Miloš Mastník (České Radiokomunikace): Letting top management argue is healthy

In this episode of the CEO na ostří nože podcast, we talk to Miloš Mastník, CEO of České Radiokomunikace. He took over the sixty-year-old company at a time when it was changing owners and seeing a drop in revenue and profit. The company, which operates around 660 broadcast towers, data centres and a fibre-optic backbone network, now sits between two worlds. For the first time in its history, it earns more from other services than from broadcasting. It uses its infrastructure for mobile operators, business connectivity, an Internet of Things network, data centres and cloud.

The company has around 360 employees. Some have worked there for thirty or forty years, others for less than five. Mastník doesn’t see this mix as a problem but as an opportunity. Experienced colleagues pass on their knowledge and newcomers bring a different perspective. There’s a place in the company for anyone who has the drive and energy to move it forward, no matter how long they’ve been there.

The new CEO’s top priority is to change the company culture, and trust is its foundation. Where people trust each other, they don’t need to check up on one another, and the company moves faster. He adds three more principles: nobody will be punished for a mistake made in good faith, everyone should know why they are working on something and how it fits into the whole, and information should flow quickly and openly.

Values, Mastník says, have to be lived by top management, or they will never take hold in the company. The wider leadership group of around 25 people therefore meets once a month with one simple rule: what’s said in the room stays in the room. People can vent, disagree and argue, but once they walk out the door, everyone preaches the same “gospel”. Mastník lets managers argue because he sees it as healthy. But anyone who goes against trust and teamwork has no place in the company, he says.

The change of owner has also shaped the culture. The previous private equity fund focused on short-term results. The current owner, listed on the London Stock Exchange, wants long-term growth and investment. Apart from a symbolic management fee, it hasn’t taken a single crown out of the company in almost two years and wants the cash the company generates to be reinvested. Mastník sees this as a strong signal to employees. He is therefore improving internal communication: every two months he records a video for the whole company, members of the leadership team summarise what happened in their areas each month, and the CEO holds open-door hours on Monday mornings. The company didn’t create its new five-year strategy from the top down. People brought ideas, management added the numbers and sent it back for another round, so that people would feel it was their strategy.

What else will you learn in the podcast?

• How to use broadcast infrastructure for cloud, data centres and the Internet of Things

• How people who’ve been with the company for forty years work with recent hires

• Why trust is the foundation of company culture

• How to make sure top management speaks with one voice

• What moving from private equity to a long-term owner means for employees

• How to involve people in creating a strategy so they feel it’s their own

According to Miloš Mastník, strategy isn’t dogma but a framework. People often expect a detailed five-year roadmap, but what a company really needs is a clear direction and the confidence that it can deviate from the plan along the way. And a culture in which people trust each other and aren’t afraid of mistakes will move it in that direction faster than any detailed plan.