[Corey] Nestled away at the crossroads of Europe
lies a place
that is quickly becoming the newest hotbed for innovation.
(dramatic, inspiring music)
It's a place that knows how to take action.
One that moves quickly and courageously in the face
of challenges, daring to seize the moment
where others might play it safe.
A place where the entrepreneurial mentality reigns supreme.
This is Poland, a dynamic land with a lot to teach us
about the transformative potential
of embracing change, reinvention, and creating opportunity.
[Tanya] I left for Poland by war in Ukraine.
[Corey] Here we'll explore the powerful wins
of innovation that have converged
with the local customs, values,
and ways of living to create something unique.
[Wojciech] We are not afraid to test,
we are not afraid to speed up.
[Corey] Together,
we'll see firsthand how technology
and tradition combine to form Cloud Cultures.
(inspiring music)
[Corey] I'm Corey Sanders.
I'm an engineer who loves to build, innovate,
and explore the new frontiers of technology.
In my time at Microsoft,
I've seen a lot of innovation happen.
I've seen plenty of good ideas fail
and mediocre ones find ways to succeed.
And I've realized innovation isn't as much
about the idea as it is the people behind it.
Which is why I'm so excited to head out
on this trip across Europe to meet and learn
from the people and the companies driving our future.
First stop, Warsaw.
There's a fearlessness to what I'm seeing come out of there.
When it comes time to act,
Polish people jump right in,
courageously taking on new challenges,
identifying opportunities, building fast, embracing risk,
and doing it all in a way unlike anything I've ever seen.
To get a better understanding,
I connected with my colleague Marta Gasik.
Hey Marta, how are you?
[Marta] Hey, Corey.
A data center lead
and business strategy manager based in Warsaw,
someone deeply familiar with the country, the culture,
and the companies-
like CCC Group,
one of Poland's most popular shoe retailers
who went all in during the pandemic,
using the lockdown and the cloud to reinvent themselves.
[Marta] Well, Wojciech, thank you so much
for finding time to meet with us today.
Personally, I've been a customer
at least my whole adult life, possibly a bit longer.
But maybe you could start
by introducing us a bit about the CCC Group.
[Wojciech] The CCC Group is a fashion tech company.
Basically, we started with the brick-and-mortar business
more than 10 years ago, and then the company evolved.
So, we have similar businesses
in 28 countries, and we are speeding up.
[Marta] The CCC I remember from few years back
was truly, as you said, brick and mortar.
How do you leap so much
into the innovation in such a short time?
[Wojciech] Well, basically, this is within our DNA.
The COVID times was very specific for the retail industry.
So, the day when this store was closed,
the day afterwards, we launched more than 50 projects.
We knew that we had to try to find some alternatives.
So our initial vision was to land
within the full omnichannel space.
So we started this journey four years ago
so that the courage, the technology, the willingness,
and the team play that drove us where we are today.
[Marta] Sorry, you said four years?
Like, four years entire omnichannel journey.
Like, it takes much longer
from my experience on some other markets.
[Wojciech] Well, basically we started with the enablers.
And the key enabler is agility.
We invested in the cloud foundations
on the very beginning of this journey,
so we've been quite fast within our strategy.
We are saying widely and openly
that we would like to be like a data-driven company,
not just in the customer domain,
but we really now invest and work a lot when it comes
to the supply chain, when it comes to the marketing.
It's all about the data literacy,
how fast the organization is able to digest
and to use the results.
[Marta] And I think there's something about Poland,
just about our history,
about the way we like to spin things off.
[Wojciech] Yeah, because we are not afraid to test,
we are not afraid to speed up.
If I were to say what is
the characteristic of the typical company
within this region, is the courage.
We don't give up.
[Marta] I'm looking forward
to being a customer of your omnichannel 2.0 with CCC Group.
Thank you so much for sharing the experience with us today.
(Marta and Wojciech speaking Polish)
(inspiring music)
[Corey] It's amazing how bold moves
and powerful tech can transform a company
in such a short amount of time.
And the impact it can have
on people's lives is even greater.
Something I want to learn more about from Tanya,
a Ukrainian refugee enrolled in the CYBER Trainees program,
a nonprofit providing Polish
and Ukrainian women with life-changing opportunities.
We've got some pierogies here.
(Corey and Tanya laugh)
[Corey] Well, thank you so much for making the time to meet
with me. So what brought you originally to Poland?
[Tanya] I left for Poland by war in Ukraine.
I live in big city in Ukraine,
in Kiev, because big city opens up big opportunities.
[Corey] You said you have a son.
How old is your son?
