Hubert Zawadzki
External and Internal Communcations Manager at Philip Morris, Poland
Management program: November 2008 – May 2009
Swedish host company: Svenska Spel
Hubert Zawadzki works as communications manager at the Polish branch of Philip Morris, and already has an international career behind him - including a number of leadership courses and seminars. Among these, he ranks the management program highest.
“First of all, it’s a great idea, and it’s unique in the world, there’s not another government program like this. Secondly, it was not only perfectly organized logistically, it was also very well thought over in the way it taught us things”, he says.
Hubert values the intercultural experience of the program - he feels he got rid of many stereotypical opinions he had about Poland’s neighbours, countries he actually never spent any time in despite his broad international experience.
Something else that Hubert appreciated greatly with the program was how hands-on it was, in that meetings and discussions with Swedish business people supported theory. Through those meetings and other new contacts, Hubert came to the conclusion that what defines good leadership is simply one thing - living up to what you say.
“After the course, I can answer the question “What is a good leader?” with one sentence; ‘You have to walk the talk’, he says.
Hubert thinks the same principle applies to CSR, and in that respect he finds Swedish companies being ahead of others.
“I think Sweden is the leader in CSR, in living CSR. I noticed that it’s not only talking, but something Swedes actually believe in and do. This is unique about Sweden, people in general care about the environment and the community”, he says.
One such example was Hubert’s host company, Svenska Spel, where he did his program project. “It was really interesting to see that Svenska Spel puts responsibility before money – they walk the talk”, says Hubert.
His assignment at the host company was to analyze the market situation for introducing internet poker in Poland, and to investigate the possibilities for introducing the project “Spela lagom”, which aims to lessen the adverse effects of gambling. Hubert, who has seen such effects whilst working in a casino in his youth, really appreciated Svenska Spel’s CSR-approach in that area, and was happy with his host company placement.
“I think this was the very best company to be with, they said we were a very important project to them”, he says.
But actually, when it comes to CSR, Hubert sometimes even finds the Swedish approach a bit exaggerated.
“For example at Max’s restaurants, there is information on the Co2-emissions generated by producing each hamburger. I think they go too far. At some point, you just go CSR-crazy”, he says.
Finally, Hubert has loads of fun memories from his time in Sweden. Like a nice dinner at the Nobel Museum after closing time, eating both fried and raw reindeer meat in Kiruna, or playing tag on a theatre stage during a teambuilding exercise. One thing is certain; he took the networking part of the program seriously.
“We were very good students, so we worked to improve our relations in the evenings too”, he says with a laugh.
“We had a lot of fun, and we also learnt a lot. I say to people that it was one of the best things that happened to me in my life”.