Finture Heroes: Tomasz Pudelewicz
He has had a career path mapped out for him since his school days, which he has followed consistently. First - programming at university and in his first jobs, then managerial positions, and today - Business Unit Director at Finture. In the meantime - he still finds time for sports and exploring photography techniques. Tomasz Pudelewicz tells us why he doesn't make changes during the first month of taking over a project and what he thinks is most important in successful client cooperation.

Fot. Tomasz Pudelewicz
Let's start from the beginning. Or rather - your beginning at Finture. How long have you been working here?
About four years. But I have been following the company's development for much longer, as Radek Bzoma and I have known each other for longer.
Much longer?
Yeah, our paths first crossed over 15 years ago. At the time, I was working at Infovide - the company that largely shaped me professionally. I suspect it had a similar influence on Radek.
Radek took his first steps in professional IT there. Very quickly, we started working in the same analytical team. We were providing integration solutions for a large telecom.
After a few years, our cooperation with the client ended, and our professional paths diverged. Radek jumped to projects in the banking industry; I took up insurance. Privately, we nurtured our acquaintance over weekly squash duels.
In 2016, IVMX [Infovide-Matrix S.A.] abruptly went out of business, and Radek moved to Finture, taking part in building the company from scratch. I, at the time, was working in several other places. After a couple of years, I decided to join Finture...
At Finture, you are the Business Unit Director. What was your path to this place like, as Infovide was not the only stop on it...? Jak wyglądała Twoja droga do tego miejsca, bo przecież nie jedynym przystankiem na niej było Infovide…?
I started my career in IT in my third year at university. Initially, I was a programmer at a US company called Eracent, building an Enterprise-class solution for managing computers in large networks. I worked there for... 4 months. Because an offer from Deloitte tempted me. There, I continued to work as a programmer. In my vision of professional development, however, programming has always been just an intermediate step. It's probably not very common - especially in a world that is changing so quickly - but I had a plan for my career shaped early on at school. It was undoubtedly heavily influenced by my parents, who both, somewhat unusually for people with their PESEL, had IT backgrounds. So, in our family, the IT experience goes back to when punch cards were still used for programming, and the average person didn't know much about a computer. For most of his working life, my dad ran a small company providing software for public entities.
Coming back to me - in parallel to working for Deloitte, I worked on a project run by my dad's company. We provided a platform for electricity trading and - to settle transactions - integrating it with a system supplied by Infovide.
I was very impressed by the professionalism and detail of Infovide's documentation. At the time, I thought, 'This is the company for me'. More or less what I said later in the interview. And that's how my adventure with systems analysis began- at Infovide.
Things moved very quickly there. I was promoted from analyst to team leader. At 26 or 25, I was already managing entire projects. I became a manager responsible for the insurance area a few years later.
In the meantime, Infovide was bought by Asseco. I stayed with the company as department director for another two years. But it wasn't the same anymore... So, I decided to try my hand at foreign contracts.
I was recruited by an intermediary from Hong Kong and sold my services to a German insurance company, where I worked as a Program Manager. It was quite an exciting adventure. I had no experience working in a foreign language yet - this aspect alone was a very positive experience and a great addition to my CV. By the way, I learned how projects are organized in large international corporations.
On the other hand, in the position I held at the time, I sorely missed coordinating the work of development teams. The Program Manager is a role that represents projects, ensuring that they are 'pushed' through acceptance procedures on the client side. It also deals with budgets and planning projects accordingly. As a rule, however, one is cut off from the production team itself.
As one can see, your role has changed a lot over the years. Do you like where you are now?

