Return of the Matt
A well-traveled and worldly man, his work has taken him all over the globe, including stints in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Having previously worked in Poland for five years, he has recently returned to this side of the Oder after working in Munich for the past two.
One issue that Lythgoe identifies as giving foreign businesspeople major headaches here is the amount of red tape. And, no doubt, anyone who has had to come up against the monolithic state bureaucracy in this country would have to agree with him when he describes it as "often confusing and contradictory."
"There's still a great reliance on doing things in person rather than by fax or via e-mail [in this country]," he says, citing many recent examples, including how when changing his driving license in Britain it took him just 30 minutes, whereas here it was a long, drawn-out process that required him to conduct the change on a face-to-face basis.
Lythgoe, however, is much more approving of general office environments here, believing that Poles, compared to Brits, are "fairly easy to work with" and "less political."
"When [Poles] come to the office, they come to work. There's less dossing around," he explains, noting, however, that there is also less of an inclination to socialize. He also notes that in terms of formality, Poles are increasingly adopting the more relaxed British line, with less emphasis on addressing people as Pani Direktor, etc.
"In Germany," he qualifies, "I would never dream of calling a service manager by their first name."
One frustration that he has experienced in this country, though, concerns the introduction of new ideas and concepts, where a common response is "'That'll never work here!'" However, that said, Lythogoe believes this is more of a conversational style rather than genuine resistance, as, he maintains, "Poles are generally good at accepting change."
But getting information out of people here is not always easy, which is certainly a problem for anyone conducting due diligence.
"A lot of Poles have a problem with information sharing and the compartmentalization of roles. It's very difficult to find someone with an overall view of the company. It's difficult to find people who'll take responsibility for a whole field, such as finance," he reveals.
However, Lythgoe does not believe that this is a national trait per se.
"There are lots of well-managed small companies with good internal communications, but still in some very large firms, 15 years after the end of the old system, serious issues of management style have not been addressed."
Perhaps, if this problem, as well as the "terrible" standard of driving in this country, were rectified, he, like a lot of other ex-pats, would be a lot happier, and safer.
One issue that Lythgoe identifies as giving foreign businesspeople major headaches here is the amount of red tape. And, no doubt, anyone who has had to come up against the monolithic state bureaucracy in this country would have to agree with him when he describes it as "often confusing and contradictory."
"There's still a great reliance on doing things in person rather than by fax or via e-mail [in this country]," he says, citing many recent examples, including how when changing his driving license in Britain it took him just 30 minutes, whereas here it was a long, drawn-out process that required him to conduct the change on a face-to-face basis.
Lythgoe, however, is much more approving of general office environments here, believing that Poles, compared to Brits, are "fairly easy to work with" and "less political."
"When [Poles] come to the office, they come to work. There's less dossing around," he explains, noting, however, that there is also less of an inclination to socialize. He also notes that in terms of formality, Poles are increasingly adopting the more relaxed British line, with less emphasis on addressing people as Pani Direktor, etc.
"In Germany," he qualifies, "I would never dream of calling a service manager by their first name."
One frustration that he has experienced in this country, though, concerns the introduction of new ideas and concepts, where a common response is "'That'll never work here!'" However, that said, Lythogoe believes this is more of a conversational style rather than genuine resistance, as, he maintains, "Poles are generally good at accepting change."
But getting information out of people here is not always easy, which is certainly a problem for anyone conducting due diligence.
"A lot of Poles have a problem with information sharing and the compartmentalization of roles. It's very difficult to find someone with an overall view of the company. It's difficult to find people who'll take responsibility for a whole field, such as finance," he reveals.
However, Lythgoe does not believe that this is a national trait per se.
"There are lots of well-managed small companies with good internal communications, but still in some very large firms, 15 years after the end of the old system, serious issues of management style have not been addressed."
Perhaps, if this problem, as well as the "terrible" standard of driving in this country, were rectified, he, like a lot of other ex-pats, would be a lot happier, and safer.
