BUSINESS

Nordic Business

and Culture in Ostrava

Petr Lukasík was born in Ostrava and studied

Information Technologies at VSB - The Technical

University of Ostrava (Vysoká škola báňská –

Technická univerzita Ostrava). He joined Tieto

Czech s.r.o. in 2004 after he had closed down

his own IT company. He has managed the Czech

branch providing Scandinavian clients with complex

IT services since 2011. Nowadays he specializes in

business operations within Digital Experience, such as

data analyses, AI, robotization, and smart prediction.

He is the Honorary Consul of Finland in Ostrava, and

Vice-President of the Nordic Chamber of Commerce

in the Czech Republic. His hobbies include his family,

badminton, skiing, mountains.

Mr Lukasík, Tieto Czech s.r.o. is synonymous for the

so-called Smart Region. What inspired you to locate your

business in Ostrava?

Tieto entered the Czech Republic through acquisition in

2002. Its expansion, however, is related to the establishment

Centre of Excellence which was founded in Ostrava thanks

to the characteristics of this region and its inhabitants.

We had a thorough analysis made which praised the

Moravian-Silesian Region for its high-quality potential in HR,

considering demographic, economic and logistical aspects.

The district of Ostrava is populated with a few million people

and dozens of good quality universities. The location of the

city itself is strategic, very close to Slovakia and Poland.

Relatively short distances to Scandinavia (in geography and

culture) also helped, and has paid back.

We started with fifty people operating in a villa; fifteen years

later we are celebrating our anniversary with the Czech

branch employing 2,600 people in Ostrava, Brno, and

extending to other towns. Thanks to our project “Developer

Anywhere,” we can create microteams anywhere in the

Czech Republic, facilitating the operation of a “Tieto office”

from any place. This can be a great opportunity for parents

who want to spend time primarily with children yet want to

have an attractive job near their home. Or those who hate

commuting which may take up a few hours daily. Last but

not least, this principle is welcome by those who love their

town and home, and do not wish to move for jobs. This is

why Tieto operates in Olomouc, Zlín, and Liberec too.

You come from this region, know this location and its

positives. What is your vision of the future of the city and

region?

I feel the values coming from the confluence of the past,

present and future of our region. For ages this has been

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an industrial centre which now, step by step, is changing its

focus and adapting to the demands of the present world.

The work by our engineers and workmen - e.g. bridges,

transmitter towers, parts of power plants, supersized

crankshafts for large ships, etc. - has marked the world

for about 200 years. The current situation is very similar,

though most of the jobs happen virtually. Tieto helps to

manage wood processing enterprise worldwide, from

South America, Europe to East Asia. Whatever paper

you hold, a newspaper, a magazine or a pizza box,

the probability is over 60% it has been made with the

use of Tieto software. We also help with digitization of

municipal councils. We facilitate the online purchase and

sale of a car, its registration and administration of the

ownership change; we designed an online application

to get a driving licence. Our software connects a phone

call each second. This is where the future of our region

is: to boldly develop the tradition and aim for hi-tech

enterprise with high added value, e. g. biomedicine,

material engineering, or IT.