# Transcript: From part-timer to CEO of Avast

## Description

He will also focus on his relationship with money and the establishment of the Vlček family foundation. This foundation has made a significant impact on society, not only in the field of palliative care but also by demonstrating the influence business can have on the world around us.



Who is Ondřej Vlček?



Ondřej Vlček serves as the CEO of Avast. Together with his team, he is realizing Avast’s vision focused on protecting people in the digital space. Before being appointed CEO, he was president of the consumer division, CTO, and a key member of the team that took Avast public on the London Stock Exchange in 2018. Ondřej earned an engineering degree in mathematical modeling from CTU in Prague and is an internationally recognized expert in computer security. Along with his wife, he founded the Vlček family foundation, purchased the dilapidated Cibulka estate in Prague, and plans to renovate it to build a children’s hospice and palliative care center.

## Transcript

**[00:00:00]** Hello and good day. My name is Honza Mašek and welcome to another Brain&Breakfast,

**[00:00:27]** a vibrant Brain&Breakfast. Welcome to all of you who came here in person,

**[00:00:32]** to the Magenta Experience Center here at Arkády, and also welcome to everyone watching us

**[00:00:37]** live. I'm very happy that we're returning to schools, libraries,

**[00:00:45]** and companies that meet, so greetings to O2, Service Ball,

**[00:00:51]** Zonenter, and many other companies where we broadcast live,

**[00:00:55]** where people gather like we do here and discuss the topics

**[00:01:01]** we'll talk about today. Brain&Breakfast is interactive,

**[00:01:07]** so I ask all of you, if you'd like to ask today's guest a question,

**[00:01:15]** please take your mobile phones and go to www.slajdu.com

**[00:01:23]** and enter the hashtag Brain in the broadcast.

**[00:01:29]** If you're watching the live broadcast on Edu, it's right under this window.

**[00:01:38]** I'll do the first test now, asking if you've ever been to a breakfast,

**[00:01:47]** so let's see how it looks. There are a few people,

**[00:01:54]** mostly saying they haven't been to a breakfast, which is good,

**[00:01:58]** because that means we're breaking more bubbles, and that's

**[00:02:02]** why we do these breakfasts. To keep it short at the start,

**[00:02:09]** I'm very happy that a person who has many interesting phenomena around him

**[00:02:15]** made time for us.

**[00:02:20]** And now I'll welcome Ondra Vilček. Ondra, hi.

**[00:02:24]** Come join us, take a seat. Here's the baton.

**[00:02:29]** I'm very happy you'll share your story

**[00:02:33]** about part-time CEO jobs. That's kind of an American dream.

**[00:02:37]** I won't spoil much, I'm really looking forward to it.

**[00:02:41]** It's yours, thanks.

**[00:02:43]** Thank you very much.

**[00:02:50]** Let me try this. Does it work? How are you today?

**[00:02:54]** Good. Perfect. Let's get started.

**[00:02:59]** To start, I'd like to thank

**[00:03:02]** Honza and the whole team for the invitation.

**[00:03:05]** I think Brain Breakfast is a great format.

**[00:03:08]** I really like it, I follow it.

**[00:03:10]** And the Red Button team is really a great group of people.

**[00:03:16]** I know many of them personally and respect them a lot.

**[00:03:19]** So thank you very much for what you do.

**[00:03:21]** Keep doing it, you're doing well.

**[00:03:25]** I'd actually like to spend just a few minutes on Avast

**[00:03:30]** and rather talk about the story or some things

**[00:03:33]** that might not be so visible.

**[00:03:35]** So I'll just quickly go through it in a few minutes,

**[00:03:38]** Who exactly is Avast or what Avast is, what we do, and so on.

**[00:03:42]** Almost everyone knows that we are some kind of phenomenon in cybersecurity.

**[00:03:49]** A company that was founded back in 1988.

**[00:03:52]** Founded by two researchers, Pavel Baudiš and Eduard Kučera,

**[00:03:56]** here in Prague.

**[00:03:57]** Back then, of course, it wasn't really a company,

**[00:04:00]** but more like a cooperative or some kind of association under communism,

**[00:04:04]** some kind of group within the Research Institute of

**[00:04:07]** Mathematical Machines, which might sound completely crazy,

**[00:04:10]** and it was one of the few places where you could actually get

**[00:04:13]** access to computers even under communism.

**[00:04:16]** The strength of Avast is that it has a huge number of users

**[00:04:19]** all over the world, we say 435 million plus.

**[00:04:22]** The plus means there are actually even more,

**[00:04:26]** but this number is the public figure we communicate.

**[00:04:29]** Most of them don't pay us any money,

**[00:04:32]** they use the product for free and that actually suits us,

**[00:04:35]** we don't mind, it's part of our business model,

**[00:04:38]** and we've been operating like this for about 20 years and we're proud of it.

**[00:04:41]** So the paying customers are about 17 million only.

**[00:04:45]** 17 million is not a bad number at all,

**[00:04:48]** but of course, in the context of 435 million, it's relatively small,

**[00:04:52]** that's about 5%.

**[00:04:54]** The company is very successful commercially, one of the milestones

**[00:04:57]** that happened to us was that three and a half years ago we went public on the London Stock Exchange,

**[00:05:00]** so we are listed, a public company in England,

**[00:05:03]** London Stock Exchange, I'll talk a bit more about

**[00:05:06]** what that has meant so far.

**[00:05:09]** Prague, although the company is global,

**[00:05:11]** 97 or 98% of its revenue comes from abroad,

**[00:05:14]** still has its main headquarters in Prague

**[00:05:19]** and has had it since its founding 33 years ago.

**[00:05:22]** We have just under 2,000 employees now,

**[00:05:27]** of whom, besides the Czech Republic in Prague and Brno,

**[00:05:30]** there's America, England, Germany,

**[00:05:33]** some smaller locations in Asia.

**[00:05:37]** Altogether, we have about 25 offices worldwide.

**[00:05:40]** What might be interesting is that more than half of our employees

**[00:05:44]** work in research or development, so they are programmers,

**[00:05:51]** some product designers and so on.

**[00:05:54]** So it's almost a thousand people, which we're quite proud of.

**[00:05:57]** It's actually a number that's much higher,

**[00:06:00]** than what our competitors have,

**[00:06:02]** or many other tech companies have,

**[00:06:05]** so the overhead compared to other positions

**[00:06:10]** is relatively small.

**[00:06:12]** And we also rely a lot on some unique technologies,

**[00:06:17]** so we have about 250 or more than 250 patents.

**[00:06:21]** We have some other special innovative technologies,

**[00:06:25]** that we develop there and invest heavily in,

**[00:06:28]** including artificial intelligence.

**[00:06:30]** You might have noticed that two years ago we appointed Michal Pěchouček

**[00:06:34]** to the role of CTO,

**[00:06:36]** who is actually one of the biggest experts

**[00:06:39]** at least in Central Europe on artificial intelligence,

**[00:06:43]** a professor at ČVUT,

**[00:06:45]** who really helps us drive this agenda now.

**[00:06:49]** I probably won't even talk about the brands and so on.

**[00:06:52]** I often, when I present or speak,

**[00:06:55]** talk a lot about cybersecurity,

**[00:06:57]** about the company and so on,

**[00:06:59]** but today the format is a bit different.

**[00:07:01]** When I talked with Honza here about

**[00:07:03]** what I should talk about or what would be useful,

**[00:07:07]** the idea came up

**[00:07:10]** that I could make today's talk a bit more personal

**[00:07:15]** and actually talk about my own journey,

**[00:07:17]** how I got into this whole thing right at the beginning,

**[00:07:20]** what it looked like and how it affected me, and so on.

**[00:07:23]** So today I will talk much less about cybersecurity,

**[00:07:27]** or almost not at all.

**[00:07:31]** Certainly, the opportunities to hear about cybersecurity challenges,

**[00:07:34]** about current threats and what can be done about them,

**[00:07:38]** are somewhere else.

**[00:07:40]** So maybe I'll start

**[00:07:43]** and start here with this little joke.

**[00:07:47]** My obsession with computers

**[00:07:51]** actually started relatively early.

**[00:07:54]** That I was already in some,

**[00:07:56]** Today, actually, when I think about it,

**[00:07:59]** when I look at my own kids, for example,

**[00:08:01]** I see that they obviously become friends with technology

**[00:08:03]** much earlier.

**[00:08:05]** But back when I was growing up,

**[00:08:07]** computers were relatively a minority,

**[00:08:10]** and no one really knew what it was about.

**[00:08:13]** It was just a kind of specialty,

**[00:08:15]** a strange world of IT people

**[00:08:18]** and those people no one really understood.

**[00:08:21]** I first got to the keyboard when I was, I don't know,

**[00:08:25]** and I was really excited about it.

**[00:08:28]** Back then, it looked more like this,

**[00:08:30]** or like it looks today,

**[00:08:32]** on mobiles, etc.

**[00:08:33]** Everything is very interactive

**[00:08:35]** and user-friendly.

**[00:08:37]** Back then, it wasn't very user-friendly.

**[00:08:39]** But actually, I was completely absorbed by it.

**[00:08:41]** And then it started to look a bit more like this.

**[00:08:43]** These are some of the very,

**[00:08:46]** oldest Windows,

**[00:08:48]** or these are, I think, Windows 3.0,

**[00:08:50]** so around 1980,

**[00:08:52]** I don't know, maybe '87 or '90.

**[00:08:54]** But what was interesting was that

**[00:08:57]** my parents didn't really understand

**[00:09:00]** my hobby.

**[00:09:03]** They didn't understand at all what I was doing.

**[00:09:04]** My parents are humanities-oriented,

**[00:09:06]** actors or artists.

**[00:09:08]** And computers were a complete mystery to them.

**[00:09:11]** They didn't understand

**[00:09:15]** that it could be useful for work,

**[00:09:17]** or that, I don't know, thirty years later

**[00:09:20]** the world would look like it does now.

**[00:09:22]** Of course, back then.

**[00:09:24]** So they mainly saw this,

**[00:09:27]** It was one of my favorite games.

**[00:09:29]** Maybe some veterans recognize Golden Axe.

**[00:09:31]** It was just such a real classic, absolutely great.

**[00:09:34]** I was hooked on it like many teenagers back then,

**[00:09:39]** around '92, '93.

**[00:09:41]** Platformers were really popular.

