Our road to success

This year, my team and I are celebrating the 30th anniversary of laying the foundations for the Asseco Group. For many months I have been receiving wishes and hearing nice words about Asseco. Many of these people also ask me a question: How was it possible? What was the path from a three-person team in 1991 to over 29,000 employees in 60 countries these days? How come you now generate revenues of over PLN 12 billion, are the sixth largest software developer in Europe and rank among the five most recognizable Polish brands on our continent, while you started as a start-up?
I made an attempt to answer these questions for myself as well. The answer means not only going back to the basics and definitions of our business, but also trying to identify and structure the values that guide me each day and that I have mostly successfully transferred to our organization.

Business idea

At the very beginning of our journey we made an excellent choice of specialization in the IT industry – software development. At the time we started our business in 1991, the average recipient and customer only saw the true value of an IT project in the hardware. For customers the hardware was something tangible, so there was no doubt that it had to cost a lot. Back then, software was something little understood, tough for many people to assess its value, and even sometimes used illegally. It took many years for customers to understand that hardware in an IT project is only a precondition, and the real deal lies in software.
Asseco has succeeded because of our teams operating in many countries that have endured this time of underestimating the role of software and because of the many proprietary software products that we developed during that period. It is these products, professional qualifications of our teams and the vast number of clients that are the true wealth of the Asseco Group.

People

People say: “Adam, you created this…, you built this….” I do not enjoy such words because Asseco is what it is only because for years I have been surrounded by a group of wonderful, ambitious people. People who are proud of our history, but focus on the future.
As a leader I can say that what we have done was only possible because I was lucky with people. This means both my partners, who contributed to Asseco at various stages of its development, as well as all those who every day put in their hard work to make the impossible possible. To all those who happened to be on my business path – thank you very much.
Asseco is not just my success. It is our success. It is the success of all my partners (including investors), customers and teams that operationally deliver on our commitments. I go to great lengths to ensure that my people do not feel like they are my employees, but rather my business partners. There is no system of control that can protect us from dishonest people. The best organization is one in which each member, through their ambition and hard work, sets an example for their colleagues.
An organization dominated by people thinking this way produces self-control mechanisms that are often more effective than systems. These, of course, are also necessary, especially in the case of large entities, but the core of the company should be people with integrity and true commitment.

Principles and values

Positive thinking. My visits to the USA in the early 1990s allowed me to understand one of the drivers of success of numerous American companies. This factor is nothing else but positive thinking, so typical for Americans. I strongly believe that in this respect their education system is still much better than ours. In the early 1990s, with the help of many of my friends from across the pond, I defined for myself the basics of positive thinking: one sentence about why it is hard, and ten sentences about what to do to solve the problem. I passed this approach onto my teams, and maybe that is why we often achieve goals that even I find hard to believe in at first.

Belief in the goodness of people. I have been saying for years that the world is not divided into Poles, Israelis, Germans, Russians, Spaniards, Americans, etc., but into good people who want to live an honest life, respecting their family, friends, employees or customers, but also their country and the environment they function in, and the rest. Good and evil have nothing to do with nationality, country or religion. We should surround ourselves with people who think and act the same way.

Clear rules of cooperation. In embarking on the effort of international integration, we sought to bring people together without any bias. It was, in fact, motivated by establish an organization that would be a real partner to the largest companies in the world. For I believe that the big ones only begin to see and understand us when they genuinely need us. I am glad that all these thoughts and our seemingly naive faith in humanity have come to fruition in our federal model. Our Group constitutes a beautiful integration of different nationalities, religions, cultures and histories. Again, we might ask, why was this possible? First of all, we have defined a simple model for our collective action. Even though we are the leader of our Group, we do not use this leadership at the expense of other members. These simple rules are:
• paying taxes where the revenue is generated;
• not maximizing financial results by shifting operating profit to the countries with the lowest taxes;
• preparing an offer for a customer based on either our own product or a product from the Group, and only reaching for external products when we do not have them;
• accounting for services performed within the Group at market prices;
• separate budgets for marketing and social campaigns for leaders in each country;
Our goal in developing these rules was to ensure that none of us felt that we were achieving anything at the expense of other people or other countries. Today, we are proud that these simple, seemingly naive guiding principles allow us to be so successful in business.

Creative critique, not criticism. I always ask everyone for creative critique. The art of building the future of a company lies in drawing on your own and your customers’ ideas, careful observation of the competitors’ and constant searching for weaknesses in your organization.
In structures as mature as Asseco, dealing with their elimination and skillfully using the energy and ideas of new hires is the basis for adapting the business to the changing market and for continuous development. My role is to convince as many people as possible to creative critique. I say to my people: “Please look for weaknesses in our organization, but only come with ideas on how to improve it. Do not be afraid to make mistakes either. We are only human. We have a right to make them. Yet, never hide this mistake from your team. Come, say you made it, apologize, and learn from it.” My firm belief is that an organization where there is no fear of admitting mistakes, where people quickly learn from them, will be an organization that will always make progress.

A glimpse into the future

I think the answer to why we are successful is pretty simple. We certainly had and still have a good business idea. We work hard, we have created simple rules of cooperation between all our companies and we always remember that our existence is only possible thanks to the trust of our customers.
Yet, if someone asks why I still manage to be a good leader, my answer has always been – and I will say it again – that I am lucky with people. I have given this luck some help by creating simple rules of cooperation between my business partners, the management of our companies, our operational teams and our clients. Finding balance in the conflicting interests of these different groups, meeting commitments to them is the job of leaders who are often on their own. Those who run well-functioning enterprises surely understand what this balance means.
I continue to work on building the future of the Asseco Group. My dream is to leave my successor, whom I have mentored, with an organization with a perspective of the next few decades.
On the one hand, I am proud of our efficiency stemming from the strengths of the federated model, while on the other hand, I am personally making every effort to speed up the integration of our international teams.
We have made tremendous progress in international management of IT solutions for the enterprise, payment and insurance sectors. We are working on accelerating integration in banking, health care, public administration, cloud solutions and cybersecurity. I do not doubt that we will do this effectively because I am surrounded by people who know that our internationality is a great competitive advantage and needs to be put to good use.
Our wonderful history gives me great satisfaction. Nevertheless, I tend to remind my teams that history undoubtedly helps us, but it is our commitment to meet the dynamically changing needs of our customers that will shape the future. Thus, unfortunately, there is no time to dwell on the past, and all our efforts must be directed at finding new ideas, wise investments and enriching the group with modern-thinking IT specialists in all the countries we operate in.

Does my business life give me much satisfaction?

Of course, it does. I wanted to live my life knowing that while doing business, I do not do it at the expense of others, I do not take advantage of my customers’ unawareness, and I recognize each and every person who makes Asseco a respected brand in many places.
It fills me with joy that almost all the people with whom I started this beautiful adventure 30 years ago are still with me. I am proud that many of our first customers, with whom we began working a long time ago, still find this partnership valuable. That they appreciate the fact that, thanks to our products and services among others, they have become and remain competitive in their markets. I also respect the fact that our leaders in companies in different countries fully identify with the values we have developed together. This all makes me think that there is enormous value in what we have developed. That gives me strength and keeps me believing in the sense of continuing the adventure I started 30 years ago.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the success of Asseco over the last 30 years. I am grateful to my clients, all my colleagues and their families, my current business partners, but also to all those who showed up on my business path many years ago. All of you have contributed to what Asseco is today. It is our joint success. Thank you all once again! I am very proud of what is behind us, but even more excited about what is to come.

Adam Góral,
President of the Management Board of Asseco Poland