Meet the Tatra Tiger Košice: The city that surprises the experts

Meet the Tatra Tiger
Košice: The city that
surprises the experts
Bratislava old town
A Champion of
Economic Growth
With a population of over five million inhabitants
and an area of about 50,000 square kilometres,
Slovakia sits at the crossroads of Central Eastern
Europe, with the Czech Republic and Austria to
the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east
and Hungary to the south. The country’s largest
city is its 420,000-inhabitant-strong capital of
Bratislava, and the second-largest is Košice.
With a set of innovative, businessfriendly policies (such as a flat tax
rate), foreign direct investment
(FDI) was encouraged by the
government – especially in the
automotive and electronic sectors.
Meet the
Tatra Tiger
Slovakia is the dark horse of Central and Eastern Europe. Those
in the know call it the “Tatra Tiger”. Why? Find out – the facts
may surprise you!
Slovakia is young. Literally: the country ventured
on its own path just over 20 years ago, separating
peacefully from the Czech Republic in the
“velvet divorce” which followed the “velvet
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revolution”, the breakdown of communist rule
in Czechoslovakia. Shortly after on May 1st,
2004, Slovakia joined the European Union, and it
adopted the Euro as national currency in 2009.
Starting out as the poorer sister of the traditionally
heavily industrialised Czech Republic, Slovakia
soon pulled out all the stops to become a
stable export-driven economy, consistently
outperforming many of its better-known
neighbours. In 2007, 2008, and again in 2010, the
country was the fastest growing economy in the
Eurozone, producing double-digit growth before
the global recession and continuing to show
growth in the on-going general economic slump.
(FDI) was encouraged by the government –
especially in the automotive and electronic
sectors. Skilled and affordable labour, low
corporate taxes and a stable political environment,
combined with a relatively liberal labour code
and a favourable geographical location, are
Slovakia’s main advantages for foreign investors.
Far from Slowing Down
Although more than half of Slovakia’s GDP
comes from the service sector, industrial
production – especially electrical engineering
and car manufacturing – plays an important
role within its economy. Since 2007, Slovakia
has been the world’s largest producer of cars per
capita, with a total of 571,071 cars manufactured
in the country in that year alone. Furthermore,
initiatives are underway to install IT engineering
as a new mainstay of Slovakia’s economy.
Dubbed the “Tatra Tiger” by the international
press, Slovakia has taken significant leaps over
the last two decades and does not seem likely
to slow down in the foreseeable future.
A Smart Investor’s Haven
The success of Slovakia was driven by a number
of significant economic reforms. Following an
initial period of stagnation in the early and
mid-1990s, reforms to the tax code and the
healthcare, pension, and social welfare systems,
as well as a series of major privatisations, helped
Slovakia consolidate its budget and made the
country competitive enough to join the EU.
With a set of innovative, business-friendly policies
(such as a flat tax rate), foreign direct investment
Slovakia is the world’s largest
producer of cars per capita
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Košice:
Trying Harder
The number one may be the number one, but the runner-up keeps
trying harder: welcome to Košice, Slovakia´s second-largest city
and most dynamic new business location.
Košice Peace Marathon is older than the New York Marathon
Košice Peace Marathon
You may have never heard of it. But it’s older
than the New York Marathon, actually being
the oldest annual marathon in Europe – and
the second-oldest in the entire world, after
Boston. It’s held every year on the first
Sunday of October in the historic old town,
and those who go the whole distance pass
many monuments of Košice’s proud history.
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Košice is Slovakia’s second-largest city at 235.000
inhabitants, and it sits on the shore of the river
Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore
Mountains, less than an hour drive away from
the Hungarian, Ukrainian and Polish borders. It is
the economic, social and cultural hub of eastern
Slovakia and accounts for almost 10% of the
Slovak gross domestic product. U.S. Steel Košice,
is the largest employer in the city and Slovakia’s
largest private employer, with T-Systems being
the second-largest employer in the region.
