Expodia: Hello Lukasz, I would like to welcome you with Sinapi and Flask One to the Innovative Digital EXPO. We always start by introducing our guests. Lukasz, who are you, and what is your background?
Łukasz Tync: Who am I? Professionally I’m an entrepreneur and manager, working mainly in the business applications area. Over 20 years of experience with technical, functional and managerial roles in ERP. I started with a single ERP, going through various roles. That ERP was small enough to give me an overview of all business processes, which is also important. If you work with a big system, you are usually focused on a single area. For a smaller one, I had to actually go through all the business processes and talk with different functions. That gave me pretty exceptional exposure to different areas of the corporate world.
Expodia: When did you start to create your own business?
Łukasz Tync: I built my first company and co-created it with my partners less than one year after I finished university. This company actually still operates pretty well in Warsaw. It was a consulting company. I was the youngest partner back then. That made me also start looking into leadership and grow myself to manage people who were often much older and technically more experienced than me.
Expodia: I assume it was challenging for you?
Łukasz Tync: I would call it an interesting challenge. But I left that company after not so long period of time because I actually wanted to search for further growth and development in a few different areas. Then I worked in international environments mainly as a freelancer in big ERP implementations for international companies. Meanwhile, I had one episode with the corporate world as a senior manager in a BPO company, managing and growing the team of 13 to 20-something people. Then again I started to build my own companies and at first I worked as a kind of white label or a partner. That is why I usually joke that I have more countries on my recommendation list than customer logos.
There were lots of logos that were actually kind of hidden because I was working as a partner. So yes, I think I worked on most of the continents. I haven’t worked in South America, I was just backpacking there. But I worked in Asia, Europe, Middle East. I even did a small project for Africa. In the meantime, I was also migrating from being more focused on single ERP, although very broadly touched towards what I call technology agnostics. I am focused more on managing everything around ERP and making sure ERP or business applications, in general, are used in the proper way in companies, regardless of which ERP is involved.
Expodia: But you mentioned you started with partners in another company after your studies because there’s something also I learned in the conversation with you before. You are a quick learner, aren’t you? You are someone who likes to go around absorbing all the information like a sponge and then trying to go in your own direction, digesting the knowledge from different sources, including academic sources.
Łukasz Tync: It is so because for all those 20 years, I stayed close to my academic roots. Finally, I finished my PhD last year, and I usually gather the knowledge and then try to make use of it whenever it applies by analogy. I take the knowledge from programming and transfer it to project management, which was actually the topic of my PhD dissertation. I try to reuse or, lets say, I dig for knowledge that was accumulated before and which is probably not fully used at the moment because we tend to search for all new topics instead of using the great knowledge that has already been built.
Flask One, for example, is partially based on the theory of constraints, which is 30 years old; but still, typically people do not know how to use it. And still, I think it should receive much more attention than it gets. So there are often simple solutions that we do not search for because we prefer more complex IT options.
Expodia: You are right, we sometimes go into too much complexity and try to reinvent the wheel, but sometimes we do not see what is already there and makes the thing more understandable. Why did you split your enterprise into two companies and take two different ways?
Łukasz Tync: First of all, to make the thing clear for customers. Also, there are different business models behind the two companies, but the root is still the same. Actually, it is also about the motto that I have. I think I even had it on my first web page, and I still have it on my LinkedIn profile. I build bridges between IT and business. And actually, for me, IT is still and will remain a tool, only a tool like a hammer which you can use for multiple tasks. But then what is important is the way businesses use it, and the way a company interacts with this tool. I still feel that there is miscommunication or detachment between business and technology which business wants to use. And now technology becomes easier and easier to get, even for people from the business.
But again, instead of really understanding the processes and instead of forming a proper foundation, they simply go for the technology. They take the hammer, and then they break everything instead of thinking how to use it. And that is, I believe, a serious problem.
And this is actually where I start. It is probably not about task management or business applications. It is more about how businesses use technology to resolve business issues.
Expodia: Why do you think people are not taking sometimes the easier road? Where has it come from in the last 20–30 years?
Łukasz Tync: I am not sure if, from the perspective of people, especially in the corporate world, it does seem to be the easiest way. The easiest way for them is to go for technology. Technology is a kind of magic black box which you can buy and it will resolve all your issues, but in fact it does not resolve the difficulty.
