart of the European Union. Also, trade be-tween Poland and the U.S. is limited by thedisproportion in the sizes of the twoeconomies. Nevertheless, the development offree trade on a global basis is the vision of alldemocratically elected governments in theworld, and my vision of the Polish-Americanrelationship is further development and closecooperation. I often like to say that Poland isone of the most pro-American countries inthe world, and Poland also has very goodpress in the United States as an ally, both eco-nomically and in terms of the military. Thislast notion could be explored better by pro-moting Poland in the United States, andhopefully it will not be tainted by the unfor-tunate issue of Poles’ needing visas to enterthe U.S.



Powering forward As Poland thinks about building nuclear powerplants, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy is already lendinga helping hand

Since Poland has announced its nu-clear program (for details see “Polandgoes nuclear” in the December 2009

issue of American Investor), it is clear thatthe three largest players in the business ofgenerating nuclear power, the U.S./Japan-ese conglomerate GE Hitachi Nuclear En-ergy, the Japanese-owned WestinghouseElectric Co., and the French Areva, are in-terested in a piece of the project. However,only one of the three, namely GE, alreadyhas a presence in Poland. So far GE hashired over 10,000 employees in financialservices, engineering, and manufacturingin Poland. It also has a history of successfulengineering. The GE Engineering DesignCenter, jointly run by GE and the Instituteof Aviation in Warsaw, was where the mostpopular jet engine in civil aviation today, thefuel efficient GEnx, was designed. Alongwith developing jet engine technologies, thecenter does research in big turbines andenergy. Recently GE has expanded its oiland gas portfolio capabilities at the centerwith the opening of a new USD 3 millionsubsea equipment testing facility.

When in July 2010 GE CEO Jeff Immeltvisited Warsaw for the 10th anniversary ofthe GE Engineering Design Center, he saidGE will continue to be a big investor inPoland in the future. The Polish nuclearprogram is an excellent opportunity for thecompany to do so. For Poland it is an oppor-tunity to tap into state-of-the-art technol-ogy, namely the Economic Simplified Boil-ing Water Reactor and the Advanced Recy-cling Center, not to mention the chance ofhaving GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy estab-lish one of its nuclear power technologyproduction hubs in Poland.

the beauty of boiling waterIn the early years of nuclear power, some 50years ago, nuclear reactors were a very com-plex piece of engineering with a lot of smallexternal components, utilizing two basictechnologies: a boiling water reactor or apressurized water reactor. The pressurizedwater reactor technology was more ad-vanced and along with power plants was ap-plied to powering submarines. But it alsocaused some technological problems whichto fix require more external equipment,which not only boosts the production andmaintenance costs but also significantly re-duced the reactors’ reliability and increasedthe risk of core damage.

GE wanted a different pattern from thepressurized water reactor: the boiling waterreactor. Working with that technology for 50years now, GE has managed to simplify it,which adds safety, boosts the reactor’s reli-ability, and lowers the running costs. Theresult of this approach is the EconomicSimplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR),

a reactor with very little external equip-ment. “We fundamentally operate at a verymuch lower pressure and a much lowertemperature, so we don’t get into thesecracking issues that the owners of PWRsare seeing at their plants,” said Danny Rod-erick, Senior Vice President of GE HitachiNuclear Energy. “As a result of this ap-proach, the ESBWR has the lowest risk ofreactor damage or fuel damage of any plantdesigned in the world. That means it hasthe greatest safety margin for any of theplant designs.”

According to the International AtomicEnergy Agency, over the last 10 years boilingwater reactors have outperformed pressur-ized water reactors by over 3% a year. That3% a year, over the 60 years of a nuclear re-actor’s lifespan, adds up to 22 months ofextra generation for free. An average powerplant today makes over USD 2 millionworth of electricity a month. With 22 freemonths, there is a lot of money to be re-couped just because of technology and sim-plicity.

Spent fuel disposal GE is a company that often boasts aboutbeing in the business of solving big prob-lems for humanity in such areas as energy,healthcare and water resources. Yet ifjudged by the progress it has introduced indealing with nuclear waste disposal, GEH’scompetitors may glow green with envy. Thecompany’s Advanced Recycling Center is atechnology that enables used nuclear fuel tobe burned and treated further so that theremaining material needs to be stored foronly 300 years, instead of the 10,000 years ofstorage required with competitors technol-ogy.

Nuclear material is delivered to reactorsin “fuel assemblies.” Each assembly can beused in today’s typical reactors only for ap-proximately 3-6 years. Then the uranium ispulled out of the used assembly. The ura-nium can then be put back into another fuelassembly and returned to the reactor. Withthis there is no need to mine new uranium.But what is left out of the used assembly isa stream of plutonium. This is dangerousmaterial. Today, spent nuclear fuel in Eu-rope is shipped to a major reprocessing fa-cility in France, where it is stored with theintention to keep it there for 10,000 years—that is how long it takes for plutonium tolose its radioactive properties. But alongwith the issues that arise in the case of sucha long-term storage, there are spent fuelshipping issues as well. The road from thepower plant to the storage facility is usuallylong. The shipping itself offers a road mapfor terrorists on how to find spent fuel, andtherefore creates proliferation risks for apotential “dirty bomb” that could be made

FOCUS: Nuclear energy


Tomasz Ćwiok

We encourage companies to sponsor our Business Mixers, CEO Forums, 4th of July Picnic and other events. Business Mixers

You can sponsor AmCham Business Mixers throughout 2011 (except for January, April, July and December). To find outmore about sponsoring Business Mixers, visit www.amcham.pl, click on the Events & Activities link on the horizontal menu

bar, and choose Business Mixers. CEO Forums

A high-level discussion panel followed by a cocktail reception, for AmCham CEOs only, held just 3 times a year. To find outmore about AmCham CEO Forums, visit www.amcham.com.pl, click on the Events & Activities link on the horizontal menu

bar, and choose CEO Forums. 4th of July Picnic

Scheduled for Saturday, July 3, 2011, at Królikarnia Palace, Warsaw. To see pictures from last year’s picnic, go to www.am-cham.com.pl, click on the Events & Activities link on the horizontal menu bar, and choose 4th of July Picnic.

Annual General Meeting & Christmas Reception in DecemberTo see pictures from the last AGM & Christmas Reception, go to www.amcham.com.pl, click on the Events & Activities link

on the horizontal menu bar, and choose Annual General Meeting. Regional events

In addition to Warsaw events, your company can also support AmCham activities in Kraków, Wrocław and Katowice. We areopen for sponsorship of the following events:

Our events in Kraków include two Business Mixers, IT Giants Conference, AmCham Academy Project(in Katowice), one business mixer, one annual conference Manufacturers’ Forum, and a conference: “Out-

sourcing Potential of Katowice and the Silesia Metropolis,” and “Dębica—Investment Conference.” For more information, please contact Monika Pilarska at +48 608 027 172 or [email protected].

Our events in Wrocław include AmCham Breakfast, two Business Mixers, Oktoberfest, and InternationalChristmas Mixer. For more information, please contact Joanna Bensz at +48 605 678 817 or [email protected].

For additional information contact Anita Kowalska at +48 22 520 5994.

from the plutonium. When eyeing this problem GEH decided

to use a different approach than standardreprocessing. “We came up with a solutionto cost-effectively put an installation at anuclear power plant site that GE builds,and come in several years after it has beenin operation and start burning that fuelwithout creating weapons grade pluto-nium,” Roderick said.