**[00:09:43]** Of course, parents, when they saw,

**[00:09:45]** that I was sitting at the computer

**[00:09:47]** and had this running,

**[00:09:49]** it only confirmed for them

**[00:09:51]** that it was complete nonsense.

**[00:09:53]** That it wasn't promising

**[00:09:55]** and I shouldn't be involved in it at all.

**[00:09:57]** And the point was that

**[00:09:59]** I didn't want to,

**[00:10:00]** they wanted to buy the computer. I didn't have a computer until I was 14 or 15,

**[00:10:05]** when I managed to get one at this relatively advanced age,

**[00:10:10]** because I had to program it for some competition,

**[00:10:14]** where in the center of Prague there was a shop window with a beautiful new computer,

**[00:10:19]** which was secured by some hardware and software system.

**[00:10:24]** It said that whoever hacked into that computer

**[00:10:28]** could take the whole computer away. That was really tempting.

**[00:10:33]** There were actually two of us, me and a friend,

**[00:10:38]** who was really tempted by this, so we agreed

**[00:10:41]** to somehow do it, and we did, but it wasn't easy.

**[00:10:45]** Back then, access to information was almost zero.

**[00:10:48]** Today, everything is so easy because

**[00:10:51]** you can just google how to do something,

**[00:10:54]** or find some tricks. Back then, not only was there no internet,

**[00:10:58]** but there was no literature, no sources of information.

**[00:11:03]** So the way we did it was interesting.

**[00:11:06]** I asked my English teacher, some Jeff from New York,

**[00:11:11]** who was about to go home to New York for Christmas,

**[00:11:15]** to buy me three or four books we had picked out,

**[00:11:19]** which might have tips on how to get into that system.

**[00:11:23]** Out of kindness, he visited the local bookstore and really brought us the books.

**[00:11:28]** Then, based on the information we absorbed from those books,

**[00:11:32]** we managed to bypass the system, find some weaknesses,

**[00:11:37]** and the computer was taken from the store. So that was really great

**[00:11:41]** and it was a pretty defining moment for me,

**[00:11:45]** where I kind of realized,

**[00:11:49]** that they would probably continue working with computers.

**[00:11:55]** And secondly, that this out-of-the-box thinking,

**[00:11:59]** how to get that information and learn through English

**[00:12:04]** the information I needed,

**[00:12:09]** is really great.

**[00:12:13]** Then also the thing that was there...

**[00:12:17]** So actually here I got more into this,

**[00:12:21]** than some Goldenextule. Actually, I found that.

**[00:12:25]** I'm very proud of it. This is a snippet of my code from 1993.

**[00:12:30]** Really stupid, but I was genuinely excited,

**[00:12:35]** when I found it recently while making these slides

**[00:12:39]** a few weeks ago, it was great.

**[00:12:41]** Then I was thinking about where to go to university.

**[00:12:45]** My first choice was Computer Science,

**[00:12:49]** or MatPhys, or something like ČVUT.

**[00:12:53]** But then I thought about it a bit more.

**[00:12:57]** I felt that those schools offering Computer Science,

**[00:13:02]** might be very rooted in the past,

**[00:13:06]** teaching some programming languages

**[00:13:10]** or algorithms, etc. And by the time you graduate,

**[00:13:14]** it might already be almost irrelevant,

**[00:13:17]** because things change so fast, it would be a shame.

**[00:13:21]** So I decided to study math,

**[00:13:24]** which was kind of my hobby, or always a natural interest.

**[00:13:27]** And I was lucky.

**[00:13:30]** So I went to study math, even though I was already very involved with computers back then.

**[00:13:34]** And now this brings me to Avast,

**[00:13:37]** which was in the company Alveo,

**[00:13:41]** which was the predecessor of Avast.

**[00:13:44]** Back then it was still called Alveo, it had this cool logo,

**[00:13:47]** which I couldn't find in higher resolution than about,

**[00:13:51]** I don't know, 30x30 pixels.

**[00:13:55]** But that was summer 1995, when I was between high school and university.

**[00:13:58]** I was still a freshman at university and we actually came

**[00:14:02]** to that part-time job, to paraphrase the title,

**[00:14:06]** from this whole lecture,

**[00:14:10]** where I came to Alveo, not Avast yet, it was still Alveo,

**[00:14:14]** together with the friend with whom we won that computer

**[00:14:22]** and actually like for that summer job.

**[00:14:25]** So what we actually found there were these two guys,

**[00:14:29]** that's them, our founders, Mr. Baudyš on the left

**[00:14:33]** and Mr. Kučera on the right, aka Baudy and Kuča, Eda.

**[00:14:37]** And it was actually very interesting,

**[00:14:41]** because they were really quite unique,

**[00:14:45]** very interesting people who just,

**[00:14:49]** said whatever was on their mind, very open,

**[00:14:53]** they welcomed us warmly, but didn’t mess around with us.

**[00:14:57]** We expected they’d put us in some kind of

**[00:17:01]** And then some good news, we're actually doing quite well

**[00:17:05]** financially, or rather the company is. Thanks to what you programmed here,

**[00:17:09]** it's selling quite well. So we actually

**[00:17:13]** want to give more money for what you did here last summer.

**[00:17:17]** So we'll give you another 100 thousand, and since these are kind of

**[00:17:21]** royalties, you get some shares,

**[00:17:25]** which is great. So this is really,

**[00:17:27]** I can only call it generosity.

**[00:17:31]** They obviously didn't have to do it, but they did.

**[00:17:35]** And such generosity, like the privilege of a king, as they say,

**[00:17:39]** really impressed us and we were completely decided

**[00:17:43]** that Avast is probably the best. And that these two gentlemen

**[00:17:47]** are real aces and that we want to work with them.

**[00:17:51]** Not just for the money, but for the whole approach to life

**[00:17:55]** and the world. Otherwise, a few years later,

**[00:17:59]** maybe because of that approach, Avast almost went bankrupt.

**[00:18:03]** Around the year 2000, it really got into financial trouble,

**[00:18:07]** when some resources dried up or some customers left.

**[00:18:11]** The Czech Republic was joining the European Union,

**[00:18:15]** and many companies were privatized or bought

**[00:18:19]** by multinational firms. Another part of companies actually went bankrupt,

**[00:18:23]** and back then we were selling only within the Czech Republic

**[00:18:27]** or Czechoslovakia, maybe a bit to Poland and Hungary.

**[00:18:31]** There were big changes, so the company almost went bankrupt

**[00:18:35]** and had to completely reinvent itself, had to find

**[00:18:39]** a new business model, had to find

**[00:18:43]** some new way to survive in the changing world.

**[00:18:47]** And that's when the idea of freemium came,

**[00:18:51]** to offer a basic version of the product for free

**[00:18:55]** and somehow rely on some users buying

**[00:18:59]** the paid version. Of course, we also sold it to companies,

**[00:19:03]** but that became a smaller and smaller part of the whole.

**[00:19:07]** And now, looking back, it was actually quite a

**[00:19:11]** risky move,

**[00:19:15]** which wasn't very common at the time, since there was something called shareware,

**[00:19:19]** which was basically normal software costing hundreds of dollars

**[00:19:23]** or thousands of crowns and sold in boxes, people would go to a store,

**[00:19:27]** buy a box with Avast or a box with Photoshop

**[00:19:31]** or a box with Windows, and then there was something called shareware,

**[00:19:35]** which was without a box, just a download, but it was also paid.

**[00:19:39]** It was sold, for example, for 20, 30, 50 dollars.

**[00:19:43]** Software was very expensive back then.

**[00:19:47]** So coming up with something truly free was relatively unusual.

**[00:19:51]** Linux was emerging and some free platforms were appearing,

**[00:19:55]** but free software wasn’t mainstream at that time.

**[00:20:00]** It was quite revolutionary and felt like a leap into the unknown for the company,

**[00:20:07]** but it paid off a million times over, and it was some kind of providence the founders had.

**[00:20:12]** I didn’t get involved in business discussions back then,

**[00:20:17]** because I was the coder and the person who somehow created the products.

**[00:20:22]** Then we really started to succeed, our user numbers grew,

**[00:20:28]** there was truly exponential growth. We started in 2001,

**[00:20:33]** it took us about three and a half years to reach the first million users,

**[00:20:38]** and then it started to roll. I think by 2006 we had the first million,

**[00:20:43]** then about 25 million in 2008, and around 80 million in 2009.

**[00:20:49]** It really began to grow exponentially and it was very interesting.

**[00:20:54]** For us, it was also a reflection on the fact that just a few years earlier,

**[00:20:59]** we had almost gone bankrupt,

**[00:21:04]** so the importance of bouncing back from rock bottom, learning from mistakes,

**[00:21:08]** or somehow changing or adjusting the business so it would start working,

**[00:21:13]** is really crucial.

**[00:21:17]** If it’s interesting, I’d like to mention that we started hiring foreigners very early on,

**[00:21:21]** which was also very unusual, because around 2000,

**[00:21:24]** when I was finishing university, we began inviting foreigners to the Avast Prague office.

**[00:21:28]** Back then, we only had Prague, and we started hiring foreigners.

**[00:21:32]** We had a woman from China, a woman from Japan,

**[00:21:36]** a person from Turkey, and someone from America,

**[00:21:40]** and that’s how we started building it. We really cared

**[00:21:44]** about creating a company culture that was truly inclusive and,

**[00:21:48]** at the same time, where diversity worked in a positive sense,

**[00:21:52]** meaning teams were made up of people who each brought something different,

**[00:21:56]** because that reflected our customer base,

**[00:22:00]** as we were already delivering software worldwide.

**[00:22:04]** It was very important for us that the people working in the company

**[00:22:08]** had an understanding of what our customers look like and what matters to them.

**[00:22:12]** So for us, this topic was never neglected,

**[00:22:16]** DNA is talked about a lot, but also in some other connotations.

**[00:22:36]** corporate quotas and so on.

**[00:22:40]** For us, it was a very natural thing that started very early, and I think it remains very important for Avast to this day.