I also do consulting from time to time, and in most cases, technology is not a concern there. So I am asked to check the technology because it sucks. And then I go there, and I show them that the technology is okay, but it was implemented in the wrong way because somebody managed it in the wrong way. Or there are people who do not talk to each other because there has not been the proper culture in the company or there has been no proper communication there for a long time.
Expodia: You were talking about technology, but how did digitization help you to proceed in your own thinking?
Łukasz Tync: Digitization is really helping me on a daily basis. I have been a kind of a digital worker for years. I have been working internationally since 2009. It now changed a lot, the way we work, the way we operate, it makes life easier. When I was starting, I had a mobile, but I was paying a huge amount of money for Internet abroad. I had very bad telecommunication, or lets say teleconferencing. It was also expensive. And now the technology is much easier to use.
If you get to the company, you can actually have everything you want in terms of technology. But then the problem is how do you blend it? How do you assemble it to really make a difference? Years ago, paradoxically, you had ERP, which was a kind of monolith, and then it could have been shitty often, but it was kind of integrated. And now, usually, in the bigger corporation there is not just one ERP. You have a whole set of applications that should talk to each other and that should give you one single truth. Which is actually often not true. The variety of choices you have on the one hand lets you do everything you need, but you really need to know what to do, and you need to know how to do it.
Expodia: We from the Innovative Digital EXPO have the pleasure to welcome Sinapi and Flask One, but also you as a Centre Stage keynote speaker. We have your topic Human versus AI and how we can defeat the VUCA Beast. How did you come up with the topic which we find interesting?
Łukasz Tync: Definitely, Human versus AI is just a part of it. For me, the most influential part is VUCA. Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. So if we check the literature, either academic or popular one, we will see a lot of people complaining about growing complexity, increasing volatility, uncertainty, etc. It is not something new. Technology is perceived to be a cure for that. Sometimes it is. Actually, tools that I have now on my iPhone, are really helpful in managing lots of complex tasks as compared to a simple Nokia twenty years ago. On top of that, you were supposed to have many tools. Or if you compare it to the big Nokia suitcase which my father was carrying in 1995, you can see that the technological jump is huge. IT can really support and IT can really help. Like when I am traveling a lot, using mobile and proper apps, it gives me a huge advantage. But especially in the corporate world, again, there is a challenge consisting in mixing, combining or orchestrating these tools. And this does not necessarily help, it does not make life easier. When I was working on my PhD dissertation, I found one paper dealing with Agile and with what actually Agile did with complexity.
Expodia: And what is Agile actually doing? Can you explain it, please?
Łukasz Tync: We see Agile as a kind of solution for complexity. But authors of that paper claimed that Agile kind of helps in managing projects, but it does not solve the complexity issue. It just moved the complexity from the level of the project to the level of the programme, so just to the higher level of the portfolio. And this is how it sometimes works with corporations. So you are just resolving one topic, but then instead of simplifying it, you just have issues in different locations.
Expodia: For the readers, if you want to hear more about Lukasz’s exciting keynote, please come to the Centre Stage or check on the Expodia app at 10:30 AM during the EXPO. Do not miss it because he will give us more insight into this interesting topic. I just need to make sure that you know, from our side we have the pleasure, like I said, to see Sinapi and Flask One as two separate companies at the event. But can I ask you, what do you expect from the Innovative Digital Expo yourself, and why did you event?
Łukasz Tync: Yes, I hope I will be busy during this EXPO
Expodia: That’s for sure.
Łukasz Tync: But I generally really like this kind of events because I perceive them as a source of new ideas. From time to time, I also go either to the big industry fairs or to some conferences without even planning meetings. I just go there and absorb as much knowledge or new topics as possible because it helps me find new possible ideas or new ways to tackle existing issues, or to plan my further steps.
Expodia: What can the attendees and exhibitors expect from Sinapi and Flask One at the event? What kind of value will they get from both of these?