What GEH does is “poison” the pluto-

nium with other elements thatmakes it incapable of beingused to build a weapon. Thenthe plutonium is put into afuel bundle and burned in asmall supplementary reactorcalled PRISM on the site ofthe main nuclear reactor builtby GEH. “We actually burnthese long-lived isotopes outin that reactor,” Roderick ex-plained. “We create 300 MWof additional electricity with itfor free.”

What is left from thisprocess is waste form thatneeds 300 years to lose its ra-dioactive properties. Thismakes a fundamental differ-ence compared to the 10,000years that spent fuel in tradi-tional reprocessing requires.“U.S. law requires a designstorage for 10,000 years,”Roderick said. “But who

knows how we are going tolook in 10,000 years? Threehundred years I can thinkabout. There are buildingsthat are older than 300 years.Building something that willlast for 300 years is not a bigdeal. That’s what we likeabout this technology. It is avery good way to address theproblem of spent fuel.”

Green and smart additionsRoderick believes that the development ofgreen energy sources and an intelligent gridwill not make nuclear energy redundant.The new technologies will not in them-selves make up for big power plants that arecapable of meeting the demand for electric-ity without interruption. While big powerplants will remain responsible for “base-

load” generation, they may be comple-mented by renewables and smart grids.“I’m for renewable energy sources and anenergy mix,” Roderick said. “With this youneed some source of power local to you thatcan run all the time. When there is a winterstorm in Poland, or a hurricane or flood thatknocks out your generation, you still needto have power to stay warm. Then you areback to the whole energy security argu-ment: how we can keep power available in

Poland in the most cost-effective and envi-ronment-friendly way.”

modular system approachGEH is the only company now capable ofbuilding power plants for Generation III re-actors. The company has four of theseABWR reactors under construction, includ-ing two in Japan and two in Taiwan. “An

ABWR has been built in 39 months fromfirst concrete to fill load, and we were ableto replicate that general time frame for fourtimes already,” Roderick said. According toRoderick, the speed with which GEH buildsGeneration III nuclear reactors is about thecompany’s approach to construction: thewhole individual project is modularized,with each module shipped individually tothe construction site. But instead of havingto ship them from the U.S. to Europe, GEH

plans to have a productionsite in Europe. “We targetedPoland,” Roderick said, “be-cause of the abundance ofskilled labor in the countrywhich is actually lookingabroad for employment.”

Of course it is an inte-grated process. GEH willhave to be able to get theuniversity systems to be ableto produce the very best en-gineers. But GE has alreadybeen active in cooperationwith academia in Poland, interms of training and re-training. The companyhelped upgrade the pro-grams in the university sys-tems so they can continue toprovide it with good engi-neering support. “We are al-ready here, trying to be astrategic partner forPoland,” Roderick said. Inhis view, GE is the best-fitcompany to become a strate-gic partner for the develop-ment of Poland’s nuclear en-ergy program, because itwould be a natural extensionof an already good relation-ship.

Danny Roderick, Vice President of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy

FOCUS: Nuclear energy

“We came up with a solution to cost-effectively put an installation at a nuclear powerplant site that GE builds, and come in a few years after it has been in operation and startburning that fuel without creating anything that can create a weapon.”

Do not miss the opportunity to sponsor AmCham events

in 2011!



Deloitte’s Central Europe technology survey identifies the region’s fastestgrowers

Catch them if you can

By Dariusz NachyłaPartner at Deloitte, responsible for

technology, media

and telecommunications, C&EE

companies appear to be switch-ing from short-term to long-term mode and developingstrategies that will guide themto greater growth, investing intheir current workforce and de-veloping leaders internally arethe primary focus areas. Invest-ing in employees is one strategytechnology companies will makeuse of as they prepare to dealwith a shortage of high-qualitytalent with the right portfolio ofskills in the market over thenext 12 months and beyond.

The improved average growthof companies in the ranking thisyear (from 993% to 967%) is apositive sign that the fastest-growing companies have suc-cessfully taken steps to avert theworst effects of the financialcrisis in the technology sectorin Central Europe. More thananything, this highlights theimportance of sound leadershipto any organization, especiallyone undergoing a period ofrapid growth before and duringthe financial crisis.

Growth outlookWith many more executivescommenting positively on theirexpectations for growth in 2010,we could continue to see im-proved average growth in theyears to come as the regionshifts out of the recession. Inour survey, 81% of CEOs re-sponded that they were eithervery confident or extremelyconfident of growth over thenext 12 months, while just 3%were pessimistic.

In another sign that the Cen-tral European technology indus-try may be returning to normal,lack of access to skilled laborwas once again the biggest per-ceived threat to growth (as haslargely been the case historicallyin our CEO survey), with in-creased competition fromemerging Chinese and Indiancompanies another importantfactor.

firm specializing in integratedmobile and digital communica-tions with growth dynamic of26,885 %. Last year Netmedia was14th on the list. So the advance,especially in a crisis year is a greatsuccess.

Polish companies accounted forthree of the top six spots in theranking, and 11 of 50 overall,Poland’s best result since 2006.Poland took the top spot awayfrom Hungary, which droppedinto second place with 10 compa-nies in the ranking. Romania con-tinued to improve its showing,with its highest-ever total thisyear of seven companies on thelist and consistent growth fromthree in 2008. Croatia fell to justone company.

Software firms were again thebest-represented in the rankingthis year, at 58%, up from 50% in2009. Internet companies heldsteady at 34%. The greatest de-crease was observed in the tele-com and networking segment,which fell from 12% of the com-panies last year to 4% this year.

methodologyThe findings are based on a sur-vey of over 110 CEOs from acrossCentral Europe who applied on-line to enter the Deloitte Technol-ogy Fast 50 in May–July 2010. TheFast 50 is a group of the fastest-growing companies in the region.The companies span a wide rangeof technology sectors, but haveone objective in common: toachieve a strong track record ofgrowth and success.

The Central Europe Fast 50CEO Survey captures the opin-ions and views of technologyCEOs on a range of issues, in-cluding recipes for growth and theimportance of human capital tothe technology industry.

achieving growthEmployees were a large factor incompanies’ achieving high levelsof growth over the past year. As

Each year companies rallybehind innovation, breakthrough obstacles and

defy the odds. We salute theirefforts with the Deloitte CentralEuropean Technology Fast 50, aranking of the 50 fastest-grow-ing technology companies inCentral Europe. The Fast 50 in-cludes all areas of technology—from Internet to life sciences,computers to semiconductors—and covers both public and pri-vate companies.

The Fast 50 supplements thebroader Deloitte TechnologyFast 500 initiative in that thewinners typically become auto-matically eligible to participatein the EMEA Fast 500.

