Michał Bolesławski is responsible for corporate banking (SME/MC/SEM) in all markets where the group has such operations: from Benelux to Germany, Poland, Romania, Turkey and Australia.
From 01.2021 till 12.2022 Head of Business Banking Market Leaders and Head of Business Banking Netherlands, ING Bank N.V. He was responsible SME/MC clients in the area of sales as well as end-to-end product/process management. Digitalization of service/acquisition model, including creation of ING Business Platform used for most interactions with ING clients (PCM, through financing products including leasing, factoring, trade finance, e-invoicing, e-accounting, financial markets).
Michał Bolesławski joined ING in 2001 and has held various roles in Business Banking in Poland. Among other he was head of Business Banking in Poland. In addition, he was Supervisory Board Chairman of ING Commercial Finance Poland, ING Lease (Poland), ING Services for Business, ING Polish Art Foundation and ING Investment Holding (Poland). Michał studied at Harvard University – alumni status earned in Harvard Business School, PLD 25 and the ESADE – Escuela Superior de Administracion y Direccion de Empresas. He is a graduate of the Warsaw School of Economics.
"The process of digitization gives the time back to our clients so that they can focus on other things."
In the course of your career, what have you seen change in terms of demands/needs of SME clients? And what role should a bank play in meeting these demands?
The answer consists of two elements.
Firstly, over the last years, the SME demand evolved around the acceptance of digitization meaning a process in which clients can do whatever they want, using whatever facility they want to use, to fulfil their needs without any need to visit a bank branch.
The process of digitization gives the time back to our clients so that they can focus on other things - running their businesses, acquiring customers, the development of their company, focusing on sales, on marketing of the products that they create, without having to deal with things related to banking.
That was the first angle of digitization and the change of expectations. The clients started to accept the fact that there is not necessarily always somebody in the bank outlets assisting them; on the other hand, we have given them the online capabilities, whether this is the web or mobile, which allow them to do the same things by themselves at any time, even at 2:00am if they want to. Starting from simple things, moving on to the more complex ones, also including the proxy management, mandate management, acceptance schemes or any other products.
Secondly, there is a niche which used to be occupied by other service providers, such as accounting firms, e-commerce providers, which banks are eager to take over to some extent. I’m talking about simple things that make daily business operations easier, things that are not necessarily connected with banking. Simple accounting services or e-commerce solutions are a really good example here. At first, the companies did not expect banks to play that role but this has been changing over time.
What have you found to be effective in leading your SME banking team/in your leadership position?
In our case, involving the team in the process of creating the vision and strategy was the most important thing. Then, executing those assumptions, based on good communication and commitment. Nothing special really. Whether you are leading an SME banking team or any other team, effective leadership is all about the same – building engagement.
" The team of relationship managers, people working in Tribes, people working in the field who, through their commitment and ability to deliver things, try to meet the ever-changing expectations of our clients."
Briefly describe, what would be your top 3 achievements/ projects delivered by your bank for SME customers?
I am responsible for many countries, and it is very difficult to say that we try to operate locally. Basically, we adapt to the local circumstances and we try to offer things according to the client needs, which vary from one country to another. I would, however, mention one achievement and that would be a transactional system that won the Global Finance award for the best transactional system for SME Banking in the world. It was just before COVID, and I remember that we considered this to be a really amazing recognition of our efforts directed towards the customers.
Another thing was that we always try to experiment and launch multiple new things which are related, for example, to e-commerce or some other aspects of facilitating internet trade for companies.
And finally, our ING team which is the most important thing. The team of relationship managers, people working in Tribes, people working in the field who, through their commitment and ability to deliver things, try to meet the ever-changing expectations of our clients. I would say that our people are our biggest and most important achievement of all.
What would be the most significant business case that you've applied and learned the most out of it? Both positively or negatively?
I can say that I build most of my knowledge, experience, and the ability to draw conclusions from negative situations rather than from success stories. I have had a couple of those over the years that I worked – starting from the financial crisis in 2008, going through the construction crisis in 2012, up to the COVID-19 crisis most recently. There was a couple of things which impacted our ability to judge, which opened our eyes to risks that we had never been able to spot before. With years of experience, we are all wiser and able to avoid those situations going forward. That is the biggest take-away for me.
