35 Years of NAJ International and Polish Business Growth

Thirty-five years in executive search matter only if that experience improves decisions today. For an international company hiring in Poland, that means reading the local market, reaching the right leaders, moving at business speed and owning the outcome. 35 years of NAJ International gives us a clear perspective on how those requirements have changed since 1991.

This is not simply a company timeline. It is also part of the history of business transformation in Poland. Leadership recruitment moved from newspaper advertisements, phone books and physical candidate files to direct search, international collaboration and AI-supported research. The tools changed. Responsibility for the decision did not.

How NAJ entered a market before executive search had taken shape

When François Nail founded NAJ International on 22 August 1991, Poland was learning a new business model at the same time as international investors were entering the market. At that stage, executive search in Poland did not yet operate in the form we know today. Recruitment itself was still being built.

There was no internet, no LinkedIn and no professional online candidate database. Mobile phones were not part of everyday recruitment. A phone book could be an important source of information.

That sounds simple until the person you wanted to reach had a common name.

You might find several people called Jan Kowalski, together with home addresses and landline numbers. However, there was no online profile to show which Jan Kowalski was the manager you needed. You could not check his employer, career history or whether he spoke English.

Recruitment also relied heavily on newspaper advertising. A candidate saw an advertisement, applied and entered the process. Our own candidate database was equally physical. It consisted of binders containing documents and information collected through successive assignments.

Each project expanded that knowledge. We added names, companies, functions and contacts. As a result, our understanding of the market grew assignment by assignment.

Classic executive search became relevant to our work about three to five years later. The timing mattered. Poland first needed a group of managers and specialists who had gained experience outside state-owned enterprises and inside the new private or international organisations.

Those people had started to work with different management standards. They were learning commercial decision-making, modern sales and marketing, international reporting and new organisational cultures. Foreign-language capability was also increasingly important.

At the same time, international companies such as Danone, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Mars, Philip Morris and Levi Strauss were building or expanding operations in Poland. International companies were the core client group for NAJ in those early years.

They needed people who understood Poland but could also operate inside a global organisation. The strongest candidates were increasingly unlikely to wait for a newspaper advertisement.

Therefore, the logic of recruitment changed. We had to identify who the right person might be, establish where that person worked, find a way to reach them and create enough trust for a conversation.

That was the practical beginning of direct executive search for us.

Today, search technology is incomparably better. Yet the underlying question remains the same: which person should we approach, and why is that person relevant to this organisation?

More about the company’s origins and values: About NAJ International.

How a candidate letter of intent changed recruitment conversations

One contribution from our early years was helping candidates present professional value in a way that international employers could understand. The shift was from describing a life history to explaining competence, motivation, achievements and direction.

In the early 1990s, many candidate documents were extensive personal biographies. They contained a great deal of information. However, they did not always answer the questions that a new employer needed to resolve.

What can this person actually do? Which results has the candidate delivered? Why is this role relevant? What value could the person bring to a new organisation?

NAJ developed its own format for what we called a candidate letter of intent, effectively a structured motivation letter. It encouraged candidates to explain not only where they had worked, but what they could contribute.

The purpose was not to add another document to the file. It was to improve the quality of the decision on both sides.

This mattered particularly to foreign clients. They needed to understand more than job titles. More importantly, they wanted evidence of motivation, readiness for a different business environment and the potential to take on broader responsibility.

Over time, Polish managers became more confident in describing their professional contribution. That capability also helped them compete for roles in international organisations.

Today, candidates have LinkedIn, digital profiles and many tools for personal branding. Still, the central question has not changed: can a candidate explain, clearly and credibly, the business value they bring?

How our assignments grew with Polish leadership

When I look back at 35 years of NAJ International, one of the clearest indicators of Poland’s business development is the level of roles clients asked us to fill. As organisations matured, the scope and consequence of leadership appointments increased.

Early assignments often focused on specialists in sales, finance, accounting and logistics. Later, demand grew for production, quality and purchasing managers. Then came functional directors, plant directors, board members and CEOs.

The assessment challenge changed with the seniority of the role.

Technical competence remained important. However, it was no longer sufficient. We needed to understand how a candidate made decisions, built teams, handled conflict and carried responsibility for results.

