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CzechInvest employees jump ship

CzechInvent competes with an eye on technology industry

By Riva Froymovich
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
June 27th, 2007 issue

Running start

CzechInvent is already working with companies on two projects:
An Interactive multimedia anti-drug project called "Revolution Train"
A research plan with the Rochester, Minnesota–based medical and health facility Mayo Clinic

More trouble is brewing for CzechInvest, the foreign investment and business development arm of the government, with the formation of a private competitor by ex-employees.
The agency was roiled by a political shakeup this past March. Its leader was fired after butting heads with Industry and Trade Minister Martin Říman. One-third of the staff subsequently exited. And its new chief executive, Roman Čermák, is loath to answer questions from the press.
Employees at CzechInvest lost faith in the agency’s effectiveness due to government interference and political manipulation, but not in the agency’s mission, according to Radomil Novák, another former chief executive of CzechInvest who most recently led the agency’s office in California before making a brash departure that included an open letter to the press.
Novák is taking steps to prove it. He is launching a private nonprofit organization with related objectives and two former CzechInvest directors — René Samek and Zdeněk Jana. The final jab is its name: CzechInvent.
Despite the similarity, Novák assures, “I don’t want to be connected with CzechInvest in the future.”
“I believe the quality of the agency will go rapidly down. I disagree with the politicization of the agency,” he said. “Working for the Czech government, problem No. 1 was political influence. Every time someone new comes, [they] take out who was there and what had been done, and the agency stops moving.”
“I was trying to convince the government to focus on the technology industry. However, because of the status of CzechInvest, it was impossible, and there wasn’t much willingness to do that,” Novák said. And, at the beginning of this year, the Industry and Trade Ministry repurposed the agency’s section focused on research and development.
“The problem is the difference between a grant agency and a technology agency,” Novák said.
CzechInvest redistributes money, whereas CzechInvent will cultivate its investments, he explained.
“The ministry was not informed about the intention of some former members of CzechInvest’s management to establish CzechInvent,” said Tomáš Bartovský, ministry spokesman.
But CzechInvent’s founders are reaching out to former colleagues.
“Of course, quite a few CzechInvest employees have the potential to join our crew,” Novák said. “It’s a big advantage for us because some of these people have knowledge we’re looking for and we don’t have to invest in new training. [We] provide them with the feeling that they are doing something to help the economy.”
In addition, as a private company, CzechInvent promises higher wages.
“At CzechInvest, we had a problem keeping experts,” he said.
Samek and Jana will lead its domestic office, while Novák remains in the United States.
Knowledge production
The goal of CzechInvent is to cultivate “Czech knowledge” — technology and ideas developed by and inside the country — and sell it, optimally, domestically to “multiply synergies,” Novák said.
He argued that the country has a proven record of innovation in knowledge, and one of the highest number of science researchers per capita in the world. Yet, it still lags behind Hungary and other countries in terms of a knowledge economy.
Companies such as Sun Microsystems and Honeywell aren’t coming here just to establish offices, according to Novák. There is potential to create knowledge here.
“The weak part is commercialization,” he said.
That’s where CzechInvent steps in.
By selling the rights to that knowledge domestically, the Czech Republic will absorb additional money based on added value.
If CzechInvent is unable to find a company to produce the “idea,” it will export that knowledge and sell it to foreign companies. The primary markets are in the United States, the European Union and Japan. Novák hopes to lure investors to produce inside the Czech Republic with attractive EU financing models, including structural funds.
CzechInvent will also organize educational programs and work with universities to build a qualified work force to create more Czech-made knowledge.
“We understand that [a qualified work force] will be the major issue for the future. It’s becoming an issue already,” Novák said.
To that end, the company will also work to lure foreign students from universities in former USSR states.
“You want to work with the ones who want to emigrate to the Czech Republic, because that is where you have the biggest competitive advantage,” Novák said.

Riva Froymovich can be reached at rfroymovich@praguepost.com


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