Exceptional

Profile: Nowy Styl Group
In many ways, a well-designed chair is like a
well-run business: lots of thought goes into
each; they serve multiple, clear functions;
and a good chair and a good business alike
should be stable and sturdy.
What’s more, both chairs and businesses
can meet more than obvious human needs.
A chair can be a highly aesthetic design
object — a work of art that brings its owner joy — and
a business can serve society beyond the benefits it
provides to owners and employees.
Adam and Jerzy Krzanowski, the co-owners of the
Nowy Styl Group, seem to have internalized their role
as makers of highly functional and aesthetically pleasing
office furniture — as well as builders of a furniture
empire that makes a significant contribution to the
Polish economy.
As Europe’s third-largest manufacturer of office
furniture, their business generates annual revenue of
€300m and employs thousands of people. Through its
six brands, the Nowy Styl Group offers interior furnishing
and design services for offices, conference centers and
commercial venues including cinemas, stadiums and
concert halls (see panel, opposite).
The brothers built Nowy Styl Group from scratch,
combining good ideas with business prowess, with the
help of a mentor who believed in them and the right
mix of opportunities when Poland was transitioning
to a market economy.
“Ever since we were kids,
we’ve been cooking up
different businesses,”
says Adam Krzanowski.
Well-defined roles
A spirit of enterprise runs through the brothers’ veins.
Sitting among the latest designs in the Nowy Styl Group
showroom in Kraków, Adam says: “Ever since we were
kids, we’ve been cooking up different businesses. I was
about 15 when we got paid to take photos of cars for an
uncle who worked in claims for an insurance company,
and Jerzy opened a café shortly before we began
Additional photography Courtesy of Nowy Styl Group
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