Fot. Tomasz Pudelewicz
As one can see, your role has changed a lot over the years. Do you like where you are now?
I like the responsibility of the Business Unit Director role, and I also enjoy working with people. I relate well to most aspects associated with the role. But also - I knew I wanted to do it. As I mentioned earlier, it's the result of a consistent plan.
You mentioned that you worked for Deloitte, among others. What differences do you see between working for large corporations and a place like Finture?
Mamy mniej procedur i większą odwagę kadry zarządzającej, żeby procedury obchodzić, kiedy nie są nam na rękę i projekt może bezpiecznie zyskać na rezygnacji z nich. Mniej nadgodzin – to też istotna różnica działająca na korzyść Finture. Z kolei Deloitte z racji międzynarodowej renomy ma mocno ułatwione zadanie pozyskiwania nowych klientów. I sprzedawania tych samych usług z większą marżą.
Do you have a favorite project on board Finture?
I have very fond memories of my first project here. He is still ongoing - we are implementing it for PKO Leasing. By the time I took it over, it had existed for a year.
I can't help but thank the client here, who placed great trust in me and agreed to implement all my ideas for changing the work organization and improving how the team of nearly 20 people works. The team comprises not only Finture employees but also the client employees and people who other suppliers supply.
The reception of these changes has been very positive among team members and client representatives. And more importantly, they have allowed them to solve many of the problems they previously faced.
For example, one of the solutions introduced was to divide the team into three smaller ones, which resulted in more efficient cooperation and shorter team meetings. On the other hand, separating team meetings from business meetings and scheduling more short meetings (with participants kept to a minimum) allowed a much better use of each team member's time.
So, a lot of your work depends on client collaboration. What is most important to you when dealing with them?
Partnership, transparency, and a collaborative approach. I'm all for bridging the 'us and them' divide, and that's what I strive for. Whenever I organize a project, I always try to convey to the whole team a partnership approach with the client and, as far as possible, build a team in which the client has an important role. By making everyone aware that we are playing to the same goal, a lot of problems can be avoided, which with a different approach will always, sooner or later, arise.
Many people highlight your skills in project management. What is your recipe for a successful IT project?
I am happy to hear that. Apart from the transparency and partnership approach to the client mentioned earlier, listening to the needs of the team members is very important. It is said that a manager is only as good as his team. I believe this is mainly true. Our developers, architects, analysts, and testers always have a lot of insights and pay attention to important things for the project.
My job is to listen to those needs and generate collaborative mechanisms to eliminate or minimize problematic issues. And if a problem cannot be solved, ensure everyone knows its rationale.
During my time at Finture, I've had many occasions where I've taken over responsibility for a project already in operation. In this case, it is essential not to make hasty decisions. Any proposal for change should reflect careful observation of how the project has worked so far and discussions - with team members and client representatives. I consider it irresponsible to make changes "because it worked so well in my previous project." This is why, in projects I take over, I never introduce them earlier than after a month of working with the team.
Another thing that should never be done hastily - is to judge people, team members. I also try not to use opinions given to me by others. It has happened to me many times that, after working more closely with a person, it turned out that the first impression or opinion given by someone - had little to do with reality.
Last – but not least – is the avoidance of micro-management. I think the opposite should be pursued: the best project runs itself.
In that case, what is the most challenging element in project management when working with a team and a client?
Psychology. When leading multi-person teams, we often encounter burnout syndrome and lowered motivation. Many times, this is influenced by non-work, private topics. Dealing with this type of problem requires a lot of sensitivity and a very individual, personal approach. It is not easy. And at the same time, it involves a great deal of responsibility.
Yes, there's no denying that it's always high stakes. In your work now, there is a lot of management and planning - what, how, and when others will program. And you - do you still program sometimes, if only "for fun"?
I sometimes create some quick automation in VBA. On a professional level - a couple of years ago, I managed to establish cooperation with a prominent player operating in the tobacco market (although I have never smoked a single cigarette in my life). This cooperation has always gone well. So well, in fact, that it continues to this day - I happen, from time to time, to carry out small programming changes to software delivered to that client many years ago.
And what languages did you program in at different stages of your career path?
I learned to program at university. I had the pleasure of studying at the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics at Warsaw University. The approach to learning programming there was to impart the principles of each programming method. Therefore, we used very exotic languages. Here are a couple of examples:
Smalltalk - for learning object-oriented programming,
Ocaml - functional programming,
Prolog - logic programming,
C - imperative programming, we even experimented with modifications to the Linux kernel using this language.
We also did low-level programming in assembler.
There was also a firm emphasis on algorithms and data structures at the university.
There was also Java and .net. To this day, I believe that choosing these languages and not others was a very well-thought-out procedure. After learning these, to learn any other meant learning the syntax and how the more essential libraries worked.
Professionally, I have added database languages - such as T-SQL and PL/SQL - to my repertoire.
What might be perceived as 'obnoxious' among professional programmers - I love VBA and its simplicity. As I mentioned - I happened to deliver commercial solutions based on this language. I also learned uiPath relatively recently, but I don't know if that can be called a programming language.

Fot. Tomasz Pudelewicz
Outside of work, you enjoy photography. What do you like most about it, and what type of photography is closest to you?
Photography is such a mini-passion; it wakes up mainly during holidays and is limited to commemorating places I have visited and events I have attended.
I could call myself an "amateur photographer with no artistic sense." My photography is based on theory, an understanding of how the camera works, and an awareness of what effect I will achieve by modifying which camera settings. I do not know whether this effect will be attractive only to me or also to others. This requires an artistic flair, which I do not possess. My approach to photography is strictly ... algorithmic.
I know that, apart from photography, you also like sports - skiing, tennis... Have you always been active?
Always. I used to be much more active than I am now. Due to time constraints, I limit myself now to my favorite sports. You can find me on the tennis court several times a week and at the swimming pool once a week. In the summer season, I will occasionally go out on the basketball or volleyball court. In the winter, however, I will always find time for skiing and snowboarding because these two sports perfectly complement each other. Because they use different muscle parts, I complain about sore muscles far less often than others on week-long trips.
Sure, it may seem like a lot. But if I think back to my school days and think only of the sports I took seriously (that means - I happened to be on the school team in inter-school competitions), the list would still include short-distance running, including hurdles, table tennis, high jump, handball, ball thrust, javelin throw... I’m not sure if that's it.
But sport is not just about activity. I think we get a lot more out of sport. The ability to lose at an early age, the appreciation of the beauty of competition - and respect for rivals. It instills fair-play principles. These are values that shape us throughout our lives. And they come in handy in every aspect of it - also professionally.
For example, in your role as Business Unit Director?
For example!

Tomasz Pudelewicz