A Proud Past
Košice’s old town centre is beautiful, lively and
energetic. So much, that the city shared the
honour of being Europe’s Capital of Culture 2013
with Marseille, France. This choice was anything
but random: in medieval times, Košice numbered
among the largest cities in all of Europe, a fact
owed largely to its strategic location on an
international trade route connecting the Adriatic
and the Aegean with the Baltic Sea. The city
was even important enough to become the first
European settlement with its own coat-of-arms.
Košice’s well-preserved historical centre bears
witness to this proud history with many heritageprotected buildings in Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque,
and Art Nouveau styles – among them St. Elisabeth
Cathedral, Slovakia’s largest church. The long main
street, lined with churches and burghers’ houses,
is a thriving pedestrian zone with numerous
boutiques, cafés, and restaurants. There are
museums, galleries, theatres and festivals like the
Košice Music Spring Festival, the International
Organ Music Festival, and the Festival of
Contemporary Art.
“The city’s year as a European Capital
of Culture served to kick-start projects
aimed at the transformation of Košice
from a centre of heavy industry to
a post-industrial city with an active
creative economy, merging business and
industry with design, media, architecture,
music and film production, and IT.”
Richard Raši, Mayor of Košice
A Lively Town
Adding to this vigour – and also to Košice’s
prospects for future success – are the many
students: university-level education has been
provided here since 1657. Today, the Technical
St. Elisabeth Cathedral, Slovakia’s largest church
University of Košice is Slovakia’s largest
university with almost 900 professors, docents
and assistants, and over 16,000 students, of
whom 4,000 are in master’s degree programmes
and over 500 are PhD candidates. These
numbers give an impression of the region’s
high-quality employee potential, which has
attracted a large number of "tech" companies.
The city’s second major university is the Pavol
Jozef Šafárik University, with faculties of Medicine,
Science, Law, Public Administration and Arts. The
University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in
Košice is the only institution in the Slovak Republic
offering higher education in the veterinary field.
Furthermore, the private Security Management
College in Košice numbers over 1,100 students,
and the University of Economics in Bratislava, the
Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, and the
Catholic University in Ružomberok all maintain
their own branch campuses here. With further
universities in Prešov, a 45-minute drive away, the
region contributes a total of over 5,000 university
graduates to the labour market every year – an
amazing reservoir of high-potentials in nearly
every business-relevant field you can think of. 4
An Exciting Future
“The European Capital of Culture year initiated
projects which aim at the transformation
of Košice from a center of heavy industry to
a postindustrial city with an active creative
economy, merging economy and industry with
design, media, architecture, music and film
production and IT.” Richard Raši, Mayor Of Košice
The professional side of this development is
Košice IT Valley, established in 2007 to create
favourable conditions for fostering Eastern
Slovakia’s IT industry by giving the region its
own IT Centre of Excellence. Conceived as
a cluster based on the knowledge triangle
between universities, schools, local government
and IT companies, Košice IT Valley has quickly
surpassed all original expectations: The project´s
initial goal was to create 1,000 new IT jobs. But
in actual fact, over 7,000 have been created to
date. Košice IT Valley now has nearly 40 memberorganisations ranging from universities and
schools to the public sector and the IT industry,
including big international players like T-Systems,
IBM, RWE, Microsoft, Cisco, SAP and Siemens.
The stormy growth of its first half-decade has
"Seven years ago, when we set out
to create ten thousand ICT-related
workplaces in 2020 many perceived
this as an impossible challenge. You
came on board right in the middle of
this exciting voyage. Please join us in our
effort to transform the Eastern Slovak
region to a number one ICT hub in
Slovakia. Make use of us and be part of
all the initiatives our crew has prepared.
SAP Academy, Dual-Education concepts,
strong collaboration and knowledge
exchange. Welcome on board, Holcim!"
Ján Bodnár - Director of Košice office at
American Chamber of Commerce, Deputy
Managing Director Košice IT Valley
nourished expectations that, by 2020, Košice
IT Valley will number more than 100 members,
creating another 3,000 IT jobs and employing
over 10,000 individuals in the IT sector.
Welcome
to Košice:
The city that
surprises the
experts
In search of the perfect location for their new business
centre, Holcim CEE asked leading human resources
consultant Mercer to evaluate 11 European locations.
The result surprised even the experts.
