SIMPLY CLEVER
Creativity and Innovation from a Business
Perspective
RADEK ŠPICAR
EXTERNAL AFFAIRS DIRECTOR
ŠKODA AUTO, a.s.
PRAGUE 01/07/2009
SIMPLY CLEVER
2009 - YEAR OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
 Good choice
 Future competitiveness
• Made in… vs. Invented in…
• New rising stars (Research investment growth in China:
25% annualy)
 Demographics
• Aging of population
• Currently 4 people in productive age for one pensioner in the EU,
in 50 years it will be just 2 people
 Financial crisis and economic recession
• Need to be creative and innovative
• Innovation as „sine qua non“ for future winners
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OBSTACLES
EDUCATION
Character and quality of secondary education
 No sympathy for natural sciences
 No entrepreneurial skills
 No soft skills
Traditional teaching approaches based on direct
instruction or lecturing are no longer adequate
Character and quality of tertiary education
 Low popularity of technical subjects
 Too much specialization- degree dictatorship
 Lack of practitioners, too theoretical
Existing isolation of universities from companies is no longer
sustainable
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OBSTACLES
LOW DIVERSITY

The most creative teams = mixed teams (Men & women, old & young,
domestic & foreign)

Need for foreign experts with new ideas in business
•
Global production and local custumization
• Back seat of Škoda Octavia/Laura in India

Fortress Europe: European environment is not supporting diversity sufficiently
• United States benefit from brain drain
- 40 % of students on US universities come from abroad. In Europe it is only
2,6%
- ¾ of post-graduate European students in USA plan to stay there
vs.
• Some EU member states: Restrictions on free movement of labour force in 21st
century!
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CASE STUDY: ŠKODA AUTO
BASIC FACTS:

Biggest private company in the Czech Republic

Plants in Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, India, China

Over 29.000 employees worldwide

Over 100 markets

Education, Production, Marketing, Sales…

R&D: approx. 1700 employees
annual costs 230 mio EUR
design awards winner
Skoda Joyster: National Design Award Winner 2007
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CASE STUDY: ŠKODA AUTO
GROWTH LIMITS (pre-crisis period):
 Not enough low skilled workers
 Not enough highly skilled workers
 Need for new ideas in competitive environment
SOLUTION: GO IT ALONE
 Škoda Auto Apprentice School (920 apprentices)
 Škoda Auto University (700 students)
EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW?
 Not possible for all companies…
 It is not our core business…
 Not sufficient even for us…
Škoda Auto educational campus Na Karmeli
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CASE STUDY: ŠKODA AUTO
ŠKODA AUTO & UNIVERSITIES
 Co-operation with other universities: 5 biggest technical universities
from the whole country and several regional universities
•
Positive role of structural funds
 Most creative project:
ŠkodaAuto & Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague
•
Strange bedfellows: Industrial company and Arts school
- Beginning: Clash of civilizations
- Co-operation in technological/design centre
- Now very successful: win-win situation
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CASE STUDY: ŠKODA AUTO
Business Wish List for 2009:
 Continuously stress the importance of creativity and innovation
 To promote education systems that would support creativity
 Not to establish more institutions, but create a legislative and regulatory
framework supporting co-operation among schools and enterprises
 To remove all existing obstacles on our way to Europe without barriers
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Radek Špicar
radek.spicar@skoda-auto.cz