The 2010 ranking representsa great year for innovation in theface of the economic crisis. Av-erage five-year revenue growthfor the 50 ranked companies was967%, an improvement over2009’s average of 933% and asign of the technology sector’sresilience. Despite a challengingyear, with difficulties faced bypeers around the world stem-ming from the liquidity crisisand the drop in consumer de-mand, 16 new companies from avariety of technology businesssectors entered the ranking andmade an impact on the final out-come.

drum rollThe Polish technology companyNetmedia SA, with growth of15,005%, took first place in the2010 Central Europe Technol-ogy Fast 50. It was the secondyear in a row that Netmedia SAtook top honors and the fifthyear in a row that a Polish com-pany emerged as the fastestgrowing. Netmedia SA also se-cured the top prize in the Big 5category for larger companies.What is more, in the DeloitteTechnology FAST 500 EMEA2010 Netmedia took second po-sition, after MIG, London based

EXPERT: 2011 excise duty changes EXPERT: FAST 50

A new system for mov-ing excise goods aroundthe E.U. starts thisyear, and smokers willpay more for their fix

is that in the long run EMCSwill be viewed as a helpful sys-tem. However, with January 1,2011 already upon us, it looks asif EMCS will be a challenge forboth Polish business and thecustoms authorities for the firstfew months.

other changesThe New Year rings in changesin excise duty for some goods.

tobacco productsThe Act of October 29, 2010,Amending the Excise Tax Actincreased the excise rates fortobacco products. Starting fromJanuary 1, 2011, the excise rateswill be as follows:

• cigarettes—PLN 158.36per 1,000 and 31.41% of themaximum retail price;

• tobacco—PLN 102.32 perkg and 31.41% of the maximumretail price;

• cigars and cigarillos—PLN244.40 per 1,000;

As a result, on January 1,2011, excise duty on cigarettes,cigars, cigarillos and tobaccowill rise by 4–8% from currentrates. The Ministry of Financeexplained that the increase re-sults from the fact that Polandmust comply with EuropeanUnion regulations raising theminimum level of excise dutyon tobacco products. The newdirective provides that fromJanuary 1, 2014, onward, exciseduty must represent 60% of theweighted average retail saleprice of cigarettes released forconsumption, although the dutywill be no less than EUR 90 per1,000 cigarettes irrespective ofthe weighted average retail saleprice. Poland will be allowed atransitional period until De-cember 31, 2017, to meet therequirements.

The changes will generateadditional budgetary revenue ofabout PLN 220 million in thefirst year. The outlook isbleaker for tobacco producers,who face increased pressure ontheir margins and sales.

Biofuels and biodieselThere is mixed news on excisetreatment of biofuels andbiodiesel. Currently, there is acut-rate excise duty for biofuelsand biodiesels (PLN 10 per1,000 liters), provided they con-tain more than 2% biocompo-

nents. The new legislation pro-vides that from May 1, 2011, butno later than December 31,2011, this rate is available onlyif the share of biocomponents ishigher than 80%. Moreover, thereduction will take effect onlyafter Poland receives a positivedecision from the EuropeanCommission on compatibility ofthis rate with public aid regula-tions.

That is the theory. In prac-tice, the European Commissionmay well not get around to issu-ing the required decision beforeDecember 31, 2011, meaningthat the current relief for biofu-els and biodiesel will cease toexist on April 30, 2011. Thiswill definitely have a seriousimpact on thebiofuels/biodiesels industry.

all more expensiveSumming up, 2011 will bringwith it significant changes forexcise tax payers. First of all,the changes will affect the vastgroup of entities moving goodsunder suspension of exciseduty, irrespective of the indus-try they operate in. This groupshould take all measures to getready for EMCS introduction,especially advance registrationin the system and becoming ac-quainted with its functionality.Other changes will affect spe-cific industries, i.e. the tobaccoand biofuel/biodiesel indus-tries. Manufacturers in theseindustries should prepare theirIT financial systems and pricesfor the higher excise rates. Atleast initially, they may also ex-pect a drop in sales.

(SEED). If the draft e-AD is notcorrect, the consignor receivesan automatically generated no-tice of irregularities from thesystem. If the draft e-AD is vali-dated in the system, the e-AD,with the reference code given, iselectronically transmitted to theconsignor and to the relevantauthorities in the member stateof destination, who subse-quently forward it to the con-signee. The goods moved by theconsignor under suspension ofexcise duty should then be ac-companied by the printed e-ADwith the reference code given inthe EMCS or by another com-mercial document quoting thisreference code.

Upon receipt of the goods,the consignee submits a draftreport of receipt (confirmationthat the goods reached theirplace of destination) to theEMCS for validation. If thedraft report of receipt is notcorrect, the consignee receivesan automatic notice of irregu-larities from the system. If thedraft report of receipt is vali-dated, it is electronically trans-mitted to the consignee and tothe relevant authorities in themember state of dispatch, whosubsequently forward it to theconsignor.

Polish excise regulations also

cover the detailed procedures tobe applied when the EMCS isnot available. (The EMCS maybe deemed unavailable if theEMCS user reports the unavail-ability to the director of theCustoms Chamber in Łódź andthe director confirms it.) Thereare also special regulations forconsignors dispatching goodsoutside the European Union; inparticular, the customs authori-ties need to issue a special re-port of dispatch.

Needless to say, this is only abroad outline of EMCS. Busi-ness operators moving goodsunder suspension of excise dutyshould identify the rules appli-cable in their own particularcircumstances. The expectation

functionality to discharge e-ADselectronically by April 1, 2010.Therefore, it was agreed amongthe member states that move-ments to Poland would takeplace under cover of the currentpaper AAD until January 1,2011, which is D-Day for Polandto join EMCS.

Polish rolloutThe rollout of EMCS in Polandwas covered by the Act of July22, 2010, Amending the ExciseTax Act and Certain Other Acts.Generally, in the period fromJanuary 1 through December31, 2011, EMCS will not becompulsory for economic oper-ators moving goods under sus-pension of excise duty withinPoland. However, starting Janu-ary 1, 2011, entities movinggoods outside of Poland willhave to use the EMCS and com-

ply with its requirements.

how does emcS work? Under EMCS, the movement ofexcise goods between twotraders is documented bymeans of the successive statesof the electronic AdministrativeDocument (e-AD), from is-suance by the consignor to ac-knowledgement of receipt bythe consignee.

A consignor wishing to movegoods under suspension of ex-cise duty submits the draft e-AD to EMCS electronically forvalidation. The excise numbersof the consignor and the con-signee are matched against aEuropean register of operators

Pity the taxpayers. Whilethey are still strugglingwith the finer details of

the excise tax changes intro-duced in September 2010, nowthey are faced with yet morechanges coming into force onJanuary 1, 2011. Here we gothrough the major changes inexcise tax that may affect busi-nesses.

The changes can be split intotwo categories: those relating tointroduction of the compulsoryelectronic excise movement andcontrol system (EMCS), and as-sorted others, in particular anexcise increase for some goods.We will deal with EMCS issuesfirst.

what is emcS?EMCS is a computerized systemfor monitoring movements ofexcise goods under suspensionof excise duty, i.e. for which noexcise duties have yet been paid.The new system is aimed at re-placing the paper document thatcurrently must accompany such

movements (the AdministrativeAccompanying Document orAAD) with electronic messagesfrom the consignor to the con-signee via E.U. member stateadministrations. The legal foun-dation for the EMCS project isthe new horizontal Council Di-rective 2008/118/EC concerningthe general arrangements forexcise duty.

The EMCS rollout projectworked on the assumption thatall member states and all eco-nomic operators would joinEMCS between April 1 and De-cember 31, 2010. Poland in-formed the European Commis-sion that it would not be readyto develop the required EMCS

Up in smoke

By Sylwia Kulczyckatax advisor, associate at Salans

and Cezary Przygodzkitax advisor, counsel at Salans

2011 will bring with it significant changes forexcise tax payers irrespective of the industrythey operate in.


EXPERT: Business leadership EXPERT: Real estate law

Now mortgages will be amore effective instrumentfor securing claims, inline with current lending practices

New order for mortgage regulations

By Agnieszka Wolińskaadvocate, Łaszczuk & Partners

of interest, it will not be neces-sary to amend the entry if thereis an adjustment in the interestrate.

Brand-new solutionsThe right of a creditor to re-place the secured claim withanother claim held by the samecreditor has also been intro-duced. The terms of the exist-ing mortgage would need to beamended, but it will not be nec-essary to establish a new mort-gage and delete the previousone.

Under the new rules, theamount of the mortgage will beexpressed in the same currencyas the claim secured, unless theparties provide otherwise in themortgage agreement. Thismeans that the parties are freeto choose the currency of themortgage, which may differfrom the currency of the under-lying claim.