**[00:22:44]** Today, we have about 62 nationalities at Avast,

**[00:22:48]** here in Prague, in our office, about 45 nationalities,

**[00:22:52]** and it's a huge deal for us, kind of

**[00:22:56]** a lesson in humility in its own way.

**[00:23:00]** So I would end this phase here,

**[00:23:04]** when the company was actually led

**[00:23:08]** by Eda and Pavel, and then there was the transition

**[00:23:12]** to our CEO. This is Vince Steckler, my predecessor as Avast CEO

**[00:23:16]** from 2009, and maybe a little detail I'd add,

**[00:23:20]** is that from around 2006 or 2007, investors started

**[00:23:24]** knocking on our door a lot, like today’s

**[00:23:28]** venture capital or private equity, and the frequency increased.

**[00:23:32]** At first, it was once every six months, then once a month, then basically every day

**[00:23:36]** we got an email or call from someone wanting to invest in Avast

**[00:23:40]** or Alwil back then. And one of the

**[00:23:44]** funny episodes happened around

**[00:23:48]** 2009, when one promising investor

**[00:23:52]** spent two or three days with us, and at the last dinner,

**[00:23:56]** he stood up and gave a short speech, basically saying

**[00:24:00]** something like this: the company is great, I really like it,

**[00:24:04]** all the numbers, you’re really talented, I want

**[00:24:08]** to invest, but I have one condition: you two, looking at Eda and Pavel,

**[00:24:12]** will no longer be in the company’s management, which was really

**[00:24:16]** terrible, everyone broke out in a sweat, and we thought,

**[00:24:20]** this is embarrassing, crazy, this is bad. But actually,

**[00:24:24]** what it caused was that within a few

**[00:24:28]** months, Eda and Pavel started

**[00:24:32]** to think about it and maybe came to the conclusion that

**[00:24:36]** they should hire professional management

**[00:24:40]** or pass the baton to someone else, because they

**[00:24:44]** built the company from scratch, but what the company needed at that moment,

**[00:24:48]** with 80 million users and about half a billion crowns

**[00:24:52]** in revenue, was probably something different

**[00:24:56]** than what they could bring themselves. So they made this

**[00:25:00]** very important decision to bring in

**[00:25:04]** Vince, or actually to run a CEO selection process,

**[00:25:08]** which Vince ultimately won. There’s also a lot of history

**[00:25:12]** about how it went, but we don’t have time now, so maybe another time.

**[00:25:16]** So Vince actually came from Symantec, which is basically like Norton,

**[00:25:20]** interesting, maybe more on that later. And we actually

**[00:25:24]** met very quickly, Vince and I, kind of

**[00:25:28]** by fate, we actually sat in the same office from the start,

**[00:25:32]** Vince sat down next to me in the office, he sat on the right side,

**[00:25:36]** I sat on the left, he was on the right, I was coding something there,

**[00:25:40]** and he started dealing with some business stuff, he was a person

**[00:25:44]** who was actually a senior manager at Symantec,

**[00:25:48]** a native of California, basically a businessman

**[00:25:52]** straight out of a textbook, but then he spent about ten years in Asia

**[00:25:56]** and he had, let's say, a very international

**[00:26:00]** or very broad understanding of how the world works,

**[00:26:04]** not just focused on the United States,

**[00:26:08]** as is often the case. And I thought later

**[00:26:12]** it must have been quite an adventure for him to come to Prague

**[00:26:16]** alone, with no allies, to a really

**[00:26:20]** shabby building in Strašnice, there was an elevator

**[00:26:24]** that looked like it could fall any day, it really went up like that,

**[00:26:28]** and it was always nerve-wracking. So for him to come

**[00:26:32]** from the polished Silicon Valley environment here must have been quite a shock,

**[00:26:36]** but somehow it just clicked very well, I think.

**[00:26:40]** And he really set the company on a growth path,

**[00:26:44]** gave the right impulses that motivated the right people,

**[00:26:48]** brought those people in, and it actually started

**[00:26:52]** to grow business-wise much faster than before.

**[00:26:56]** The first investment also came in 2010, and it was actually

**[00:27:00]** from Summit Partners, which is an American private equity firm,

**[00:27:04]** but it had strong European centers in London,

**[00:27:08]** so we talked to those people in London.

**[00:27:12]** I also remember it was kind of the first liquidity

**[00:27:16]** for many people, which I didn't mention, that actually at Avast,

**[00:27:20]** within the spirit I talked about at the start,

**[00:27:24]** how Edu and Pavel gave us money, some royalties,

**[00:27:28]** employee shares were distributed,

**[00:27:32]** most people had employee shares, including me,

**[00:27:36]** so the entry of Summit Partners, where we sold a quarter of the company

**[00:27:40]** to private equity in 2010, was kind of

**[00:27:44]** a liquidity event, it was some kind of realization for us.

**[00:27:48]** I remember I had a car with Vince and he said if I would

**[00:27:56]** So that I'd probably make about a million dollars, well that was about two and a half,

**[00:28:00]** he said, well, I know, and I actually didn't really perceive it,

**[00:28:04]** or I just couldn't imagine it at all, I should have asked later,

**[00:28:08]** what are you going to do with it, or like, it was a very surreal conversation,

**[00:28:12]** but actually it was interesting.

**[00:28:16]** And then another investor came in, either in 2012 or 2014, CVC,

**[00:28:20]** before that we had tried to bring the company public in America back in 2012,

**[00:28:24]** then we changed our minds at the last moment,

**[00:28:28]** there were a lot of ups and downs, I'm simplifying a lot,

**[00:28:32]** but the most important thing for me was that

**[00:28:36]** Vince actively and deliberately worked on

**[00:28:40]** getting me out of my comfort zone.

**[00:28:44]** And my comfort zone was

**[00:28:48]** that blue screen we saw at the beginning,

**[00:28:52]** that was the code, where I was sitting at the keyboard and typing away,

**[00:28:56]** somehow dealing with technology and the product.

**[00:29:00]** And the really uncomfortable zone for me was anything involving

**[00:29:04]** working with people, that was really bad for me,

**[00:29:08]** I was very introverted. Plus some business stuff that I considered nonsense

**[00:29:12]** or just uninteresting, like I was the tech guy,

**[00:29:16]** I wanted to be the CTO who actually knows the technology,

**[00:29:20]** the tech visionary who comes up with ideas,

**[00:29:24]** and everything else was kind of secondary.

**[00:29:28]** And he really pushed me out of that, in a brutal way.

**[00:29:32]** And then he topped it off,

**[00:29:36]** so it wouldn't just be an excuse.

**[00:29:40]** He gave me a new role, or one day he told me,

**[00:29:44]** that starting 1.1.2015,

**[00:29:48]** I would be the company's right-hand director.

**[00:29:52]** But I would be COO, so suddenly I'd be responsible for all

**[00:29:56]** sales, all marketing, all customer support, and those things,

**[00:30:00]** which I really thought were lame.

**[00:30:05]** And he said, you'll learn it, it's not hard,

**[00:30:09]** you're smart enough, you'll manage. And I'll watch,

**[00:30:12]** and if something goes wrong, we'll just fix it.

**[00:30:16]** And I have to say, he was right about everything.

**[00:30:20]** It was all good, except that inside me,

**[00:30:24]** I developed, I don't know if you know it, in English it's called imposter syndrome.

**[00:30:36]** In Czech, it's sometimes called the impostor syndrome.

**[00:30:40]** And what does it actually mean? It's like a persistent feeling,

**[00:30:44]** that you're sitting in a chair that isn't yours.

**[00:30:48]** You feel like a fake, like, I'm now the sales director,

**[00:30:52]** but I don't know anything about it, and now it's going to blow up, that someone will notice,

**[00:30:56]** someone will realize, and now Ondra doesn't know at all,

**[00:31:00]** what he has to say about it.

**[00:31:04]** Much later, I found out that it's a psychological term,

**[00:31:08]** the impostor syndrome, and there are quite a few people who suffer from such states,

**[00:31:14]** or it happens occasionally.

**[00:31:18]** It's quite unpleasant, I have to say,

**[00:31:22]** for me it was very unpleasant, that year was like that,

**[00:31:26]** I told myself I would have to do something about it,

**[00:31:28]** because I don't want to be the impostor who someone then exposes

**[00:31:32]** and then I'll be like, I don't know, end up somewhere on the street

**[00:31:38]** or go to a place where people find out that I'm

**[00:31:42]** actually a fake player there.

**[00:31:44]** So how I solved it was that I told Vince,

**[00:31:48]** Vince, I simply believe in Education and I need to educate myself somehow.

**[00:31:52]** So I said, sure, there are different programs,

**[00:31:56]** I'd like to help and actually, in the end, it turned out

**[00:32:01]** that there are two best programs, one at Stanford

**[00:32:05]** and the other at Harvard.

**[00:32:06]** I chose the one at Stanford because it's closer

**[00:32:08]** to Silicon Valley or closer to the technologies.

**[00:32:11]** So in the summer of 2016, I actually spent two

**[00:32:14]** or two and a half months, the whole summer,

**[00:32:19]** at Stanford in their executive program, which is like a condensed MBA.

**[00:32:23]** And I have to say it was a transformative experience for me.

**[00:32:27]** It was absolutely amazing, totally great.

**[00:32:30]** It was defining.

**[00:32:33]** And it also largely freed me from the impostor syndrome.

**[00:32:37]** But what actually shocked me the most there,

**[00:32:39]** was that I expected we'd get a lecture on some corporate finance

**[00:32:43]** and some hard skills.

**[00:32:47]** But they approached it so that about two months before the course

**[00:32:52]** or the school started, they sent a list of books,

**[00:32:55]** which was about thirty books.

**[00:32:57]** A real tower of books that we then bought.

**[00:33:02]** We were supposed to study them ourselves, as they were trivial stuff,

**[00:33:06]** Some marginal stuff, like corporate finance.

**[00:33:08]** That was kind of adle bychle.

**[00:33:11]** Such nonsense we wouldn't deal with in the real course.

**[00:33:14]** And in the real course, they really talked about cultural transformations,

**[00:33:19]** about soft skills, crisis management.

**[00:33:24]** A lot of role playing.

**[00:33:26]** They really pushed you out of the business mindset.

**[00:33:29]** We simply attended medical school, engineering,

**[00:33:32]** and law school.

**[00:33:34]** It was very interesting.

**[00:33:36]** Two months spent from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

**[00:33:40]** Really full-on commitment.

**[00:33:43]** But it was something amazing.

**[00:33:46]** It was a bit different, but actually much better

**[00:33:49]** than I expected.

**[00:33:51]** And thanks to that, I also confirmed...

**[00:33:54]** From the start, I was fascinated by finding ways to...

**[00:33:59]** hack the system.

**[00:34:01]** Hack it in a good sense.

**[00:34:03]** Looking for ways not just to improve things by 10% or 20%,

**[00:34:08]** but to improve them tenfold or hundredfold.

**[00:34:12]** Basically, to find some kind of hack, a side path,

**[00:34:16]** which isn't necessarily standard or well-trodden.

**[00:34:20]** But to do something that completely transforms

**[00:34:26]** or changes the way we do things.

**[00:34:31]** And that pushes it forward in a fundamentally significant way.

**[00:34:35]** At Stanford, this was also about exponential growth,

**[00:34:39]** how to find it and how to support it.

**[00:34:42]** That was one of the topics.

**[00:34:44]** Maybe less in lectures and more in discussions,

**[00:34:48]** where I realized that the roughly 150 people there,

**[00:34:51]** were divided into about ten circles of around 15 people each.

**[00:34:56]** But everyone was dealing with it a bit.

**[00:35:00]** All the people with different backgrounds and from various companies,

**[00:35:03]** not just tech, were obsessed with exponential growth

**[00:35:09]** and how to find it.

**[00:35:11]** It's more about searching than about...

**[00:35:13]** Execution is of course important too,

**[00:35:15]** but having the idea and somehow finding the path.