The more senior the role, the less the decision can be made from a CV alone.

Another change became visible over time. Polish executives started taking roles previously held by expatriate managers. Later, many moved into regional, European and global responsibilities.

They were no longer only executing strategies developed at headquarters. Increasingly, Polish business leaders were helping to shape those strategies.

For us, this raised the standard of leadership recruitment in Poland. We had to assess not only what a person had already done, but whether they could succeed at a scale they had not yet experienced.

That principle still guides our Executive Search in Poland work today.

How people connected with NAJ helped professionalise the HR market

Our impact on the market is not limited to the assignments we completed. One of the outcomes I value most is what happened later in the careers of candidates and consultants who worked with NAJ.

Many executives who now lead international companies in Poland or across the region first moved into important corporate roles through searches conducted by NAJ International. We then watched them take on larger teams, broader mandates and more senior leadership positions.

Some later became the clients making their own critical hiring decisions.

That creates a long perspective on leadership. A candidate in one decade may be a CEO, Country Manager or regional leader in the next.

Our former consultants created another form of impact. Over the years, we taught successive consultants the profession of executive recruitment, and that expertise moved with them into the wider market.

At least several former NAJ consultants are now HR Directors. Many others work successfully inside HR functions and help companies build professional recruitment and people practices. Some went on to establish their own recruitment firms.

Of course, every one of those people built their own career after leaving NAJ. Their later achievements are their own. Still, I am proud that part of their professional foundation was developed with us.

A professional market is not built by companies alone. It is built by people who carry good standards into the next organisation.

That multiplier effect is difficult to show in a project statistic, but it is one of the most durable contributions a firm can make to its profession.

Why we stayed with the retained search model

There were periods when the recruitment market strongly rewarded speed and success-fee models. We could have followed that direction. Instead, we chose not to. Retained search gives us the structure to take responsibility for the full assignment, not only for supplying CVs.

However, quality does not need to mean a slow process. We now complete our search processes within a maximum of six weeks while retaining full market research and candidate verification.

That is possible because research methods have changed significantly. Today, we use modern tools and market-mapping techniques to identify relevant people faster and reach them more efficiently.

As a result, we reduce elapsed time through better research. However, we do not reduce the scope of research to close the assignment or issue an invoice sooner.

For an international HR Director, that distinction matters. Speed is useful only if the market has been covered properly and the recommended candidates have been assessed with the required depth.

Our process still starts with the organisation and the role. Then we map the market, conduct research, approach candidates directly and complete the agreed verification.

Modern research should accelerate the route to the right person. It should not remove important stages.

We also take responsibility after the appointment. Depending on the assignment, our guarantee runs from six to 12 months. In some projects, it extends to 14 months.

For us, a guarantee is not a marketing extra. It is part of the accountability attached to the recommendation.

This is why speed and quality are not opposing goals. A disciplined process, experienced researchers and clear decision points make it possible to deliver both.

What changed when I took responsibility for NAJ’s next stage

I have led the company’s further development since 2005. That moment did not mark the start of an entirely new company. The strategic task was to decide which principles had to be protected and which working habits had to change.

Technology was already accelerating the market. Recruitment platforms expanded, social media appeared and access to professional information grew dramatically.

Client expectations also changed. A shortlist alone was becoming less valuable. Companies wanted market intelligence, realistic role calibration, risk analysis and a clear explanation of why a specific person was being recommended.

That changed the consultant’s role.

A strong search partner cannot operate as an intermediary between a vacancy and a list of names. The partner must be prepared to challenge the brief when the market evidence does not support it.

Good advisory work sometimes means telling a client what they did not expect, but need to know before making the appointment.

The pandemic tested that principle in a different way. Many organisations froze hiring, while nobody knew how long the uncertainty would last.

Our immediate task was not simply to protect project volume. It was to protect the team, maintain stability and remain ready for the point when clients needed to hire again.

For me, 35 years of NAJ International is also a story about that distinction. Principles should remain stable. Operating habits must be allowed to evolve.

NAJ International’s 35-year history has included multiple changes in tools, markets and client expectations. The underlying standard, however, has remained consistent: understand the decision first, then build the search around it.

