Entrepreneurial Spirit, Robert Stalmach, CEO, Newspoint and Co-Founder
Jobsquare
My name is Robert Stalmach and I would like to
share with you my story.
I worked in the Arthur Andersen office in Warsaw in
the years 1998-2000. It was a short but intense adventure – I went thru 3
divisions - Tax, Corporate Finance and Business Consulting. I attended
trainings in Veldhoven in the Netherlands and St. Charles in the USA. As everyone,
I started with LOBAC's internal training and as everyone I was wondering at
that time how my first dream job would affect my professional life. It is worth
mentioning that Arthur Andersen in Poland was then a company where everyone
wanted to work - for many years the company was awarded the prestigious
Employer of the Year award.
Before I tell you how my fate would continue, I
would like to go back to my studies for a while, because they also shaped my
career in later years. In 1999, I graduated with honors from the Faculty of
Management at the University of Warsaw, and in 2003 I defended my PhD in Value
Based Management. In 2005 my book entitled "Managing a company by
value", which was a development of material collected in the doctorate, was
published. I am the author of many publications in the fields of management,
economics, media and new technologies. I also lecture at various universities
and speak at conferences. As a post-doctoral research project, I was a project
participant at the University of Augsburg, as well as the INSEAD and IFRA /
eNews executive programs.
Both the study and the work at Arthur Andersen gave
me a very strong foundation for further career path. I remember at that time
many people said that working at Arthur Andersen for 2 years was a lot more
than a 2-year MBA. I agree with it! In my own example, I can say that the
knowledge and experience that I gained in those years at AA were incomparable
to any university. This practical, extremely intensive MBA from management
taught us how to work in a team, self-reliance, responsibility, customer
sensibility, goal orientation, and implanted the gene of entrepreneurship which
later became a part of our professional lives. I was very lucky to work at the
very beginning of my career with the best people on the market - demanding,
intelligent, real professionals in their field. It was a unique opportunity to
observe the working style of AA seniors, managers and partners that gave us a
tremendously valuable lesson of thinking in terms of company value,
organization, management and planning.
In 2000, the world was electrified by the internet and its opportunities. Entrepreneurs also looked at the Internet more and more as a tool for growth and business scaling. I was also fascinated by the possibilities of the internet! That is why in 2000, after two years at Arthur Andersen I moved to Agora SA, the largest Polish media company at the time, which has just decided on big online investments. For 12 years of my career at Agora SA I was involved in developing business plans for new projects, feasibility studies, creating new ventures, conducting content licensing business, introducing mobile solutions to a company that for many years has been based on traditional media and managed the negotiations with the biggest partners in the market - telecoms, publishers and portals such as MSN and AOL.
After 12 years of working at Agora SA, I got a
chance to work in a technology company that created the Big Data algorithms.
The company name is Netsprint and I have to admit that when I got the offer to
become a member of the board of this company I felt I had to use this
opportunity! That way, in 2013, I got to a completely different organization
than I have worked for so far - much smaller, technology-focused, analytical,
flexible and with informal culture. In Netsprint, as a board member, I was
responsible for the media monitoring division. And this fact has become another
milestone in my career; As soon as it turned out that the Norwegian owner of
Netsprint decided to leave the Polish market, me and some other managers of the
company were proposed a managerial buyout (MBO). Haven’t I waited for it for
all these years of working in corporations? Didn’t I study management,
specialized in Value Based Management and worked as a consultant to other
entrepreneurs to finally become an entrepreneur myself and show what I can
achieve as a company owner? I felt I should see how much my theoretical
education and knowledge gained in large corporations will allow me to run a successful
business! I felt I could not fail to try it! And so, after 15 years of
professional career I became an entrepreneur who is risking his own capital, is
responsible for the company and people working for it, runs battles for market
position and most importantly: creates something that others need and are
willing to pay for it. It's amazing satisfaction!
Today the company I co-own is Newspoint
Newspoint covers 75 languages and 170
countries and supplies data to several thousand brands worldwide and indexes
more than 15 billion documents from around the world.
Newspoint provides advanced media monitoring and
analytical services:
1. Internet
monitoring (social media, forums, blogs, web), press and RTV monitoring
2. In-depth
research & analytical services (Content Analysis, Text mining, Influencer
mapping, Branding crisis, SM analytics)
and offers:
• Broadest range of
Social Media monitoring (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google+, Instagram,
Pinterest, Vimeo, Disqus, etc) – over 50M sources globally
• Unique Forums
& Blogs collection technology
• Unique web
coverage and data quality – over 160K websites globally
• Real Time results
• 10 years Archive
Our tool is widely used in sales, brand image
analysis, crisis communication, customer service, product development, and
human resources (employer branding).
I encourage you to free tests! Just go to www.newspoint.com/en/
and create an account! For 14 days you can use the tool free of charge and
after this period all the Arthur Andersen alumni from all over the world will
be entitled to 30% discount from pricelist!
Besides Newspoint, I'm co-founder of the Jobsquare
mobile app that helps you find jobs and employees. The application has hit the
market, is already available in several languages and is growing rapidly;
After a few months on the market it has over 200,000 downloads, 100,000
employee profiles, 25,000 active users a month, and 500,000 page views a month.
As you can see, two (2) years at Arthur Andersen
have influenced my entire career. The AA values and "can do"
attitude have become the driving force behind my success. But I still learn new
things and develop professionally; I became an energy certifier, an evaluator
of projects financed by the European Union and an expert of the European
Commission in the Horizon 2020 INNOSUP SME Innovation Assessment.
I am personally in a happy relationship with Anna,
the father of 3-year-old gorgeous boy and judo fan - I'm training for the black
belt;)I encourage all Arthur Andersen alumni from all over the world to contact
me in the social media channels:
https://www.facebook.com/robert.stalmach.7
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stalmach/
https://twitter.com/RobertStalmach
https://www.instagram.com/robertstalmach/
or by email: robert.stalmach@newspoint.pl
Let's be in touch and let’s work on great things together!