Poland Takes on Innovation Challenge

Tapping into Poland’s new and undiscovered markets can lead to a rise in economic prosperity. 

That is something young business partners Jan Stasz and Michal Juda know first-hand. 

In just a few years, they have gone from a small office with only themselves as employees to a much bigger, now hugely successful e-commerce platform, which provides 18 people with jobs, and represents more than 300 of Poland’s top designers.

“Two of our friends started a fashion brand and they basically asked us ‘guys, you are good at selling stuff online.  Because it seems like the cheapest way to get good customers, social media is booming right now.  So what can you tell us about it?,’” recalls Stasz.

Says Juda: “We have great knowledge in online marketing and customer service, and those areas that (designers) don’t always know that well, especially (because) fashion schools don’t really teach that.  So we try to help them and let them grow together with us.”

Such development and commercialization of products, processes, and services that are new to the market is the type of innovation Poland is seeking to expand.  

With nearly €10 billion in EU structural funds earmarked specifically for improving innovation outcome, the country is developing new strategies to ensure the overall efficacy of new and ongoing innovation initiatives.

“With more innovative business, and a more innovative economy, Poland’s position in the global arena and among EU partners will improve.  And with it, so will the lives of Polish citizens,” says Leszek Grabarczyk, of Poland’s National Center for Research and Development.

As part of the innovation process, Poland’s Ministry of Regional Development has tapped the World Bank’s Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS) to help create strategic and operational documents that can guide the country’s national and regional innovation policy until 2020.

“Thanks to our cooperation with the World Bank, we are in touch with their experts as well as other international experts who specialize in innovation,” he says, referring to the ongoing cooperation of the National Center for Research and Development with the World Bank as part of another RAS.

Since 1989, incomes for the country’s 38 million people have more than doubled in real terms, but a gap in income relative to Western Europe still remains.

Boosting innovation is one way to help close this gap, and ensure sustained prosperity for all in the future.