When a Company Is not Failing, but Wants to Reach the Next Stage of Development Three Days on the S

Most people associate an interim manager with a crisis. Something is on fire, things are going wrong, and someone has to come in and put it out. Eko modular s.r.o. was the opposite.

Vojta Juřenčák, the owner of a company that builds modular timber houses, first approached me about mentoring. The company was growing, the product was excellent, the people were hard-working. And yet he knew that he could not take it to the next level on his own. He has a vision and a work ethic I have rarely seen elsewhere. After a year of mentoring, he said to me: come into the company.

I set one condition. Before I sit down in an office, I want to spend three days working in production. I built panels. I watched Petr at the saw, where years of experience replaced a cutting plan. I realised that the company had a treasure in its people – and, at the same time, a risk. What leaves with people costs the company the most.

Since then, I have been in the company two days a week. I sleep in the show home and live and breathe modular production. In four months, together with the team, we built a CRM, introduced KPIs linked to the profitability of individual projects, implemented digital invoicing and reworked the accounting structure. We introduced Freelo – a Kanban system in which every task has one owner, and where the company records its best practice in a card called “Agreements and Conventions”. So that know-how does not leave with people.

Vojta says he would never have believed how quickly a company can change. I already knew it on the shop floor. When people are solving a real problem, not paperwork, all they need is a tool that works in the same mode.

The point is this: an interim manager is not only for a crisis. He is also for an owner who has built the company, knows what he can do, and at the same time knows what he cannot do. Bringing in an interim manager when things are going well is often a braver decision than bringing one in when everything is on fire.

Membership of the Czech Association of Interim Management gives me a clear professional framework, which I follow from the very first days of a mission. For the client, it provides the assurance that they are not working with improvisation, but with proven practice.

---

Simon Palupčík is an experienced interim manager and expert in project management, business strategy and operational efficiency. He has more than 20 years of experience in technically demanding sectors, particularly energy, chemicals, petrochemicals, construction and automotive.

He helps companies manage change, set up effective processes and lead complex projects with a focus on results, stability and long-term growth.