**[00:35:19]** So that was really crucial for me.

**[00:35:22]** And then a few more moments I'd like to mention.

**[00:35:25]** AVG, so in 2016, as you probably know,

**[00:35:30]** we acquired our biggest competitor at the time, AVG,

**[00:35:35]** which was originally also a Czech company.

**[00:35:38]** It was really a great business move.

**[00:35:41]** But I don't want to talk about it purely from a business perspective.

**[00:35:43]** Maybe I'd rather talk about it from the perspective of,

**[00:35:48]** let's say, the lessons learned,

**[00:35:52]** that were important to me personally.

**[00:35:55]** And actually, Vince, continuing his tradition of pushing me out of my comfort zone,

**[00:36:00]** appointed me as the person responsible for the integration.

**[00:36:05]** That's kind of the connection.

**[00:36:09]** And I have to say it went well because

**[00:36:14]** the companies were relatively similar.

**[00:36:16]** Even though AVG had different locations,

**[00:36:20]** a slightly different product mix, and so on,

**[00:36:22]** the roots were very similar.

**[00:36:24]** The people often knew each other.

**[00:36:26]** The biggest office was in Brno, which is culturally very close.

**[00:36:32]** Maybe, right?

**[00:36:36]** Sorry.

**[00:36:39]** But of course, it was easier than if we had bought a company

**[00:36:44]** in Vietnam or South America and so on.

**[00:36:48]** And now, when I think about the lessons learned,

**[00:36:52]** the absolutely crucial one was the speed

**[00:36:56]** at which we executed it.

**[00:36:58]** From the start, we agreed that the key thing would be

**[00:37:01]** to do all the necessary steps to merge as fast as possible.

**[00:37:03]** So we set ourselves an almost impossible goal,

**[00:37:06]** to merge the product platforms in 100 days,

**[00:37:09]** which is three months and ten days.

**[00:37:12]** Christmas was in between, so the actual time

**[00:37:14]** was really about three months.

**[00:37:17]** And everyone said at the beginning,

**[00:37:19]** there's no chance, we can't do it, it's impossible.

**[00:37:21]** There's so much work and effort.

**[00:37:24]** But we did it.

**[00:37:27]** And when I talk to those people afterwards,

**[00:37:29]** they say it was one of the best periods of their lives.

**[00:37:33]** because there was a clear goal, it was an absolute priority,

**[00:37:37]** they put everything into it, but at the same time they actually saw the result

**[00:37:40]** and there was that kind of feedback, like emotional, it was very strong.

**[00:37:44]** Well, then communication in every such thing

**[00:37:48]** is extremely important.

**[00:37:50]** We actually over-communicate, as they say,

**[00:37:53]** meaning communicate even more than would normally be natural,

**[00:37:57]** repeat the basic principles and some priorities, etc.

**[00:38:03]** And then if there should be such a silly word,

**[00:38:06]** but actually in Czech, I think, there isn't a much better one.

**[00:38:09]** That you actually have to oversee that

**[00:38:12]** it gets done. Because it helped us a lot,

**[00:38:14]** that we made a commitment externally.

**[00:38:17]** That we actually said, this is how it will be,

**[00:38:19]** we said, we will do it in 100 days,

**[00:38:21]** we will deliver these results and we announced it,

**[00:38:24]** we broadcast it to the world and to all those investors

**[00:38:26]** and we had it in press releases, etc.

**[00:38:29]** And that was kind of a forcing function to make it happen.

**[00:38:31]** That it wasn't like,

**[00:38:34]** maybe not, or let's leave it a bit open,

**[00:38:37]** we will pivot, that's the kind of

**[00:38:39]** classic turnaround excuse to justify

**[00:38:43]** that maybe something isn't the fastest.

**[00:38:46]** But we actually committed to it in advance

**[00:38:49]** and then we had to deliver it here.

**[00:38:51]** And then of course part of that process

**[00:38:54]** was also about the fact that

**[00:38:58]** quite a few people left the company, the combined company.

**[00:39:01]** About 800 or 900 people left,

**[00:39:03]** which in the math somehow,

**[00:39:06]** to make it work business-wise,

**[00:39:09]** had to leave the company.

**[00:39:12]** And that was obviously quite hard, that is,

**[00:39:15]** until then, I don't know,

**[00:39:18]** I had fired ten people in my entire career

**[00:39:21]** and now it was really like this, really unpleasant.

**[00:39:26]** And I realized one thing there, that actually,

**[00:39:29]** and I didn't know this until then,

**[00:39:32]** this taught me a lot, that actually leadership

**[00:39:35]** In its essence, it's not about being nice to people,

**[00:39:38]** or being that kind of friend.

**[00:39:41]** Leadership is mainly about being fair,

**[00:39:44]** being transparent,

**[00:39:47]** being open, being honest,

**[00:39:50]** basically being able to justify things somehow.

**[00:39:54]** Communicating well.

**[00:39:57]** But it's not about being nice.

**[00:40:00]** Thinking that a good leader is someone who is nice to everyone.

**[00:40:05]** Fairness is probably the most important thing.

**[00:40:08]** And it's a kind of privilege that a person has to learn how to do.

**[00:40:13]** It's probably not something you're born with.

**[00:40:17]** And then there's working with mistakes.

**[00:40:21]** Yeah, I'll say something about decency in business.

**[00:40:25]** I also feel a lot that

**[00:40:28]** there's this saying, 'the end justifies the means.'

**[00:40:33]** That always annoyed me, I heard it when I was young, I never really understood it.

**[00:40:38]** And during the AVG integration, I realized

**[00:40:42]** that for me personally, how things are done is extremely important.

**[00:40:46]** It's not just about the result.

**[00:40:49]** The result is of course important and must be there.

**[00:40:52]** But for me personally, for my satisfaction and good feeling,

**[00:40:56]** and for the business, it's even more important how it's done.

**[00:41:01]** And I generally call that concept decency in business.

**[00:41:05]** Usually, there are many ways to reach a goal,

**[00:41:11]** and the decent, the dignified way is really what matters

**[00:41:19]** and what brings joy afterwards.

**[00:41:24]** Okay, so with that, we come to the end of Vince's career.

**[00:41:29]** At the end of 2018, we were at an Executive Offsite,

**[00:41:36]** where Vince actually invited me and said,

**[00:41:41]** we were kind of alone there, just the two of us.

**[00:41:45]** And he told me he had decided to step down

**[00:41:50]** and that he wanted me to take over,

**[00:41:54]** that there would be a process with his successor,

**[00:41:57]** which would also look for some external candidates for the CEO position.

**[00:42:03]** But it was very important to him that it would be me.

**[00:42:08]** Of course, I didn't expect it, it was quite emotional at that moment,

**[00:42:14]** but then a relatively short process took place,

**[00:42:18]** the board did some external search,

**[00:42:20]** there were about three or four other candidates, and they chose me

**[00:42:24]** And actually, after about three months, there was the announcement,

**[00:42:28]** that I was becoming Vinc's successor and that Vinc was leaving.

**[00:42:32]** I then had about a three-month period,

**[00:42:35]** before the change took place, so I started on the first of July.

**[00:42:39]** Vinc was really a huge inspiration for me,

**[00:42:42]** a mentor, an authority, I mean,

**[00:42:48]** and he really taught me a lot, I'm very grateful to him for where I am.

**[00:42:55]** I have many memories of him, but his phrase,

**[00:43:01]** which he repeated very often, was actually

**[00:43:05]** If you are not sure, just do something,

**[00:43:07]** which always fascinated me, there's a lot of wisdom in it.

**[00:43:12]** If you really don't know what to do now, then just do something.

**[00:43:16]** The worst thing is passivity, just sitting there and doing nothing.

**[00:43:19]** That's the absolute worst thing a person can do.

**[00:43:22]** It basically works universally.

**[00:43:24]** We will always work with incomplete data,

**[00:43:27]** we will never fully know what to do next.

**[00:43:30]** I might think I'll get more information tomorrow,

**[00:43:34]** or that tomorrow morning is wiser than the evening, and so on.

**[00:43:37]** Absolutely not, just do something now.

**[00:43:40]** Now is the moment, it might not come again, or simply won't.

**[00:43:46]** So this was a very important thing for me,

**[00:43:53]** that I try to follow and probably still do today.

**[00:43:58]** I then started on the first of July.

**[00:44:02]** The first thing I did was some All Hands meeting.

**[00:44:07]** I had a presentation that day in the afternoon or evening,

**[00:44:11]** and I really tried to talk about the things

**[00:44:14]** that I considered the most important,

**[00:44:17]** what I called the soul of the company, so this slide is directly

**[00:44:20]** from that presentation two and a half years ago.

**[00:44:23]** And I talked a lot about why we are here,

**[00:44:26]** about the Purpose, the mission, and the values.

**[00:44:31]** I also talked about the business, and these are the topics

**[00:44:34]** that I try to push into the company from the top down.

**[00:44:40]** I think it's very important, and actually, when you start here

**[00:44:44]** from this end, the result is usually better,

**[00:44:47]** than when you get too bogged down in details.

**[00:44:50]** Of course, there have to be people who can get into the details,

**[00:44:53]** but the big picture, no, that's not it.

**[00:44:56]** And then I built my executive team, and I have to say,

**[00:44:59]** that it was difficult, that it was actually one of those things,

**[00:45:03]** where it got to me emotionally, because I basically had to

**[00:45:07]** build a new team, which basically meant saying goodbye

**[00:45:10]** to the old team, to Vinc's team.

**[00:45:13]** And it wasn't pleasant, it was really hard for me

**[00:45:18]** to say goodbye to those people and tell them, yeah, you did a great job here,

**[00:45:23]** but at the same time, I now need someone else for this position.

**[00:45:28]** And it's like, you know, men don't cry.

**[00:45:32]** At that time, I really struggled with this.

**[00:45:37]** And then my first year was still quite tough, I have to say.

**[00:45:43]** Two months after I started, this happened.

**[00:45:48]** I don't know if it was that publicized, but it was quite a big problem.

**[00:45:53]** Because when a security company isn't good,

**[00:45:57]** someone will break in. That's not good.

**[00:46:01]** And it happened to us, and under really stupid circumstances,

**[00:46:05]** to put it bluntly, it was just embarrassing.

**[00:46:09]** It happened and we had to do something about it, and basically,

**[00:46:13]** of course, the moment you find out,

**[00:46:17]** is quick, and you start firefighting, fixing things,

**[00:46:21]** but then rebuilding the systems and avoiding those mistakes

**[00:46:25]** and many other errors that could lead to a similar outcome,

**[00:46:29]** that work takes months and years.

**[00:46:33]** So it really pushed us forward and was my first kind of

**[00:46:37]** crisis we had to go through a few months after I started.

**[00:46:41]** Then came this lesson

**[00:46:45]** in the form of the Avast case,

**[00:46:49]** and the personal data of users,

**[00:46:53]** from our Jumpshot division, about half a year after I started.

**[00:46:57]** This crisis was

**[00:47:01]** probably the biggest thing

**[00:47:05]** from the CEO position and from what

**[00:47:09]** I had to do in terms of radical decisions,

**[00:47:13]** it was the biggest. Again, we don't really have time

**[00:47:17]** to explain what happened there yet,

**[00:47:21]** but the case itself would make a very interesting story,

**[00:47:25]** which could fill an hour-long lecture and maybe be

**[00:47:29]** interesting for some, but I don't want to

**[00:47:33]** go into it right now. And then, of course, this happened in March,

**[00:47:37]** which affected absolutely everyone,

**[00:47:41]** COVID. So we decided to close the offices

**[00:47:45]** very quickly, but

**[00:47:49]** we made a whole series of changes.

**[00:47:53]** It only took us about five days to move the entire employee base

**[00:47:57]** of roughly eighteen hundred people to working from home back then.

