Lukáš holds the position of Group Compliance Manager for the OKIN group and is also the main contact person for the ESG area. That's a really wide range within one position, and that's why we chose Lukáš for the first part of our new series.
Lukáš, how would you briefly summarize what exactly the Compliance manager is responsible for?
As for the role of compliance, it is mainly about the fact that one should listen to the employees who are part of the OKIN group. It's actually a "double role". On the one hand, there can be complaints that can be submitted both directly and anonymously. My task is then to find a meaningful solution while ideally involving only a minimum of other people and which will ultimately be to the satisfaction of all parties involved. In extreme cases, it can be an accusation that could result in a criminal complaint, but it can also basically be banality, when the so-called two "roosters" can't agree and I then have to find some reasonable solution. On the other hand, suggestions for improvement come to me. Most employees know that something could be done more efficiently but are too shy to say so. However, they can submit such suggestions anonymously today, and I will continue to work with them. This is the compliance manager's role in a nutshell.
You are also the main contact person for ESG. This year, OKIN Facility declared 2024 the year of ESG, which is also about properly balancing work and personal life. It seems that your role is quite demanding on concentration and can be quite stressful at times. How do you relax and recharge your batteries in your free time?
The bottom line is that I know how to distinguish between work and personal life, even though the two are intertwined and work sometimes catches up with me on weekends and vacations. But I can tell it apart and turn it off. It's always about hobbies, family, and trying to use free time effectively in the sense of your hobbies or family activities. And I think that is the alpha and omega of everything.
And what are your hobbies?
I have a lot of them, but the most important one is definitely hockey. Journalism and photography of hockey, management of websites and everything related to the team. So, for almost 30 years I've been running websites, interviewing hockey players, shooting videos and trying to help with promotions. And I would say that this is my second life. A friend once told me that no woman or lover in my life would ever be as big as hockey. And certainly not that long-term.🙂 And then there are the books. I read a lot and always. I go on inline skates, sometimes even on races. Even though it's getting more and more strenuous with age, I play board games with my family and just do always something. I tend to avoid TV, I'm terribly conservative about it, so I don't even wear headphones and I have neither Spotify nor Netflix. But I use my time for other activities, they may be boring for someone, but they simply recharge me.
When you mentioned hockey, do you ever go play it too?
Never. I've never played it in my life, even though I'm always asked about it. But my with hockey it started when I was a boy, around twelve, thirteen. I saw a certain player Jiří Dopita on TV, and that was the role model and the decisive formative moment when I said to myself that I like hockey. But I knew I would never play, I wasn't physically built for it. However, I went to hockey and started taking notes from the first or second game. Who scored a goal, assisted, penalty. Well, since I'm from Ostrava, I was looking for a club that would suit me. I wanted something a little smaller, not mainstream, so in 1996 I anchored at Poruba. With the advent of the Internet, I started a website that is still running today.
In the beginning it was just a hobby, but when did you manage to establish real cooperation with the hockey club in Poruba? Was it also thanks to the Internet?
Back then, there weren't many websites and I was very active on my amateur one. They were up-to-date, I got my friends involved and they had good traffic. At that time, one learned about the results of the match only from the newspapers, usually on the second or third day after the match. But I followed it and was able to have the results on the website already on the day of the match. Poruba then set up an official website, but the person who was in charge of the website got it probably more as a punishment. Well, you can recognize when someone does something from the heart, or vice versa. In the end, the results were often published on those official websites even later than in the newspapers. And since quite a few people were already following my site, they eventually contacted me saying they would be interested in cooperation. And that's how it all came about. Today it is something that really recharges my batteries because I enjoy it.
It's great to see people doing things with enthusiasm. Let's stop briefly at those books. I know you like Tolkien. How did you actually get into the fantasy world of this author? (JRR Tolkien, author of e.g. the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy - author's note)
It already started in grammar school. Back then, everyone read something, but the decisive influence was the influence of the cousin of one of my classmates, who was a little older than us and brought a book by Tolkien. I read it and I can say that it got me. Coincidentally, it was my birthday then, so I told everyone in the family and got four of his books at once. All books were new on the market because before the revolution nothing came out except The Hobbit. Those were the first editions, the first translations.
Do you have a lot of his books at home and do you go back to the ones you've already read?
I have hundreds of them at home, even multiple editions of one book. Different editions often have different translations, some of them are published in English or illustrated differently, and I enjoy watching what the particular translator wrote or edited differently. So yes, I like to go back to them. If we're talking about The Hobbit, for example, I have 20-30 issues at home, so maybe more than some publishers have.
You're also part of the Tolkien association, am I right?
Yes. There are two organizations, the Czech one is declining a little, and we are trying to somehow revive it with other enthusiasts, so we publish a magazine about Tolkien with colleagues from all over the Czech Republic. We publish it from time to time, fighting a bit with time capacities. We collect texts, illustrations, look for illustrators, etc. And then there is the international Tolkien Society, which includes various lectures and publishes magazines. However, Czechs rarely actively assert themselves in this organization, because there are too many contributors. There are hundreds of thousands of members from all over the world. But once they printed there my article in English, so I was very happy.
When you meet other people within the Czech association, don't you feel that today's young people read less than before?
The Czech Republic is certainly still among the world leaders, especially in terms of the number of published books per population, and at the same time we are either first or second in terms of book ownership. There are statistics about this. Although the young adult genre is very popular now, I call it such harlequins of the modern age. But among young people there are also many so-called bookstagramers who promote books on social networks.
I will return to the sport. Although you don't actively play hockey, I know about you that you participated in stair climbing competitions in your youth. How did you actually get there?
I have my own saying that if something is meant to happen to someone, it will happen to me. When I was about eight or nine years old, the elevator broke from the rope and I flew about three floors before the emergency brake caught the rope. Well, I got scared of elevators, so I started taking the stairs. I lived on the seventh floor, so every day I walked the seven floors, sometimes twenty times and sometimes with a bicycle. That's why I signed up for races as a complete amateur. And even though I didn't really do sports before, I placed 11th out of 200 people. I enjoyed how the pros competed with me and I was not only good enough for them, but I was often faster. Today I still walk, but I can't walk 30 floors in 35-40 seconds like before.
How long have you been avoiding elevators?
It took 15-16 years before I got into one, and to this day I prefer ideally the one from which I can see out. Sometimes, it's true, it's a little embarrassing for me. For example, we have a bank branch in Ostrava, which is located in a modern building where you cannot walk and can only be reached by elevator. So the bank employees just go downstairs in order to meet me, because I refuse to ride in their type of elevator.🙂
Lukáš, thanks a lot for your time. Finally, would you like to say something else that maybe no one knows about you?
I love sweets and chocolates. When someone wants to make me happy, they can give me Nugeta. Attention, not Nutella, but Nugeta, that's a big difference. I just like life and sweets.