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Interview with Muriel Anton, CEO of Vodafone on Doing Business in the Czech Republic

"I see that over time, Czechs got more courageous and willing to try new things. This can be evidenced by their rapid transition to new technologies. An example that I see in our own field is the smartphone..."

1. You joined the Czech branch of Vodafone in 2000. How would you describe the Czech market in the horizont of previous eleven years? 

I see that over time, Czechs got more courageous and willing to try new things. This can be evidenced by their rapid transition to new technologies. An example that I see in our own field is the smartphone. For many years, the whole market was accustomed to a particular type of device with a keyboard and a relatively small screen and limited functionality. Last year, however, we noticed a strong interest in smartphones with touch screens and operating systems and around Christmas, every other phone sold was a smartphone.

 
2. What are the biggest competitive advantages (from your point of view) of doing business in the Czech republic? Can you compare it with other countries in which you had lived / worked (within Europe or worldwide)?

It´s a small, but innovative market and I see its biggest advantage in its central geographical location and the willingness of local people to try new projects and technologies.

3. Where do you see the Czech republic in 10 years? Is there any field where the country needs to be developed / improved most?

I think there are still rather few women in politics and leading positions in the Czech republic. Hospodářské noviny has been doing a great job for six years in profiling top women in Czech business, but I personally think there is still some space for improvement, because diversity in teams generally works best in terms of achieving best results. To contribute to positive changes in this direction, me and other senior leaders run a mentoring program Odyssey.  It´s the first cross company and cross industry mentoring program in the Czech Republic with the aim to unleash the potential of talented Czech female professionals.

4. Vodafone is known as a company with a casual working environment and more and more companies are following this trend as well (not only the dress code but also the way of dealing with employees). Where do you see the biggest benefit in this management strategy? Can you describe a concrete situation as an example?

Oskar/Vodafone´s informal culture really isn´t just about the dress code. We promote friendly and open environment, all Vodafone´s managers sit in the open space together with their teams and we´re on first name terms with everybody in the company. We stress the importance of open internal communication. We keep our employees informed about everything we do and make sure they understand why we´re doing it. I´m convinced that all of these aspects help to promote the culture of speed, simplicity and trust among our employees and it enables us to react quickly and flexibly to the market demands.

Also, acting responsibly toward our employees is one of our core values. We´re in regular contact with parents on maternity leave, keeping them informed about current events in the company and enabling them to start work at the pace to their liking. One of our key tools to harmonize career and family is called the Flexi office combined with home office and part time jobs. That means we provide our employees with the technology and trust, so that they can work from home a couple of times a month.

5. What can we expect from the mobile technologies in upcoming future? Is there any new trend or is the development going to be the same / similar?

As computers tend to get smaller, more portable and at the same more social, our data are moving to clouds and we are able to access them from portable devices anywhere we move. The device of the future will be very small, personalized and will know where we are, where our friends are and what we prefer in terms of products, places and services. With this, the need for operators to provide reliable and quality data network is crucial. Therefore, we intensively continue to cover the Czech Republic with the highest quality 3G signal and by this August, we´ll have 60 % population covered. Moreover, we´re ready to further invest into our infrastructure so that we can provide the best experience with data to our customers now and also in the future.

In case of interest of providing us an interview, please contact Roman Minarik at rminarik@amcham.cz.