**[00:48:01]** We actually managed it very

**[00:48:05]** well, although the long-term consequences,

**[00:48:09]** like mental health issues, etc., we obviously didn't address at the time.

**[00:48:13]** It was important that the systems worked. Crazy,

**[00:48:17]** here are some statistics, but we managed to launch new products

**[00:48:21]** during that time. That was quite important to me.

**[00:48:25]** We also started to address

**[00:48:29]** what the future of work would look like. It pushed us to

**[00:48:33]** formalize what had been very flexible with flexible working hours, etc.

**[00:48:37]** But it was really COVID that allowed us to formalize it,

**[00:48:41]** to rationalize the whole thing.

**[00:48:45]** So we introduced about five milestones,

**[00:48:49]** which you see here, where people can choose to work from the office

**[00:48:53]** versus work from home or work from anywhere.

**[00:48:57]** WFO is work from office, work from anywhere is WFA.

**[00:49:01]** Then we introduced unlimited vacation and flexible working hours.

**[00:49:05]** We redesigned the offices a lot, creating

**[00:49:09]** spaces where people mainly meet for focused work

**[00:49:13]** and do routine tasks elsewhere. We also made a big effort

**[00:49:17]** to invest in growth and learning and development for our people.

**[00:49:23]** And last but not least, we introduced an employee equity program,

**[00:49:27]** where every employee...

**[00:49:31]** Previously, many people had shares or some form of

**[00:49:35]** RSUs, which are basically equivalent to shares,

**[00:49:39]** but we clearly expanded this during COVID to everyone,

**[00:49:43]** which I think was a very important step for us.

**[00:49:47]** And then the second thing that was very important for us,

**[00:49:49]** was that we tried to deepen the work we had already been doing

**[00:49:53]** in terms of giving back or CSR,

**[00:50:00]** to say that for about ten years before, the Avas narrative had been active, which did huge

**[00:50:05]** work in very specific fields unrelated to IT or education,

**[00:50:10]** but are even more important and urgent, like palliative care.

**[00:50:15]** And we actually expanded this during COVID, making

**[00:50:19]** a really big donation, which we routed through our board and through

**[00:50:26]** our investor network, as it went through a relatively complex approval process.

**[00:50:30]** And we donated 25 million dollars to some COVID-related causes.

**[00:50:35]** And actually, from the information we have today, vaccination

**[00:50:40]** from today's perspective is almost trivial, or that we have about ten vaccines,

**[00:50:44]** etc. But a year or a year and a half ago, it really wasn't clear, everyone was saying

**[00:50:49]** that vaccination could take a year or even ten years to develop,

**[00:50:53]** because coronaviruses are so tricky and there isn't much of a track record.

**[00:50:58]** So the investments were really important, and we're very proud

**[00:51:03]** that we were able to help the cause quite generously.

**[00:51:08]** And business-wise, we also did well, so we got into the FTSE 100,

**[00:51:12]** which is the index of the largest companies on the London Stock Exchange.

**[00:51:16]** And when I reflect on it, it seems to me

**[00:51:20]** that despite all the obstacles flying at you, as a CEO you are

**[00:51:25]** at the very top, most exposed, where the wind blows the hardest, that's definitely true.

**[00:51:29]** Whenever something happens, you're in the picture, you're visible,

**[00:51:33]** and that's a bit uncomfortable. But on the other hand, whatever happens,

**[00:51:38]** I think there is a solution, and it's really important not to lose your mind

**[00:51:43]** or break down, but to keep going and continue growing.

**[00:51:48]** That's the learning for me.

**[00:51:54]** Then came the news that Vint died this June.

**[00:51:59]** That was a really bad day for me.

**[00:52:03]** It happened in a traffic accident, which was very unpleasant.

**[00:52:10]** And then the last thing about Norton, as some of you may know,

**[00:52:16]** we have now signed an agreement to merge with the company Norton,

**[00:52:21]** which Vint joined about twelve years ago,

**[00:52:26]** which feels like fate, and Vint didn't know about it.

**[00:52:30]** That was the most striking thing. Negotiations were already underway at that time,

**[00:52:34]** but when he died, it hadn't been announced yet.

**[00:52:38]** And he didn't know, or maybe now he does, watching us from above,

**[00:52:42]** that the companies where he spent his whole life or career have merged.

**[00:52:46]** And I take from this a kind of credo,

**[00:52:50]** that everything has its time and it was somehow waiting there,

**[00:52:53]** it was prepared, and now the time has come.

**[00:52:58]** Maybe I'll end this chapter here.

**[00:53:03]** Avast, we have about ten minutes left, so I'd like to briefly talk

**[00:53:08]** about our family foundation. It's very important to me

**[00:53:13]** and to Katka, my wife. Katka and I have been together

**[00:53:20]** since she was eighteen, so about 24 years.

**[00:53:24]** It's a special story because we dated

**[00:53:31]** for a relatively short time. And my mother was dying,

**[00:53:37]** I was about twenty or so. She was studying medicine

**[00:53:43]** in her first year, and it was very difficult,

**[00:53:47]** that the relationship was at a stage where you need,

**[00:53:52]** or my style would probably be to play the tough guy in the relationship,

**[00:53:56]** to be that strong man, that macho,

**[00:54:00]** who just takes care of his girl and all that,

**[00:54:04]** everything seems great. But it really wasn't,

**[00:54:08]** because my mom was dying.

**[00:54:13]** And actually, Katarina not only accepted it,

**[00:54:19]** but she formed a strong bond with my dying mom.

**[00:54:23]** She was there during the last, I don't know,

**[00:54:31]** at medical school, thanks to this experience,

**[00:54:35]** realized she wanted to work in palliative care, to focus on hospice.

**[00:54:39]** Because it was such a powerful experience for her,

**[00:54:43]** she really admired how the doctors there could improve

**[00:54:47]** the lives of those people and somehow dignify this

**[00:54:51]** really difficult, terrible part of life.

**[00:54:55]** Or somehow move it to a place

**[00:54:59]** where it otherwise wouldn't be.

**[00:55:03]** So it was a defining moment for her career,

**[00:55:07]** and it was really special but very powerful.

**[00:55:11]** Our relationship went through various ups and downs,

**[00:55:15]** which is normal. We have three kids and

**[00:55:19]** at least one crisis we had was quite serious, but

**[00:55:23]** this year we launched

**[00:55:27]** this project with the foundation and established a family foundation.

**[00:55:31]** I have to say it was

**[00:55:35]** crucial for us. Not just because the cause

**[00:55:39]** is important, but because the shared

**[00:55:43]** project with your closest person

**[00:55:47]** is really like a balm. When we have

**[00:55:51]** a common project, goal, and priorities, now

**[00:55:55]** something to collaborate on, it’s a huge boost for

**[00:55:59]** the relationship. I have to say it completely restarted

**[00:56:03]** our marriage, because now we spend much more time together,

**[00:56:07]** and we really are a team, a professional team,

**[00:56:11]** where we complement each other perfectly. She has the

**[00:56:15]** medical side and, let's say, I am the,

**[00:56:19]** the brain, the ratio, she is the heart, she has the,

**[00:56:23]** expert knowledge, and I have maybe the managerial or

**[00:56:27]** execution skills, and it’s really a great team.

**[00:56:31]** and I'm really happy about it. Well,

**[00:56:35]** now, like, the motivation for this,

**[00:56:39]** of course, wasn't this, like, we didn't know,

**[00:56:43]** that it would actually restart our marriage, but it was more like,

**[00:56:47]** we thought a lot about what actually,

**[00:56:51]** what comes next, well, that the money we had,

**[00:56:55]** and we had a lot of it, much more than we ourselves

**[00:56:59]** actually wanted or needed, and we thought a lot about it,

**[00:57:03]** of course, on one hand you think, well, 20 years ago we didn't have it,

**[00:57:09]** so it won't last that long, but that's a very irresponsible approach,

**[00:57:13]** it doesn't sound quite right, it's not quite it.

**[00:57:17]** If you have it, it should be somehow used and put to meaningful use.

**[00:57:21]** This relates to what actually,

**[00:57:25]** or what actually makes me happy, what actually is happiness

**[00:57:29]** in life, or what actually is that kind of satisfaction,

**[00:57:33]** and well, for those readers of Simon Sinek,

**[00:57:37]** the chemical analysis of those hormones,

**[00:57:41]** dopamine and serotonin and so on, that's one way to look at it. But actually,

**[00:57:45]** we actually agreed with Katka that the greatest

**[00:57:49]** happiness really comes from when I can

**[00:57:53]** kind of hack the system a bit and somehow help

**[00:57:57]** someone else, and it really does something

**[00:58:01]** to the person. And then we actually

**[00:58:05]** found out, or realized,

**[00:58:09]** that people know this. It's not just that many people in the world have it like this,

**[00:58:13]** but actually various world

**[00:58:17]** religions or philosophical directions have it deeply rooted,

**[00:58:21]** for example in India there are Sikhs and they have something called,

**[00:58:25]** they call it seva, which is basically

**[00:58:29]** selfless help to others, which is the ultimate,

**[00:58:33]** when a person is in the happiest

**[00:58:37]** state. So it's kind of,

**[00:58:41]** it's interesting, I approach it more scientifically,

**[00:58:45]** or I observe what it does to me and my body, and I have to say,

**[00:58:49]** that it's probably the biggest and most fulfilling,

**[00:58:53]** most satisfying thing I've found there,

**[00:58:57]** and I find it quite interesting that the world is arranged this way.

**[00:59:01]** Otherwise, we had already,

**[00:59:05]** we had some activities before, we had the goldfish,

**[00:59:09]** which actually grants wishes to seriously ill children,

**[00:59:13]** which actually started back in 2014. We have a wonderful director there,

**[00:59:17]** who basically transformed this whole project from just a dream or an idea we had

**[00:59:21]** into a real project. The Golden Fish has already helped over seven hundred children,

**[00:59:25]** who have wishes, they are seriously ill children,

**[00:59:29]** oncology patients, cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy, all these

**[00:59:33]** crazy diagnoses, and the Golden Fish fulfills their wishes,

**[00:59:37]** whatever they express, and it can be anything from a small thing like an iPhone or a computer

**[00:59:41]** to a very special wish,

**[00:59:45]** like meeting a celebrity,

**[00:59:49]** we had Leon, Lionel Messi and Ronaldo there, and some other

**[00:59:53]** people who were quite difficult to reach, but the Golden Fish managed it.

**[00:59:57]** So that's really great.

**[01:00:00]** Then we asked ourselves where to take it next,

**[01:00:04]** and we made the foundation more formal,

**[01:00:08]** which is the headline we had there,

**[01:00:12]** and which is in the founding charter.

**[01:00:16]** If you look on justice.cz, you can pull up

**[01:00:20]** the founding charter, and that sentence is there.

**[01:00:24]** So it's written there a hundred and seventy times that we want to do something about it.

**[01:00:28]** So we are building on the Golden Fish,

**[01:00:32]** which already had the topic of seriously ill children,

**[01:00:36]** but now we are moving it forward by focusing

**[01:00:40]** on these seriously ill children more systematically, especially in palliative care.

**[01:00:44]** Curative medicine works really well here,

**[01:00:48]** and the results in treatments, oncology, or drug development,

**[01:00:52]** are huge. They are in the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars

**[01:00:56]** worldwide, and the results reflect that.

**[01:01:00]** 35 years ago, the survival rate for childhood leukemia was around 5%.

**[01:01:04]** Today it is about 90%. That's a huge progress.

**[01:01:08]** But somehow in all this, the experience of the children and their families has been somewhat forgotten.

