News - conference Business Navigation Days

As a result of Donald Trump’s win in the US presidential election, will it be necessary for companies in the Czech Republic to drastically update their business strategies, as the market will now develop very differently to how we had expected? And what needs to be done to achieve our business targets and cross that magical line to success? Answers to these and many other questions were sought on 10 and 11 November 2016 by some 80 general and financial directors and other top managers of leading companies on our market at Business Navigation® Days, one of the biggest annual business management conferences. As usual, the event is held under the auspices of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, and supported from abroad by the Slovak clusters Automotive bez hranic and the 1st Slovak Engineering Cluster.

One dominant figure at this year’s conference was prof. Zdeněk Souček, strategic management guru, 2014 Manager of the Year and author of 28 books, who has been involved in the creation of hundreds of successful strategies for businesses that form the backbone of the domestic economy. In an interview, Jan Hušek, Executive Director and Managing Director of INEKON SYSTEMS, which organises the conference every year, spoke primarily about the impact that the election of Donald Trump as US president will have on enterprises in the Czech Republic and about his view of the creation of strategies in today’s world. The two-day Business Navigation® Days conference featured a total of 17 speakers, including partners, general and financial directors and other top managers of companies such as Technistone, Lagardere Travel Retail, Stavebniny DEK, Česká zbrojovka, STOCK Plzeň-Božkov, Druchema, Asekol. Zetor Tractors, Meopta – optics, Servodata, BDO Advisory, Goldratt CZ, Profitana, Proverbs, Minerva and Brematopron Consulting.

Every year the Business Navigation® Days conference features the presentation of prestigious awards. This year the crystal globe for his long-term contribution to Business Navigation was presented to Česká pošta, and the award was received by Česká pošta Controlling Director Lukáš Svoboda. The blue globe for the navigation project of the year was presented to Financial Director Stanislav Beránek on behalf of Lagardere Travel Retail.

The first day of the conference closed with an informal social evening. This year, the participants were treated to the 21st-century psychological illusions of Robert Fox, good music by Fragment Band and a whisky taster, provided by STOCK Plzeň-Božkov.

BND 2016 topics:

• Is business success down to a brilliant idea or systematic work?
• Given the market turbulence, is there a point to long-term strategies in the modern world
• Customers’ needs must be predicted in advance using smart systems to support business management.

For two days, more than eighty top managers of prominent Czech and Slovak companies together with top representatives and university lecturers in economic and technical fields from both countries discussed the importance of education for the future of companies. According to the participants of the 2017 Business Navigation® Days (BND) conference, the time is coming when cooperation with universities, the quality preparation of students reflecting the needs of the market and the further education of managers will become almost an existential necessity for companies. BND was held under the auspices of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic and the Czech Chamber of Commerce at the Hotel Chateau Valeč near Hrotovice in Vysočina on 27–28 April.

BND 2017 Investment in education is a strategic necessity for further survival
“I was thinking of how to make sure that employees enjoy their work in the firm, consult with one another and come up with suggestions for improvement. And I have noticed that human action is driven by emotions,” said Zbyněk Frolík, Director General of LINET. In our firm, teams are made up of randomly selected employees from all the departments, which stimulates competitiveness and new ideas. “When a person desires something, they overcome all obstacles to obtain it. It is therefore important to motivate people to work with passion,” he said. This has enabled the company not only to reduce costs, but also to constantly improve its hospital beds to suit the needs of those health care providers that use them. What else did Zbyněk Frolík talk about in the Guest’s Chair? Take a look at the video.

Nowadays its own know-how is not enough for any firm in the long term – no matter how successful it is now. It is dependent on the environment in which it operates, its ability to continue to develop, learn and share new ideas amongst employees in the firm. According to Vít Kutnar, Chairman of the Board of the DEK group, it is necessary to constantly innovate, prepare for crises before they arise, and then use that as a competitive advantage in the future. However, as co-founder and Senior Managing Partner of M.L. Moran Václav Novák says, we are living in the best time of mankind’s economic history: “This is the first time ever that capital is offered to smart people, whether it happens to be of use to them. What is important, however, is whether you use your potential to be marketable and ensure sufficient added value.”

This is a time that is fast and full of constant changes. “Conditions have changed so much that at universities we cannot simply rest on our academic laurels and create theoretical research. We have to try to adapt to the market, i.e. the needs of businesses. Education supported by practice is unavoidable these days,” claimed Ferdinand Daňo, Rector of the University of Economics in Bratislava, adding that in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia there is a need to find more and more opportunities of engaging companies in the teaching process. He believes that theory is supposed to create an image for students, which can be confronted with reality.

