The process of the privatization was accompanied by a transformation of the Polish industry, in particular under the impulse of the foreign investors. The development of competition and the erratic developments of demand required the replacement of the traditional bureaucratic structures by the installation of organizations of versatility and flexibility.

The problems of a quality are gradually introduced within the Polish firms, which revolutionizes mentalities and upsets the organization in the firms. The concept of a quality is understood however here like "total quality: implementation of the standards ISO 9000, reengineering, benchmarking. The quality was one of the weak points of firms under communism, and it is with sorrow that the Polish firms manage to demolish themselves of their practices of "not-quality".

After having inspired a certain optimism, Polish industry knows many reverses, such as for example the bankruptcy in June 2002 of the shipyard of Szczecin, however long time considered like an example of the successful privatization. Handicapped by their communist heritage, the Polish firms are not very competitive. The productivity is limited by the time and energy lost because of the bureaucratic character of the structures in the firms, bad source of organization of work and insufficient circulation of internal information. In addition, the overconsumption of materials and energy harms competitiveness, even if Poland is rich in energy resources. Lastly, the innovation is slowed down by the insufficient co-operation between the local institutes of research and development of industrie and SME do not have the capacity of sufficient financing to ensure their development.

The classification of the IMD from 2002 places the Poland at the 27th place of thirty countries and areas, that is right in front of Russia, but behind Romania. However, the foreigns sets up companies, the tertiary sector in particular post good performances. Thomson Polkolor is thus managed to develop the productivity starting from the centring of the organization around the quality. The firm gained contests of quality and posts from now on levels of the higher quality than its principal international competitors.

A relatively young, cheap and well-formed Polish labour force> >