Jiří Koleňák
Welcome to the first episode of the third season of the “Úspěšní” podcast. Today, we’ll explore one of the biggest challenges in management: how to build a business that can grow, run without its founder’s day-to-day involvement, and prepare for a future in which artificial intelligence will fundamentally change the way we work. My guest today is Boris Bošiak, a technology entrepreneur who is now also one of the leaders driving AI transformation at the Abugo group. He began his entrepreneurial journey at a very young age, progressing from building websites to developing his own products. In 2013, he co-founded Reservio. What began as a simple booking system has grown into an international technology platform that now processes around 15 million bookings a year and serves businesses worldwide. After 13 years at the helm of Reservio, Boris handed over the running of the company to his successor and moved to the Abugo group, where he focuses on applying artificial intelligence across its software businesses and products. Hi Boris, welcome to the “Úspěšní” podcast.
Boris Bošiak
Hi Jiří, thank you for inviting me.
Jiří Koleňák
Boris, I always begin by asking my guests what has made them happiest over the past few days. What was it for you?
Boris Bošiak
After this weekend, probably spending time with my family and getting a bit of good sleep.
Jiří Koleňák
Every parent understands the value of a good night’s sleep. Boris, when you look back on your journey today, what drove you? Was it a love of technology, or did you want to build your own business from the very beginning?
Boris Bošiak
What really fascinated me was that someone from a small town in Slovakia could build something that a person on the other side of the world could use. That was one of the first things that drew me to the internet. From that moment, it opened up a world of innovation for me, showing me everything technology could do, and that still motivates me today.
Jiří Koleňák
I’ve just realised we could have included another important detail in your introduction: Boris was featured in Forbes 30 Under 30. Let’s add that now, because this idea of someone from a small town in Slovakia influencing a business environment that is global, reaching all the way to the other side of the world, is surely one of the things that helped the panel make its decision.
Boris Bošiak
Possibly.
Jiří Koleňák
Interestingly, you originally joined the Jitsu accelerator with a completely different project. How difficult was it to let go of the original idea and shift to a new direction?
Boris Bošiak
It wasn’t difficult for me, because my goal in business was always to find something that could help small business owners. Our previous idea targeted a similar audience, and we discovered that it couldn’t work as a business. So I’d say the change was very easy, and I think it was the right one.
Jiří Koleňák
I think that’s a very useful example for students taking part in our business accelerator. They arrive with an idea and think that’s it, they’re done. Then they spend a lot of time convincing themselves that theirs is the only right idea. But when everyone around them is saying the idea may be good but needs a little adjustment or a different perspective, it’s useful to listen and head in a slightly different direction.
Boris Bošiak
When you’re starting out, I think you cling very tightly to the idea: I have to find something original. Someone who has already been through the experience of running a business will say exactly the opposite. The idea doesn’t have to be original at all. Ultimately, it comes down to execution and the system you’re able to build.
Jiří Koleňák
Can you remember the moment when a promising student project became something with real potential to be a global business?
Boris Bošiak
I think it was in the first few months after we launched Reservio. Until then, it had been a dream and an idea that was difficult for me to grasp, because we hadn’t sold a single Reservio licence yet. Then, suddenly, payments started coming in from Brazil. Business owners got in touch, placed their trust in us and were able to build their businesses around it. That was when I realised: wow, OK, perhaps this really can work.
Jiří Koleňák
When you were building Reservio, was there a weakness holding you back that, once you overcame it, allowed the whole business to start growing?
Boris Bošiak
As a new entrepreneur, I think I was guided more by ideals than experience, but that’s probably natural for people starting out. Your ideals often lead you to hold on very tightly to exactly what you’ve set your mind on, to that idea we were talking about. Being able to let go of your ideal and start listening to what the customer actually wants is the key, in my view.
Jiří Koleňák
Did anything help you reach that realisation, such as advice, consultancy, education or market analysis? Where did it come from?
Boris Bošiak
I have to admit I probably can’t remember that far back. In any case, I think the financial reality of a business is the best teacher. You can see straight away what works. When something doesn’t work, you can keep trying, but you can’t force it.