The success of any project, be it business or our own personal objective, depends on people. In this respect, according to Ladislav Šimek, owner of SHIMEQ Air and DROPPER and former president of AERO Vodochody, we have to bear in mind that people are not perfect and that we ourselves are not perfect. “Let’s use those imperfections and mistakes of others and ourselves to achieve our goals. A very common argument against change is: We have always done it like this and have succeeded. But this can be turned around: We have always done it like this and, despite this, have succeeded. Support people in their mistakes and use their pride to overcome challenges. Do not set aggressive targets, but provoke employees to set them themselves – then they can’t dodge them.”

A part of this year’s conference was a presentation of a pilot project that aims to combine the efforts of universities with companies that successfully do business in Slovakia and will be able to use the simulation to improve their performance parameters for a better market position or to back-up what they are deciding upon at the time. “Representatives of Czech universities and companies showed interest in cooperation with Slovak partners at the BND conference. There were preliminary talks about also setting up similar research and development centres at Czech universities, which would prepare dynamic simulation models through close cooperation between experts and students with businesses,” said Jan Hušek, Managing Director of INEKON SYSTEMS, which is involved in preparing the Slovak project.

Altogether, 17 speakers gave talks at the two-day Business Navigation® Days,. They included partners, CEOs, CFOs, the head of controlling, the rector and deans, as well as other luminaries from companies and universities such as Technistone, DEK Group, M.L. Moran, LINET, the University of Economics in Bratislava, Komerční banka, Československá obchodní banka, holding MEDIFINE, Tableau, Mondi Štětí, MP Krásno, CRIF, CAFIN, Controller Institut or INEKON SYSTEMS.

An annual part of the conference is awarding the prestigious Business Navigation prize. The DEK Group was awarded the Crystal Globe for its long-term contribution to Business Navigation and the prize was taken away by the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Vít Kutnar, and the CFO, Jan Bolek. The Blue Globe for Navigation Project of the Year went to Technistone, represented by IT Project Manager Martin Poláček. The awards were presented by the guru of strategic management, Zdeněk Souček, Martin Plachý, a board member of the Czech Chamber of Commerce, Kateřina Budínková, the Regional Manager of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic for the South Moravian Region and the Vysočina Region and the Executive Director of INEKON SYSTEMS, Václav Houser. As is traditional, the guests received a gift related to the conference’s theme – this time it was a laser pointer and a box of memory enhancement tablets from Walmark.

Is desire the driving force that should motivate employees to better performance and thus give the business a competitive edge? What role do emotions play in the marketability of products and services? These questions were addressed by more than eighty participants at the 13th annual Business Navigation® Days (BND) business management conference, which was held under the auspices of the Czech Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic on 26−27 April 2018 at the Hotel Chateau Valeč in Vysočina.

BND 2018 How to succeed in the competitive world? Become an object of desire
Is desire the driving force that should motivate employees to better performance and thus give the business a competitive edge? What role do emotions play in the marketability of products and services? These questions were addressed by more than eighty participants at the 13th annual Business Navigation® Days (BND) business management conference, which was held under the auspices of the Czech Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic on 26−27 April 2018 at the Hotel Chateau Valeč in Vysočina.

“This year’s conference covered questions concerning how to instil employees with the desire to move their business forwards. We sought ways of instilling in customers the desire for the products and services we offer, and how business navigation can help in all of this,” explained Jan Hušek, INEKON SYSTEMS Executive Director and Managing Director. According to INEKON SYSTEMS Concept and Development Director and Managing Director Václav Houser, it should take six steps to fulfil business desire: “These include motivation, orienting further development and navigation towards business performance with the help of smart software. Emotions are a crucial part of modern business, especially behavioural economics, which are being used more and more. The last step, without which it is impossible today to look ahead and analyse what we have already done, is managerial complex management, such as BNS.”

The desire for entrepreneurial success, corporate prosperity, competitiveness and economic performance, however, is not enough. According to co-founder and managing partner of M.L. Moran Václav Novák, the story is also important. “The story must be sold to the firm’s customers or employees so that it becomes their own,” he said. “I have worked with different people on every continent and have come to the conclusion that there is just one tool: the desire to excel, to stand out in a positive way,” mused Zdeněk Souček, strategic management guru and president of Klub Stratég (Strategists’ Club). “I have always chosen smart people to work with, as they keep pushing you upwards. Some managers are afraid of this, and that’s bad. The firm then suffers,” said industrialist and investor Rudolf Ovčaří.

