External management helps family businesses to achieve success and stability

According to statistics, the business environment flourishes most directly in the metropolitan area of ​​Brno. Thanks to the concentration of technology and the university scene, the whole of South Moravia within reach of Brno is a very suitable area for business development. The well-known South Moravian Innovation Center (JIC) is the flagship in the support of the public sector – the South Moravian Region towards entrepreneurs.

“Although it is perceived as a dominant support for start-ups, it also helps companies when they are at a certain breaking point. In relation to the cases of family businesses, when leadership is passed from generation to generation, it represents an important, often even critical point in their existence. At this point, the JIC is also helpful, and its mentors can guide these companies through this process,” Jan Grolich, Governor of the South Moravian Region, introduced the key point by which the region, as a public entity, supports the business sector in South Moravia in a targeted manner.

Meeting of family businesses Family Business Week in Brno.Source: Diary/Sabir Agalarov

The meeting of family business owners, supplemented by the voices of experts, created an engaging, discussion-rich, informative and inspirational program in Brno. The red line of the debates was the role of external managers in the life and functioning of family businesses. And also the role of these companies in the development of the South Moravian region.

Two discussion blocks attracted a number of entire business families from various corners of southern Moravia to the environment of the Renocar company sales hall of the Vránk family. The Vránks themselves are a representative example of the multigenerational involvement of family members in the development and management of a family business, including the external non-family manager Peter Bittó.

Interim management and its functioning

David Krajíček, founder of the Family Business Week meeting, Irena Valíčková, co-owner of the law firm, and the aforementioned Peter Bittó represented the diverse mosaic of personalities of the first discussion block focused on the external management of family businesses. Jiří Jemelka, expert consultant of JPF Czech, participated most prominently in the presentation and formulation of the main principles of the topic, who summarized his experience in the practice of external management of companies and the deployment of external interim or permanent managers.

“Our domestic family business has long been bound by the fixed idea that a family business can only be passed on to a descendant, and this is a very limiting view for the founder,” commented associate professor Pavla Marciánová, who deals with family business at Masaryk University and BUT, one of the crucial challenges. with which the professional public has to deal.

Source: Diary

Fortunately, hundreds of families manage to overcome the idea that an external manager is a threat to family ownership of the company through the successful deployment of external management, as confirmed by Jiří Jemelka.

“But success is not always guaranteed. It may not be possible for roughly 20 percent of companies,” Jemelka explains, adding that not everyone takes this solution for granted in the end.

Meeting of family businesses Family Business Week in Brno.Source: Diary/Sabir Agalarov

The goal of external management and its deployment is a key help that should free the owners’ hands to achieve a more normal life, gain more time for themselves, family, health, etc.

Irena Valíčková also confirmed this for her company. Peter Bittó also contributed with concrete methods and functioning as well as experiences. He cited the experience as key, when harmony between the owner and the manager must be built “not on the search for compromises between opinions, but on a long-term constructive solution”. It will contribute to the firm’s resilience and sustainability.

The role of family firms in the development of the region

“If a company is owned by a family, this family has a much greater interest in how their employees live, what the environment in which they do business looks like, and what effect it has on the surrounding area. In this way, family businesses have a far greater reach into the territory and region, and influence life in the given locality more than multinational corporations, where the direct human relationship with the place is missing,” commented Governor Grolich on the importance of family business for the region.

Meeting of family businesses Family Business Week in Brno.Source: Diary/Sabir Agalarov

The introduction of the second discussion block also had a more dramatic tone. Mayor of Brno Markéta Vaňková and Governor Grolich were confronted with the opinions of Kateřina Soukupová, managing director of the transport company THERMOSERVIS – TRANSPORT, Libor Musil, founder of Likos and representative of the host company Miloš Vránek. Vouchers were mainly aimed at clashes with the authorities and the lack of infrastructure, both of which significantly complicate the plans or even the development of family businesses.

The need for change in school education

In the end, the debate also touched on the problem of the lack of technical workers and the possible support of technical education in schools, with a question from the plenary session. According to Governor Grolich, this is a current issue that the region is already solving with the involvement of 12 companies, JIC and its subsidiary FabLab.

“Because the demand for technically educated people is huge, and their lack is a major obstacle to the development of the region, the region supports, for example, the FabLab mobile workshop project that goes around secondary schools. The main goal of the project is to change the mindset of people who decide on the orientation of students transitioning from primary to secondary school. For us, it is now a five-year project, the results of which will not be seen immediately. However, it’s already support,” Governor Grolich and Mayor Vaňková confirm.