ANNOTATION
Customer in the Spotlight – Phrase or Reality?
In this panel discussion, our guests often share stories, experiences, and practical tools that are not officially available anywhere. This year, you will take away valuable tips and tricks on building a customer-oriented company culture, directly from top managers and entrepreneurs from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. You will also have the opportunity to ask your own questions via Slido.
This year’s conference revolves around the theme “Organizational and Product Innovation in the Age of Customer Experience.” Focusing on the customer is not a new concept – various approaches such as Lean, Agile, CX, UX, Service Design, and Product Development have long emphasized delivering value to the customer and enhancing their experience. After all, Tomáš Baťa understood this principle long ago, making customer orientation a key factor in his company’s success. Even before him, many small business owners and craftsmen knew that their reputation depended on the quality of their products and services.
On the other hand, in many organizations, decision-making power still lies with top management, which is often disconnected from direct contact with customers. This disconnect can create a false impression that the organization is customer-focused, while key decisions are influenced by internal goals, politics, or short-term financial interests. This can result in customer dissatisfaction, inefficient processes, weak innovation capacity, and employee demotivation.
Customer focus is not just a marketing phrase—it requires a deep shift in mindset and organizational functioning. It takes courage and willingness to modify traditional management models and give more decision-making power to the “periphery”—the people and teams who interact with customers daily.
Leading experts in management and customer experience will discuss how companies can overcome challenges and truly focus on customer needs. We will explore the importance of decentralizing decision-making and ensuring transparency, engaging employees, and fostering a culture that genuinely prioritizes the customer.
Join us to hear insights from managers, entrepreneurs, and industry experts who have successfully made this transformation.
Jitka Haubová
Jitka is a member of the Board of Directors and Chief Operating Officer of Komerční banka, where she is responsible for ensuring the smooth running of daily operations. In addition, she serves as Chairwoman of the International Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Supervisory Board of Modrá Pyramida. She has been repeatedly ranked among the most influential Czech female executives by Forbes and Economia.
She graduated from the University of Economics in Prague and studied Financial Management at Galilee College. She also holds a Certificate of Structural Funds Specialist awarded by the European Commission and is a certified international quality process auditor.
Jitka began her professional career at the state agency CzechTrade, where she rose through the ranks to become CEO. She also gained entrepreneurial experience as a co-owner of a family café and restaurant. She has been with Komerční banka since 2006, initially joining the Trade Finance department. Since 2012, she has held various managerial roles in corporate and municipal banking, which she has led for the past four years.
Dáša Juríková
Dáša has been leading the transformation of the Slovenská sporiteľňa brand for 7 years. She believes that the best advertising is what a brand truly does. She will share with us how Slovenská sporiteľňa views its brand as a long-term “proposition” for people – colleagues, both current and future. Did you know that employees at the bank started using informal first-name terms with each other at the end of last year?
Dáša has worked in marketing for over 20 years. She has led brand communications for Slovak Telekom, T-Mobile, Union, and Poštová banka. The campaigns she has directed have won more than 200 awards at both domestic and international festivals, including two Grand Prix at Zlatý Klinec and nine Lions at Cannes.
Jakub Krahula
Jakub has spent most of his professional career in project management within an international environment. For the past two years at AURA, he has been focusing on strategy development and innovation. His role involves discovering new opportunities in the field and finding ways to respond to them—either by expanding existing products and services or by creating new ones. For over 13 years, he has participated in meetings of the NATO Allied Committee 135 (AC/135), where he regularly engages with a global community of customers and draws inspiration.
Among his current challenges are fostering an innovative mindset within the company, creating a safe environment for sharing ideas, and motivating colleagues to actively participate in change processes.
Outside of work, Jakub has a wonderful family and a German Shepherd who stubbornly refuses to go running with him. Whether it’s his running style or her lack of motivation remains unclear.
Discussion Moderator
Tomáš Studeník
Tomáš is a Czech radical innovator, founder, author and urban hacker. He holds MBA from the University of Liverpool and MSc in Innovation from HEC in Paris. He completed management courses at INSEAD, Oxford University as well as University of Cambridge. Tomas is the founder and CEO of management consultancy Insane Business Ideas.
In addition to organizing FuckUp Nights, where failure stories are shared publicly, Tomáš organizes CEE Hacks innovation marathons, where hackers and students from around the world gather to solve challenges in sustainability, energy, healthcare and urban development.
In 2018, Tomáš published the Big Book of Fuckups, where he had collected over forty failure stories from Czech personalities. Tomáš was nominated for Esquireman 2019 award. Computerworld Magazine named Tomas TOP Czech IT Personality of 2020.
Tomas is the author of THEaiTRE project celebrating 100 years of the word “robot”. For the first time in history, artificial intelligence wrote a full-blown theatre play that was performed by human actors. It was premiered in Švanda Theatre in Prague on 26 February 2021.
In 2022, Tomas launches Caelestinus – a Central European Healthtech Incubator and produces a new artistic man-machine collaboration project PLaiPRAGUE that toured European cities.
Together with the Dean of Faculty of Computer Science and Management of University of Hradec Králové Prof. Josef Hynek, Tomas teaches one-semester course in Science of Failure. Their new book, the Art of Failure, was published in Czech in March 2023.
In November 2023, Tomas was awarded a special prize for his support of healthcare innovations at Czech Effective Hospital Conference.