[Tanya] Six.
[Corey] Six, okay.
My daughter's three.
Tell me a little bit about what it was like
growing up in Ukraine before the war.
[Translator] I was born in Ukraine in the Dnipro region.
I went to school there,
and when I finished school, I moved to Kiev.
I studied management at a university there,
and after I graduated, I got married and started working
for a Ukrainian telecommunications company,
gave birth to a son,
I started a new job, and then the war started,
and I left Ukraine.
[Corey] Must have been tough to move.
[Tanya] M-hmm, yeah.
[Corey] You know, here in Poland,
what are some of the things
about the culture here or the people here that you noticed?
[Tanya] I impressed for culture, tradition, and language.
[Corey] Felt like a home away from home?
[Tanya] Yeah, yeah.
[Corey] So you got involved with the CYBER Trainees program.
Could you tell me a little bit about it?
It's a program for Ukrainian
and Polish women who find work in IT.
As part of the program, you know,
what was the most enjoyable part?
What did you really like about it?
I'm attracted to cybersecurity.
Oh, fantastic.
Okay, and why cybersecurity?
[Translator] I think that nowadays, especially,
it's very important to have some idea
of what is true and what is not.
Because today, there are all kinds of disinformation,
(Tanya speaking Ukrainian)
and we have to somehow discern it
for ourselves to feel more secure,
and not subject ourselves to some kind of danger.
(Tanya speaking Ukrainian)
[Corey] So, I mean, so impactful, cyber security launched
at Microsoft really focused on keeping customers safe
and making sure that they're protected.
And so, I love that that's the focus that you have.
It's such an important part of IT.
What would you say some of the experiences
of some of the other women has been in the program?
[Translator] Our group was the best.
We supported each other.
We became friends.
We still keep in touch
and share our experiences and thoughts.
We are very happy that there was this opportunity for us,
for Ukrainian women to take part
in this program, because it gave us a chance to move on.
(Tanya speaking Ukrainian)
[Corey] I mean, I'm just, I'm so humbled to hear
about the steps you've taken, and I'm so impressed
by how you're taking technology to create empowerment
to be able to change your life.
When you look forward,
what are the dreams that you have
for you and for your son?
(Tanya speaking Ukrainian)
[Translator] The knowledge that I received
during that project makes me more confident
about the future.
(Tanya speaking Ukrainian)
I lost my job in Ukraine,
and now I have a chance to take my career
in a different direction.
So, we are happy that we took part in this program.
(Tanya speaking Ukrainian)
[Corey] I would just say, you're an inspiration and a role
model, obviously for your son, but also for many of us,
and I'm honored to get the chance to meet you
and hear about your story.
It's been wonderful.
[Tanya] Thank you.
[Corey] Tanya's story is a great reminder
that technology alone doesn't drive change.
True change comes from the people who use it
as a tool to create a better future.
On the other side of town, Marta's meeting
with a local bank that is disrupting the financial industry
by embracing mistakes and building a culture of empowerment.
[Marta] Karolina, thank you so much for having us today.
And I must say, my personal experience coming back to Poland
after a few years living abroad, I genuinely felt
like I lept forward in time.
The financial service industry is so advanced,
and Nest Bank is one of the best examples.
[Karolina] And thank you for such nice brief about us.
Nest is a group, bank, and factoring company.
We focus on digital services.
Our key market segment are small,
and micro-enterprise owners focus on solutions
which save on time and make their life easier.
Therefore, all our services
are around simple, usually innovative,
but, most importantly, simple and secure payment methods.
[Marta] Is there any specific part of your organization
that is an innovation hub,
or is innovation happening equally
across all business divisions?
[Karolina] Innovation happens equally.
This is very close cooperation of Customer Experience team,
of Product team, of risk.
On one hand, you need the highest standards
in terms of responsibility, security,
but on the other hand,
this is what customers would like to happen, seamless,
as easy as possible.
And obviously the technology will then make things happen.
Like, we have implemented onboarding,
on the cloud, and mobile onboarding using selfie.
[Marta] I've seen a selfie.
You can open the bank account any time, really,
without any interaction.
[Karolina] We say it takes 10 minutes, however,
on average, now we can see
that customers do it in much less time.
[Marta] I love it.
I mean, that's the first time I've ever seen
any institution do onboarding with a selfie.
We talk about innovations,
reinventing processes in banking and interactions.
That would require a lot of changes, right?
How do you build change into your company's culture?
[Karolina] First of all,
we focus to attract the people who are open-minded
and open to changes.
Definitely cloud is the technology
which attracts talented people to Nest.
