There are a lot of young people in Poland, but not enough jobs. In the early eighties, Poland underwent a baby boom. It’s the generation now entering its thirties. This fact is causing some major employment issues, but also is creating a great chance for those who are not afraid to start their own business. And that is noticeable.
Poland has pursued a policy of economic liberalization since 1990 and today stands out as a success story among transition economies. Entrepreneurial trend is growing. There are a lot of courses which teach the theory, and many Poles are starting their own thing. Either they’re unsatisfied with their corporate careers or just find it hard to find a decent job and they launch their business. Poles are very open consumers especially of goods that are new on the market. These can be products or services. But definitely “newness” is the key here to success.
In the second half of 2011, Poland will have the EU presidency, just as the negotiations for the European programmes for 2014-2020 reach a key point, so the influence of Polish ideas and the social economy could impact on what happens across Europe.
A good example of young entrepreneurship could be Mustache Warsaw. They define themselves using one line “Creating the east block’s finest !”, but this could be misleading and narrowing it all down actually.
Recently I went to Mustache Yard Sale and was absolutely astonished how many young vendors it attracted. It was crowded and all of a sudden I felt like I’d be in Williamsburg or Shoreditch. From vintage to ambitious cutting-edge designers, couldn’t believe how many people gave it a go and started their own company with the whole array of marketing activities around it.
I can also observe a wave of new cafes/restaurants opening around the centre of Warsaw. This could be influenced by the EURO 2012 forecast – LOTS of hungry and thirsty tourists.
How about tech entrepreneurship? Poland is a perfect source of highly qualified, fairly cheap developers. But that does increase the entrepreneurship spirit? Is it only about outsourcing cheaper services? I’ve got that from OECD Review of SME and Entrepreneurship Issues and Policies at National and Local Levels in Poland. - “In comparison with more established EU member states, private enterprises in Poland are significantly smaller in size, with a vast majority of micro enterprises and very few firms that are technology based and/or engaged in high value added activity….The small share of technology oriented and high value added SMEs in the economic structure, combined with the low level of expenditure on R&D and other innovation-related activities emphasizes the importance of prioritizing the development and implementation of effective innovation policies. Polish SMEs perform poorly on most innovation indicators, reflecting underdeveloped market-oriented innovation systems at the national and regional levels, as well as a failure to recognize the potential importance of innovation to competitiveness in the mindsets of SME managers.”
The Polish government has already made important efforts to strengthen the innovativeness of business firms. To date, a focus has been to improve the take-up of technologies by business. To this effect, Poland has introduced in recent years a number of tax based and direct policy instruments from tax credits for investing in innovative technologies to technological credits to loans and loan guarantees system. However, these instruments do not directly address business R&D.
In Poland, linkages between industry and the science base have traditionally been weak. In large part, this is a result of the historical legacy of a planned economy which decoupled the science base from production. Policies for strengthening science-industry linkages remain under-developed in Poland, even though many instruments have been introduced recently or will be implemented soon. Furthermore, much of the legal and regulatory actions have focused on removing barriers to collaboration but not necessarily on providing sufficient incentives.
One of the problems that may be encountered by policy decision-makers is the perception of innovation as a source of competitive advantage to the firm. According to the survey conducted by the Polish Confederation of Private Employers, only about 1% of enterprises perceive innovation as a source to gain future competitive advantage in their development strategies.
Conclusion could be that it is getting better, but we still have a weak innovative performance. Changing the mind-set for entrepreneurs and improving awareness of the significance of innovation is an urgent challenge, even though it will be a long term process. I can see the government raising awareness of the importance of innovation among entrepreneurs and strengthening advisory boards. Teachers promoting entrepreneurship at school.