ATLAS at the 5th EMAC Regional Conference in Katowice

ATLAS Group was invited to present its experience in international performance at the 5th European Marketing Academy* at University of Economics in Katowice on 25 September 2014. During the meeting we had an opportunity to share our knowledge on problems to be faced when entering markets abroad.

The aim of the anual meeting is not only to deal with market development issues from the academic point of view, but also to compare them with experience of companies achieving international success. During the lecture entitled “First rule: be prepared for everything” Michał Gosławski, ATLAS Foreign Markets Manager, described various situations and problems which have been faced by ATLAS Group in acting abroad in:

• Russia – history of Atlas Rus processing plant, its problems with fakes and inefficiency of local law resulting in sale of the factory and setting up a new trade entity distributing Atlas brand in Russia;
• Belarus – basing on lesson from Russia, history of successful purchase of local leading manufacturer and its incorporation into Atlas Group;
• Latvia – story of Atlas Baltic, distribution center in Riga, as an example of quick reaction to international crisis and successful keeping the brand known and approachable despite spectacular problems of hitherto exisiting partners;
• Ukraine – Atlas TAK, example, that even the best business plan can meet situation none would have expected – in this case international political and military crisis widely influencing the trade actions of local enterpreneur;
• Ireland – history of introduction of Atlas and Aval brand into the local system of governmental grants shows that some barriers and unexpected problems have to be faced when entering the EU common market state, so they are not limited to emerging, non – EU markets only.

Conference participants were surprised how many unexpected problems eneterprenurs meet in their day – to – day activity abroad as from the academic point of view some rules and theories seem general, unquestionable and unconditional. That is why they were extremely happy for the opportunity to clash their theoretical knowledge with practical experience of the leading Polish construction materials manufacturer.

We promised to continue our cooperation with University of Economics in Katowice in order to share our knowledge and experience with students and academics enriching their studies on international marketing.

* The European Marketing Academy (EMAC), established in 1975, is a professional society for people involved with or interested in marketing theory and research. The history of the EMAC Regional Conference begins in 2007 at the University of Maribor (Slovenia) where researchers from this region, dealing with market development issues, decided to launch a conference entitled Marketing Theory Challenges in Transition Societies (MTC). In 2010 the MTC conference was embraced by the European Academy of Marketing and since then has continued with support of EMAC under a new title – EMAC Regional Conference. Marketing Theory Challenges in Emerging Markets. The first EMAC Regional Conference was hosted by Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary (2010). Subsequent conferences were organized by Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi, Romania (2011), the University of Belgrade, Serbia (2012) and the Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg University, Russia (2013).