Łukasz Tync: Starting from keynotes, which will hardly be about my companies. During the central stage keynote we will talk more generally about VUCA. I will try to put some light on the problem but also share my personal thoughts, how we can address or how we can actually embrace the topic. Just a small spoiler, I don’t think we can win against uncertainty, I don’t think we can fight it. We simply need to embrace it or surf on it. And this is where I hope I can maybe inspire, or we as companies can also inspire others how to approach it. And that would be the theme of the entire day. During the virtual keynote in the afternoon, I will show in brief how both my companies can actually help with VUCA. Sinapi, helping to improve the way how companies deal with volatility, in business application areas, which is a big challenge, and Flask One with task management in a chaotic environment. Management would be much easier if you knew exactly what to expect.
Expodia: I have to mention that you can also get more information from Lukasz about Flask One and Sinapi in Studio 1 at 3:00 PM Live Keynote. Lukasz, we know what the attendees and exhibitors can expect from you, but let’s say what Sinapi and Flask One are expecting to find at the event.
Łukasz Tync: For Sinapi I will be searching for potential partners and customers, and I would also like to get some feedback on our offer. We work heavily to pack whatever we do and our whole experience into a more standardized service which we call Cloud Business Application Governance as a service. It is an outsourcing service. We are building a dedicated service management, business application governance center locally in the south of Poland, which will be supporting customers, especially in Central Europe and the DACH region. So I would be really happy to talk about how I can help corporations who have this problem, and also to verify whether the way we pack the service would be interesting for potential customers. This is my main goal for Sinapi.
For Flask One we partially want to show the actual application. The new version of the application that will be available in the subscription SaaS model. Our go-to-market on top of the standalone version heavily depends on two additional pillars. Both require partners who could potentially pack our functionality, our “superpower”, into their industry-specific applications or let us integrate with their solutions. I also hope to meet potential partners.
Expodia: In short, what is the mission and vision of Sinapi and Flask One?
Łukasz Tync: For Flask One, we are supporting companies to manage tasks in high uncertainty and high volatility. It may be in different industries, but if you pull out the most important component, everything remains similar. In Sinapi, we support medium and larger organizations, usually international ones. We support those companies in managing their ERP and surroundings in a way that really empowers the business. So we try to embrace uncertainty and make sure it works to support business goals for medium and bigger corporations.
Expodia: I hate the question of how you see yourself in the next five or ten years. As you said, everything can happen. There are a lot of challenges on the road. You don’t even know what may happen in the next two years. But when we meet again one year from now and I invite you for a coffee, what do you think Sinapi and Flask One will have achieved within this one year?
Łukasz Tync: I expect both companies to be much more mature operationally at that time. Especially Flask One which is still a bootstrapped start-up. One of my goals is to make sure that each company can work operationally with slightly lower involvement from my side. I would like to be able to focus on managing the strategy for the whole group. I am an early-stage investor, or an angel investor. I hope we will add some new companies to the portfolio, either by investment or by opening another branch. I see myself more as a creator than just a manager. Maybe “just” is not the right word, but I am more a creator than an operator, and therefore I definitely hope the group will grow. As a matter of fact, when we meet in July I may be able to present to you a new sub-brand of Sinapi, dedicated to IoT and AI, as we are already working with a great US partner to integrate their solutions into our offer and bring it to the EU market.
But each of the companies should be much further in supporting a bigger base of customers and being more sustainable. What I aim to do is to build a sustainable group of companies. Probably not a big group. I usually say Sinapi is a boutique company, so we are not interested in growing hundreds of people and competing with huge integrators, but we are focused on quality and on a very direct and very customized approach.
Expodia: I think it is perfect. You have your roadmap for one year and we will see next year if what you predicted actually will have happened. I hope that thanks to the Innovative Digital EXPO you will have more partners on your list. From my end, I can just say, Lukasz, thank you very much for the interview, and let me say that again to the audience, to the readers, do not miss out to meet Sinapi and Flask One at the Innovative Digital EXPO at stand B12 and to listen to the center stage Keynote Speech by Lukasz. Lukasz, I appreciate your time for the interview, and for the insight into your companies, I am looking forward to meeting you in person at the event.
Łukasz Tync: Thank you, Armin, and I am looking forward to meeting you and many interesting people at the Innovative Digital EXPO.
Mr. Łukasz Tync was interviewed by Armin Khani.
You can meet Sinapi & Flask One at stand B12 at the Innovative Digital EXPO 2023.