Jiří Koleňák
So you need to keep an eye on whether it really works and recognise when it’s time to give up on something and move elsewhere. Lots of start-ups can create a good product but have a fundamental problem with scaling. They settle for the fact that it works reasonably well. Where do you find the drive, or the trigger that makes you want to scale it?
Boris Bošiak
If you want to scale, I think you have to think that way from the start, because every decision you make follows from that. If I want to build a lifestyle business, I build it primarily around something I can do myself, or that a team of two or three can do. If I want to create something with international reach, I have to think from the beginning about how to enter new markets, how to sell it and how to distribute it. Every decision defines something in the business that needs to be adapted to that ambition.
Jiří Koleňák
Was there anything in particular that helped Reservio with this? Beyond that initial idea, you talked about the importance of execution, of how you deliver. What was at the heart of Reservio’s success in actually making it happen?
Boris Bošiak
One of the things that really helped us is also quite underestimated. Reservio entered the booking systems market at a time when these systems weren’t particularly common. Our biggest competitor was a paper appointment book. Very early on, we committed to entering new language markets, and we made the decision to bring in Vítek Vrba as an investor. At the time, he was running Webnotes. Something as simple as being able to accept payments from South America was a defining factor for us, because it allowed Brazil to remain our number two market for a very long time. Without that connection, we wouldn’t have been able to accept a single crown there. That makes a big difference to a company’s finances.
Jiří Koleňák
So the investor didn’t just bring money. He brought expertise, and potentially technology, that made this possible.
Boris Bošiak
It’s always easier with someone who has at least started out and worked in a similar industry before.
Jiří Koleňák
If you were to recommend three indicators to a new entrepreneur today, to help them recognise whether they’re doing well or whether they should close the project down, what would they be?
Boris Bošiak
I’d probably say that initial traction. It doesn’t mean I immediately start making huge amounts of money and get that famous hockey-stick growth curve. But if I feel I’m always swimming against the current, there’s probably something in that. I don’t think I even need to name another two. When things work, they usually have a certain momentum. That doesn’t mean you won’t encounter problems and obstacles, but if it’s nothing but obstacles, you’re probably heading in the wrong direction.
Jiří Koleňák
Yes, when there are nothing but obstacles. In systems thinking, we say that things tend to continue in the way they began. Perhaps we can rely on that principle.
Boris Bošiak
Exactly.
Jiří Koleňák
It’s about the importance of getting the start right. At Reservio, I assume you had to balance growth with investment, recruitment and onboarding new people. How did you manage that while remaining financially sustainable? With unlimited investor funding, of course, it’s possible to manage.
Boris Bošiak
Reservio had to be financially viable from the start. We received an initial investment, but after that we didn’t even try to raise further rounds. That meant it was always important for us to build an efficient system. I think that’s why we’re able to operate today. Globally, there are really only two or three players that have gone much further by raising something like €150 million. Yet if you look at it purely in financial terms, they may have reached three or four times Reservio’s size. That isn’t such a huge achievement. I think the fact that we focused on financial viability from the outset worked strongly in our favour.
Jiří Koleňák
Do you have a management tool that helps you put strategy into practice?
Boris Bošiak
As a founder, I’ve always had the mindset that when I have a vision or a theory about something I want to do, I should quickly try it out and find a way through. Once I have a company with a team, rather than just two or three people, I need to be able to hand the execution over to a good team that can put a system around it. I think that’s the strength of the founder’s approach. I know how to hack a way through, but then you need someone who can build a solid system around it.
Jiří Koleňák
I’ll stay with that founder energy for a moment, because a founder is, by definition, the best salesperson, product person, delivery manager, crisis manager, essentially everything. Have you ever realised that you yourself might be an obstacle to further growth?
Boris Bošiak
Definitely. I actually think it’s something you encounter regularly on your entrepreneurial journey, because as you move the business forward, you inevitably become a bottleneck at some point. The founder or entrepreneur has the broadest context and the most years of experience. In my view, that makes it important to find the way through and then know when to hand things over. I think that’s the basic rule. A good entrepreneur spends their whole life following that path, passing on what they’ve worked out.