However, this year’s BND did not only feature appearances by experienced managers of prestigious companies from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The conference participants also had the chance to see how neurology sees the road to success. “The brain only learns by comparison with previous experience and making mistakes,” noted Martin Jan Stránský, a neurologist from Poliklinika na Národní in Prague. The principles for successful negotiation also stem from neurology. “If you want to convince someone, you have to stand and not sit. It also depends whether it is morning or afternoon. You have the optimum cortisol levels at two in the afternoon – that’s therefore the best time to sell or arrange something,” said the neurologist.
Emotions do not belong in business – we’ve all heard this a hundred times. According to emotional intelligence lecturer Iva Šubrtová, however, emotions are ubiquitous, even though we might not realize it. “They are a cornerstone in our ability to make decisions,” she claims.

The two-day Business Navigation® Days conference featured 17 speakers, including partners, general and financial directors, the head of controlling, university lecturers and students. Thanks to them, participants were able to learn more about the best practices of business such as M.L. Moran, Mall Group, Tawesco, VIVA forge, Inc., PwC, Czech Post, Stavebniny DEK, Dotykačka ČR and INEKON SYSTEMS. Modern teaching methods, which combine planning and simulation games using BNS and thus prepare students for real practice, were presented by representatives of the University of Economics in Prague and the Technical University in Zvolen.

Every year the Business Navigation® Days conference features the presentation of prestigious awards. This year the crystal globe for his long-term contribution to Business Navigation was presented to Financial Director Michal Červenka of VIVA forge, Inc. The blue globe for the navigation project of the year was received by Jan Matúš, planning and calculation specialist for Tawesco. The awards were presented by member of the board of the Czech Chamber of Commerce, Martin Plachý, Regional Manager of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic for the South Moravian Region and Vysočina Region Pavel Slezar, INEKON SYSTEMS Executive Director Jan Hušek and INEKON SYSTEMS Concept and Development Director and Managing Director Václav Houser.

The fourth annual BND will be held on 25–26 April 2019, again at the Hotel Chateau Valeč near Hrotovice in Vysočina.

For the first time ever, the Business Navigation Days conference was designated the “BNS User Conference”. The chairs in the beautiful Historical and Knights’ Hall of the Hotel Chateau Valeč in Vysočina were mostly taken by financial directors, controlling managers and other specialists of BNS customers. For the whole of those two days they had the chance to hear practical experience from their professional colleagues as well as from INEKON SYSTEMS consultants, who focused on BNS modules and their advanced planning and analytical functions.

In 2019 BND featured the new BNS version 4.0 and a series of practical demonstrations
A new, even better era is starting for BNS

“At this conference we presented something completely new – BNS version 4.0, which has merged the Excel and web client into a single portal, form where it is quick and easy to obtain all the data needed by ever more demanding managers,” said INEKON SYSTEMS Executive Director and Managing Director Jan Hušek. “The new BNS portal also offers the option to plan directly from the web. This was previously only possible using the Excel client. The planning process is made easier by a comprehensive workflow, and this applies both to the managers who coordinate the planning process, as well as to the staff responsible for compiling the plan. The new BNS visualisation can also be used in the form of web dashboards,” added Jan Hušek. Technical Director Petr Cerha then presented the quick process of upgrading from older versions of BNS to BNS 4.0. Project Director Lenka Kulhánková added that the technological upgrade can easily be followed up by a process upgrade, which takes account of companies’ new needs.

As always, this year’s BND was literally packed with practical demonstrations. However, this time they were accompanied by a lot of information directly “from the BNS workshop” at INEKON SYSTEMS. Petr Burian, head of controlling and strategy at KOMTERM, showed how the BNS web client is used by the company’s top management at its regular meetings. He also spoke about how useful the newly introduced notes and comments features can be as regards orientation in the data presented. Developer BNS Erik Sandu then showed everyone how easy and quick it is to create a new report in the web environment, including added comments.

