Socially Responsible Since Starting My Enterprise

BUSINESS Socially Responsible Since Starting My Enterprise Michal Bystroň is an entrepreneur in construction who is notable and noticeable in Ostrava and the whole region. He built his construction company and the company has constructed buildings which have won numerous awards in the Construction of the Year regional competition. He takes part in many public building contracts, is a keen sportsman, regional patriot, and promoter of social responsibility. You have worked in construction and development since the early 1990s. What is your professional story? My decision to focus on civil engineering was strictly pragmatic. In the previous regime, my father worked in a housing company and, in the evenings, he designed plans for houses for his friends, earning some 500 Czechoslovak Crowns for each. That was a good sum of money then. My target to become a builder, too, was therefore obvious. When I finished secondary school of civil engineering, the Velvet Revolution came, and I started my own enterprise. First, I traded baby goods, supplying chemists and the Prior shopping malls. At the same time, I started working in one of the first businesses responsible for the administration of rental housing for those who had their family rental blocks returned in restitution, and suddenly had to look after blocks of flats full of tenants, not knowing how to handle them. This is where I met one of the owners, whom I helped in relocating tenants to new homes and transforming those old homes into offices, as demanded the trend of those times. I did the same job for another few real-estate owners and earned enough money to start my company. In 1993, with two partners, I established a construction company and began building, starting with little plans and moving on to big ones. We replaced old clinkers, doing small repairs. One of the first big contracts was a new town hall in Krásné Pole, where we started, among the first in the Czech Republic, Trend 94, our preparation of housing satellites in Ostrava, Olomouc and Hradec Králové. We built sample houses in each of the cities and clients came to see them. Unfortunately, this did not last. Our clients included two managers of the former Union Bank, who let us build two houses for them which they never paid for. That ruined our company. Then I started my solo enterprise “Bystroň stavitel” (Builder Bystroň), where I made a rule that I would not work for businesses but only for the final investor. This has always paid off. From housing insulation I moved on to insulating hundreds of blocks of flats in Ostrava. I grew more and more successful, the income increased as well as the volume and number of contracts, so I transformed my enterprise into the joint-stock company Bystroň–zateplení (Bystroň–Insulation). With a greater share of profit from traditional construction jobs than from insulation, we changed the name to Bystroň Group. In the past two years, we have changed the established company operation again. We quit collaborating with unreliable and expensive freelancers, and, via the programme Ukraine, we employed dozens Kulturní dům 26 ǀ POSITIV 2/2020 of workmen from Ukraine. The difference was striking. We bought a major share in a well-established locksmith company, and we intend to acquire even more such crafts which currently are very expensive for us to buy. We began our own developmental operation and have more plans to make our services better and more efficient. To keep track of all our activities well, in 2020, Bystroň Group and other companies of ours will become members of a new group, Bystroň Holding. We can see the logo “Bystroň” on many construction sites in Ostrava and around our region. Which of your jobs do you consider the best? This is a difficult question. When I earned my first money having insulated the front of a house, I was very very proud. Now, in a large company, we work on huge public contracts. Even though we are not particularly picky, I do prefer interesting jobs which somehow differ. There were not many of those in the past, but recently most urban centers have invested in attractive architectural solutions, which is very positive. We have completed more than 600 contracts since the company was founded. I personally appreciate the new Pavilion of Evolution in the Ostrava Zoo the most. Fulnek