The anniversary celebration is planned for September, the month in which Riskonet Poland started operating back in 2016. Notably, three Polish peers who started similar businesses around the same time are also on the guest list. “You could call at least two of them competitors,” says Leszek. “But we’ve helped each other over the years, and I want to thank them for that.”
Riskonet Poland has been around for ten years. When did you realise there was room in the Polish market for a firm that looks at risk in an integrated way, beyond compliance and fire safety alone?
“Honestly: never. I was actually convinced the market wasn’t there. At the time I was working for a large insurance broker with thousands of clients and professional salespeople. Even there, demand for risk consulting was very limited. I thought: if a giant like that can barely sell it, how much work could there be for me on my own? It was only after I left that I discovered the corporate bubble had simply been limiting me. A broker’s portfolio turned out to be just a fraction of the real market. Outside that corporate world, there were many companies that sensed they were missing parts of the puzzle on risk and safety, but had no one to help them put it together. That there was so much demand for independent advice is the biggest surprise of my life.”
What do you remember most vividly about the first year?
“How fast it went. I’d given myself two years to evaluate whether it would be a success. In 2016 I didn’t take a salary; my time and energy were my investment. But after just two months I had to pick up the phone and call an experienced risk engineer to ask whether he wanted to join, because I had more work than I could handle. Since then the question has never been how we find clients, but how we find people who can deliver the quality we want.”
Riskonet Poland grew from a one-man business into a firm with eleven partners. What was that like for you?
“Extremely difficult, at first. I know what I’m doing and I like to stay in control. So I looked for people who would do everything exactly as I would. I was essentially looking for clones of myself. That went completely wrong, of course. I even seriously considered shrinking the business down to just three clients so I could keep doing everything myself. The turning point came when I learned to accept that different people bring different qualities. If someone approaches things differently from me but delivers the same result, I should be satisfied. I gave people my trust, and what came back was enormous commitment. We’re still all partners, in a completely flat structure. In ten years, only one person has left. He’s been invited to the anniversary celebration, by the way.”
Is there an example from the past ten years that clearly shows what Riskonet Poland stands for?
“Our memorandum. It’s a concise advisory document about a building or risk situation, shorter than a full report but of high quality. By now it has become a recognised term in the market. I see it in other people’s correspondence: if Riskonet writes a memo on this, we’re fine. Clients now ask for them by name. That says more than any marketing campaign ever could.”
Which areas of expertise do clients draw on most?
“Our clients are mainly active in logistics and light industry. Fire safety remains the core. Sprinklers and NFPA standards: that’s what they come to us for. Insurers routinely refer clients to us with sprinkler-related queries. But our view reaches further than fire safety alone; we assess the risks across the entire business. Sometimes full compliance with every manual is physically impossible. That’s when we stop simply ticking boxes and start talking about the actual risk. What are the worst-case and best-case scenarios, and what level of risk can you live with? That flexibility helps clients make informed decisions. Sometimes a client has to change a great deal. Sometimes the required measures are more limited than expected. And sometimes they have to learn to live with a particular risk. On top of that, we’ve spent the past few years building up business continuity planning and cybersecurity. We started from zero back then, without any clients, but we saw an opportunity to build that market in Poland ourselves.”
What is the added value of the international Riskonet network for your clients?
“For clients with operations in several countries, the network means they can reach an expert who knows the local rules in each country. Risk is often international, but the solution always has to work locally: within the regulations, the buildings and the insurers of that particular country. That is what the network gives them. And those international relationships turn out to take root locally, too. CBRE, for example, is an international Riskonet client for pre-acquisition risk assessments, carried out before a property is purchased. In Poland, that relationship has developed into a framework consulting agreement for buildings they already own, run or manage here. CBRE is now one of our largest local clients.”
Looking ahead: which risks do you expect to become more important in Poland?
“Two things above all. First, hazardous substances: more and more companies are working at scale with materials for which their buildings were never originally designed. That brings environmental risks that we at Riskonet are focusing on ever more strongly. Second, the vulnerability of digitalisation and automation. Modern warehouses now run on hundreds of robots in custom-built systems for which no standard exists. EU requirements such as the NIS Directive, combined with the growing importance of critical data and operational technology, are making cybersecurity an operational risk. If the IT or OT systems go down, everything comes to a standstill.”
Finally: what will the next ten years look like?
“We’re still growing; I expect us to reach twelve partners at Riskonet Poland this year. But I’m also thinking further ahead. Last year I was investigating the topic of succession. Riskonet Poland is my greatest achievement, and I’m enormously proud of it. That’s exactly why I want the firm to become less dependent on me personally. The foundation is solid: the client relationships, the finances and the team. I want Riskonet Poland to be built to last, well beyond me.”