This really happens.
People would like to learn the new services.
It's easier for them to invest time in innovation.
When we have infrastructure management automatized,
it is attracting good people.
But when you need to create the culture,
you need to allow people to make mistakes.
We have the strong need to go in the unknown,
to reinvent,
to try again, to challenge the status quo,
because maybe our nature,
definitely this is great benefit to have such people
on board with such mindset.
[Marta] Karolina, thank you for having us here.
(Marta and Karolina speaking Polish)
[Corey] After three eye-opening conversations,
it's time Marta and I regroup to share stories.
And the location of our meeting couldn't be more fitting:
the new Microsoft datacenter here
in the Polish Digital Valley.
So, this is a unique datacenter that we built here?
[Marta] Yeah, actually in Poland Central,
we have for the first time
in any of our datacenters worldwide, this new design.
So, this specific one is called Rapid Deployment Datacenter.
We use more prefabricated, preassembled components.
[Corey] I see.
Now we've rounded the corner,
and we've got these giant spaceship-looking things here.
So what are these?
[Marta] Those are actually our water-retention tanks.
[Corey] Ah.
[Marta] Talking of innovation, you know,
we actually optimize our datacenters to work
in much higher temperatures than the industry average,
which allows us to spend less energy,
use less energy, on cooling and adiabatic cooling,
for example,
is one of the technologies-adiabatic.
[Corey] Adiabatic, okay.
[Marta] Adiabatic cooling.
[Corey] I think I got it.
Now, we got a lot of time
talking about how cool the datacenter is.
But tell me, like, what does it mean to you,
what does it mean
to Poland, to have this region deployed here?
[Marta] Oh, we're very passionate
about the changes we can bring.
Now, on some industries,
it's not always that easy to go to public cloud,
and there is some preference sometimes for data residency
so, now we are making the cloud accessible.
[Corey] So I understand you moved back as part of these
plans. Like, what's really exciting
for you about this launch?
[Marta] Yeah, I've been with Microsoft
on some other of our EMEA markets,
and then, you know, coming home for Christmas, just popping
by the office and listening to the leadership team here
talk about the vision
for Polish Digital Valley, for our entire ecosystem here,
how we can innovate, how we can change,
how we can partner with them for the future.
I just wanted to be part of that.
[Corey] That's awesome.
Just the ability to innovate
and be here with this type of deployment to do that.
You ended up talking to a few customers, right?
[Marta] I had a great opportunity to have conversations
with CCC and with Nest Bank.
CCC, really interesting angle on how our political history,
the geopolitical history
of Poland, forces Polish people to innovate faster
and to go for the process
of change much quicker than some other Western markets.
One of the other customers we met
with this week was Nest Bank.
So Nest Bank is a Polish bank that's digital first,
and we talked about how the choice to go cloud first
few years back allowed them to change how they innovate,
how they better meet their customer needs,
and how they quickened the time to market.
[Corey] That's fantastic.
[Marta] You've also had a chance to meet
with, I believe, Tanya, right?
[Corey] I met with Tanya, yeah.
Very moving, really powerful story
about her leaving Ukraine and coming to Poland
and joining the CYBER Trainees program,
and the opportunity
for her to empower herself to build these skills
and support herself and her son in this new world.
It was just, it was touching.
I was very moved by her story.
[Marta] Just constantly reinventing yourself and going
forward. Digital transformation should not exclude anyone.
[Corey] And exactly, I mean, certainly having
the infrastructure is important, but having the skills
and the community, and then that drive for innovation,
which of course, we've seen in Poland, a whole lot of.
[Marta] We're just giving tools to all
of the hundreds and thousands of people
who have the ideas for innovation.
[Corey] Well, thank you, Marta,
this has been really fantastic to talk.
Even in the cold, snow weather here,
it's been truly wonderful.
[Marta] Thank you, Corey.
We're so excited you had the time to meet with us
and see what Polish Digital Valley
will really become in the next years.
(dramatic, inspiring music)
[Corey] As my journey through Poland comes to a close,
I'm struck by how much I've learned.
I came with certain expectations,
but what I discovered here has left me
with a new way of thinking about innovation.
The cloud culture here is quick, vibrant, and determined,
filled with innovators who are focused
on solving real problems and challenges.
I leave here feeling energized and excited
about the possibilities of what we can all achieve
with just a little bit of boldness.
I'm ready to dive in to my next adventure.
(upbeat music)
[Man] I think it's in our DNA, of Swedish people, to build.
The Swedes, when they start a company,
from day one, are building it to grow outside of Sweden.
[Corey] See you in Sweden.