The True Leader – 10 years of Garmin in Poland
Treat an ordinary person as a CEO, treat a CEO like an ordinary person.
It will be one of those memorable shoots.
I was commissioned to shoot the celebration of Garmin Poland’s 10 year anniversary.
In the morning I was to take business portraits of the employees. I asked each person entering the pop-up photo studio to tell me what was their role at Garmin. This always helps me get a sense of the target group for the portraits.
At one point Przemek came in. Kind and modest. When asked what was his role at Garmin, he replied: “I am somewhere under sales and production. I deal with logistics. And unfortunately if people have problems, they always blame it on me”.
I felt sorry he was getting the beating from higher-ranked managers. I replied: “Oh well, you know, I bet you’re doing great job. Let us do a portrait as if you were the CEO of the company”.
During the photo shoot we had an easy-going conversation. At one point Przemek said: “You are smiling at me, I mean to my photo on the camera” – he was the first person to notice, or at least state out loud that I smile when I look through the photos on the camera. I simply smile back to the person smiling to me.
After the shoot, I asked the PR agent to help me group people with their names and emails in order to send them their final portraits.
When Przemek appeared on the screen, she said: “Oh, that’s Przemek Łojek – he is the Managing Director of Garmin Poland”.
In the evening there was an elegant dinner with an exceptional lecture by Piotr Pogon – an athlete sponsored by Garmin, who achieved astonishing accomplishments with one lung – having lost the other one to cancer.
Agency: SnowPR – communication and event production boutique