This will make it easier inpractice to deal with the issueof converting the currency ofthe claim, because a change inthe currency of the claim willnot require an amendment tothe wording of the mortgage.This will also make it possibleto use a single mortgage, de-nominated in one currency, tosecure multicurrency credit, i.e.several tranches of a loan issuedin different currencies. Untilnow, a change in currency hasrequired the consent of theowner of the real estate andamendment of the mortgage.This has entailed additional ac-tivities and costs, such as draw-ing up the relevant agreementand making further entries inthe land and mortgage register.

Better serving the marketThe changes introduced intothe Polish mortgage act bringorder to this area of the law andeliminate inconsistencies thathad arisen between specificregulations, and also bringgreater flexibility to the use ofmortgages, while reducingtransaction costs. The newmortgage concept is designedto meet the needs of modern-day lending practices by allow-ing one mortgage to be useddespite the frequent changes inlenders and claims that arecommonplace in today’s bank-ing market.

effect, on February 20, 2011,there will be a single type ofmortgage that may be used tosecure repayment of the exist-ing loan principal as well as pay-ment of contingent futureamounts, up to a stated maxi-mum. The single new mortgagewill essentially be based on thecurrent concept of the “capped”mortgage.

Another option that has beenintroduced is for one creditor touse a single mortgage to securevarious different claims it hasagainst the same debtor, and forseveral creditors involved in fi-nancing the same venture to se-cure their claims under a singlemortgage.

These solutions will enablemore efficient use of mortgagesin banking practice, for exampleusing one mortgage to secureseveral future claims under aframework credit agreement orline of credit. It will also be pos-sible to use a single mortgage to

secure repayment of financingprovided by a consortium oflenders for one transaction.Under current practice, the lackof this option has reduced theflexibility required to carry outcomplex financing deals in anefficient manner, meaning thatunder a single consortiumagreement it has been neces-sary to establish a number ofseparate mortgages to securethe claims of the differentbanks that are part of the con-sortium.

The new mortgage will alsosecure claims for interest, col-lection costs and other inciden-tal amounts, up to the overallmaximum amount of the secu-rity, so long as such incidentalamounts are identified in theagreement which serves as thebasis for registration of themortgage. If the entry in theland and mortgage registerspecifies the maximum amount

mortgage into a more effective in-strument for securing claims.

The existence of two types ofmortgages—the “ordinary” mort-gage, which secures an existingclaim in a fixed amount, and the“capped” mortgage, which se-cures a contingent future claim ora claim in an amount that has notyet been fixed, up to a “capped”maximum figure—has been a par-ticular cause of unnecessary com-plications and transaction costswithout providing any apparentbenefit to the lender, the bor-rower, or anyone else. The exis-

tence of these two types of mort-gages has meant that in a typicalsecured credit transaction, twomortgage agreements are re-quired: the first for an “ordinary”mortgage securing repayment ofthe principal amount of the loan,and the second for a “capped”mortgage to secure the paymentof interest and other incidentalamounts that may arise in connec-tion with the loan (fees, collectioncosts and the like).

The current mortgage law hasalso not enabled efficient use ofmortgages to secure bank claimsunder various types of lendingarrangements, such as loans inforeign currency, revolving credit,credit lines, and consortium lend-ing.

Problem-solvingOne of the main changes is toeliminate the problematic distinc-tion between an “ordinary” mort-gage and a “capped” mortgage.When the amendment goes into

In the Polish legal system, asin most other countries, themortgage is the main form of

security for claims related toreal estate transactions, includ-ing bank claims, and the mostcommonly used in this area. Amortgage is established on realestate in order to secure a desig-nated claim arising out of a spe-cific legal relationship. Mort-gages have risen significantly inpopularity over the last twodecades, chiefly because of thedynamic growth in the homelending market in Poland.

unnecessary complicationsOver the years, more widespreaduse of mortgages in Poland as aform of security revealed variouslimitations and drawbacks in theway mortgages functioned here.It became clear that mortgagesas they existed in the Polishlegal system were not properlyadapted to the needs of the mar-ket, compared to other countriesin the region, and as a result thePolish lending market was notfunctioning as efficiently as itshould. These were the find-ings, for example, in the reportentitled The Influence of theLegal Framework on the Se-cured Credit Market in Poland,issued in 2006 by the EuropeanBank for Reconstruction andDevelopment in conjunctionwith the National Bank ofPoland. It was thus necessary torevise the mortgage regulationsto better suit the evolving eco-nomic situation and make the

“Leadership is action,not position.”

–Don McGannon

Are you building your leaders?

By Peter Strupppresident of the supervisory board

United Business Development

critical to ensure confidentialityof the leaders’ data. It is impor-tant for the leader to see thefeedback as a form of develop-ment and make the leader ac-countable for evaluations afterthe first baseline results havebeen created. The participantseeking leadership competencyfeedback should have a coach ex-plain the results and provide spe-cific tools that the leader can useto achieve development.

more to doIntroducing new sequenced as-signments is by far the best wayto grow leaders. Pushing peopleout of their comfort zones andinto new environments is a greatway to train on new competencydevelopment. The use of busi-ness coaching and mentoringalso provides a stronger way todevelop through consistent feed-back on new assignments.

Skills-based developmentthrough training can be an excel-lent method of helping developcompetencies, but only if there isconsistent follow-up thoughcoaching and a focus on integrat-ing the new skills sets into thedaily behavior of the leader. Oth-erwise training has a negativecorrelation to shareholder value.It creates value for the partici-pants (career marketability) butnot for the organization. Trainingneeds to be supported by coach-ing and focusing on repeatprocesses.

it pays offThe investment in creating lead-ers with constructive behaviors(achievement-focused, open, en-couraging and supportive, help-ing develop other leaders) is agood way to increase financial re-sults. But just as important, it isone of the most rewarding as-pects of business. Supportingpeople to grow, having them de-velop greater self-confidence andtake on greater responsibility, canbe a source of immeasurable sat-isfaction. This overall focus onculture and leadership develop-ment characterizes the real busi-ness elite worthy of our attentionand emulation.

think strategyAs leaders rise higher within theorganization, they need to learnthe competencies of how to buildup other leaders. A critical com-petence is the development ofstrategic insight. Many leadersare excellent at the day-to-daybusiness but hit the wall becausethey have not properly inter-preted the environmentalchanges taking place aroundthem in their industries or mar-kets.

enterprise levelAnother critical leadership tran-sition is when silo leaders be-come members of the senior ex-ecutive team. There is a need tocommit at the enterprise level,not just at their profit center.This view of leading the wholeorganization is often under-mined by outside-country matrixreporting relationships that makethe country director essentially asilo manager rather than build-ing a great unified organizationwithin the same culture.

The CEO needs to be ateacher to the leaders inside thecompany. Time must be investedin workshops, coaching, and con-stantly communicating how theleader sees the business and itsdevelopment. The parent com-pany and the board of directorsneed to be involved in the man-agement development process.This means reviewing people inthe organization a level above theboard of management on a peri-odic basis to ensure there is ex-isting bench strength and propersuccession planning.

Potential and progressA strong focus should be to dif-ferentiate between the existingperformance of the leader andthe potential capabilities for thatperson in the future. These arefundamentally two different waysof thinking. Diagnostic tests doexist on the Polish market to seeif the leader is internally pre-pared to engage in further devel-opment efforts to become a bet-ter leader. Many do not feel itnecessary to develop further, andthis should be flagged at the verybeginning before initiating thedevelopment process. It seemsobvious, but it is rarely done.