**[01:01:12]** Of course, it's great that children survive and get better,

**[01:01:16]** if not completely. They might live to 25, 30, 35 years.

**[01:01:20]** There is another problem though. But the psychological terror and isolation

**[01:01:24]** that these families go through during the whole illness,

**[01:01:28]** which lasts for years, is unbelievable. It's hard to imagine

**[01:01:52]** and suddenly it falls apart and says Maruška has leukemia

**[01:01:56]** and it's really bad. And from that moment, it shifts somewhere,

**[01:02:00]** where no one wants to be. And here is the narrative we ignited,

**[01:02:04]** which will try to provide help to these families

**[01:02:08]** from a broader perspective.

**[01:02:12]** And in the broadest

**[01:02:16]** definition of palliative care, which is care for the soul

**[01:02:20]** as opposed to the body, providing those services.

**[01:02:24]** And for this purpose, we bought this old place.

**[01:02:28]** It's Cibulka in Prague 5.

**[01:02:32]** The deciding factor was that it's close to Motol,

**[01:02:36]** but at the same time, we were attracted by the fact that it's a historic building,

**[01:02:40]** which is terribly neglected. Nothing has happened there for thirty years.

**[01:02:44]** There were two squats, but it was love

**[01:02:48]** at first sight for us.

**[01:02:52]** So this is what it looks like now.

**[01:02:56]** It's a crazy thing.

**[01:03:00]** There is a long history there. Maybe I'll end with that.

**[01:03:04]** Cibulka actually had its greatest bloom, greatest fame

**[01:03:08]** at the beginning of the 19th century. It was built by a man

**[01:03:12]** who has a huge tombstone at the Malá Strana cemetery.

**[01:03:16]** Prince Count Leopold d. Hohenstein,

**[01:03:20]** who was enlightened, he was a bishop,

**[01:03:24]** but also interested in natural sciences, etc.

**[01:03:28]** This biggest tomb or grave

**[01:03:32]** at the Malá Strana cemetery belongs to him.

**[01:03:36]** Why do I say all this? It was very interesting for us,

**[01:03:40]** when we stood there. Next to that grave, there is still

**[01:03:44]** a single stele, and we stood there looking at it.

**[01:03:48]** We looked at it and now on that stele,

**[01:03:52]** on that tombstone, we read this.

**[01:03:56]** It says omnia tempus habend, which means

**[01:04:00]** everything has its time.

**[01:04:04]** We felt a bit shaken.

**[01:04:08]** A really strange feeling that what we talked about,

**[01:04:12]** that it just stands there and Cibulka just wanted it

**[01:04:16]** and waited there until the foundation bought it and made

**[01:04:20]** the children's hospice there, and I think it's all good.

**[01:04:24]** So I'll end with that and thank you very much for your attention.

**[01:04:34]** Thank you very much.

**[01:04:38]** Let me remind you that

**[01:04:42]** feel free to sit down.

**[01:04:46]** I remind you that if you want to ask something, definitely do, there are plenty of questions.

**[01:04:50]** I really thank you for that deep sharing.

**[01:04:54]** For me, it's always a great experience,

**[01:04:58]** to hear that it's not just about the pages of that forks and so on,

**[01:05:02]** that there is also some soul, so thank you very much for that.

**[01:05:06]** We can continue because many questions relate to the business

**[01:05:10]** and I would rather go the foundation route.

**[01:05:14]** Among other things, when we talked about the goldfish,

**[01:05:18]** Karin Pospišilova was a guest at the December Brain & Breakfast

**[01:05:22]** along with others, so if you're interested in a bit more depth,

**[01:05:26]** you can definitely ask about that.

**[01:05:30]** There is a question: what was your biggest challenge

**[01:05:34]** going from part-timer to CEO?

**[01:05:38]** Definitely the transition from technical tasks,

**[01:05:42]** as I said, like being kicked out of the comfort zone,

**[01:05:46]** which for me meant detaching from the keyboard,

**[01:05:50]** getting up from the computer and looking around, realizing there are people here.

**[01:05:54]** That was definitely my biggest challenge.

**[01:05:58]** You said that after becoming CEO,

**[01:06:02]** you had to part ways with the executive team, even though they worked well. Why?

**[01:06:10]** Because I wanted to give Avast a slightly different direction,

**[01:06:14]** and at the same time I felt

**[01:06:18]** that the people... I didn't part ways with everyone.

**[01:06:22]** I parted ways with three quarters of the executives, a few stayed.

**[01:06:26]** And for me, it was important

**[01:06:30]** to really put this team together.

**[01:06:34]** I had a pretty clear idea of what types of people

**[01:06:38]** and what I needed there.

**[01:06:42]** Even though those people had worked quite well until then,

**[01:06:46]** I considered it necessary to make that change.

**[01:06:50]** And what were the things you needed?

**[01:06:54]** I needed to build a team.

**[01:06:58]** If I had to build a team,

**[01:07:02]** If I had to build a team,

**[01:07:06]** If I had to build a team,

**[01:07:10]** If I had to build a team,

**[01:07:14]** If I had to build a team,

**[01:07:18]** If I had to build a team,

**[01:07:22]** if I had to build a team,

**[01:07:26]** if I had to build a team,

**[01:07:30]** if I had to build a team,

**[01:07:34]** if I had to build a team,

**[01:07:38]** if I had to build a team,

**[01:07:42]** if I had to build a team,

**[01:07:46]** if I had to build a team,

**[01:07:50]** if I had to build a team,

**[01:07:54]** if I had to build a team,

**[01:07:58]** if I had to build a team,

**[01:08:02]** if I had to build a team,

**[01:08:06]** if I had to build a team.

**[01:08:24]** We officially introduced it less than a year ago,

**[01:08:28]** and so in this relatively short time,

**[01:08:32]** the number of people taking more vacation than the standard five weeks in the Czech Republic,

**[01:08:36]** is really small.

**[01:08:40]** We considered that there is actually a risk,

**[01:08:44]** that unlimited can also mean none at all.

**[01:08:48]** When I go to a pub and there's a voluntary

**[01:08:52]** pay what you want for a beer,

**[01:08:56]** it's awkward not to pay anything,

**[01:09:00]** and on the contrary, people usually pay around two hundred crowns,

**[01:09:04]** because they feel a bit obliged.

**[01:09:08]** With unlimited vacation, it's awkward to take any at all.

**[01:09:12]** It was very important for us to communicate clearly within the company,

**[01:09:16]** that we fully support it. I even sent some photos

**[01:09:20]** from my vacations so people could see,

**[01:09:24]** that it's fine and okay for people to take time off.

**[01:09:28]** But we still don't have complete experience.

**[01:09:32]** Here's a question from Tom: What does the friend do,

**[01:09:36]** who got the computer with you?

**[01:09:40]** Greetings to Sukar, if he ever sees this. The friend became a scientist.

**[01:09:44]** We actually studied at university together.

**[01:09:48]** I was at the math faculty, he was at physics.

**[01:09:52]** So I think he focuses on plasma physics and atmospheric physics.

**[01:09:56]** and I believe he's at the Academy of Sciences.

**[01:10:00]** Two days ago there was

**[01:10:02]** an award ceremony at

**[01:10:04]** Datci Navron, so that too

**[01:10:08]** we recommend watching.

**[01:10:10]** You talk about decency,

**[01:10:12]** Ondřej, isn't it

**[01:10:14]** often a slower path and doesn't it go against

**[01:10:16]** business?

**[01:10:18]** Maybe,

**[01:10:20]** it's like in life,

**[01:10:22]** right? Like

**[01:10:24]** when I'm in line

**[01:10:26]** for the ski lift

**[01:10:28]** and some, like,

**[01:10:30]** jerk cuts in front,

**[01:10:32]** then they probably

**[01:10:34]** go faster. But

**[01:10:36]** whether that's permanent,

**[01:10:38]** sustainable, whether it actually is,

**[01:10:40]** like, whether that jerk talks about it, I actually, like, don't know.

**[01:10:42]** I almost doubt it.

**[01:10:44]** I think if we're talking

**[01:10:46]** about short-term results, then that's

**[01:10:48]** probably not the best,

**[01:10:50]** but if we're talking about, like, long-term

**[01:10:52]** results, long-term sustainability,

**[01:10:54]** or some kind of, like, opportunities

**[01:10:56]** to open up, like, possibilities for

**[01:10:58]** exponential growth, finding those

**[01:11:00]** paths, then I think it actually,

**[01:11:02]** slows things down, it's

**[01:11:04]** better. It's actually the only way.

**[01:11:06]** I will

**[01:11:08]** ask you

**[01:11:10]** about that first moment

**[01:11:12]** actually,

**[01:11:14]** I've always said about Avast that

**[01:11:16]** it's simply, like, in the Czech

**[01:11:18]** Republic, like the Czech Skype,

**[01:11:20]** etc. Now you've actually made this success.

**[01:11:22]** What do you think this will signal

**[01:11:24]** to others,

**[01:11:26]** whether businessmen, startup founders, or anyone at all?

**[01:11:28]** for the whole Czech Republic?

**[01:11:30]** Because I also heard things

**[01:11:32]** that you actually sold it and that

**[01:11:34]** this is the end of it.

**[01:11:36]** Well, one thing is that,

**[01:11:38]** we're talking about the merger,

**[01:11:40]** which is quite a significant difference

**[01:11:42]** because it's not an exit. Whether

**[01:11:44]** it's the founder of Avast or me,

**[01:11:46]** and possibly others, we actually

**[01:11:48]** stay involved, both in terms of

**[01:11:50]** ownership and roles. So that's

**[01:11:52]** quite important, but

**[01:11:54]** what it means, I said before the podcast

**[01:11:56]** that the Skype effect in Estonia

**[01:11:58]** was that suddenly some people with

**[01:12:00]** liquidity and experience

**[01:12:02]** and the right drive at the right age

**[01:12:04]** shot off into the ether,

**[01:12:06]** and it's possible that the same

**[01:12:08]** could happen here. I would welcome that,

**[01:12:10]** even though, of course, the CEO

**[01:12:12]** wants us to have the best people at Avast

**[01:12:14]** and wants to keep them there, and I'm

**[01:12:16]** trying to keep as many as possible.

**[01:12:18]** But if those people decide that

**[01:12:20]** for their career and maybe for the wider

**[01:12:22]** Czech Republic environment, it's better

**[01:12:24]** for them to go and start something now,

**[01:12:48]** some startup or start investing in other startups or start doing some

**[01:12:50]** mentoring outside of Avast,

**[01:12:52]** then I will actually be happy about that too

**[01:12:54]** and I will be glad.

**[01:12:56]** There is a question here

**[01:12:58]** about employee engagement,

**[01:13:00]** about their involvement,

**[01:13:02]** whether the introduction of those

**[01:13:04]** new benefits had any effect on that, or

**[01:13:06]** if it’s still too soon to say,

**[01:13:08]** but if you’ve noticed anything yet?

**[01:13:10]** Well, we,

**[01:13:12]** do a big engagement survey

**[01:13:14]** once a year, so since then we haven’t done one yet

**[01:13:16]** and there’s a lot, I see it as

**[01:13:18]** mostly influenced by Covid.

**[01:13:20]** Covid still, like,

**[01:13:22]** mentally crushes people. Now,

**[01:13:24]** luckily this summer

**[01:13:26]** and so far in September,

**[01:13:28]** it looks good. And,

**[01:13:30]** I really feel it, for example, we had

**[01:13:32]** a product launch about a week,

**[01:13:34]** two weeks ago and we actually

**[01:13:36]** held an event here in Prague

**[01:13:38]** that about 200 people attended,

**[01:13:40]** and in London and America,

**[01:13:42]** they had local events too,

**[01:13:44]** and it was a huge boost.

**[01:13:46]** People met in person for the first time in a while, the atmosphere was great,

**[01:13:48]** there were a lot of technical glitches during

**[01:13:50]** the presentation, but nobody minded

**[01:13:52]** and everyone was just so excited

**[01:13:54]** to see their colleagues again,

**[01:13:56]** and it was really, like, you could feel

**[01:13:58]** that huge energy in the room.

**[01:14:00]** So I really hope,

**[01:14:08]** that this would help a lot, but on the contrary,

**[01:14:10]** if it were to go back to that

**[01:14:12]** kind of state,

**[01:14:14]** a bit of hopelessness that COVID will be here,

**[01:14:16]** forever and it will,

**[01:14:18]** just limit us here,

**[01:14:20]** then I think it actually has

**[01:14:22]** a much bigger impact

**[01:14:24]** on engagement,

**[01:14:26]** for example when doing a survey, than

**[01:14:28]** some bigger changes that

**[01:14:30]** we implement there.