Jiří Koleňák
That’s right. Some entrepreneurs are forced to hand over at a particular moment, and that reveals how well they’ve prepared the whole system for it. Sadly, one remarkable example is the death of Tomáš Baťa. It could have meant the destruction of the entire company, yet the succession took the business into a new dimension and gave it an even more vigorous life. As you moved, and continue to move, because you said it’s an ongoing process, from managing things personally to delegating and handing over to teams what you were used to doing yourself, were there any moments you had to fight your way through? How do you know it’s working?
Boris Bošiak
How do I know it’s working? Interesting question. I think handing over means, in a way, letting go of the ego that says: I can do this best. I think founders generally all suffer from that kind of ego. I probably don’t have a direct answer. When I have a good team I trust, it comes naturally. It isn’t that I have to let go of something; I want to let go of it.
Jiří Koleňák
I like something I read, I think it was from Elon Musk: hand over so much that you discover you need to take 10% back to stop the whole thing collapsing. That strikes me as an interesting principle. Keep handing things over, continuously, but without simply dumping them on others. It has to meet all the requirements of delegation, including checking that the people you delegate to already have the necessary capabilities.
Boris Bošiak
For me, a good sign is when I don’t have to oversee routine work, but can choose to jump into a problem because my expertise can help. Then I can step away again, knowing that the team can carry it through without me.
Jiří Koleňák
When you handed over the running of Reservio to Martin after 13 years, did you have any indicators to help you assess whether he had truly taken over and whether the company was doing well?
Boris Bošiak
Martin was actually the second person we tried this with. It hadn’t worked out properly with the first. As a founder, I wanted someone I could connect with personally as well. I think Martin Randl is very similar to me in terms of values and as a person. Because he was product-focused and analytical, a lot of things fell into place naturally. That perhaps takes us back to the beginning: when it’s one problem after another, it will probably remain a problem. Things that flow naturally tend to develop on their own. With Martin’s approach to his work, I think he was able to make it his own very quickly, and it simply worked.
Jiří Koleňák
My experience is that professional management alone isn’t enough, at least at the C-suite level of responsibility. When you bring in a professional manager, they need to absorb some of that founder energy. It’s their responsibility to take from the founder everything useful that will allow the system to continue. The other thing that occurs to me is that it’s an ongoing relationship. It isn’t simply a case of switching over. The manager also has a responsibility to keep reassuring the founder that the whole thing is heading in the right direction.
Boris Bošiak
I agree. And I’d add the other side of it: as a founder, you have to know how to truly step away. That tendency to think, I could still do this better, perhaps I’ll step in and correct something, is exactly what makes the successor dependent. You have to let them get their hands dirty and work through it.
Jiří Koleňák
Absolutely, I agree. And you have to work through the handover process itself, because there’s no instant guide to handing over a family business or any other business system. Succession is a subject that deserves attention in its own right and the development of professional expertise. What systems of management, communication and accountability does a company need to operate successfully without the founder’s daily intervention?
Boris Bošiak
I think this takes us back to some of the topics we’ve already discussed. You need middle management you can rely on. If I have people working for me whom I don’t trust, and I expect to correct them at every step, that’s a basic sign that I haven’t prepared the business to operate without me at all. It’s very important to know that I can hand someone a problem, close the door and trust that it will get done. Perhaps not exactly as I imagined, or to some imagined standard I’ve set, but it will get done and it will be done well. It’s also very important for the company to have a long-term direction. If I’m not clear about tomorrow, and ideally at least the next year or two, I can’t expect middle management to move in one direction rather than pull apart at the first problem they encounter.
Jiří Koleňák
Is there anything you miss after handing over Reservio?
Boris Bošiak
I don’t think so, because Abugo was a natural next step for me. I’m still in contact with Reservio, with both the people and the product, because it’s still part of the division I’m responsible for. I think that made it a natural way of saying goodbye.
Jiří Koleňák
That answer doesn’t surprise me, because people like you can set themselves another sufficiently compelling goal that they don’t need to look back sadly at what’s gone.
