How did the change and active development of the corporate culture in Promens Zlín, supplier of plastic parts for the automotive industry, manifest itself? The impact is presented by CEO, Robert Zatloukal.

The tangible result is the current position of our production company within the other branches of the new owner of the RPC Group. We are perceived as a dynamic and trustworthy partner in which it makes sense to invest. In this we succeeded during the last year.

The company’s director Robert Zatloukal describes the situation as follows: “The automotive industry is very demanding – high quality, reliability, accuracy, but above all the ability to respond to changes and timely deliveries – these are the conditions for survival. The development of the company’s ownership, from a research team to a private company with several owners to its incorporation into transnational structures in 2005, brought with it new opportunities on the one hand and many changes and constant pressure to produce results on the other.”

Jiří Janík, Sales and Marketing Manager, added: “2013 and 2014 were among the most intense years the company has ever experienced. Pressure from the parent company for activities with quick turnaround, changes in customers’ running projects, and promised resources, especially investments, were not coming. The result was disrupted interpersonal relationships, people were loosing interest and the desire to cooperate and not seeing why this was happening, they were frustrated. We worked in an atmosphere of searching for the culprit.”

A proactive approach, focus on what is most important, and an effort to get things done brought the first tangible financial results in the form of an increase in profit through a major contract worth over CZK 13 million a year.

Key benefits

Robert Zatloukal evaluates the year long effort to change the corporate culture as follows: “The most important thing that has been achieved in one year was changing the atmosphere in the company. We now all work together much better. Furthermore, I consider it crucial that people perceive the need for qualitative change, not only in the field of corporate culture. They see the meaning and find it easier to accept responsibility, even for demanding tasks.”