Why joining IESF changed our operating model

International clients rarely need international coverage in theory. They need credible local expertise in the exact market where a leadership decision has to be made. Joining the International Executive Search Federation changed our ability to provide that expertise without pretending that one office can know every market equally well.

As our clients expanded, acquired businesses and built cross-border teams, our assignments followed them. Poland remained our home market, but the leadership questions were increasingly regional or international.

IESF gave us more than a network of contacts. It strengthened our international executive search capability with highly experienced local consultants across 26 markets. Many are managing partners of executive search firms in their home countries.

We discuss international assignments with them on an ongoing basis. That includes projects run in Poland as well as searches conducted in their local markets.

As a result, we can compare candidate availability, compensation realities, business culture and local search conditions with people who work in those markets every day.

The client receives local judgement, not generic information about a country.

In parallel, the model also changed NAJ itself. We moved from an organisation relying primarily on multiple local consultants to one that can operate as part of an international team of senior search professionals.

That does not reduce the importance of local knowledge. It makes local knowledge the foundation of international delivery.

We know Poland. Our partners know their own markets. Together, we can coordinate standards without centralising judgement in a single office.

More about our cross-border model: International Recruitment with IESF.

How we use technology without outsourcing judgement

We moved from phone books and paper files to LinkedIn, global databases and AI. Technology has transformed access to information. It has not transferred responsibility for the hiring decision.

Today, finding a name may take seconds. Market mapping can also be faster, and information can be compared at a scale that was impossible in 1991.

However, easier access to names creates a new risk. It can make recruitment look simpler than it is.

In my view, the opposite is true.

The more information becomes available, the more valuable professional judgement becomes.

A profile can show where someone worked. AI can structure data, identify patterns and support research. Neither can fully explain why a person made a difficult decision, how they built trust or how they will lead under pressure in a specific organisation.

Those questions still require human assessment.

Therefore, we use technology to improve research efficiency and decision quality. We do not use it to outsource accountability.

For an international client, this point is particularly important. A candidate can look strong on paper and still be the wrong leadership choice for a Polish operation, a regional mandate or a specific transformation.

What NAJ International’s 35-year history means for international clients

Company history is not a reason to choose a search partner by itself. Experience creates value only when it improves the next decision.

For a foreign company hiring in Poland, that should translate into practical advantages.

First, a partner should understand how the local market actually behaves. That includes candidate availability, mobility, compensation expectations and the difference between an attractive role on paper and one that the strongest candidates will genuinely consider.

Second, the partner should be able to challenge assumptions early. A role profile developed at headquarters may not match the talent pool available in Poland. Waiting until the shortlist stage to discover that mismatch costs time.

Third, the search process has to move at business speed without becoming superficial. That is why our research model focuses on faster market coverage rather than fewer research steps.

Finally, the recommendation has to be owned. The search firm should be able to explain why a candidate is on the shortlist, what risks remain and what evidence supports the recommendation.

Executive search begins before the first candidate is approached. It starts with defining the leadership decision correctly.

That matters in succession, board changes, market entry and transformation roles. In each case, the cost of a weak appointment extends beyond the recruitment fee.

Conclusion

That is why I do not see 35 years of NAJ International simply as a measure of longevity. I see it as a record of decisions about how search should be conducted and what responsibility a search partner should accept.

We started in a market of newspaper advertisements, phone books and paper candidate files. Later, we built direct search capabilities as Poland developed a new generation of managers.

The people around us also moved forward. Candidates we recruited took on larger leadership roles. Consultants we trained became HR leaders, built people functions and, in some cases, established recruitment firms of their own.

The history of NAJ International is therefore not only a company story. It also reflects how a professional market matured around us.

Our operating model became international through IESF. Research became faster through technology. Access to information changed beyond recognition.

Yet the final question remains remarkably consistent.

Not: how many candidates can we find?

The better question is: which person are we prepared to recommend for responsibility over part of the organisation’s future?

That is still the standard that matters.

If you are preparing a critical leadership hire in Poland, I would start with the decision rather than the job description. You do not need a finished brief.

Talk to me about the situation your organisation is facing.

Ewa Adamczyk
NAJ International

Published: August 2026 | Updated: August 2026