A look at business controlling

Besides the presentation of BNS version 4.0, the conference also included two workshops, with various topics being covered by consultants from INEKON SYSTEMS together with their partners in firms. The BND participants thus had the chance to hear about how deviation management is dealt with at MADETA, planning and controlling principles used in STOCK Plzeň-Božkov, and management of the corporate strategy at VIVA forge. However, they were also able to see for themselves the benefits that BNS has had for the intricately structured trading company Lagardere Travel Retail or, thanks to collaboration with SALSO, learn about the key role played by BNS in managing demand in relation to production management and production planning processes. One workshop was devoted to Tableau and attracted a great deal of interest, such as in how to use Tableau as an additional analytical tool for ad hoc analyses of unstructured data that are not yet in BNS.

As is now standard at BND conferences, the speakers made some outstanding appearances. As usual, these included Václav Novák, co-founder and senior managing partner of M.L. Moran, who spoke about the role of the CFO in the era of Industry 4.0. He presented the financial director as the most important “craftsman” in the firm, as he understands the business model and combines key information flows with the efficient use of resources.

Want to be inspired by the talk given by Václav Novák at BND 2018?: You can find it here…

David C. Levinger, project manager and ISRS manager of University College London, came from Oxford to attend BND. He impressed everyone with his visionary approach to the creation of the business strategy. According to him, the strategy must be prepared in the knowledge that if the company does not perform well enough in a given area, it runs the risk that it will be sucked into a black hole through the “event horizon”. He also visualised the topic of the lecture with “the most beautiful photograph in the world”, a photograph of a black hole, which was taken with the participation of the University College London public research university.

About satisfaction with BNS and further development requests

INEKON SYSTEMS Concept and Development Director and Managing Director Václav Houser presented the results of the audit in 13 companies that use BNS. “I consider this to be the first and highly beneficial step towards a process upgrade on the basis of customer evaluation, in which the system will not only provide the requisite functionality, but will also take it in another direction or extend the scope of the BNS to include other areas,” said Václav Houser.

The professional programme of events ended with the Guest’s Chair, which was taken by Bohumil Král, professor, whose professional love is management accounting, for which he has attracted thousands of students. Many of his former pupils were also present at BND. With his approach Bohumil Král also influenced a number of firms who are still making use of his findings today. In the interview conducted by Jan Hušek, he presented the updated fourth edition of his book Management Accounting, spoke about his experiences at Harvard and also about how he included his findings in his classes at the at the Department of Management Accounting at the Faculty of Finance and Accounting of the University of Economics, where he has been the head of the department for many years.

Company owner Rudolf Ovčaří gave his view of the potential for simulating scenarios showing the impact of strategic decisions on statutory statements such as the Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Cash Flow over a number of years. He presented an Excel solution that he has been using for a number of years to manage his companies, whose potential for linking with BNS is being considered.

Prestigious prizes were awarded to Internet Mall and Česká zbrojovka

This year the social programme of the conference began with an awards presentation. The blue globe for project of the year was handed to Internet Mall Controlling Director Leoš Brabec. “The project was implemented in six countries in Europe and links more than twenty entities. It covers planning and reporting for marketing, sales, logistics, transport, CAPEX, OPEX, consolidation and a number of other fields,” explained INEKON SYSTEMS Executive Director and Managing Director Jan Hušek. The prize for its long-term contribution to the development of Business Navigation went to Česká zbrojovka, represented by Financial Director Věslava Piegzová.

Prospects for the future

Also presented at BND 2019 was the BNS-LUDUS simulation game, which is now used at the Technical University in Zvolen in Slovakia and which has also been acquired by ČVUT for future classes. Together with the Controller Institute, INEKON SYSTEMS is preparing an interactive “competition” course, which would be included in training for advanced controllers in firms that want to perfect their approach to company management.
All the BND participants were invited to a seminar on the topic of how to use simulations to train top managers in businesses. This will be held at the end of May/beginning of June in the new INEKON SYSTEMS premises at Lighthouse in Prague 7 − Holešovice. It will be hosted by Klaas Dreger, an expert in business simulations as an efficient method for perfecting management skills, who will fly into the Czech Republic especially for this event. The exact date and programme of the seminar can be found well in advance on our website or in your email inbox.
We have a number of technological and process audits coming up, which we will be gradually conducting in 2019 at dozens of customers that use BNS.
If you want to draw some inspiration and also relax a little before the summer, we invite you to two interesting conferences, Corporate Education Trends at the Ales South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou on 17 May 2019, and the Controlling Forum, which will be held on 23 and 24 May at Štiřín Chateau. INEKON SYSTEMS is the partner for both events.