Start-Up Poland: The People Who Transformed an Economy

Cienski, Warsaw bureau chief of the Financial Times from 2003 to 2014, gives an in-depth overview of Poland’s transition from a poor Soviet satellite to a democracy with one of Europe’s fastest growing economies. As he observes, post-Communist Poland saw entrepreneurship grow at a rate “unprecedented among Europe’s transition economies.” The book’s survey of entrepreneurs focuses on a younger generation of businesspeople trying to establish themselves in an economy increasingly similar to those of Western Europe in its competitiveness and rising labor costs. Cienski profiles, among other businesses, a firm that hires out the services of Polish coders to Western companies and a debt-collection agency that shifted to less-aggressive collection policies, guided by the principle that “the debtor is king.” While Cienski points out that a class of powerful oligarchs did not emerge as they did in the Czech Republic or Ukraine, he also swiftly acknowledges the millions who did not fare well economically in the transition, attributing the electoral victory of the right-wing Law and Justice Party in large part to their resentment. Though at times intimidatingly dense, Cienski’s work is highly informative, and for Americans provides an object lesson in what can be learned from the accomplishments, and failures, of other nations, regimes, and economic systems. [em](Dec.) [/em]