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On behalf of ASPIRE – the Association of IT and Business Process Services in Kraków, we are pleased to confirm our confidence in the future of the Global Business Services Sector in the city.

Over the past 25 years, Kraków has emerged as a European Hub for the global business services industry, now employing 120,000 people employed across 150+ centres.

Not for the first time, however, comments in the press question the future of the industry in Kraków. On this occasion, the focus is on a rising trend in the number of people impacted by mass layoffs and a slowdown in the rate of headcount growth.

These trends – if trends they are – should not alarm us. It is in the very nature of Global Business Services that there is constant shifting of the sands in the quest for process optimisation with work migrating from one location to another. What is important in this situation is the trajectory of the location and in the case of Kraków what we see is a consistent trend over many years of ever higher value work migrating into the city and lower value work migrating elsewhere.

This upward trajectory points to a resilience and appetite within the industry in Kraków which stands out from other locations. Over the past 25 years, Kraków has continuously faced and met global market challenges – economic, geopolitical and technological – from the financial crisis of 2008 and geopolitical uncertainties caused by events on our Eastern borders, to the impacts of the Pandemic, automation and artificial intelligence. On each occasion we have emerged stronger, demonstrating not only our resilience as an industry but our appetite and capability to respond and make a virtue of change.

This resilience and appetite is built on solid foundations, a robust and evolving ecosystem of industry professionals and local stakeholders, ever more closely aligned. Nevertheless, we cannot be complacent. In a state of constant flux, and in a highly competitive global business environment, what is also vital is constant vigilance to make sure we stay relevant as a location and that we continue to develop our value proposition.

Kraków has the good fortune, of course, that it has an organisation such as ASPIRE which accelerates shared learning and enables the industry in the city to act under one banner, and we would like to take this occasion to inform you of upcoming initiatives and our high level programme for 2025.

• 2025 Headcount Tracker – On 20th February, ASPIRE will be reporting the results of its 2025 Headcount Tracker, an annual survey which forecasts growth across the industry for the year. The WUP data referred to in the Dziennik Polski article of 30th January 2025 identifies a trend for larger numbers of mass layoffs over the past 2-3 years. What they also indicate, however, is a stable unemployment rate, which indicate that layoffs are offset by demand from other companies. This is also our experience, which we expect to be confirmed by the 2025 Tracker, which will also confirm the accuracy of our 2024 forecast of 6% headcount growth.

• Outplacement Support – It should also be added that outplacement support is also a service that the ASPIRE platform is able to facilitate. Currently, we are helping our member, Arrow Services, who are restructuring their operations globally with the consequence that approx. 100 Customer Services and Quote-making professionals in Kraków will be released onto the market. We fully expect that these people will be snapped up by other companies that are expanding.

• Quants & Poets – 2025 has been designated by ASPIRE as the “Year of Quants and Poets”, aligning to the United Nations, “Year of Quantum Science & Computing”. What we aim to achieve by this designation is a focus on the nurturing of higher value skills that we believe necessary for Kraków to have its best future. In particular, we stress the alignment of the Tech and GBS sector with the city’s rich academic and cultural heritage in the sciences and arts, which we believe to be a requisite for meaningful innovation.

• University-Business Forum – To this end, on 3rd April, we will be hosting a University-Business Forum in partnership with the City of Kraków and taking place in the Council Chambers at the Town Hall. In preparation for this Forum we will be conducting an audit of current university-business ways of working with a view to developing new and more effective forms of cooperations and platforms to achieve this. We invite Kraków’s universities and global business services companies to join us in this important initiative.

• ASPIRE Leaders’ Summit 2025 – Later this year, the ASPIRE Leaders Summit will focus on skills and a new event ASPIRE Marketplace will profile innovation in our centres and across the city.

We look forward to joining forces with the City of Kraków to strengthen our mutual efforts to accelerate the development of the industry in Kraków.