"BIZNES meble.pl" international 1/2018

industry X interview 54 BIZNES meble.pl [ international edition 1/2018 A fter several years of work in various companies, mostly in companies from the furniture indu- stry, in which you also held managerial functions, you decided to start something of your own and founded in autumn 2016 the Style Form Contract company. Why? Whe- re does the decision to make the next chapter in a professional career, start from scratch come from? Robert Czerwiński: A regular full-time job is undoubtedly a great time and op- portunity to pursue your professional ambitions within your organization. It has many advantages, but one should not forget about its disadvantages that in extreme cases can be dangerous for a healthy professional organism. Sum- ming up, it should be defined by the desire to take up another challenge and share your experience and energy with others. Marcin Depa: The market is huge and we perceive it in this way. Working for one employer and wanting to be extremely loyal in business, and we have always been loyal, we could offer – and here is the keyword – ‘limited’ as- sortment within a given compe- tence and technology of the com- pany/employer. And the market is definitely wider and the client wants more and more. From the point of view of true trader with over 20 years of experience, it was difficult to discard such proposals and simply move on. Robert Czerwiński: Today, as a totally free, in terms of business, people with the baggage of contacts and experience we can answer to even most demanding inquires: no problem . It is enough to have good knowledge, connect and link op- portunities quickly and effectively, and confront them in the form of an offer with market demand. The whole sounds extremely simple and easy, almost like classical music ( laughs ), but in practice it is not that easy at all. What exactly in your case means the phrase ‘your’, because as far as I know, you have created a business model that is unusual on the Polish market? Marcin Depa: It means creating and registering a company that carries out a specific activity. We buy, sell, take re- sponsibility for the service, complaints, that is, we fulfil all obligations resulting from contracts or the legal code. What is the difference between your company – in fact: the purchasing gro- up – from similar entities operating in Western Europe? Robert Czerwiński: Basically – if we are talking about a certain business model – there should be no differences at first glance. However, if we look at our ac- tions, we are undoubtedly faster, more competitive in terms of price and well aware of the opportunities that manifest themselves on the furniture market in Poland. Marcin Depa: Many times in the past, I was watching my western colleagues working in commercial companies or purchasing groups in Europe and I saw what a great challenge for them was plan- ning a ‘trip’ to the Polish factory to make arrangements on the new model. Book- ing a plane, hotel, car at the airport, ac- cess to the factory, communication with the production or commercial depart- ments – all that was a serious Tower of Babel. Typically, it ended with prelimi- nary arrangements, a brief discussion and summarising email after the visit. Let us be honest – how much can be done dur- ing a 2-day delegation? And further on – who will keep an eye on all the details, check if the model is consistent with the arrangements, perform quality check?We are here, in Poland and we have such pos- sibilities. Thanks to this, we are certain of the quality, repeatability and predict- ability of the products we sell. The service I am talking about provides security and is of increasing importance. I understand that such purchasing gro- up as yours, is only focused on buying production capacity for particular mo- dels?… Robert Czerwiński: It is not quite like that. Very often, in order to meet the needs of clients, we model projects for them, listen carefully to their expecta- tions. It gives us a lot of satisfaction, al- though it is a difficult and, above all, very responsible process. Marcin Depa: We also take up many dif- ficult topics for our clients asking them what they are looking for, what they are looking for in their offer. Then we make a search for it, and then fulfil their dreams. We strive to be proactive every day, so that our offer is interesting, inno- vative and commercially the best. With how many companies you coope- rate, in other words – from which you buy production capacity? Marcin Depa: At the moment, it is a dozen or so factories. Of course, we are constantly looking for good contacts and we are happy to place our orders in good, predictable and reliable factories – we are open to cooperation. Robert Czerwiński: Our base is natural- ly much broader. There is a lot of require- ments that must be met by a producer who is interested in cooperation. Cer- tainly encouraging factors for us to start cooperation are the credibility of the producer, predictability, business cul- ture, operational efficiency and simply human chemistry. Of course, the deriva- tives of previously mentioned important OUR BUSINESS MODEL IS NOT ABOUT BEING COMPETITOR TO PRODUCERS, BUT AN EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY TO SUPPLEMENT THE COMPETENCE CHAIN IN THE ENTIRE PRODUCTION AND TRADING PROCESS: FROM BASICALLY THE BEGINNING TO THE END. OUR ROLE IS TO BE AbSORT OF A LINK BETWEEN THE PRODUCER AND THE SELLER. WE TAKE CARE OF VERY IMPORTANT ASPECTS, GIVING AbCOMPREHENSIVE SERVICE MAINLY TO THE BUYER, BUT ALSO ACTIVELY SUPPORT MANY PROCESSES ON THE PART OF THE MANUFACTURER. Marcin Depa.