In the mass transit world, time waits for no man – even for the head of Prague’s public transportation kingdom

Czech Business Weekly

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Prague’s trams and metro cars run on a tight schedule, and so does Martin Dvořák, general manager of Prague transit operator Dopravní Podnik hl. m. Prahy (DPP). His cut-to-the-chase economy of words, demand for efficiency and on-the-spot accountability have not endeared him to all, but few can argue with the 37-year-old executive’s track record at taking on management challenges in unwieldy organizations.

Before coming to Prague’s public transit authority (known in English as Prague Public Transport Co.), he built up his managerial skills at Czech commercial station Prima TV, former state-owned telecom monopoly český Telecom, and Czech tire giant Barum Continental.

“Dvořák likes any challenge and new opportunities,” said Jana Malíková, who oversaw press and public-relations operations at Prima TV during Dvořák’s seven-year tenure as general director. Today, she is spokeswoman for the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic – the nation’s equivalent of the U.S. Department of Justice.

“He came to Prima TV and made this television station the second most popular one in a few years,” Malíková noted in an email interview with Czech Business Weekly. “I am convinced that he will be able to improve DPP a lot – and that customers will greet his changes.”

Waiting for the green light

On the afternoon CBW spoke with Dvořák, a veritable traffic jam of people was seeking to greet – and meet with – the general director in his seventh-floor office in DPP’s teal-and-silvered-glass headquarters in Prague’s Vysočany district. Two secretaries charged with traffic control duty are posted just inside the door, a reporter is waiting in the hall, and more visitors are ensconced in Dvořák’s office proper.

As two men exit the room, one of the assistants waves the reporter in for a brief tete-a-tete that has been scheduled, rescheduled and re-rescheduled over the course of almost two months. Dvořák’s schedule is as tight as the door of a late-model metro carriage.

“I’m not sure you can publish what kind of personality I am,” Dvořák said in a surprisingly impish opening to the interview, which proved to be overwhelmingly serious, and decidedly short.

“I would like to be known as the guy who heavily transformed and changed the company, and cuts costs,” he said, when asked what he wanted his professional legacy at DPP to be. “Not only cut the cost, but at the same time … established a new development strategy of the company.”

Municipally owned DPP operates nearly 1,300 buses, about 1,000 trams, more than 700 metro cars, and employs about 12,600 people. The mass transit system moves approximately 1.1 billion passengers annually, and accounts for 57 percent of Prague’s transportation, according to city statistics. This makes it one of the world’s most-used public transportation systems, besting cities such as Buenos Aires, Berlin and Vienna.

When Dvořák took over the position, the company was operating at a loss – in the amount of almost 2 billion koruna (about $51 million) – but is slowly moving into the black.

Bringing younger talent

“When I entered the company, I felt it was a well-known company, extremely big, but heavy,” he said. “Everything was taking an extremely long time, and the people were very pessimistic. Now I see a lot of new faces around me, and I see in their eyes [that they feel differently.]”

Many of the faces brought on board by Dvořák are younger than he is. Dvořák seized the reins at Prima TV when he was only 30 years old, but now he is no longer the young buck in upper management.

“In the past, I was always the youngest, but now, because I am really trying to change the management team, it is bad news for me,” he quipped. “I am starting to be the oldest, not the youngest.”

The ability to thoroughly analyze a situation, take decisive action and then follow through with effective people-management skills is a Dvořák hallmark, said Ondřej Pečený, a spokesman for DPP.

“Middle management knows their director directly,” he said. “That makes it more personal. It is also useful when you are dealing with unexpected things – this will give you the possibility to talk to someone directly responsible.”

At the same time, Dvořák – a native of Brno, in South Moravia – is known for maintaining a professional distance at work, and according to former Prima TV colleague Jan Svoboda, “strictly keeps the superior-subordinate hierarchy” intact.

Malíková, who worked with Dvořák for six years at Prima TV, praised him as a decisive leader who held himself to high standards, and expected his employees to be similarly dedicated.

“He is really a strict man, but on the other hand, he was always a fair-minded boss with vision,” she said. “He carried all his visions and what is more, he was always able to motivate his team to carry these visions together. His team respected him, and he was also able to respect the others.”

Man behind the fare hike

Dvořák did not win many points with the general public, however, when he successfully spearheaded an increase in the price of public-transit tickets, saying that the added revenue was essential to replace aging vehicles, keep pace with rising fuel and electricity prices,  expand metro lines, and compensate for theft of services by passengers who “ride black,” or without a ticket.

In November, Prague’s City Hall approved the higher transit fares, boosting the price of a single-changing ticket from 20 Czech koruna (about $1) to 26 koruna. Dvořák, a graduate of the University of Economics in Prague, had lobbied for hike to 30 koruna. He dismisses public criticism – such as Green Party claims that more expensive tickets and travel passes make mass transit less attractive to the average Prauguer – as something very close to a public whine session.

“The price increase is still acceptable,” he said, with a dismissive wave of his hand. “People are always upset if you are increasing the price.”

At that point, precisely 18 minutes into the interview, Dvořák’s mobile phone rang, and he promptly cut off the interview. True to his nature – even as he is steering a reporter out his office door – he is multitasking: gathering paperwork for another meeting, and getting a scheduling rundown from his assistant, who is chasing him down the hallways with a sheaf of important documents awaiting his signature.