Jiří Koleňák: Welcome to another episode of the Úspěšní (Successful) podcast, part of our special series produced in partnership with the Czech Management Association. In these episodes, we feature today's top leaders and extract valuable insights for future generations of managers and students alike. Joining me today as co-host is David Šimoník, Executive Director of the Czech Management Association. Welcome, David.
David Šimoník: Thanks, Jiří. Our guest today is Jan Lát, Vice-Chairman of the Board and Chief Financial Officer of Beneš a Lát, a family-owned engineering enterprise employing over 450 people. Honza also serves as Vice-President of the Czech Management Association, is an active member of the Central Bohemian Tripartite, and chairs the board of the Můžeš podnikat (You Can Business) initiative. Welcome to the podcast, Honza.
Jan Lát: Good day, gentlemen. Thank you for the invitation.
Jiří Koleňák: Honza, your leadership approach relies heavily on a system of "micro-teams." Could you introduce that concept to us?
Jan Lát: Micro-teams give our employees space to define their own roles beyond our formal organizational structure. While our manufacturing hierarchy is relatively rigid, certain cross-functional initiatives require passionate people who step up voluntarily.
The concept originated when we created a PR function. As a traditional B2B company, we lacked a dedicated marketing department. Wanting to promote the firm externally, we created what we now call the "Digi-team" and invited anyone interested to join. Employees from finance, operations, and administration volunteered. That micro-team has operated successfully for eight years now. It meets weekly for a brief alignment on social media content, employee gifts, and corporate branding—operating essentially as an uncompensated, internal PR agency driven purely by personal enthusiasm.
Another highly successful example is our "Lean Teams." In manufacturing, continuous improvement initiatives often fall under Quality or Technical Preparation, where momentum frequently stalls after a couple of years because it is assigned as an administrative duty rather than an authentic personal commitment. Four years ago, we restructured continuous improvement into micro-teams across our four Czech production plants. Each team includes diverse roles—from executive assistants to finance staff and technicians. They meet regularly to drive process improvements because they genuinely want to contribute. In this case, team members receive financial incentives tied to successfully implemented improvements. Micro-teams identify self-motivated individuals eager to take on extra responsibility.
Jiří Koleňák: What are the main benefits and potential pitfalls of this approach?
Jan Lát: The primary advantage is personal commitment and engagement. When an assistant from the commercial team joins a Lean team, her understanding of the overall business expands far beyond her core department. It builds cross-functional awareness while surfacing high-potential talent eager to grow into broader leadership roles. The main trade-off is managing capacity, as voluntary micro-team work can draw time away from an employee's primary operational duties. However, the organizational benefits far outweigh the minor capacity constraints.
Jiří Koleňák: You emphasize granting freedom at work. What foundational principles prevent workplace autonomy from undermining operational efficiency?
Jan Lát: I prefer to frame it as "opportunity for growth" rather than absolute freedom. In a manufacturing plant with interconnected machine cycles and strict production schedules, complete free-form autonomy isn't realistic—you can't simply decide to work on Sunday instead of Monday.
True freedom within an industrial setting means providing clear opportunities to advance. It means allowing people to look beyond their immediate departmental silos, test new skills, and advance into roles that previously seemed out of reach. Personal freedom always ends where the freedom and operational needs of others begin.
Jiří Koleňák: Your background spans IT, procurement, and finance. How do you balance financial rigor with creative operational agility?
Jan Lát: I originally joined the company in IT, fixing printers without formal technical training. Over the next decade, I worked through the procurement organization—managing warehouses, handling purchasing, and eventually leading procurement. Procurement teaches you practical creativity and technical problem-solving.
When I transitioned into finance, I initially feared rigid accounting constraints. However, coming in as a non-accountant allowed me to view finance differently. I focused on automation, workflow optimization, and process efficiency. Eliminating administrative friction within financial management turned out to be an incredibly creative and rewarding process.
Jiří Koleňák: Your company measures employee sentiment and satisfaction continuously. What key insights have you gathered from that data?
Jan Lát: We use an internal platform called LutherOne, which combines employee satisfaction tracking with peer recognition modules. I have always disliked traditional annual employee surveys—by the time management evaluates annual results six months later, the organization's mood has completely shifted.
LutherOne allows us to run brief weekly sentiment surveys consisting of six rotating questions. Tracking these weekly micro-responses builds a continuous data trend monitoring corporate climate, internal Net Promoter Score (eNPS), and management effectiveness. Managers receive real-time feedback from their teams regarding leadership strengths and growth areas. Under our CEO, Svatopluk Dunčík, team satisfaction metrics are now integrated directly into executive KPIs. A manager's performance isn't measured solely by hard financial output, but by team health and organizational alignment. When team dynamics are healthy, financial performance follows naturally.
Jiří Koleňák: How do you structure reporting and control mechanisms so they remain motivating rather than punitive?
Jan Lát: We review and adjust our KPI metrics every autumn in a collaborative workshop with our 15 senior leadership members. While we track roughly 400 operational KPIs across 450 employees, many are standardized across identical roles—amounting to about 80 unique core metrics overall.