Boris Bošiak
That’s right.
Jiří Koleňák
Today, you’re working on transforming the Abugo group into an AI-first organisation. What, to you, is the difference between a company that uses artificial intelligence in some way and one that truly has an AI-first mindset?
Boris Bošiak
In one sentence, I’d say its processes are built around agents rather than people. I think it’s relatively easy to acquire the skills to use AI to speed up your work a little, do it a bit better or automate more of it. Truly building an AI-first company means dismantling everything that existed before, knowing that things may be shaky for a while. But there’s no way around that. Otherwise, the business won’t operate around agents; you’ll always just be helping people do a little better.
Jiří Koleňák
I think that’s the most common approach today: individuals boosting their performance with AI. You said it clearly: processes are built around agents. What has to change in the mind of a manager who decides to do that? The risks are enormous, because we’re starting to transform a human system, with all its particular characteristics, into a human–machine system whose dynamics and results are currently unpredictable to us. In most managers’ minds, those risks probably still outweigh the potential benefits.
Boris Bošiak
In working with our own managers, I see the fear of taking that radical step as perhaps the biggest initial obstacle, because it often really does mean throwing away something you’re used to, something that has worked for years. Take a simple example, customer support. Customer support used to be about getting a person to the most difficult issue a customer had contacted us about as quickly as possible, so they could resolve it quickly. Now the entire customer support system is built around an agent processing every past conversation. It looks at where the agent couldn’t answer a question, where a customer suggested a new feature, an improvement, anything that can inform how we develop the product and the company. The person deals only with what’s left. That doesn’t mean human work is less valuable. The point is that I’ve rethought the system: ideally, I want the agent to be able to do 100% of the work. For everything it can’t handle, we have a human professional who can step in and use their expertise.
Jiří Koleňák
If we think in terms of those layers, toolset, skillset and mindset, which area are we talking about?
Boris Bošiak
I think it’s a combination of all three. From my experience, the gap between people in how they apply AI at work is widening dramatically. It certainly starts with mindset. If I don’t have the mindset to build systems, and the courage to take that enormous leap, it won’t happen. But without the skillset and toolset, I can have big ambitions and still never turn them into reality.
Jiří Koleňák
If you joined a company with 200 employees and wanted to establish an AI-first mindset, what would your first steps be over, say, the first 90 days?
Boris Bošiak
Based on what worked for us at Abugo, I’d connect all the tools and data sources in the company so AI could access and use them. Here I’d underline something very important that many companies underestimate. It’s good to understand, or draw up, an AI policy: know what the law requires and what level of risk you’re prepared to accept. There’s a downside to giving people data: they may feed it into all sorts of tools, in whatever form is convenient, and that isn’t always entirely safe. Once those data sources are available, I can focus on ensuring everyone has some form of access to AI. The second step that works very well, I think, is to choose what I’d call champions. People who will embrace it and see the system in it. Rather than trying to...
Jiří Koleňák
Win over the majority?
Boris Bošiak
Yes. I wouldn’t try to persuade the majority. To be honest, I think that’s like tilting at windmills. By choosing those champions and helping them progress, I’m supporting the people who widen that gap and hold up a mirror to everyone else. They’re also the people in whom investment will have the greatest impact. Looking at our group, I’d venture to say that, within Czechia and Central Europe, we’re very advanced in the AI mindset of what I’d call the average employee. Yet the top 10, 15 or 20 people are still the ones driving progress to an extraordinary degree. You need to try to remove every possible obstacle for them.
Jiří Koleňák
How will AI change the work of managers, meaning those who get work done through others and are responsible for results? Will we need fewer of them?
Boris Bošiak
I think AI is definitely flattening management structures. In terms of mindset, someone who is “AI-native”, as it’s now called, is essentially a manager of agents. So when I work with that person, I have to treat them as a team manager. I think that defines a great deal of the dynamic. If I go into the detail of that AI-native person’s work, it’s rather like walking into a team and interfering in everyone’s individual tasks. What works instead is setting expectations, establishing what good looks like, and letting the AI-native person get on with it. I think managers will find it very difficult in future to manage both agents and people. I can see a new paradigm emerging, with managers perhaps dividing into those focused on people and those focused on agents.