When performing multilayerfeedback processes as part ofleadership development, it is

behavior, such as lack of innovationor contribution to better businessresults. The good news is that in-creased skills and more effectiveleadership behavior can be learned.

Process rulesIf implemented as a process fo-cused on results, leadership devel-opment activities can createenough bench strength to supportthe growth ahead and have a directeffect on higher business and fi-nancial results. Leadership devel-opment—done the right way—isproven to deliver higher financialresults. The net-present-value re-turn on investing the time andmoney into a strong leadership de-velopment process is much higherthan for most fixed-asset invest-ments.

things to doHere are several practical aspectsof the leadership developmentprocess to consider:

Leaders who are being devel-oped need to be measured consis-tently on their business and finan-cial results improvement. Compe-tency development is critical, butonly within the context of improv-ing business results.

It is essential to assess the de-velopment needs for leaders at dif-ferent stages in their career and atthe level at which they performleadership roles. Often the mostdramatic and difficult phase iswhen a technical or professionalhigh achiever is promoted to be-coming a first-time leader of oth-ers. Think of the top salespersonthat is cast in the role of sales man-ager for the first time. Are the re-quired competencies for successthe same? This is a big jump, andemphasis must be placed on lead-ership skills, such as how to accel-erate team productivity, lead effec-tive meetings, coach team mem-bers for top performance, provideformal and informal feedback, im-prove communication skills, andpractice reward and recognition.

Poland is a fast-growingeconomy, and in specificindustries there is a lot of

anecdotal evidence that thou-sands of new employees are beingadded back onto company pay-rolls. Recruiters are busy again. Ifgrowth is really back, then whereare the leaders to support thatgrowth? If not resolved, the lead-ership competency gaps that mayexist today in your company willonly grow wider. Your sustainablegrowth will be constrained by thelimited competency of your lead-ers on all levels of the organiza-tion.

One critical aspect of the nextphase of growth is to have the in-ternal infrastructure to supporthigh growth. A crucial piece ofthis infrastructure is the ability tohave the right leaders in the rightplaces so they have the increasedspan of control to achieve prof-itable economies of scale.

wrong choicesAt many companies it is clear thatmanagers have been promotedwho do not have the skill sets totake on the role of leader. Theyare task-focused and poor withpeople relationships. Many lead-ers use aggressive behavior(highly oppositional, with an atti-tude of winning at all costs, apower and hierarchy focus, andpoor communications) due to ashort-term focus on gettingthings done versus building ahigh-growth, decentralized cul-ture that promotes excellent cus-tomer service and agility forchange.

Make no mistake: aggressiveleadership behavior brings re-sults in the short term. However,big money is often left on thetable in the form of missed op-portunities for company leaderswho have not developed the skillset with their managers to createconstructive operating cultures.Aggressive leaders cause poormorale and defensive employee

The new mortgage concept is designed to meet theneeds of modern-day lending practices by allowing one mortgage to be used despite the fre-quent changes in lenders and claims that are com-monplace in today’s banking market.

The “Guidelines on Set-ting Fines for Infringe-ments of Competition

Law” published by the Office ofCompetition and ConsumerProtection (UOKiK) in January2009 were received with greatinterest by the media and com-petition lawyers. They containdetailed rules for setting finesfor participants in anticompeti-tive practices. The commonview was that the guidelineswould bring greater trans-parency to the actions of thePolish competition authority.

Seen as a successful attempt ata coherent fines policy, they alsomade it easier for businesses toestimate the sanctions they werelikely to face. Nonetheless, theguidelines made it clear thatUOKiK intended to pursue amore aggressive fines policy: themost serious antitrust violationswould almost certainly attractthe maximum fines allowableunder the Act on Competitionand Consumer Protection of10% of the undertaking’s rev-enue in the last financial year.Before 2009, the fines weremuch less severe. Indeed, inDecember 2009 UOKiK im-posed a record-high fine of PLN411 million on cement produc-ers suspected of participating ina price-fixing cartel. Severalmanufacturers received themaximum penalty: 10% of their2008 revenue.

not binding?But the guidelines are notlegally binding. They should betreated like all other interpreta-tions or statements of state au-

be applied when ruling onfines: above all, proportionality.A fine must be proportional tothe nature, harmfulness and ef-fects of the anticompetitivepractice. Nonetheless, the spe-cific level of a fine must alwaysbe determined by the courtconsidering the specific case.

office still importantObjections to the legal force ofthe UOKiK guidelines do notentirely deprive them of signifi-cance. They continue to offer agood prediction of fines whichUOKiK itself may impose forsimilar violations. In earlieryears, fines for similar viola-tions were often so divergentthat it was hard for businessesto discern any underlying co-herent policy. UOKiK, as a pub-lic administrative body, is re-quired to treat undertakingssimilarly if the facts and legalterms are alike. Undertakingsfacing charges of violating com-petition law have the right toexpect that they will be treatedequally. The regulator realizesthat any departure from princi-ples contained in its own guide-lines, for or against particularbusinesses, would be tanta-mount to violation of the consti-tutional principle of equal treat-ment by public authorities andwould provide an excellent ar-gument for the courts.

A coherent sanctions policyon the part of the Office ofCompetition and ConsumerProtection does not mean amild policy. Recent fines havedisplayed extreme severity, andthe trend may be expected tocontinue in the future. Under-takings must therefore expecthigher penalties for participat-ing in anticompetitive practices.

given to the structure of themarket or the characteristics ofthe product. In previous years,courts often stressed that finesmust first and foremost reflectthe degree of fault associatedwith specific violations, andthey may continue to follow thisline of precedent.

In summary, judicial prece-dent may weigh heavily on com-petition fine assessment, serv-ing as a check on UOKiK’spenalty guidelines. If that hap-pens, the guidelines will nolonger serve as an indicator offine levels for potential compe-tition law violators.

ProportionalitySigns have also appeared thatthe UOKiK guidelines will notbe significant when courts con-sider levels of fines. In a judg-

ment of August 19, 2009, thePolish Supreme Court held thatan undertaking may not drawfavorable inferences from theguidelines in an appeal. Theguidelines are primarily to as-sist the competition authority inenforcing the Act on Competi-tion and Consumer Protection,but, the court held, there are nolegal grounds for such guide-lines, and therefore they are notbinding on courts in appealsfrom decisions by the presidentof UOKiK. The court stressedthat when ruling on the level ofa fine, the courts should followthe principle of proportionality,which suggests that the amountof the fine should depend notonly on the business’s overallrevenue, but on the amount ofrevenue generated from sales ofthe product involved in the anti-competitive practice.

This Supreme Court rulingpoints the way for lower, first-and second-instance courtsconsidering appeals from deci-sions by the president ofUOKiK. It provides criteria to

thorities. Therefore courts do notneed to follow them when hearingappeals from decisions issued bythe president of UOKiK. Whenhearing appeals from fines, thecourts are only bound by the Pol-ish Constitution and the laws(universally binding regulationsconcerning admissible fine levelsin antitrust cases are included inthe Act on Competition and Con-

sumer Protection). They are notbound by the competition author-ity’s interpretations and guide-lines.

Although the regulations setfines for competition law viola-tions, even if unintentional, at amaximum of 10% of an undertak-ing’s revenue in the precedingyear, when assessing the fine thecourt must also consider the du-ration, degree and circumstancesof the violation, as well as whetherthe undertaking is a repeat of-fender. Therefore, courts mayevaluate completely differentlyspecific factors influencing levelsof fines, such as harmfulness tocompetitors or consumers, theduration of the violation, and anyaggravating or mitigating circum-stances.