**[01:14:32]** Adam cleverly asked

**[01:14:34]** three questions in one,

**[01:14:36]** so I'll ask if

**[01:14:38]** you still have time to go through it,

**[01:14:40]** if you're still typing away.

**[01:14:42]** Time, well,

**[01:14:44]** I just don't know how,

**[01:14:46]** like, I mean,

**[01:14:48]** my middle

**[01:14:50]** son, the two,

**[01:14:52]** the oldest and youngest, who are kind of,

**[01:14:54]** athletes and basically,

**[01:14:58]** or programming is not their interest.

**[01:15:00]** And the middle one might have

**[01:15:02]** some talent and is interested,

**[01:15:04]** so he's already been through three or four

**[01:15:06]** programming clubs.

**[01:15:08]** And I sometimes try to watch

**[01:15:10]** what he's actually doing.

**[01:15:12]** And I realized that I really

**[01:15:14]** don't know how to do it well, like,

**[01:15:16]** I have some memories of

**[01:15:18]** C and Assembler,

**[01:15:20]** but today it's done in different ways.

**[01:15:22]** Of course, I know the names,

**[01:15:24]** but I don't actually know how to program,

**[01:15:26]** and there are a thousand other people,

**[01:15:28]** who will actually do it much better.

**[01:15:30]** So don't program.

**[01:15:32]** And how are you managing

**[01:15:34]** to build organizational culture?

**[01:15:38]** How am I managing?

**[01:15:42]** Well, like, this way,

**[01:15:44]** I said that my approach is basically,

**[01:15:46]** like, to focus a lot on those,

**[01:15:48]** like, non-business topics,

**[01:15:50]** firstly, like, to talk a lot about, let's say,

**[01:15:52]** the purpose, or that,

**[01:15:54]** the reason why we are here at all,

**[01:15:56]** and about the mission,

**[01:15:58]** and to relate everything to that a lot.

**[01:16:00]** I think that's really important.

**[01:16:02]** And the values, well, I think,

**[01:16:04]** that actually, if a company is able to,

**[01:16:06]** like, articulate its values,

**[01:16:08]** and not just,

**[01:16:10]** just have some empty phrases,

**[01:16:12]** which are written on paper,

**[01:16:14]** but really, like, actively,

**[01:16:16]** just, like, maintain and somehow,

**[01:16:18]** like, steer the organization,

**[01:16:20]** so that they are lived

**[01:16:22]** throughout the organization, then that's,

**[01:16:24]** like, that's the way.

**[01:16:26]** And, like, it's a journey,

**[01:16:28]** like, I definitely don't want to say,

**[01:16:30]** that in this, like, the best,

**[01:16:32]** like, of this,

**[01:16:36]** it's really, like, not easy,

**[01:16:38]** because there are huge,

**[01:16:40]** like, diversities and everything, which is fine,

**[01:16:42]** actually, but when it comes to some,

**[01:16:44]** really, like, things that are,

**[01:16:46]** so it's more about,

**[01:16:48]** really, like, looking for those things,

**[01:16:50]** that go against the values and against

**[01:16:52]** that culture and they will be able to, like, handle

**[01:16:54]** quickly, in case those people really, like,

**[01:16:56]** need to be removed from the organization if they are not, like,

**[01:16:58]** the right fit. And then

**[01:17:00]** of course, like, on the other hand, highlight

**[01:17:02]** and somehow, like, seek out

**[01:17:04]** those, those things,

**[01:17:06]** when something happens that is,

**[01:17:08]** like, unnatural, which is, actually,

**[01:17:10]** like, in the values and which, actually,

**[01:17:12]** like, demonstrates the values and somehow

**[01:17:14]** celebrate it, and that's probably the way.

**[01:17:16]** I want to touch on one thing,

**[01:17:18]** that you actually talked about at the beginning,

**[01:17:20]** it relates to this.

**[01:17:22]** I was lucky and I am lucky,

**[01:17:24]** that I talk with people who

**[01:17:26]** created large entities

**[01:17:28]** in organizations and what

**[01:17:30]** runs through there is that,

**[01:17:32]** at some point they realized

**[01:17:34]** they want to be global and started hiring,

**[01:17:36]** actually, people from around the world

**[01:17:38]** and actually created that, like,

**[01:17:40]** diverse culture.

**[01:17:42]** And you said you have 62, actually,

**[01:17:44]** like, nationalities and

**[01:17:46]** how do you actually deal with that?

**[01:17:48]** What does it mean for you?

**[01:17:52]** Well,

**[01:17:54]** like this,

**[01:17:56]** it's again a kind of journey, that,

**[01:17:58]** actually, like,

**[01:18:00]** it's not completely natural, it's not, actually, something that just,

**[01:18:02]** like, happened on its own. It needs,

**[01:18:04]** like, help. So,

**[01:18:06]** firstly, we try,

**[01:18:08]** actually, like, to create some, like, programs,

**[01:18:10]** that allow those people, like, to

**[01:18:12]** learn something about it,

**[01:18:14]** for those who are interested, kind of,

**[01:18:16]** because we have, for example, just yesterday we launched

**[01:18:18]** a program that we call

**[01:18:20]** Bridging Cultural Differences,

**[01:18:22]** where people from different backgrounds,

**[01:18:24]** talk about how it is for them,

**[01:18:26]** in what environment they grew up, and somehow

**[01:18:28]** try to make accessible the

**[01:18:30]** mindset that,

**[01:18:32]** exists, for example, in that particular culture or in that

**[01:18:34]** particular religion, etc.

**[01:18:36]** And basically, through

**[01:18:38]** some dialogues and a kind of,

**[01:18:40]** awareness, they try to push it

**[01:18:42]** into the organization. But it's,

**[01:18:44]** it's simple. Of course, we have many missteps

**[01:18:46]** and it happens that someone somewhere,

**[01:18:48]** makes a joke that

**[01:18:50]** is totally fine in that culture.

**[01:18:52]** But in another culture, it's just

**[01:18:54]** terrible and causes some,

**[01:18:56]** big, big

**[01:18:58]** waves. And it's just,

**[01:19:00]** a constant

**[01:19:02]** thing that needs to be worked on,

**[01:19:04]** and I think it's important that the company leadership somehow

**[01:19:06]** leads this as an active agenda.

**[01:19:08]** They have a project and really try to

**[01:19:10]** dedicate themselves to it. It's not just,

**[01:19:12]** some side project that

**[01:19:14]** actually doesn't have,

**[01:19:16]** doesn't have,

**[01:19:18]** top-level sponsorship.

**[01:19:20]** Well, we actually

**[01:19:22]** found that it already

**[01:19:24]** starts with the language spoken in the company,

**[01:19:26]** and many companies isolate themselves. They say, why would I

**[01:19:28]** and I would and this and that,

**[01:19:30]** and this actually

**[01:19:32]** holds the company back.

**[01:19:34]** But the question is actually related to

**[01:19:36]** how you

**[01:19:38]** actually recruit employees.

**[01:19:40]** It's a problem because

**[01:19:42]** companies often complain that

**[01:19:44]** there's nowhere to really turn to,

**[01:19:46]** so you probably

**[01:19:48]** have it figured out from your experience.

**[01:19:50]** Is it globally the same

**[01:19:52]** as it is here in the Czech Republic?

**[01:19:54]** I think the problem of a shortage

**[01:19:56]** of good people is everywhere. It's

**[01:19:58]** definitely not specific

**[01:20:00]** to the Czech Republic.

**[01:20:02]** On the other hand, we work a lot

**[01:20:04]** with young people,

**[01:20:06]** and with schools, so here in the Czech Republic,

**[01:20:08]** we really try with all

**[01:20:10]** the technical schools that are here,

**[01:20:12]** we try to

**[01:20:14]** basically

**[01:20:16]** take theses, run

**[01:20:18]** courses.

**[01:20:20]** We're basically friends with those schools

**[01:20:22]** and we have very large student

**[01:20:24]** programs, so I think right now we have about

**[01:20:26]** 180-190 students

**[01:20:28]** who are currently working at Avast

**[01:20:30]** in some

**[01:20:32]** capacity, some just

**[01:20:34]** a few hours a week. So you pay them the money as

**[01:20:36]** you said.

**[01:20:38]** It works maybe

**[01:20:40]** a little differently, but

**[01:20:42]** but

**[01:20:44]** I think it's really

**[01:20:46]** important to work with young people

**[01:20:48]** and in a way

**[01:20:50]** shape them and make them

**[01:20:52]** like the

**[01:20:54]** future leaders, basically

**[01:20:56]** or something like from the start, that actually

**[01:20:58]** hiring people who are already established

**[01:21:00]** in their career is always

**[01:21:02]** a bigger risk.

**[01:21:04]** Even though it's faster and of course sometimes you

**[01:21:06]** also need to transfer

**[01:21:08]** experience, but actually working

**[01:21:10]** with young people or with those

**[01:21:12]** just starting out

**[01:21:14]** is more of a long-term

**[01:21:16]** plan that has really

**[01:21:18]** paid off for us a lot.

**[01:21:20]** Here's a question,

**[01:21:22]** if I may shift a bit to the

**[01:21:24]** personal side, have you ever experienced

**[01:21:26]** burnout syndrome

**[01:21:28]** and if so, what helped you?

**[01:21:30]** I probably haven't, like

**[01:21:32]** it's kind of strange, well.

**[01:21:34]** Maybe because I've

**[01:21:36]** never really had a job that was

**[01:21:38]** routine, my work

**[01:21:40]** constantly changed, considering that I've been

**[01:21:42]** at the same company for 26 years,

**[01:21:44]** which is just unbelievable,

**[01:21:46]** so basically my role, as I

**[01:21:48]** said, kept evolving

**[01:21:50]** and the company changed incredibly,

**[01:21:52]** so I

**[01:21:54]** always had some kind of

**[01:21:56]** external impulses, plus I was really

**[01:21:58]** like

**[01:22:00]** what is it?

**[01:22:02]** I don't want to use the word outdoor

**[01:22:04]** person, because when you say outdoor,

**[01:22:06]** I imagine the Himalayas

**[01:22:08]** or at least

**[01:22:10]** 4000-meter peaks in the Alps.

**[01:22:12]** I'm more of a person who likes

**[01:22:14]** spend time outside and I try to walk a lot.

**[01:22:16]** Actually, my best ideas

**[01:22:18]** or the best things always

**[01:22:20]** come to me when I'm walking.

**[01:22:22]** And that's maybe something

**[01:22:24]** that really helps me a lot.

**[01:22:26]** Like the fresh air and that kind of

**[01:22:28]** let's say

**[01:22:30]** movement that isn't too intense,

**[01:22:32]** I'm not completely

**[01:22:34]** sweaty from it, but at the same time,

**[01:22:36]** there's some movement that gets

**[01:22:38]** the blood flowing,

**[01:22:40]** and that's a pretty important

**[01:22:42]** thing for me.

**[01:22:44]** David asks,

**[01:22:46]** I think I know which David,

**[01:22:48]** in what areas was the first frame

**[01:22:50]** at Stanford transformational for you, what changed?

**[01:22:52]** Just the fact that

**[01:22:58]** the curriculum was really different than I expected.

**[01:23:00]** It was like,

**[01:23:02]** that’s how it started, because

**[01:23:04]** as I said, the main topics were

**[01:23:06]** like

**[01:23:08]** working with people

**[01:23:10]** and some kind of

**[01:23:12]** things I had never really thought about,

**[01:23:14]** so just what was in the program. Plus,

**[01:23:16]** there was a part about empathy,

**[01:23:18]** where basically they lock you in a room

**[01:23:20]** for a week with ten other people you don't know

**[01:23:22]** and don't give you any

**[01:23:38]** program. Like

**[01:23:40]** do whatever you want. There are two facilitators,

**[01:23:42]** and you just stay silent.

**[01:23:44]** And now like

**[01:23:46]** at the beginning, it goes like this,

**[01:23:48]** for example,

**[01:23:50]** everyone introduces themselves, each one

**[01:23:52]** just says for five minutes, I'm here,

**[01:23:54]** I'm Bob, I'm from Texas,

**[01:23:56]** and I'm a kindergarten director,

**[01:23:58]** and here is Mary, I'm

**[01:24:00]** from Singapore and I'm, I don't know,

**[01:24:02]** a CFO of some

**[01:24:04]** multinational corporation.

**[01:24:06]** And this kind of

**[01:24:08]** happens, then an hour passes

**[01:24:10]** and suddenly silence again.

**[01:24:12]** Sometimes someone makes a joke.

**[01:24:14]** Then like, so what

**[01:24:16]** shall we do, play tic-tac-toe or what.