Jiří Koleňák
Or those who combine the two. I’ve already set the first doctoral research topics on this, because I think precisely that dynamic in the human–machine system could create an entirely new economy.
Boris Bošiak
And it will.
Jiří Koleňák
And it will, exactly. What would you recommend doing with a very capable manager who stubbornly refuses to use AI?
Boris Bošiak
Replace them. I’m probably very critical on this point, but if I believe AI will change my industry, and in ours there’s not much to debate because I think it’s already happening, replacing them is the only answer.
Jiří Koleňák
Are there management decisions you already leave to AI today, and others that you can’t yet imagine handing over to artificial intelligence at all?
Boris Bošiak
A great many. I think the real limit on where I let an agent make decisions at the moment is context. If it doesn’t have enough context to decide, that’s where I step in, more in the role of orchestrating those agents. This also takes us back to the advice about starting those first 90 days. If I don’t have enough data, or the data aren’t adapted so an agent can use them effectively, those are all areas where a person has to come in and take charge.
Jiří Koleňák
Thank you for using the word orchestration. We’ve recently held several mastermind sessions with the Czech Management Association, and people who are winning what we might call competitions or awards, such as Manager of the Year, are using words like orchestration and anticipation. Such lovely Czech words, which we should add to our vocabulary and probably start looking into quite quickly: what they mean, and what they will mean for management work.
Boris Bošiak
It’s actually very difficult to speak just one language today, not only because I’m a Slovak working in Czechia. When you add the fact that the world of agents contains so many words with no Czech equivalent, I sometimes listen to a recording of myself and feel like someone who can’t put together even one proper sentence, because I’ve used three different languages in 30 seconds.
Jiří Koleňák
When you look at the Boris who founded Reservio 13 years ago and the Boris of today, do you see any milestones in how your thinking has changed?
Boris Bošiak
Definitely. I think they mainly come from the experiences I’ve been through. As a new entrepreneur, you have that vision: you see someone like Elon Musk, but few people really understand what being in that role entails. You start to appreciate and value things you perhaps didn’t value so highly before. I think that’s where most of the lessons from those 13 or 14 years in business have come from.
Jiří Koleňák
Has your personal definition of success changed over that time? What does success mean to you today, compared with what you imagined when those companies were being founded?
Boris Bošiak
It has changed. Initially, perhaps I placed importance on being in a role where I had control over everything. Now I think what I value most is control over my time. Time is the variable that passes equally for everyone, and it seems to pass faster as we go along. I don’t think the mark of a good entrepreneur is simply whether they have 100, 1,000 or 10,000 employees, or whether their turnover is in the billions or hundreds of millions. It’s also, above all, the freedom they have within the system they’ve built, having time for whatever they consider important.
Jiří Koleňák
I’ve got a few quick, punchy management questions. Which single habit do you think has the greatest impact on a manager’s success?
Boris Bošiak
In English, it’s “hire fast, fire fast”. All management is based on trust. So, being able to trust, and if that trust isn’t there, not dragging things out.
Jiří Koleňák
What should every manager stop doing immediately?
Boris Bošiak
Micromanaging.
Jiří Koleňák
What did you learn about working with people far too late?
Boris Bošiak
The lesson about trust. If that trust doesn’t exist, I’m only postponing the inevitable.
Jiří Koleňák
What one piece of advice would you give someone taking on their first team as a manager?
Boris Bošiak
Focus on the human aspect, because there will always be tasks and responsibilities. If it doesn’t work on a human level, everything else falls apart.
Jiří Koleňák
Finally, if you had to define the essence of successful management over the long term in one sentence, what would it be?
Boris Bošiak
Ambition and delegation.
Jiří Koleňák
That wasn’t even a sentence, but it was all the more powerful for it. Boris, thank you very much for a lovely conversation today.
Boris Bošiak
Thank you.
Jiří Koleňák
And thank you for listening. If today’s conversation inspired you, perhaps share it with someone who might find it useful. I look forward to next time.