When hearing appeals againstUOKiK assessments, courts mayfind specific factors identified inthe UOKiK’s guidelines entirelyirrelevant. The courts view levelsof fines holistically, or placegreater emphasis on certain ele-ments, such as how intentional vi-olations were, with less weight

from a recess following the mid-term elections that were held onNovember 2, 2010. During thisshort “lame-duck” session(which ends when the new Con-gress takes office in January andincludes outgoing members ofCongress), Congress focused onseveral measures, includingwhether and to what extent toextend the Bush-era individualtax cuts that were enacted in2001 and are scheduled to expireat the end of 2010. On Decem-ber 17, President Obama signedinto law a two-year extension ofthese tax cuts for all taxpayers,along with other provisions de-signed to spur investmentgrowth and aid the unemployedworkforce.

more questionsBeyond this lame-duck session,it is unclear which direction tax

reform will take. Certainly, thefact that Republicans gained themajority in the House of Repre-sentatives and gained severalseats in the Senate (withoutwresting outright majority con-trol away from Democrats) willmean that tax legislation will bemore difficult to pass than whenDemocrats had control over bothhouses of Congress. It would ap-pear, however, that deficit reduc-tion will direct a significant por-tion of the near-term legislativeagenda.

portant changes to the U.S. in-ternational tax rules, includingrules designed to prevent taxpay-ers from splitting foreign taxcredits from the associated for-eign income, rules limiting theuse of credits in connection withcertain asset acquisitions and in-vestments in U.S. property byforeign entities controlled byU.S. shareholders, and rules de-

signed to curb perceived abusesinvolving “80/20” companies aswell as restructurings by for-eign-based multinationals of for-eign corporations owned by theforeign parent’s U.S. group.These proposals suggest thatCongress decided to foregobroader tax reform related to in-ternational taxation in favor ofseveral amendments that weredesigned to close the existingloopholes.

Reviewing old ideasRecently, Congress returned

In the April 2010 edition ofAmerican Investor, ToddLandau and Mikołaj Woźniak

provided a brief overview of U.S.international tax proposals in-cluded by the Obama adminis-tration in the fiscal year 2011U.S. budget proposals. Theseproposals would, among otherthings, narrow the limitation ofU.S. deductions related to de-ferred foreign income mainly toU.S. interest expense that is re-lated to deferred foreign income.In addition, the fiscal year 2011proposals no longer included the

2010 proposal to repeal the U.S.“check-the-box” rules in theircurrent form. On the other hand,the 2010 proposal to determinethe effective tax rate of indirectforeign tax credits on ablended/pooling basis was car-ried forward to the 2011 budgetproposals in substantially thesame form. Some new solutionswere also proposed, as men-tioned in the April article.

Reality checkIn the spring and summer of2010, Congress made several im-


EXPERT: U.S. tax policy

The heated debateon how to reformU.S. internationaltax rules continues

In the spring and summer of 2010, Congressmade several important changes to the U.S. in-ternational tax rules, including rules designedto prevent taxpayers from splitting foreign taxcredits from the associated foreign income.

The most serious antitrust violations would at-tract the maximum fines allowable under the Acton Competition and Consumer Protection of 10%of the undertaking’s revenue in the last financialyear.

Poland’s competitionauthority seeks uni-formly high penaltiesfor abuses—if thecourts allow

2012 budget decisionsSome details may be expectedon February 7, when the Obamaadministration is expected to re-lease its 2012 budget, which tra-ditionally outlines the adminis-tration’s tax proposals and prior-ities. While it is very difficult topredict the shape of the newproposals, several proposals havebeen suggested, some of whichmay be adopted in the 2012budget proposals.

For example, certain propos-als were presented by the mem-bers of the National Commis-sion on Fiscal Responsibility andReform. The commission meton December 3, 2010, to con-sider an updated deficit reduc-tion plan issued earlier by com-mission co-chairs ErskineBowles and Alan Simpson. Theplan did not receive the “super-majority” of commission mem-bers’ votes to be formally recom-mended to Congress, but it is animportant document that mayinfluence the debate on varioussubjects related to budget deficitcuts, including the direction oftax reforms. Among otherthings, the plan recommends re-ducing the corporate income taxrate while widening the tax baseby repealing tax exemptions. Italso supports moving to the ter-ritorial tax system.

It remains to be seen whetherany of these proposals will beenacted, but it is possible thatthis Congress may help shapechanges to a U.S. tax systemthat may be significantly differ-ent from the one we now know.

What next in cross-border CIT?The price of predictability

By Bernard E. Moensprincipal, PwC USA

and Mikołaj Woźniakmanager, PwC Poland

By Sabina Famirskalegal adviser and member of the

Competition Law Practice Group at

Wardyński & Partners

EXPERT: Competition policy

Download this magazine!American Investor is available in full as a pdf fordownload from the www.amcham.com.pl web-site. Go to "About Us" in the horizontal menu,

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1. Guests arriving at the Puppet Theater. 2. Guests enjoy conversations and sweet snacks. 3. Volvo representatives: MałgorzataRyniak, who is also a Honorary Consul of Sweden in Wrocław, and Detmar Kampman. 4. Martin Oxley, British Polish Chamber ofCommerce. 5. Small talk. 6. Children's Choir from BISC Wrocław. 7. Piotr Freyberg, 3M Poland; Paweł Tenerowicz, KarolinaFigura, Krzysztof Furtan, Richard A. Walawender, Miller Canfield. 8. Agnieszka Schubert, Significa Recruitment; Paweł Panczyj,E&Y; Maciej Wiewiórski, Wiewiórski Law Firm; Tomasz Gondek, Wrocław Agglomeration Development Agency. 9.The SpiritualsSingers. 10. A lucky raffle winner. 11. Alon Riedlich, International Technology Sourcing; Ilona Chodorowska and Martin Oxley,BPCC. 12. Iwona Makowiecka, German-Polish Chamber of Industry and Commerce; Ilona Chodorowska, Joanna Bensz, Am-Cham Wrocław Director.

International Christmas Evening

The International Christmas Evening inWroclaw was co-hosted by AmChamand the British, French, German and

Scandinavian chambers of commerce inPoland. The event took place on December8 at the Wrocław Puppet Theater.

The first part of the artistic program wasdevoted to international traditions. A choir ofstudents from different countries at theWrocław branch of the British InternationalSchool of Cracow dressed in their nationalcostumes and sang carols from all over theworld. This was followed by a performanceof international Christmas carols by Wro-claw’s most famous gospel choir, the Spiri-tuals Singers Band. The rest of the eveningcontinued to the accompaniment of modernChristmas melodies from all over the worldas well as delicious Polish Christmas cuisine.

Our special thanks go to Platinum spon-sors KPMG and Enel-Med Centrum Medy-czne, Gold sponsors ING and Volvo, Silversponsors Euro Park Logistics and Skalski,and Bronze sponsors Alma ConsultingGroup, QNH, Kaufland, Dotpay andSüdzuker, as well as Product sponsors BiscWrocław, Fagor Mastercook, MG Network,PM Group, XPress, Bukiety Baranowska,Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Mambertz, Adoria, andStarbucks Coffee.

Our raffle sponsors were Fagor Master-cook, XPress, Trinity Corporate Services,Q4Net, Scandic Wrocław, Bissole BusinessTravel, ING, Grafton Recruitment, BukietyBaranowska, Hertz, Raben, Hotel MonopolWrocław, Kelham Group, CPL Jobs, WrocławAqua Park, Enel-Med Centrum Medyczne,Steelcase, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. TheWarsaw Business Journal was a media part-ner of the event.

