From Vision and Drive to Enterprise (2. strana)

BUSINESS we see how different the situation is with various clients and locations. Generally, the decrease in automotive industries is in the two-digit numbers; in agricultural technologies it’s a single-digit percentage. My company has adjusted the operations and capacities accordingly, e.g. by reducing overtime jobs and continuing the optimization of production in the sense of lean management. Such a critical situation always brings the opportunity to reflect and consider better future steps, allows us to solve what we have been postponing, and finish still unaccomplished tasks. I believe we may gradually start coming back to our standard routine, however, production processes. Our technical preparation for production involves the innovation of production processes, which means the improvement of individual processes in production, the optimization of technological processes, manufacturing preparations, the introduction of 5S workstations, an emphasis on task ergonomics, etc. We make use of the advisory services of companies that specialize in lean production, and we definitely intend to cooperate with the technical departments of the VSB – Technical University of Ostrava. We are in the introductory stage of implementing automated and robotic technologies with online control and management in our complex enterprise. You are the leader of the Czech Marketing Society (Česká marketingová společnost) in Ostrava. What is the function of this society? In 2018, I became the chair of the Regional Club of ČMS Ostrava, which is going to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary in 2020. ČMS is a voluntary non-profit organization with central offices registered in Prague, which brings together marketing professionals and interested individuals through collective or individual membership. The original mission, to promote and support marketing in the Czech Republic, has recently been extended to develop communication among marketing experts, to improve the high quality of marketing management and marketing activities as well as their ethical dimension. Recently, the society has played a significant role in marketing and achieved a leading position amongst institutions operating in this field. The Regional Club Ostrava associates fifty individual and collective members, including very important companies from our region. The programme concentrates on quarterly events such as workshops on various topical marketing topics with experts sharing their experience in that particular marketing branch. the constellations of players in many fields might change considerably. The crisis has had a fatal impact on tourism, travel agencies, airlines, shopping centres, restaurants and hotels. It has seriously affected automotive industries and their suppliers. All of these will shuffle capital, customers, suppliers, it may even make some companies go bankrupt or transform the structure of their operations, and new enterprises may arise. Foods and food processing however, the strategic commodities, will survive as well as agricultural industries and machinery producers. Some of the western producers have been in business for over 200 years. The current situation requires a faster implementation of innovative production methods. Are you planning the introduction of such methods with the close cooperation of university R&D centres? As I have already mentioned, we are implementing lean management and intensively optimizing our You are well-known as an entrepreneur with social responsibility, supporting sports and being agile in regional tourism. ISMM is an active partner of all urban centres where we work, i.e. Jistebník, Štítina, Pustějov and Bravantice. We are the general partner of the KH ISMM extra league handball club in Kopřivnice, the HC ISMM minorleague ice-hockey club Kopřivnice, and the TJ ISMM Jistebník and TJ Tatran Štítina football clubs. We support numerous institutions, volunteer associations and events in the districts of our operation. We actively participate in regional tourism, such as in Štramberk, a picturesque destination where our Hotel Gong has been a traditional hotel and catering provider, and in Štramberk-Libotín, where we run the minigolf and tennis facility. At the beginning of the COVID crisis, we provided some institutions and institutional care organizations with masks. Nobody can think of themselves exclusively; we must help others and do the right things at the right time. That is our point. Thank you for the interview. Otázky připravil: Vít Ruprich Foto: archiv ISMM Production & Business Cooperation s.r.o. www.ismm.cz POSITIV 2/2020 ǀ 49