Michal Bystroň, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bystroň Group a.s. construction group, built the company from scratch and today holds many awards for successful construction in Ostrava and the region. He is a die-hard sportsman and sees the need for social responsibility in his company, where he promotes the company vision: “We build primarily on a good team”.
During its existence, the Bystroň Group has become a phenomenon of quality construction in the region. What is the basis of this success, and what advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
I am glad the Bystroň Group has been here for more than a quarter of a century. That we are still working and making better and bigger buildings. I am pleased about that. I do not want to lecture others and give them advice. I think there is no universal recipe for success. We all have our own way. At Bystroň Group, we have completed approximately 700 projects in 28 years. Of course, not all of our projects have always turned out exactly as expected. But that is life. You cannot plan everything exactly, no matter how hard you try.
Managing a growing construction company is certainly not easy. What are your managerial priorities?
I am trying to take it one step at a time. I do not set ambitious goals. In the past, I felt the need to control everything and talk to people in the company. I do not do that anymore. I have surrounded myself with people I trust completely. I discuss our administration with them, listen to their opinions, and do not always have to be right anymore (laughs). And I convince myself today and every day that this is the right way. Otherwise, I am just doing ordinary routine things. I emphasise meeting deadlines, and I demand fairplay negotiations from our people with investors and suppliers. Over the years, we have built an excellent position in the market, and today we can choose who we work with and who we do not want to work with. And the same applies to our contracts. We do not go for everything. We choose.
Which of the completed buildings is closest to your heart as a builder?
That is hard to say. We are a construction company that develops a special relationship with each building. Every building is like our baby. It is hard to pick one or two out of about seven hundred. I will try to answer it diff erently. In our history, we have always had a construction that has taken us to the next level. The yellow and blue block of flats in M. Majerová Street in Ostrava — we used to call it the Swedish fl ag — moved us from singlefamily houses to complex revitalisations of panel blocks. We renovated IN PARK in Vítkovice and moved into the civic amenities sector fi ve years later. For this construction, we received our first Building of the Year award. Then came 2012 and the Pavilion of Evolution in the Ostrava Zoo. We beat much bigger construction companies in the tender.
Did the competition underestimate you?
They did not believe at all that an insulation company with a 100 million annual turnover could handle a large and quite complex monkey pavilion that would cost 100 million. Two years later, I received the Moravian-Silesian Region Building of the Year award from the Governor, and we moved into the public works sector. And then came the next big construction projects. We built a new information centre in the Lower Vítkovice area. That is the snow-white building next to the Bolt Tower. I am very proud of the Františkov Residence in Silesian Ostrava. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful residential project in Ostrava, for which we also won the Building of the Year award. It was the first development project of our own, which pushed us into the fi eld of real estate development. The cultural centre in Píšť is also nice. In the last three years, we have built fi ve buildings for sports and leisure, two new sports halls in Ostrava, the Community Centre in Pustkovec, an indoor swimming pool in the FBC Ostrava complex, and a few weeks ago, a leisure complex called Brána Beskyd (Gate of the Beskydy Mountains) in Frýdlant nad Ostravicí. Last year, we completed he Rezidence Janáčkova apartment building in the centre of Ostrava. And I certainly cannot forget the Baroque palace Knurr House, a national cultural monument in Fulnek, which we have sensitively restored. We have won many awards for it. I can see you have been through a lot.
What about construction currently in progress?
We have many buildings in progress, but I will only mention the biggest ones. We are currently completing the reconstruction of the historical monument Porubský Oblouk (Poruba Arch). In the neighbourhood of Masaryk Square, we are building the entire Nové Lauby urban housing block. In spring, we started work on the renovation of the Ostravica Fashion House. We hope to sign another important contract in Ostrava, but I do not want to reveal the details.
How are you doing with the staff? There is almost zero unemployment in the Czech Republic. How do you manage to attract new people as you grow? Is that a problem?
Of course, it is not easy. People are essential in the construction industry, but they are still in short supply. The Czech Republic has not had a functioning apprenticeship system for 25 years. Dozens of apprentices come out of apprenticeships every year in our region, and we need thousands of them. We have had a good experience with our employees from Ukraine, whom we have employed for several years under the “Ukraine” support programme, but this is still not enough.
How do you manage to retain key employees?
A good wage is key. We try to motivate people well to complete the assigned tasks successfully. The portfolio of orders also plays an important role that our company carries out. We employ young people who are starting families. If you want to send the father of a new-born baby to a construction site 200 km away, he probably will not last long. That is why we do construction locally. Of course, we can do construction elsewhere. For example, in South Moravia, we have reconstructed the National Security Authority in Brno. Last year we completed a new winery building in Pavlov, in Prague. We built a new parrot building at Prague Zoo. In the Orlické Mountains (or Eagle Mountains), we participated in modernising a military biological protection facility, but all these are exceptions. We build mainly in the Moravian-Silesian region.
Janáčkova apartment building.
The Nové Lauby urban housing block will be completed in 2024.
What about company benefits?
The standard is meal vouchers, sick days and those that do not disrupt the company’s operations. We thought for a long time about whether to give people a fifth week of holiday because we simply cannot aff ord to let people have a holiday for more than a month during the short construction season. We gambled on our people being thoughtful and always taking their holidays in the winter. This has paid off for us. In addition to the benefits, we also care a lot about the atmosphere in the company. The motto of the Bystroň Group is that we build on a great team. This slogan accurately describes our personnel policy. According to the current rating of Atmoskop, which is a website that rates companies based on anonymous employee testimonials, we have a high score of 82%, which makes me very happy. I hope it will stay that way.
Thank you for the interview.
