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Tomáš Vránek, CEO of ICE Industrial Services based in Žďár nad Sázavou, has won the regional round of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2019 for the Vysočina Region. The ICE company is engaged in the development, production and programming of automated production machines and lines.
Forty-year-old Tomáš Vránek (on the left) became the Entrepreneur of the Year for the Vysočina Region. Seven years ago, he founded ICE Industrial Services in Žďár nad Sázavou with his brother and friends. Author: Petr Lemberk, MAFRA
“We supply automated machines and lines worldwide, serving clients like Scania, Audi, and Porsche globally. Our focus is not just on technical innovations but also on innovative management of the company. I believe we are the first Czech company to eliminate hierarchical structure and introduce a self-managed system based on holacracy (a management system without managers - ed.) and similar experiments,” said forty-year-old Tomáš.
Born in Prague, Tomáš has lived in Žďár nad Sázavou since childhood. He graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague and later earned an MBA from the Prague University of Economics.
Vránek founded ICE with his brother and two friends seven years ago. “We thought it would take decades to reach 40 employees, but things accelerated faster than we expected. Now we have 170 people and a turnover of 310 million crowns,” Vránek elaborated.
Currently, the company has eleven branches in the Czech Republic. It moved its contact address to Prague but kept its main office and management in Žďár. ICE is now establishing two more branches. Their products are supplied to thirty countries.
“We’ve executed six hundred automation projects around the globe. We specialize in automated and robotic production machines and lines, often for operations where companies struggle to find qualified staff, or for monotonous, repetitive tasks, particularly in challenging industrial environments where we assist with production automation,” Vránek stated.
He previously worked in the United States at Siemens in the Global Project Business Support department.
“My first month there, I felt like I was in a Jiříkov vision. I couldn’t grasp what I was doing there. Then I returned to the normal European regime and started seeing things in different contexts,” Vránek recalled.
His interests include sports, actively playing hockey, and previously, photography.
“I had to give up photography, now I only photograph my kids. I clear my mind by running, even though I’m not a great runner. To maintain mental freshness, I need to go to the forest and rejuvenate a bit with some physical activity,” he shares.
Vránek has been playing hockey his entire life. Many of his colleagues also come from the hockey environment. “Some consultants say our company is almost like a hockey locker room, which I like,” he laughs.
“I believe that the sense of belonging you find in a hockey locker room is what works in our company. What happens in that locker room might not always be presentable, but the customer then sees the professional result of our work. In that hockey locker room, we can discuss everything, and everyone is on a first-name basis,” he explains.
According to Vránek, ICE is not managed by commands. “It's managed based on values and agreements; it’s fulfilling for us,” Vránek described.
He believes the company’s goal is to become one of the leading suppliers of automation in the Czech Republic.
“We export about 60 percent of our products and strive to excel in all the fields we engage in. We want to be innovative, inspired by companies like Google, Spotify, Scania, where the work culture is slightly different from the standard in Central Europe,” Vránek said.
Vránek believes that ICE is proactively defending against the impacts of a potential economic crisis by diversifying into multiple sectors. “We don’t just supply to the automotive industry, but also to the food, woodworking, and metallurgy industries. We see some slowdown with some of our customers, so I’m glad that we stand on multiple legs,” manager Vránek shared.
Announcement of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year competition for the Vysočina Region. Author: Petr Lemberk, MAFRA
The original article can be found here