Sponsors:

EVENT: Wrocław

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1. Mike Dietz, Sabre Holdings. 2. Monika Pilarska, AmCham Kraków Branch Director; John Lynch, AmCham Board Member. 3.Ewa Martuszewska, Fluor. 4. John Lynch; Allen S. Greenberg, U.S. Consul General in Kraków. 5. The UPS team. 6. Allen S.Greenberg; Przemysław Siuda, Amway Business Center Europe. 7. Jacek Kasz, RR Donnelley; Dorota Adamska, BP. 8. MartaKonopacka and Teresa Filipek-Przybyłowicz, Goodyear Poland. 9. Paul Fogo, AmCham Board Member; Marzena Drela, Am-Cham Deputy Director.

Winter Business Mixer

On December 9, 2010, the KrakówBranch of AmCham hosted theWinter Business Mixer, with a de-

licious dinner featuring Polynesian spe-cialties, music, and the exquisite com-pany of AmCham members and friends.The event took place at the Holiday InnCity Center Hotel in Kraków and wasgenerously sponsored by Fluor,Goodyear, RR Donnelley, Amway, Sabre,International Paper, Kroll Ontrack,Miller Canfield, and ILoop Mobile.

EVENT: Kraków

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Sponsors:EVENT: AmCham General Meeting EVENT: Wrocław

1. Adam Szejnfeld, M.P; William Heidt, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy. 2. AmCham members vote. 3. DorotaDabrowski, AmCham Executive Director, with Board Members: Tony Housh, APCO Worldwide; Peter Kay, KPMG; JosephWancer, Deloitte; Roman Rewald, Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Stan Popow, FinaCorp; Judith Gliniecki, Wierzbowski Eversheds;Robert Koński, Kulczyk Investments; Piotr Jucha, McDonald's Polska; Paul Fogo, Miller Canfield; Thomas Kolaja, Alvarez &Marsal Poland; Rick Lada, Telesto and Anna Sieńko, IBM Polska. 4. Roman Rewald; Marzena Drela, AmCham Deputy Director;Dorota Dabrowski, Anita Kowalska, AmCham. 5. Janusz Wołejko, Kato Lab; Angelo Pressello, Direct Communication. 6. PeterKay; Paul Fogo. 7. Matthew Tebeau, Heidrick & Struggles; Judith Gliniecki; Thomas Kolaja. 8. Anna Sieńko; Roman Rewald;Tony Housh. 9. Adam Szejnfeld; Rick Lada. 10. Piotr Jucha; William Heidt. 11. Lesław Kuzaj, GE International; John Lynch. 12.Lisa Caruso, U.S. Commercial Service; Peter Święcicki, Squire Sanders.

1. Bill Hall, Pittsburgh Glass Works. 2. Dorota Dabrowski, AmCham Executive Direc-tor; Bill Hall; Joanna Bensz, Amcham Wrocław Director. 3. Aldona Wiktorska-Święcka, University of Wrocław. 4. Krzysztof Sachs, E&Y; Bill Hall. 5. Paweł Tenerow-icz, Miller Canfield; Radek Majda, Hamilton Sundstrand; Joanna Bensz; Mike Whit-ney, Adoria Winery, promoting his products. 6. Radek Majda delivers his presenta-tion. 7. Krzysztof Sachs; Tomasz Wroński, IBM Polska. 8. Krzysztof Sachs; JoannaBensz. 9. Joe Kozlak, C. H. Robinson Europe; Dorota Dabrowski; Bill Hall.

The main topic discussed during the AmChamBusiness Breakfast in Wrocław in Decemberwas cooperation between industry and aca-

demic in Lower Silesia. AmCham Executive Direc-tor Dorota Dabrowski introduced the report Indus-try-Academia Cooperation in Poland: Challengesand Ways to Narrow the Gap, which was based on asurvey of AmCham members. Radek Majda ofHamilton Sundstrand, Bill Hall of Pittsburgh GlassWorks, and Aldona Wiktorska-Święcka of the Uni-versity of Wrocław were the speakers.

For the benefit of AmCham Business breakfast

AmChamheld its An-nual General

Meeting on De-cember 7, 2010, atthe Marriott War-saw. Special guestsincluded BillHeidt, Chargéd’Affaires at theU.S. Embassy, andPolish MP AdamSzejnfeld (see ar-ticle on page 16).The business ofapproving the Am-Cham Annual Re-port and electingnew members ofthe AmChamBoard wentsmoothly. The or-ganization alsothanked RomanRewald for his twoterms as AmChamChairman. For adetailed report,see the Newslinesection on page 5.

Food for theevent was spon-sored by Marriott,and Pepsi-Colaand Dobrewinawere drink spon-sors.

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W tym numerze: COVER STORYwirtualny garnekNie tylko technologia jest siła napę-dową różnych modeli biznesustosowanych w Internecie. Postawykonsumenckie wobec nowych pro-duktów i usług mają krytycznywpływ na działanie poszczególnychmodeli biznesowych. RaportKPMG analizuje te postawyuwzględniając geograficzne re-giony, wiek konsumentów oraztechnologie, którymi się posługują,str. 16.

General Meetingzaprzyjaźnij się z Przyjaznym Państwem Gość walnegozgromadzenia członków AmChamu, poseł Adam Szejnfeld,wypowiada się na temat prac sejmowej komisji PrzyjaznePaństwo, str. 17

Spis członków AmChamuFirmy członkowskie Spis alfabetyczny, str. 19

członkowie indywidualni Spis alfabetyczny, str. 22

Focusmocniejsza organizacja z roku na rok Wywiad z dyreko-rem zarządzającym Amerykańskiej Izby Handlowej, DorotąDabrowski, str. 23

krocząc drogą do sukcesu Wywiad z byłym prezesemAmerykańskiej Izby Handlowej, Romanem Rewaldem, str. 24

energia przyszłości Tworząc program energii atomowej pol-ski rząd powinien skorzystać z potencjału technologicznegofirmy GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, str. 26

Eksperciakcyza Nowe przepisy regulujące wysokość akcyzy naposzczególne towary spowodują wzrost cen wyrobów tyto-niowych, str. 30

Rekordziści rozwoju Badanie rozwoju firm technolo-gicznych przeprowadzone przez Deloitte w Europie Środkoweji Wschodniej, str. 31

liderzy biznesu Przywódzwto w biznesie polega na podej-mowaniu dzialań a nie zajmowanej pozycji w strukturze firmy,str. 32

Rynek kretytów hipotecznych Nowe regulacje dotyczące

© American Chamber of Commercein Poland 2011. All rights reserved.

American Investor to oficjalny magazyn Amerykańskiej Izby Handlowej w Polsce. Magazynreprezentuje głos środowisk międzynarodowego biznesu w Polsce. Celem magazynu jestdostarczanie członkom Izby i innym czytelnikom aktualnych informacji na temat działal-ności Izby a także trendów biznesowych i polityce społecznej firm.listy do rekacji prosimy wysyłać na adres poczty elektronicznej:[email protected]

kredytów hipotecznych będą stanowić bardziej efektywny instrumentdla zabezpieczania tranzakcji, str. 33

cena przewidywalności Organy odpowiedzialne za ochronękonkurencyjności rynku mają tendencję do nakładania wysokich karza łamanie zasad konkurencyjności, ale sądy mogą mieć inne zdaniena ten temat, str. 34

co z transgranicznym cit? Gorąca debata na temat reform sys-temu opodatkowania transgranicznego, str. 35

Relacje zdjęcioweMiędzynarodowy wieczór bożonarodzeniowy we Wrocławiu, str. 36Zimowe mikser biznesowy w Krakowie, str. 37 Walne zgromadzenieczłonków Amerykańskiej Izby Handlowej, str. 38 Spotkanie bizne-sowe we Wrocławiu, str. 39

Działy stałeBriefing redakcyjny, str. 2

List Dyrektor Zarządzającej AmCham, str. 4

Informacje o firmach członkowskich Izby, str. 5

Informacje o działalności Komitetów Izby, str. 8

Podsumowanie zawartości numeru w języku polskim, str. 40

Przewodnik po Komitetach Izby, str. 41

SUMMARIES: in Polish

Agri & Food www.amcham.com.pl/agri_food

Mission: To provide a plat-form for discussing andsolving issues and identify-ing opportunities for com-panies in the agriculturaland food sector by creat-

ing a base for dialogue and expertise leveragedamong producers, sector professionals, experts anddecision-makers. Co-chairs: Andrzej Pawelczak,Animex; Maciej Łubieński, Universal Leaf TobaccoPoland.

