Petr Schaffartzik (K2): We don’t have a traditional HR department, and I often annoy HR specialists with that

In this episode of the CEO na ostří nože podcast, we talk to Petr Schaffartzik, CEO of IT company K2, where he has worked for almost thirty years. The company has 280 employees, a flat organisational structure and EBITDA close to twenty percent. It is owned by five partners who are all active in the business and form the core of management. The company’s values come directly from them, and at their heart is freedom, which comes with responsibility.

In practice, that means as few strict rules as possible. K2 has no fixed working hours and no detailed daily reporting, and most reports are automated. The structure has just three levels: top management, team leaders and everyone else. Each team has its own P&L and works as a company within the company. The model emerged when K2 had fifteen people, and the company kept it as it grew. Teams decide on their own costs. A consultant is entitled to a new laptop every two years, up to CZK 35,000. Anyone who wants a more expensive one pays the difference from the team’s profit. Anyone who makes do with the old one saves money. Management only sets boundaries, such as making sure no one drives a ten-year-old car.

To make self-management work, only people with proven experience in the company move into leadership roles. A head of sales, for example, must first work as a salesperson for three years. Top management is available to anyone at any time. Schaffartzik has never had his own office and sits among people who “move him around to where they want him”. The main drawback of a flat structure, he says, is limited formal career progression. People who need to collect titles usually don’t stay long at K2. When someone wants a higher position, they get the chance to show what they would do and try it as a project with their own team. Those who discover that the role mostly means more work go back, but nobody turned them down from above.

K2 doesn’t have a traditional HR department either, which Schaffartzik enjoys pointing out to HR specialists. He believes people are too important to delegate to a single department. That’s why the K2 team is treated as a product with its own marketing. Marketing handles employer branding, career fairs and social media, reception makes sure CVs get a quick response, and team leaders do the actual hiring. For seven years, the company has also worked with secondary schools, spotting talent as early as the second year. Today, some very strong developers have come out of that first “hatchery”.

What else will you learn in the podcast?

• How a flat structure with three levels of management works in a 280-person company

• Why every team has its own P&L and how it manages its costs

• How to handle people who want a higher position

• How K2 recruits without an HR department

• Why it pays to look for talent in secondary schools

• Why K2’s culture is built on results, not effort

According to Petr Schaffartzik, K2’s culture isn’t built on effort but on results. What matters isn’t whether someone solves a problem in an hour or a month, but whether they solve it. The freedom people get only works because of the responsibility they take for it.