As part of its strategy, Škoda Auto has prepared several pillars for further development in the coming years. One of them was to secure new business opportunities by entering new markets. These included regions in North and South America, Africa and South-East Asia. Ing. Karel Pokorný, expansion expert, interim manager of BM4U.
“In this challenge, I had the privilege to take the lead of the team and prepare analyses that would support decision-making at the highest level of the company, including the approval of the parent company VW. It was a huge task for me, the team and the brand,” says Karel Pokorný. The team had two years to complete the entire process (from the beginning of the analysis to the final decision on market entry).
One of the key moments was the involvement of a wide range of experts across the company. “We reached out to executives from manufacturing, sales, logistics, finance, purchasing, tax, legal and development and briefed them on the intentions, expectations and rough timeframe,” Pokorný adds. The team consisted of around 100 people, with communication, synergy and support from each department being the key to success. “Instead of regional groups, we created one big compact team, which strengthened collective motivation and shared responsibility for results,” the expert explains.
The next step was to establish contacts with key people in the Group and obtain relevant data from areas where the Group was already operating. To this end, the team travelled to the target regions, visited car dealerships and established contacts with local dealers and institutions. “We hired a reputable agency to process the data efficiently, which significantly reduced the time needed to collect information in each region. At the same time, we sent experts to each region to personally address specific challenges, such as the construction of new plants. Our work was not only analytical, it also included meetings with local governments and institutions.”
Experience: the whole process was challenging and required collaboration on a global level. However, thanks to the team’s strong leadership, close collaboration and strategic approach, the team was able to present a convincing case to the Board of Directors and received support from the VW parent company.” With this step, we opened up new opportunities for growth and expansion into previously untapped markets – the ASEAN regions (a market of around 700 million people, with Vietnam being the first country),” explains Karel Pokorný and continues: “It turns out that where there is vision, desire and the right direction (set by the leader), where you patiently discuss with people with the goal of actively drawing them into the plan, where you are not afraid to make a decision you stand behind even if the rest of the team is currently convinced otherwise, where you are not afraid that everything will not always work out the first time but you know how to move forward, there is simply a path to success.”