Karel Kučera, a graduate of the Faculty of Law of Charles University and the Prague University of Economics and Business, has worked in consulting, in the public media, and as Director General of the government agency CzechInvest. At Moore Czech Republic s.r.o., he manages Asian operations in the EU as a partner.
You came to the Moore Czech Republic group with experience in public administration and investment. What interesting services can you offer to clients?
My department specifically takes care of international clients. International and predominantly Asian clients have specific requirements in terms of service delivery such as auditing, tax consulting, legal services or payroll and accounting. Moreover, they often need us to help them solve complex international problems with their business. So we can solve virtually anything from setting up a supply chain across Europe, its legal framework, and tax pitfalls, to setting up accounting transactions within their ERP or perhaps making an investment or a more complex international transaction. Clients appreciate having a single point of contact across Europe and a person to deal with all aspects of a complicated transaction or problem. They can then be confident that we will resolve the issue at hand and that the experts in question will also deal with the subsequent implications. For example, although the EU is very harmonised, there are still significant differences between countries not only in approach but also in the implementation of common rules. So it is an interesting job, and we need to understand not only the cultural and business differences but also the key aspects of the client’s business or the transaction in order to target the proposed solutions by our specialists appropriately. So yes, I take advantage of previous experience in consulting, the public sector and international business negotiations.
What is the success story of building a group under the Moore brand and on what principles is it built?
Moore is one of the ten largest global consulting groups in the world. But we base our success on customer focus. It might be a slight exaggeration to say that, within the global networks, we are the ones most focused on local customers and meeting their needs through the background of an international group and their standards. We are also urrently growing through acquisitions of companies within our industry. This is because we do not have such strong negatives associated with global corporations because the priority is to deliver added value to the client. Therefore, we are interested in a long-term balanced relationship with our customers, which also leads to greater stability for our teams.
My team is the European hub for Asian investors. And so it mainly consists of native speakers who have been established in Europe for a long time and have years of experience doing business in Europe. They decide how to structure the problem and what experts (tax advisors, lawyers, etc.) will be needed to solve it. In addition, we also have the advantage of being a European hub, so if a manager is moved from Slovakia to Poland as part of a rotation, they still have the same contact person to solve the problem.
The development of a successful company cannot be done without betting on new technologies and management education. Do you share the same opinion?
Both are essential, but with few exceptions, people are the most important aspect of business. So education, in general, is important, and not just management education. It is also essential within our field because regulation, generally speaking, is constantly evolving, and, in my team, we have to consider the different variations within countries. So we have to learn all the time – within my team, it takes almost a whole year to integrate. And while new technologies are important, the key is to use them wisely. Unfortunately, we often ind that they add to the workload through inappropriate application.
Thank you for the interview.
