the root source of all those visible “things” of culture. The true culture of a nation is
not frozen in cathedrals and bridges, spires and skyscrapers, but in the ways people
live and work. How they organize their workplace, how enriching they find their work
experience, how well they serve themselves, the public, and the world. That is the true
measure of human culture.
Reading through a body of knowledge should be an input into the life of reflection,
a road to wisdom. But one can get lost in data and overloaded with information; yet,
there is never too much knowledge—and wisdom is the rarest of possessions. Knowledge
of life and work, not just of leisure and entertainment, is the unique foundation of
the culture of any nation. Management knowledge and wisdom is the real groundwork
for all that. The Bata Management System can be considered such a foundation.
Because an authentic quote is often more convincing than a theoretical explanation,
we end with Tomas Bata’s credo, in his words: “Our life is the only thing in this world
that we cannot consider to be our private property, as we have not contributed anything
to its generation. It was only conferred to us with the obligation and expectation to
pass it on to our posterity, multiplied and improved. Creation and enhancement of our
own life is our duty and privilege: we are presenting the accounts of our conferred gifts
of life to our contemporaries as well as to the next generations. Our accounting should
not end in a deficit, a loss, or impoverishment of our contemporaries and successors.
We start with the ‘debit’ and we end with the ‘credit’ and only we are responsible for
the final balance. Life is a capital and therefore it must, in the same way as a fertile
seed, create something more, something to be left for the ‘spring sowing’ . . . ”
Because of such a thoroughly western credo (albeit of the time long past), Tomas
Bata left behind a body of practical work, a tangible small model of a working and
managing society—as he created in Zlin. He was the Entrepreneur.