Healthwww.amcham.com.pl/health

Mission: To provide aunited forum for U.S. com-panies to share their ex-pertise on the healthcaresystem and exchangeknowledge and experience

with national counterparts, contribute to the positivedevelopments in the sector and promote the U.S. ex-perience and capital while establishing the best con-ditions and opportunities for investments.Co-Chairs:Elisabeth Asirifi, IBM Polska; Jolanta Chlebicka-Do-miniak, Johnson & Johnson.

Infrastructurewww.amcham.com.pl/infrastructure

Mission: To discuss is-sues of the developmentof infrastructure; to pro-mote infrastructure solu-tions for cooperation be-tween private and public

partners. Co-Chairs: Krzysztof Wierzbowski,Wierzbowski Eversheds; Andrew C. Kapusto,Raytheon Homeland Security.

Tax www.amcham.com.pl/tax

Mission: To provide a platformfor identifying tax issues andcreate an educational forum tokeep AmCham members in-formed on current and up-coming legislation. To create a

network to share information, comments and best prac-tices. To lobby decision-makers in the government. Co-Chairs: Peter Kay, KPMG; Piotr Bartuzi, Bank BPH.

Political Discussion Forumwww.amcham.com.pl/pdf

Mission: To build relation-ships with key players inPolish politics, regardless ofwhether within the govern-ment or not, in small groupsand in private settings, toserve as a vehicle into the

world of Polish politics behind official curtains. Co-chairs: Richard Knauff; Marek Matraszek, CEC Govern-ment Relations.

Corporate Social Responsibilitywww.amcham.com.pl/csr

Mission: To encourage andfacilitate responsible busi-ness practices among Am-Cham members to supportthem to improve the qualityand effectiveness of their

CSR programs. Co-Chairs: Wojciech Arszewski,UPS Polska; Anna Jawor, IBM Polska.

Small & Medium-Sized Enterpriseswww.amcham.com.pl/sme

Mission: To provide a forumfor exchange of ideas/bestpractices to improve the per-formance of SMEs; to iden-tify and promote solutions tofacilitate and support themanagerial and operational

efforts of SMEs through educational, networking or lob-bying efforts that leverage the resources and knowl-edge of AmCham and its membership. Co-Chairs:Alain Bobet; Cezary Krasodomski, Cisco Systems.

Employee & Labor Relations www.amcham.com.pl/labor

Mission: To create an infor-mation exchange forum ofHR professionals and so-cial policy experts frommultinational and localcompanies to share, dis-

cuss and learn about the latest trends in HR man-agement and collectively influence local policy anddecision-makers for modern solutions in labor leg-islation. Co-Chairs: Jolanta Jaworska, IBM Poland;Peter Strupp, United Business Development.

Consumer Productswww.amcham.com.pl/consumer

Mission: to provide aforum to share knowl-edge and exchange ex-perience in all areascommon and relevant tomanufacturers and dis-

tributors of goods. Co-Chairs: Małgorzata Surdek,CMS Cameron McKenna; Agnieszka Dzięgielewska-Jończyk, HP Polska.

Telecom www.amcham.com.pl/telecom

Mission: To create a platformunder the AmCham umbrellafor the exchange of members’ideas and views on trends inthe telecommunications sec-tor in Poland; to take steps to

influence decision-makers in telecommunications legis-lation, policy and practice; to promote innovativetrends in telecommunications; to modernize communi-cations technology for business and the average Polishconsumer. Co-Chairs: Jarosław Roszkowski, CrowleyData Poland; Piotr Muszyński, TP SA.

Real Estate Committeewww.amcham.com.pl/real_estate

Mission: To discuss issuesregarding the complexitiesof the real estate market inPoland, and exchange infor-mation. To be an educa-tional and networking forum

for members and to lobby and influence legislativedepartments of the Polish government. Chair: HalinaWięckowska, K & L Gates; John Bańka, Colliers Inter-national.

Pharmaceuticalwww.amcham.com.pl/pharmaceutical

Mission: To discuss andidentify common interestsand exchange information re-garding Poland’s pharmaceu-tical market; to act as a repre-sentative body and collective

voice of pharmaceutical companies before governmen-tal institutions. Co-Chairs: Peter Koetsier, Bristol-MyersSquibb Polska; Roberto Servi, Eli Lilly Polska.

Outsourcing/High Techwww.amcham.com.pl/outsourcing

Mission: To provide a plat-form for discussing, identi-fying and addressing com-mon SSC/BPO issues re-lated to high tech opera-tions; to maintain contact

with local authorities, educational and governmentalinstitutions to present a unified business perspectiveand to suggest ways of possible cooperation. Toidentify the possibilities/areas of state assistance, toshare experience and leverage knowledge. Co-Chairs: Ramón A. Tancinco II, Cisco SystemsPoland; Jacek Stryczyński, Lionbridge.

Intellectual Property Rights www.amcham.com.pl/ipr

Mission: To advocate forIPR protection and provideleadership that will bringtogether interested part-ners; to share informationwith decision-makers and

law enforcement. The police, judiciary, prosecu-tors, customs officials, legislators and journalistsare among the target groups, while the curriculumof law schools should have more emphasis on IPR.Co-Chairs: Agnieszka Wyszyńska-Szulc, Philip Mor-ris; Anna Lasocka, Łaszczuk & Partners.

European Union Affairs www.amcham.com.pl/eu

Mission: To providemembers with relevantinformation on E.U. re-lated issues, includingE.U. funds, and to repre-sent American investors

before the Commission and the Polish govern-ment. Co-Chairs: Magdalena Burnat Mikosz, De-loitte; Jerzy Thieme.

Defense & Security www.amcham.com.pl/defense

Mission: To serve as a plat-form for defense industry is-sues and exchange relevantinformation. The committeecreates a networking forumand fosters a positive work-

ing relationship with the government and people ofPoland. Co-Chairs: Leda Zilinskas, Raytheon Inter-national; Paul Zalucky.

Financial Services www.amcham.com.pl/financial

Mission: The FinancialServices Committee aimsto identify and promote is-sues related to and in sup-port of the financial serv-ices sector, as well as to

provide a forum for dialogue among sector profes-sionals and decision-makers in government. Co-Chairs: Andrew Hope; Adam Michon, MetLife.

Environment & Energy www.amcham.com.pl/environmental

Mission: To help membersdevelop their environmentaland renewable energy busi-ness and help learn about,identify and overcome anydifficulties connected with

environmental laws, and develop a discussion forumamong members about environmental issues andmaintain contacts with Polish authorities responsiblefor making and implementing environmental policies.Co-Chairs: Adam de Sola Pool, Jerzy Chlebowski, Mit-subishi.

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

AMCHAM: Guide to Committees

We’re allin this

together

AmCham Member to Member

American Investor January 2011

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Transcript of American Investor January 2011