Customer is in the centre of our universe. Everything we do, we do for them.

Our helpfulness towards the customers is what makes us different and what we are proud of. It is not a coincidence but strong belief I do highlight in each of my companies including the first one - Slevomat. The results achieved in these companies confirm that this is the only right way to go.

It is our customer who pays our paycheck. We need our customers to make turnover for better negotiation with our suppliers. The customer gives us scale for better processes and efficiency. Order by order. Each project, every hour of your thinking should be heading towards better customer experience. What I'm seeing very often are debates about compromises being made at the side of the customer, otherwise “it would be complicated”. Or it would be needed to think something up. And now I’m not talking smart improvement but improvement for people in the company at the cost of worse/similar customer experience.

Better ready than perfect. We build, improve and mainly deliver.

It hurts to see how many things at Rohlik remain unfinished because we keep looking for ultimate solutions and answers. There are rarely such solutions or answers and if they existed, I guarantee that with the speed of our growth they would be completely different in half a year. So if it took half a year to deliver our tasks and projects, we would come up with something outdated. And we could start from the beginning. Learn to use the Pareto Principle. Learn to make a to-do list so things don't get left out. Stop being afraid of imperfect solutions. All this will move Rohlik forward. The worst solutions are no solutions. “It has been requested” is not a solution. If something worries the customer and therefore yourself, too, have it realized. Customer doesn't care about “we are discussing this” or “it is currently with IT”.

We are brave. We´re not scared of making decisions.

Even worse than doing nothing due to slowness or creating a robust solution is doing nothing because you're afraid of taking a decision. Should you get into such situation, go see your supervisor or myself and we will help you unblock yourself. It's human and natural to make mistakes. Note that I rarely get angry about something being wrong. But I get upset when something promised or completely usual isn't being done at all.

We keep learning. Information is power. Change is life and opportunity.

We´re doing something new. Not only in the Czech Republic but also in Europe. This wouldn't work without learning, data and information. Always, when we learn something new, we might need to change something inside the company and start doing it better. I often hear “but this is how it got set up a year ago” ...My answer is “Well, if you didn't move anywhere, didn't learn anything and didn't implement anything in the past year, we might need somebody else to replace you in your job.” This is a fast-moving environment, therefore, any aversion to change is very exhausting and you won't be happy at Rohlik. In my opinion, moving borders of your limits and knowledge, discovering new ways and having impact on our customers´ life is the right excitement and adrenaline. But it's not for everyone.

Market standard is not good enough. We aim to win, be the best and ahead of the market. We keep innovating.

"This is how we had it done there and there”, “This is our standard” are cool phrases but they are killing for a new company. We must constantly think about how we could have things done better than the rest of the world. If we follow standards and established rules from other companies, the innovation stops and David doesn't beat Goliath.

We are open and honest to ourselves and to our colleagues. We are able to accept feedback.

Sometimes the culture of alibism and covering up mistakes appear in our company. Direct feedback is considered something wrong where it should be exactly the opposite. We are looking for the shortest way to accomplish our goal; this path definitely doesn't lead through political games. Learn to argue, be open to new things, learn to ask for a direct feedback and accept it. That is the only way to move yourself forward. And not only in your professional life. “I am scared” is an excuse used by weak people. Especially when it's about the exchange of opinions.

We fight in tough environment. The more important it is to have fun and keep helicopter view.

What we do, is hard. It's not for everyone. But if you decide for your heart to be in this, don't forget to have fun and keep helicopter view. Business is not personal. The exchange of opinions between us doesn't mean that we cannot grab a beer and have fun. Work hard, play hard, that's what many smart people used to say. Unfortunately, we do forget about the word “play” pretty often. I am now going to support this word more, and you, guys, please help me out!

We are making the Czech retail environment better.

Part of our mission is to cultivate the Czech retail environment to make it better. We are a retailer with human face and that is not a cliche. Do you know the owner of Kaufland or Albert? Do the suppliers have the opportunity to meet them face to face? We should appreciate this point really badly. We are not going to squeeze our suppliers when we grow big. For smaller suppliers, we represent hope that somebody will treat them as equal partners. What we want is a fair win-win relationship.

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