Hájková: I Couldn’t Have Done it Alone
60 ǀ POSITIV WOMAN
I Couldn’t
Have Done it Alone
“I know every product, component, supplier and customer,” says Ing. Karin Hájková, Managing
Director of Stant Manufacturing s.r.o., who over the years transformed the Ostrava plant from
a formerly loss-making site into the top-performing branch of the global group. The results bring
her sasfacon, but she never fails to emphasise the role of her “dream team”. In this interview,
she talks about her career beginnings, the courage to move to the USA, a crisis relocaon
of the factory, and what changed her most in the role of a leader.
When you look back, what was the first moment
you said to yourself ‘I want to lead, grow, make
decisions’? Did such a moment ever happen?
That moment came for me back at university,
where from my third year I studied Economics
and Management in the Chemical and Food
Industries. I had a clear goal and mindset – that one
day I would run a large chemical plant. Well, that
hasn’t quite come true, but there are definitely some
parallels with my current work. I find it extremely
attractive and motivating to work in a production
environment, where every day brings numerous
challenges that my team and I must face together.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re
producing chemical products or car parts.
Did you ever feel you were jumping into something
blind? For example, moving to the USA – were you
afraid? What tipped the balance and what did you
take away from the experience?
Moving to the USA was essentially the boldest decision
of my life. And today, with hindsight, I can say it was
the best one. At the same time, I wonder where I found
the courage back then to take a three-year-old child
and fly across the ocean into the unknown. Without
the support of my husband, mum and brother, it simply
wouldn’t have been possible. In the USA, a great team
of colleagues was waiting for me; they helped me adapt
quickly, which gave me the space to get down to work.
The Plant Manager of the site where I worked at the
time, Mr Paul Harris, is now once again my superior
as COO, so in a way I’ve been growing over time along
with my colleagues in the US.
Over fourteen years at Stant I’ve learnt to understand
the mentality of my American colleagues and discovered
that it’s very close to my own; I feel comfortable
working in that type of cultural environment.
We women like certainty and predictability, and Stant
and my colleagues are able to provide all of that.
What has been the toughest professional decision
you’ve ever had to make? Was there a difficult
situation you had to handle – one that taught you
something fundamental?
I’m not sure I would call it a decision as such – it rather
arose naturally from the overall situation in the company
– but the most challenging period for me was moving
the production plant from Karviná to the new facility
in the CTP industrial park in Ostrava. For a while,
we were producing in both plants simultaneously,
and the relocated production had to be validated
by our customers. It was an enormous amount of work
and stress concentrated into a relatively short period
of time. That’s when I truly realised that one person
alone can achieve nothing, no matter how capable
they are. If you don’t have a team around you that
identifies with your vision and is ready to pull together
in the same direction, you won’t move a stone.
Ing. Karin Hájková leads Stant Manufacturing s.r.o.,
the Czech branch of a global leader in the automove
sector. She studied chemistry and logiscs and has
worked in the eld for een years. She brings experience
from the USA as well as global logiscs management.
She inspires women through her approach to leadership,
her courage, and her humanity in business.
I wonder where I found the courage back
then to take a three-year-old child and y
across the ocean into the unknown.