Doc. Ing. Karel Havlíček, Ph.D., MBA is in the position of Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and at the same time the Minister of Industry and Trade. He has been the Minister of Transport since January 2020.
As an executive manager, he managed to build an investment and technological businesses, he has been active in the academic environment, and he is an author of professional literature and peer-reviewed articles.
He was also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Self-Employed Persons in the Czech Republic.
Crisis business management emphasises managerial skills.
What are the required qualities in crisis managers?
They must not be afraid of taking decisions even when facing crises.
They must work with facts and data and they must not be manipulated
by anyone who has a perfect know how but at the same time is not
accountable. They must be open to criticism and take stressful situations
as challenges, they must work hard when making changes and they
cannot rely on the next day being better. It is better to count with the
worse scenarios and to be prepared for them. In the times of crisis, they reduce the number of stages for the decision-making process to a minimum.
You did business yourself and you were the President of the
Association of Small and Medium-Size Enterprises. What have you learnt there for the role of Public Administration Manager?
If you work hard, invest all in it and pursue your goals, and it will bring
achievements, both in business and politics. However, failure is much
more severely punished in business. In politics, there are many more
obviously average and below-average survivors. While the decisive
criteria in business are long-term achievements and then maybe the
form, in politics it is enough to have good communication skills and
alert verbal response… and surprisingly, despite no achievements, you
can survive there for decades, even if back-staged somewhere in the
shadows.
The managerial role is not only about work, but also about the
ability to recharge. How do you unwind and what activities are the
most relaxing for you?
I spend most of my free time with my family, we love hiking and local
trains.We are a bit of a backpacking family. When we go on holiday, we
get on a train, set off to travel round the Czech regions, where we visit
local businesses – from family breweries and guesthouses to village pubs. Thus, we put together activities which we like doing and at the same time, we support small regional entrepreneurs. I also like listening to folk and rock music. I used to write columns about it in the past, but I am too busy to do so now.