"It happens rarely that a relatively small city in
comparison to a capital (or first-tier city) wins in
the categories of labour quality and availability
and also ranks highly in all other criteria.”
HBS Order to Cash (O2C) team
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This is not an off-the-cuff remark. In fact, it is
highlighted in the executive summary of Mercer’s
report in which Zagreb, Budapest, Gyor, Prague,
Brno, Warsaw, Tricity (Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia),
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Bratislava, Košice, Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca
were all evaluated as potential locations for the
new headquarters of Holcim Business Services.
“Seven years ago we set out to build a
future for our region, creating a center of
excellence in Eastern Slovakia to make the
socio-economic environment attractive
for investors, enterprises and, maybe most
importantly, for well-educated young
people. Our approach was to support
the transition towards an information
and knowledge society by creating a
platform which links public administration,
businesses and educational institutions.
To our own surprise, the Košice IT Valley
concept quickly outperformed all our
reasonable expectations. We gratefully
welcome Holcim Business Services as
an important addition to the growing
strength of this unique partnership.”
Jozef Ondáš - founding member
of the Košice IT Valley
Mercer compared factors like labour laws, costs,
availability and quality, combined with infrastructure, the business environment, customer-orientation, competitors and quality of life, and found
that in the final round, Košice beat Budapest in a
close race, with the high availability of multilingual, university-educated talents playing a decisive
role in their deliberations. A history of generous
subsidy grants from the Slovak government also
weighed in to ultimately make the decision easier.
In March the new HBS office has opened on 730
square meters in a central location on the edge
of Košice’s picturesque old town. The office
architecture is highly modern, with exposed
concrete, referencing Holcim’s key product. Here,
a staff of over 50 is already supporting Holcim’s
Central Eastern Europe cluster with Book to Report
(B2R), Order to Cash (O2C) and HR Management
(HRM) services. University graduates occupy 85%
of the HBS positions, with over 80% speaking at
least one foreign language.
A pioneer team began operating out of a temporary office in Košice during October of last year,
when the first 3 new recruits joined to prepare the
organisational transition that is now taking place.
“We are committed to delivering professional
service, measurable quality, important business
insights and continuous improvement in order to
create sustainable value for HCEE”, comments
Nishul Shah, the interim head of shared services
who oversaw the design and set-up of HBS.
“The opening of Holcim Business
Services Košice is an important step
toward improving and streamlining
support processes, leveraging EBM, and
gaining an important competitive edge
for Holcim Central Eastern Europe.”
Patrick Stapfer, CEO, HCEE
March 14:
HBS Officially Opened
On Friday March 14, Holcim Central Eastern
Europe (HCEE) officially opened its new Holcim
Business Services (HBS) offices in the AuPark
Tower. The opening ceremony was held in
presence of Mayor Richard Raši along with invited
representatives of the City of Košice, the IT Valley,
local Universities and suppliers, as well as HCEE
Management, HBS employees and guests from
the broader Holcim Group.
The central idea of the opening event was to
introduce participants to the “HBS story”,
allowing them to see for themselves how HBS
was built. The HBS team gave the guests the
opportunity to meet the people involved, to
share what had been learned from the “go-live”
process, and to introduce key people driving and
supporting the development of the SSC sector
in the region.
The official opening ceremony was followed by
a “Hidden Košice” tour, while selected Holcim
guests were taken on a visit to T-Systems, where
the challenge and experience of building a
3,000-strong SSC organisation from scratch were
discussed with T-Systems MD Thomas Bogdain
and his team. This was followed by a dinner
with T-Systems and IT Valley founders Jozef
Ondáš and Ján Bodnár.
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Holcim Business Services - AuPark Tower
HBS Opening event March 18th, 2014
“It is good to see new business arriving
in Košice. We started seven years ago
in T-Systems, and have succeeded by
educating students together with
universities and the local schools to
become top experts in their field.
Additional businesses in Košice will
strengthen the community here and
ensure we develop and keep our
best people.”
Thomas Bogdain, T-Systems MD
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Holcim Business Services s.r.o.
Protifašistických bojovníkov c. 11
040 01 Košice
Slovenská republika
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