The Exceptional Successes of a Czech Company on the German Market (2. strana)

INVESTORS IN MSK In some places, there is a central government subject that dictates everything; other places have more liberal markets with many smaller business owners. In the case of our B2B engineering products, the key is to be able to design, test and homologate a product before production and delivery. The ability to communicate within the market then goes hand in hand with this, having language skills and understanding business norms and quality requirements, etc. Do you think your success could inspire other Czech companies to follow in your footsteps? Definitely, firstly in the way that we proved a Czech company can become a market leader, producing a unique product, developing it and providing service throughout its lifespan. Secondly, we showed that this same company can also realize acquisition efforts in the west, which has not been that common in the past—most often it is the other way around. What is your vision of the future for BONATRANS GROUPS a.s.? Do you have any plans for the future? Yes, we indeed have plenty of plans. Our first is the everyday development of the company’s personnel potential. BONATRANS is a successful company due to its ability to adapt coworker ideas into products demanded by the market. Our second concern is the Green Deal, Europe’s pledge to support ecologically friendly and sustainable technologies, as railway transport definitely falls into this category. The increase of expenses in the production of steel within Europe due to emission reduction systems is something we view as a risk though. Nonetheless, we are also working on reducing our carbon footprint as we are planning to invest in heat recuperation and together with our sister company in a photovoltaic power plant. We also plan to construct further machining centers to accomodate finishing operations on our products, such as surface finish and coating. As far as the market goes, we are still focused on geographical areas showing the largest growth—England, Scandinavia, Italy and China. We would also like to increase the proportion of our sales in innovative products. I am specifically speaking about BONAXLE®, an axle design that lasts the entire lifecycle of the train; BONASILENCE®, a series of wheel noise dampers mainly aimed at public transport but also at high speed trains and freight cars; BONASTAR®, advanced steel grades, extending the lifespan of wheels and tyres thereby decreasing costs in the lifecycle of the entire wheelset; and BONACOAT®, a line of coatings with increased reliability for axle protection. Do the German people inspire you in some way? In what ways are they different from Czechs in not only professional but personal lives? There are two things that are very inspirational to me. The first is precision: the effort to unpack each process and describe even its minor details. The second is respect towards upholding rules. There are, however, a couple negative aspects as well, namely a lower willingness to improvise and rigidity, which is something we have to take into account when communicating with Germans and German companies. Mr Weimann, thank you for the interview. POSITIV 4/2021 ǀ 63