Bata Shoe Strategy Dispute Succession Problems Are Quite Numerous.

After 100 years of development, Bata footwear company still stands tall. It has more than 40 thousand employees in 69 countries and sells over 200 million pairs of shoes every year.

But in the past more than 100 years, its development path has not been smooth sailing, especially the succession problem is more difficult.

Bata Shoe Company is founded by Thomas Bhatta in a city called Moravia (Zlin) in Moravia, Czech Republic.

Thomas firmly believes that the enterprise he founded is not just a tool to create wealth. Through investment, the company is committed to pforming the city into a city with modern architecture and welfare facilities.

Thomas's foresight has improved the standard of living in the company's area, which is still being mentioned at the company's family meetings.

Thomas, the founder of the company, died in a plane crash in 1932 without leaving a will.

The old Thomas Bhatta's life had changed greatly because of his father's departure. He was only 17 years old and had not yet prepared for his father's throne. So the responsibility of the leading company fell on Uncle Jane Bata's shoulders.

Old Thomas Bhatta has been working and growing up in his father's company. He has made up his mind to inherit his father's career.

He is good, energetic, and practical. Despite his great wealth, he always considers himself a shoemaker.

However, when he became an adult, his uncle refused to give up his position. As a result, there was friction between the two people. After a long stalemate, he finally appealed to the court.

In 1966, when Thomas was 47 years old, he finally gained the company's shareholding through perseverance.

Old Thomas married Songa Witterstein in 1946. The Swiss girl was 13 years younger than him. Old Thomas finally trained her as a designer.

Sohn Canada became his business partner and they started a new Bata Shoe Company in Canada.

However, Bata, under the leadership of old Thomas, failed to seize the opportunity to fully develop its potential so that Bata's company appeared to be too weak in the aggressive competition of Nike and Adidas, such as the 3. brothers.

Little Tom Bhatta

As the company continues to move forward, the Bhatta family is also expanding. The new members include a son Thomas George Bhatta (Xiao Tom) and three daughters Kristin, Monica and rose.

The conservative culture of the company and the family's central European ancestry decide that women have no place in management.

Little Tom got the best education that the rich could get: he first went to an English boarding school and then got a degree at University of Toronto.

Encouraged by his parents, he worked in a rival shoe company for several years to study business, and then he obtained an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.

In this way, before he joined Bata, he was trained to be a real modern manager.

Little Tom quickly got promoted in the company.

In 1984, when Thomas Bhatta was 70 years old, he decided to retire to the second line, so that 36 year old Tom served as president and CEO of Bata.

But the old couple and Thomas did not give up their dominant position in the company. Therefore, the boss of Bata Shoe industry is not one or two, but three: old Thomas, Songa and smart and resolute little Tom.

Although Tom has managerial skills, his style is relatively steady and he needs to prove his leadership skills.

To do his job well, he needs to separate from his social father.

But as old Thomas grew old, Thorne grew stronger and stronger.

At first, it was informal, and later she went to the board of directors of the parent company.

When Tom wanted to allow some companies to enter the stock market, Sohn added objections. Her idea was to make Bhatta the world's largest Private Held Company, rather than let others share Bhatta.

Little Tom had many different ideas from his parents. Many people thought he was right, but eventually he decided to give up and leave the company.

He could not bear to work under the shadow of his parents, and he was unwilling to fight a war that he could not win with his stubborn parents.

Little Tom realized that it is best to take a step back, at least for a while to leave the company and the company's daily business.

Outsider

If Bata company is a difficult place for the old Thomas's son, then it can be imagined for the outsider.

The company hired a new president, Stan Heath, who had no family relationship.

In 1993, after little Tom left the company, Heath's management team set a new direction for the company. But this new strategy was strongly resisted by the managers of the company, and old Thomas used to ask their subordinates about their views on Heath.

For old Thomas, it takes a lot of psychological struggle to get out of his daily business.

Heath believes that the company must pay more attention to marketing, and outsource most of the production, but he finds it hard to change old Thomas's idea. The old Thomas's lifelong goal is to become a "world shoe manufacturer", leaving the company's production business.

The strategy pursued by the management employed by the company runs counter to the wishes of the company owner, and the company is in a stalemate.

Heath could no longer move forward. He had difficulty in choosing to quit.

After Heath resigned, little Tom set up a committee with another non family member, Jack Butler, to study the problems in Bata's operation and put forward suggestions for improvement.

But they are faced with an insurmountable obstacle.

After disagreeing with her on a series of issues, Butler resigned only six months after joining the company.

The position of company CEO continued to be vacant for three years.

By 1999, there was a new non family leader, Jim Pantelidis.

He is a respected retail manager, but he lacks the support of the third generation of Tom family (especially small Tom).

Although Tom has been excluded from the company's appointment process, he is still a member of the board.

Jim Pantelidis's experience in the past 30 years is in the oil industry, so the third generation of Bata family doubted whether he could solve the strategic problem of Bata.

But the bigger challenge Jim faced was the same as that of his predecessor, namely, how to find a balance between old Thomas and his son, little Tom, who are persistent and faithful.

The change of ownership

In November 2001, Tom and his three sisters fired the new CEO in order to change the ownership structure of Bata.

Although little Tom wanted to take over the company's business, the company's trusteeship system did not allow the Bata family members to become the direct door of the company.

Tom brothers and sisters believe that in the past ten years, the value of the company has fallen due to management reasons, so the company needs a new ownership structure to go back to the road of revival.

Their goal is to retain the best part of the company's historical value and to turn a new leaf into the company through a new strategy.

This time, their parents and non family relationship trustees were finally willing to listen to their advice and finally accepted the proposal to build a new structure in order to survive in the unpredictable shoe market.

Little Tom served as CEO in a reorganized seven person board (including three Bhatta family and four outside the family). Songa Bhatta still took charge of the Bhatta charity foundation. The new structure made the company's fate once again in the hands of the Bhatta family.

Now, the Bata family can put aside the problems arising from the pition of the second and third generations over the years, and the family work together to push the family business forward.

Comment

The case of Bata company vividly shows that even if there is a serious problem in the inheritance of enterprises, it will not necessarily destroy the enterprise.

There is no doubt that Bata Shoe industry has been supported by its basic strength. Without this, the company and family will undoubtedly collapse together.

At the same time, Tom's vision enables him to know that one day his opinion will prevail. He can become the head of the company, reform the ownership and management structure of the company, and keep the company standing firm.

The biggest lesson of Bata's case is related to family unity and managers without family relations.

When there are differences between family members and there are strong action figures in the family, managers without family relations will find it difficult to get involved.

It seems that the Bata family is not ready to allow foreign personnel to intervene in the management of the company, and the outsiders are not ready to manage the family company. In addition, the process of handover between the two generations is not smooth. The last generation has many doubts and obstacles to the new manager, so the situation becomes more complicated.

In addition, the owners of the company are unable to make decisions quickly and easily because of the management system.

Little Tom Bhatta realized this, so he decided to simplify the management structure so that the company owners could make decisions more directly, and set up several independent directors in the board to supervise them externally.

This point is worthy of affirmation and reference.