Glimpse of Argos: Training with Purpose, Leading with Care

Check out the first interview of the Glimpse of Argos series. Today, our guest is Michalina Krogulecka, Head of Supply Chain.

In this interview, Michalina offers an inside look at her journey to becoming Head of Supply Chain and the day-to-day reality behind the title. From hands-on team training to managing complex projects, she shares how empathy, patience, and a people-first mindset shape her approach to leadership.

The interview

Tell us about your background and how you found your way to Argos.

Michalina Krogulecka: It’s been 12 years since I started my journey in the supply chain. I don’t have a linguistic education; I actually studied international relations. But in the final year of my studies, I received an offer to work as a translator for one of the LSPs. That role introduced me to the world of localization and piqued my interest in understanding how the industry operates behind the scenes. Soon after, I was offered a position in the supply chain team, which allowed me to dive deeper into the operational side of localization—and I’ve been passionate about it ever since.

What does your role usually involve?

Michalina Krogulecka: It’s mainly about team management and account management. A big part of my role is tailoring talent and sourcing strategies for our enterprise clients, while also leading our diverse global teams of supply chain managers. And then there’s the data, lots of different types, with many reports to analyze. So overall, it’s really a combination of people management, decision-making, and data analysis.

What does your typical day at work look like?

Michalina Krogulecka: Well, I start with a good coffee because I really need this boost for the day.

On a typical day, I have several calls—either with my team members or program teams—where we discuss ongoing tasks, address any challenges, and align on priorities. These conversations help us identify urgent issues and determine where to focus our efforts. Outside of meetings, I manage my own workload, which includes responding to emails, evaluating new business opportunities, and handling incoming requests. For example, earlier today, we prepared a presentation for a client meeting, which involved proposing process rates and advising on a suitable resourcing strategy.

So could you give us a spotlight on the most interesting project you’re working on now, or anything that’s not secret?

Michalina Krogulecka: That’s a tough one—we’ve had so many interesting projects! In the Enterprise BU, we often work with clients to build tailored solutions, which always brings new challenges. And I love challenges—they help me grow and keep things exciting.

One project that stands out is with a major online retail software company. We started working with them last spring, and the account has grown rapidly ever since. That growth has been great, but also demanding. We had to scale up quickly, especially on the linguist side, since we mostly work with freelancers. That meant a lot of recruitment and coordination from our supply chain team.

In the Argos supply chain team, each client usually has one main point of contact. That’s the typical setup. But for this particular client, we actually have three team members dedicated to the account because of the high volume and all the recruitment requests. It’s great to see that our work is so valued by the client and that we’re able to contribute to the account on a daily basis.

It must be nice to see the impact of their growth and know that your work paid off. But you’ve mentioned a lot of challenges. So, what traits should a supply chain specialist have?

Michalina Krogulecka: I would say that anyone interested in working in the localization business in general needs to be flexible and open-minded. You have to be open to learn new things and new tools, because it’s an industry that is changing so much and so quickly. Being up to date and following the news is also crucial. It’s good to experiment and see if maybe different solutions, different strategies, and different ideas could work better than what we used to do in the past. 

Then there is the ability to work in a global remote environment. Because these days, in a lot of localization companies, the employees are located in many different countries, even continents.

Perhaps sometimes those traits can be acquired? How do you train people who join the company?

Michalina Krogulecka: We try to address training on an individual level, meaning we adjust it to meet personal needs. Our goal is to make sure everyone is more or less on the same level when it comes to the mandatory or basic skills and knowledge essential for their daily duties.

People also have different learning needs and different ways of learning. Some prefer written instructions, so we provide materials that suit that style. Alongside live training, we also give them written resources to support how they learn best.

Is there anything you wish you had known before starting?

Michalina Krogulecka: I think at the beginning, I didn’t know the working hours were not standard ones. It’s not a 9:00 to 5:00 PM type of job. Maybe when I was a junior, it was more achievable to work 9:00 to 5:00. But then, when I started to gain more responsibilities and became a team manager, it became clear that it’s not possible. For some people, it might be a disadvantage, but for other people, including myself, in the end, it worked out well. 

I can adjust my schedule to fit my needs and also work requirements to fulfill my duties. Sometimes you might need to attend a call at 9 PM with the client because they are based in the United States. The other time we had to combine three different time zones and have a call at 11 PM my time. So it is this kind of job that can be unpredictable in terms of time management, especially when you work on a project or task of high visibility or revenue.

So it’s mandatory to have the Teams app on your phone?

Michalina Krogulecka: Yeah, it might be very, very helpful!

And lastly, what are your current goals?

Michalina Krogulecka: Hmm, I think that currently we still have some work to do as part of the structuring and strengthening of the enterprise business unit because this is a new structure, new functions within Argos, and we are growing as new clients are being onboarded.

While we are still trying to unify certain processes or even reduce the manual efforts by replacing some of the manual work with automation, we still need to work on those aspects of improvement in terms of processes or solutions..I’m particularly looking forward to the rollout of our new Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) platform, which is currently being developed by Supply Chain and Development teams. The new database will replace two separate databases and automate a significant portion of the work currently performed manually by supply chain managers. The pieces of SRM that we’ve already seen show that it will be a great tool.

As a team manager, I would also like to continue working on building a well-integrated team that will be open to supporting one another, flexible, and also happy. I believe that when people feel valued and satisfied, it reflects in the quality of their contributions and the overall success of the team.

Sounds like they’re lucky to have you there.

Michalina Krogulecka: Thank you.

Michalina Krogulecka

Head of Supply Chain

Linkedin