We utilize cross-verification: every KPI is evaluated from two distinct functional angles to ensure data integrity. Crucially, process owners present their own performance variances. Our controlling team doesn't stand up in executive meetings pointing fingers at underperforming plants. Instead, performance data is published on our intranet, and plant managers present their own variance analyses and corrective action plans during our weekly 90-minute "Balance" meeting every Monday. Operational leaders take full ownership of their numbers.
Jiří Koleňák: Beneš a Lát is recognized for its commitment to sustainability. How do you integrate ESG practices into your business model?
Jan Lát: Sustainability was never an artificial corporate mandate for us—it grew naturally from sound economic logic. Sustainability and profitability are inextricably linked; eliminating waste preserves both natural resources and financial capital.
Every plant we operate, except one, was built by redeveloping unused industrial brownfields rather than paving over fertile agricultural land. Our single greenfield site in Poříčany was constructed on a abandoned concrete batch plant, requiring us to excavate hundreds of cubic meters of old concrete before building. We capture waste heat from production machinery to warm our facilities. When formal ESG reporting regulations arrived, we discovered we were already practicing most required sustainability standards. We published our inaugural ESG report according to ESRS standards for 2023, and are completing our 2024 disclosure.
Jiří Koleňák: Manufacturing is energy-intensive, and recent years brought severe energy price volatility. What management frameworks helped you navigate market instability?
Jan Lát: Rigorous, frequent data monitoring. In mid-2020, our procurement tracking flagged that wholesale energy prices were hitting ten-year highs. Using that data, we redesigned our pricing structure, indexing product pricing directly to quarterly energy market benchmarks.
When energy prices skyrocketed in 2021 and 2022, prices adjusted systematically. Conversely, as energy markets cooled, we passed cost reductions transparently back to our clients across seven consecutive quarters. Transparent, data-driven pricing models protect operating margins while maintaining client trust.
Jiří Koleňák: How do you balance data-driven analytics with executive intuition when making strategic decisions?
Jan Lát: I lean heavily on data, but long-term forecasting has become volatile. Where we once had 12-to-14-month order visibility, reliable visibility today extends roughly six months. High-stakes capital investments cannot rely on data alone—intuition and strategic alignment are essential.
Major capital expenditure decisions are made collectively by our 15-member executive team rather than by top-down executive decree. Capital allocation budget limits are shared transparently, and our four plant managers evaluate competing equipment investment proposals from a shared wishlist, agreeing democratically on top priorities for the company as a whole.
Jiří Koleňák: That level of collaboration requires deep mutual trust and personal accountability. How do you build that culture?
Jan Lát: By expecting complete execution. Leaders must empower teams to manage projects end-to-end, request required resources, and deliver finished results. Micro-teams natural highlight individuals who possess the drive to complete projects thoroughly.
For example, our current CEO, Svatopluk Dunčík, originally joined the company as a production shift worker. Over six years, he advanced to foreman, plant manager, multi-plant director, and ultimately Chief Executive Officer. Similarly, our head of logistics at one plant began on the factory finishing floor. The opportunity to advance is real for anyone willing to step up.
Where we currently face challenges is encouraging younger employees—around age 25—to step into formal leadership roles. They perform exceptionally well individually, but often hesitate to take responsibility for managing others due to fear of failure.
Jiří Koleňák: What advice would you offer younger professionals hesitant to take on leadership responsibility?
Jan Lát: Reframe your relationship with risk and failure. Failure is a powerful learning tool. When I was 25, despite an incomplete university degree, I was tasked with securing 200 million CZK in bank financing to construct a new production plant. I treated it as an exciting challenge rather than a terrifying risk. Approach new opportunities as valuable learning experiences—in a healthy corporate culture, nobody gets penalized for taking calculated risks.
Jiří Koleňák: Looking back over your career, what key decisions define your journey?
Jan Lát: Appointing Svatopluk Dunčík as CEO in 2017 fundamentally redefined our organization over the past eight years. Second was establishing a broad management consensus—ensuring company strategy is owned collectively by 15 senior leaders rather than dictated by a small executive committee.
Jiří Koleňák: You won the Manager of the Year award for 2021. What motivated you to enter the program?
Jan Lát: I believed our company had a meaningful transformation story worth sharing with the broader business community. Completing the application forced deep self-reflection. Executive leaders rarely take time to sit down and audit their personal contributions, successes, and hard-won lessons.
Presenting before the evaluation committee pushed me well outside my comfort zone, but the external visibility and PR value for Beneš a Lát were exceptional. Over the past two years, I served on the evaluation committee, and I am honoring to serve as Chair of the Evaluation Committee for the current edition. Evaluating diverse managers across commercial, public, and academic sectors provides extraordinary professional inspiration.
David Šimoník: The grand finale of the Manager of the Year awards takes place on October 7th at the International Engineering Fair in Brno. Honza, thank you very much for an inspiring conversation.
Jan Lát: Thank you very much for having me, gentlemen.
Jiří Koleňák: Thank you to our audience for watching. Stay tuned for our upcoming series as we continue showcasing top leadership excellence!
