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According to the Canadian-basedcompany that bears his name: Thomas J.

Bata, also known as shoemaker to the

world has died. The Czech-born Bata,fled Europe in 1939 and emigrated toCanada where he also took the Bata Shoe

Company, the firm that his father hadlaunched in 1894 and began a new. In

Bata, Ontario, (the town was named after

the famous entrepreneur andphilanthropist), Bata, the son,transformed the family business of

cobblers into a global company with morethan 5,000 retail shops in 50 countries

and more than 40,000 employees.

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y

The topic of Tomas Bata I chose from a deep respectfor this man, to his teaching and to his managementsystem. He inspired many world-known entrepreneurs,

who use his system in their management. Similar featuresof management can be found in the control system of BillGates or Steve Jobs. Tomas Bata was a pioneer inentrepreneurs access to their employees, who he calledcolleagues, also to their knowledge and skills, which are

evidenced by todays well known corporate educationalsystems. Tomas Bata applied a global strategy andcooperation networks for decades before people ever beganto use terms. Conceptual innovation in accordance with thethen most advanced trends he introduced continuouslyinto his production and economic management system.

y the basic principles of Batas system of corporategovernance and evaluate their use for todaysentrepreneurs The history of Batas company has startedfrom 1894, when three siblings founded the business.Thanks to the hard work of Tomas Bata the small companybecame the world known company. This is the mostimportant message, which left Tomas Bata and all hissuccessors tried to continue his legacy that hard work andperseverance leads to success

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y The MBO approach provides quality resources and support in key areasto the companies operating in similar markets such as productdevelopment, sourcing or marketing support. Each MBO isentrepreneurial in nature, and can quickly adapt to changes in themarket place and seize potential growth opportunities.

Bata's strength lies in its worldwide presence. While local companiesare self-governing, each one benefits from its link to the international

organization for back-office systems, product innovations and sourcing.Although Bata operates in a wide variety of markets, Bata companiesshare the same leadership points. Two important ones are productconcept development and constant improvement of business processesin order to offer customers great value and the best possible service.(BATA 2010)

Bata today:

y

Serves 1 million customersy Employs more than 40 000 people

y Operates 4 600 retail storesy Manages a retail presence in over 50

countries

y Runs 40 production facilities across 26

countries (BATA 2010)

Cntd.

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y intended to demonstrate that whatBata did is a superb illustration ofwhat is now called "quality

management". The record showsthat Tomas Bata did indeed precedemodern "quality management"practices by at least half a century.

If we look only at that side of theman, we must conclude that he wasthe first to use quality as a way tolower cost at the same time as hecreated customer delight.

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y However, as I delved more deeply into Bata'smanagement methods, it became clear thatlooking at his work through such a lens givesmuch too narrow a focus. It is possible, ofcourse, to analyze Bata's work as an example

of what W. Edwards Deming has called his"System of Profound Knowledge". However,the level of abstraction at which Dr. Demingdescribes this system makes it capable ofencompassing many different activities and

while it provides great generality, it does notprovide a focus on what was unique about

Bata. I have chosen a less abstract approach,concentrating on the Bata contributions Ithought would be of greatest value incontemporary management. My objective isto find the most important lessons that theBata system of management can teach today's

entrepreneurs.

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Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Bata Miss Sonja

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