**[01:24:18]** Actually, it's hard, like

**[01:24:20]** hard at the start. And what

**[01:24:22]** it does is that

**[01:24:24]** on the first, second day,

**[01:24:26]** people start to get a bit annoyed

**[01:24:28]** and start to say things they might not want to. Then the

**[01:24:30]** facilitator is actually there just for that.

**[01:24:32]** He would throw in controversial

**[01:24:34]** topics.

**[01:24:36]** And he would say, I think that

**[01:24:38]** black polo shirts,

**[01:24:40]** they should just go.

**[01:24:42]** He would just throw that in there like that.

**[01:24:44]** And now what it

**[01:24:46]** starts to create is kind of

**[01:24:48]** a tense room. It creates tension.

**[01:24:50]** And what it

**[01:24:52]** does is that

**[01:24:54]** after two or three,

**[01:24:58]** After four days, people start to open up.

**[01:25:00]** Suddenly, they begin to share

**[01:25:02]** things like,

**[01:25:04]** 'When I was young, I had this

**[01:25:06]** terrible experience.'

**[01:25:08]** And they just start talking,

**[01:25:10]** sharing these deep,

**[01:25:12]** inner stories. They start

**[01:25:14]** to recognize each other. And after those seven days,

**[01:25:16]** I actually feel

**[01:25:18]** like I know Mary well enough,

**[01:25:20]** like we've known each other

**[01:25:22]** our whole lives. And at the same time,

**[01:25:24]** I really

**[01:25:28]** I actually

**[01:25:30]** want to work with her and

**[01:25:32]** I want to

**[01:25:34]** somehow,

**[01:25:36]** how to say it, that suddenly

**[01:25:38]** empathy arises there.

**[01:25:40]** And you normally

**[01:25:42]** don't know how. It just

**[01:25:44]** somehow works. This was one of

**[01:25:46]** the tougher parts

**[01:25:48]** of what happened there.

**[01:25:50]** Which I considered for myself

**[01:25:52]** and for my life to be

**[01:25:54]** transformative again.

**[01:25:56]** Actually,

**[01:25:58]** when we talked about

**[01:26:00]** the preparation,

**[01:26:02]** you invested one and a half billion

**[01:26:04]** in palliative care.

**[01:26:06]** Which is a huge, huge

**[01:26:08]** amount of money.

**[01:26:10]** And when you

**[01:26:12]** did that, I just

**[01:26:14]** stood there with my mouth open

**[01:26:16]** and said, wow, this is

**[01:26:18]** like a massacre. And because at Red

**[01:26:20]** Button we believe that society simply

**[01:26:22]** improves through entrepreneurs

**[01:26:24]** and through the corporate environment. So I just

**[01:26:26]** said, this is like a great, like

**[01:26:28]** kickoff moment when someone did this.

**[01:26:30]** Did you also feel that

**[01:26:32]** you were actually sending out the wave

**[01:26:34]** in such a strong way like this?

**[01:26:36]** We talked a lot about whether

**[01:26:38]** we wanted to publicize it or not.

**[01:26:40]** Because both of us are kind of

**[01:26:42]** more introverts,

**[01:26:44]** and since

**[01:26:46]** we didn’t need any

**[01:26:48]** grants or anything like that,

**[01:26:50]** we basically didn’t need the publicity.

**[01:26:52]** So it would have been more natural for us

**[01:26:54]** not to publicize it.

**[01:26:56]** But then,

**[01:26:58]** the more we thought about it,

**[01:27:00]** the more we were able to

**[01:27:02]** write down the reasons why we should

**[01:27:04]** actually publicize it. First, because

**[01:27:06]** it could serve as some kind of

**[01:27:08]** inspiration for other people, so it

**[01:27:10]** would help the whole environment.

**[01:27:12]** It would somehow cultivate it.

**[01:27:14]** That was one thing. The other was the topic

**[01:27:16]** of palliative care, which itself

**[01:27:18]** is really neglected, no one talks about it.

**[01:27:20]** Nobody really wants it. It’s a topic about

**[01:27:22]** sick, ugly,

**[01:27:24]** unattractive children locked away somewhere.

**[01:27:26]** It’s kind of

**[01:27:28]** the default

**[01:27:30]** state of society.

**[01:27:32]** And we wanted to kick off this topic and make it more

**[01:27:34]** mainstream.

**[01:27:38]** And this created

**[01:27:40]** some kind of platform for us, and we'll keep pushing it further.

**[01:27:44]** So in the end, it turned out like this.

**[01:27:46]** And I feel that the feedback

**[01:27:48]** we got from it is, of course,

**[01:27:50]** wonderful.

**[01:27:52]** I've had several conversations with some people

**[01:27:54]** who are

**[01:27:56]** also quite

**[01:27:58]** financially strong,

**[01:28:00]** and openly said

**[01:28:02]** that it’s very inspiring, that they are thinking about it

**[01:28:04]** and that maybe they will

**[01:28:06]** also commit to something like this.

**[01:28:08]** So it served some

**[01:28:10]** purpose.

**[01:28:12]** That's great, and thank you very much for that.

**[01:28:14]** Maybe, if I could ask you a bit,

**[01:28:16]** because I think

**[01:28:18]** it's worth it.

**[01:28:20]** And I have a question here,

**[01:28:24]** which Tom asked. I also had it

**[01:28:26]** written down. I remember quite well, about

**[01:28:28]** seven years ago, I was sitting next to Petr Sikora

**[01:28:30]** from Dobrý Anděl and asked him

**[01:28:32]** about how he copes with the stories

**[01:28:34]** and fates he encounters in the foundation's work,

**[01:28:36]** especially with Zlatá Ryba.

**[01:28:38]** Because I think those stories

**[01:28:40]** are really powerful.

**[01:28:42]** Well, it's kind of

**[01:28:44]** like...

**[01:28:48]** they are truly

**[01:28:50]** touching things. Like,

**[01:28:52]** it's very pleasant. Like,

**[01:28:54]** it's pleasant

**[01:28:56]** in the sense that it actually

**[01:28:58]** gives

**[01:29:00]** some kind of

**[01:29:02]** hope. They are

**[01:29:04]** like actually really

**[01:29:06]** optimistic, positive

**[01:29:08]** stories, where actually like

**[01:29:10]** the gifts, for example, or the

**[01:29:12]** fulfillment of wishes, of course,

**[01:29:14]** in the broader context,

**[01:29:16]** charity, etc.

**[01:29:18]** It might sound like actually a

**[01:29:20]** trivial or pointless thing,

**[01:29:22]** but I

**[01:29:24]** absolutely believe that's not the case.

**[01:29:26]** There is a whole ritual behind it,

**[01:29:28]** where the children express their wish,

**[01:29:30]** so basically

**[01:29:32]** they meet with the so-called

**[01:29:34]** dreamers, which is our team.

**[01:29:36]** They write it down together,

**[01:29:38]** then they have some kind of

**[01:29:40]** time to look forward to it.

**[01:29:42]** They receive some kind of

**[01:29:44]** skillfully written, there's a whole

**[01:29:46]** process behind it, designed,

**[01:29:48]** optimized so that it is really

**[01:29:50]** strong for the children and their

**[01:29:52]** parents. But it's actually a longer-term

**[01:29:54]** thing, which actually brings

**[01:29:56]** some light into the

**[01:29:58]** otherwise gray reality.

**[01:30:00]** Hospital or some kind of home care, where they basically

**[01:30:05]** have no distraction at all.

**[01:30:08]** And we have it set up so that although the whole

**[01:30:12]** operation is managed by the director and her whole

**[01:30:16]** team, we actually receive weekly reports

**[01:30:20]** through SLEG, where we have exactly each wish

**[01:30:24]** described in such prose, where they are really

**[01:30:28]** experts, it could fill several books, all of them described, including such

**[01:30:32]** emotional details, what happened, etc. They also come up with various

**[01:30:36]** tricks for them, like it's a surprise, that someone comes

**[01:30:40]** through it, also different things, and it's just like

**[01:30:44]** for us a kind of favorite weekly reading, which gives us

**[01:30:48]** It's like energy, it's kind of a motor for us.

**[01:30:52]** Thank you very much. Last question. It's a shame it's anonymous.

**[01:30:58]** I would really like to give him or her a thumbs up.

**[01:31:02]** In what way do you try to be the biggest inspiration for your children?

**[01:31:06]** Well, the biggest inspiration.

**[01:31:10]** I have to say, the timing, the circumstances, hopefully.

**[01:31:14]** Partly it worked out with COVID, because we had the time

**[01:31:18]** to actually discuss things with Katka and make the decision.

**[01:31:22]** And partly it was related to the fact that the kids are at an age,

**[01:31:26]** where they perceive the world around them, only 11, 14, 16.

**[01:31:32]** And for us, it was probably important to make this decision here

**[01:31:36]** and send them some kind of signal.

**[01:31:40]** Actually, one thing is to tell them things like this,

**[01:31:44]** and explain, which of course is important and we have done from the start,

**[01:31:48]** but actions are still stronger.

**[01:31:52]** So for us, founding the foundation, where we ourselves

**[01:31:56]** didn't really talk much about the foundation with them personally,

**[01:32:00]** because we did it and they later found out about it somehow

**[01:32:04]** from the media or from some classmates or so,

**[01:32:08]** I think it was good because they actually saw

**[01:32:12]** that it happened and they will somehow, I think, now take it

**[01:32:16]** as reality and hopefully they will take care of the foundation maybe

**[01:32:20]** when we are no longer here, we really try to build it long-term,

**[01:32:24]** the financing system is set up to be sustainable long-term,

**[01:32:28]** so we rely on the fact that the kids received some

**[01:32:32]** values there so that they take it as their own

**[01:32:36]** and somehow continue it.

**[01:33:06]** Thank you.

**[01:33:30]** ... or maybe we can still sit down, what did it give you?

**[01:33:34]** On the slide, we have three words that we take from this conversation,

**[01:33:38]** so we would be very glad if you tell us how you liked it.

**[01:33:42]** You can definitely do it either on that slide or vote directly on edu,

**[01:33:46]** if you are watching the live broadcast. I'll skip this here.

**[01:33:52]** So, an important thing that we often do and recommend to all of you,

**[01:33:56]** who are sitting somewhere with colleagues or friends or just in the library

**[01:34:01]** with someone you don't know, try to sit down for a few moments

**[01:34:06]** and talk a bit about the topic. We also have a questionnaire,

**[01:34:09]** or write feedback on edu about what surprised you,

**[01:34:12]** what were the main aha moments. It will definitely come back to you.

**[01:34:17]** And since it's not possible to chat here today,

**[01:34:23]** We call it Brain and Breakfast Digestive,

**[01:34:26]** which is basically a follow-up experience of what we discuss here.

**[01:34:32]** Besides the usual guest, I also invite a few other people,

**[01:34:37]** who I think could enrich the topic a bit

**[01:34:40]** or look at it from a different perspective.

**[01:34:42]** For example, Markéta Pěchočková from the Ministry of Labour

**[01:34:46]** and Social Affairs, who will look at the issues from a different angle.

**[01:34:50]** Gabča Končetíková, about building Baťa and the whole system here.

**[01:34:55]** Your friends Pavel and Michal Šrér and Filip Žímálka.

**[01:34:59]** So definitely join us, sign up.

**[01:35:02]** Now, a reminder of other projects Red Button is doing,

**[01:35:06]** like the book of the month.

**[01:35:08]** We have experiential pedagogy by Petra Drahenská.

**[01:35:11]** Today is the last day for the September book chosen by Jirka Vycherek, his modeus.

**[01:35:17]** Ondra Suchý is hosting it, so definitely check it out.

**[01:35:21]** There are many interesting shows on Edu, so if you have time and interest,

**[01:35:25]** definitely take a look.

**[01:35:27]** Here sits Jarda Jirák from the Neurazitelný project.

**[01:35:31]** I recently saw an amazing lecture with Radvan Bachbuch.

**[01:35:35]** Table for three, so you can watch it there too.

**[01:35:38]** On October 21st, we continue.

**[01:35:41]** We will have another special guest, Jitka Dvořáková, CEO of CZC,

**[01:35:47]** and the talk will revolve around the theme of twos,

**[01:35:51]** because she started her second career after 50.

**[01:35:56]** She went into e-commerce.

**[01:35:59]** I think it will be a very interesting conversation,

**[01:36:02]** so if you have time and interest, October 21st at 8:30.

**[01:36:06]** Either live on Edu or here at the Magenta Experience Center,

**[01:36:09]** where you can sign up.

**[01:36:11]** Once again, Ondra, many thanks to you and to all of you.

**[01:36:14]** Take care, cheers, and goodbye.