Jakub Skorik’s Family Business

Transcript - Jakub Skorik’s Family Business

Intro 

The following is a presentation of team bonding, providing more than 100 Live, Virtual or hybrid corporate team building activities for companies around the world. Visit teambonding.com to schedule your event now.

 

Rich, your host 

Hello once again, my team it’s me Rich Rininsland. And welcome to team building around the world, the podcast where I speak to people from the team bonding, team building industry, from all across the globe. Today, we are reaching all the way out to Prague and the Czech Republic to speak with Mr. Jacob. He’s the head of the department of sales at Maxin Prague, and we’re going to hear his story in just a moment. But first, I do want to actually, you know, give some love to my supporters. This show is supported by the catalyst team building network. Find out more about the world’s largest network of team building providers at catalyst global.com we also want to thank our friends at b1g1 which can make your business a real force for good. Visit B1g1.com to get started. And now friends. Back in 1999 Maxim Prague started as a family business with long established partnerships with local suppliers to create an optimal solution for their client needs. And in 2017 they became part of the catalyst team building network. So please join me in welcoming the head of the department all the way from Prague and the Czech Republic, Jacob

 

Jakub Skorik 

Hi everybody.

 

Rich, your host 

Hello, Jacob. Don’t worry about those. That’s just a small group of people I keep chained up under my desk, and they’re only there to applaud. So that’s not like they have a lot to do. How are you today, sir? What time is it out there in Prague?

 

Jakub Skorik 

it’s absolutely brilliant. We have actually just after lunch, so we have, like, 2pm so it’s really just the the nap time after lunch.

 

Rich, your host 

That’s fantastic, because I just woke up from my nap time. It’s 8am here. But let’s start off. Jakob, just for all of my audience out there who don’t know who you are, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Okay, well, I’m responsible for the team building department in, actually, our company. It’s actually focused on the event production. We have been doing the team buildings, I don’t know, since actually very beginning. And I’m responsible for the team buildings only in the in the company.

 

Rich, your host 

Okay, what other things do you offer out there with Maxim?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Well, actually, we do all sorts of stuff for the events production. So we have even a rental department. So we want to be kind of like a one stop shop for the for the people who wants to do event in Czech Republic. Great. So all the foreign companies who are going to Czech Republic and they want to do meetings, events or team buildings, they can come to us, and we can deliver everything from the first to the to the end.

 

Rich, your host 

Okay, so Jacob, tell me, how is it that you actually got started in this business? Now I understand Maxine is a family company. Is that your family?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Yes, yes. I’m the son of the owner, so I don’t have to do anything. And just annoying my assistance, just bringing me a coffee. And that’s it, very nice. I actually, actually started in the in the hotel industry, in the travel business. It was quite boring, so I was looking for something more, for something more fun. And there I have been the girl in the office for everything, for the event production, and afterwards, I’ve been the Event Manager, and then I even started moderating some of the some of the events, and from there, I just joined the team building, and that’s how I end up here.

 

Rich, your host 

Okay, while team building, I also agree is not as dull as Hotel Management, which I should clarify, is just my opinion. What What inspired you about team building itself to make it what you thought you’d want to be supporting the people to helping them.

 

Jakub Skorik 

Because actually, I’m helping as well, planning and events and selling them for the magazine as well. And it’s it’s actually kind of bonded together, that we are supporting our clients to either reach their goals or bring their teams together. It’s I like to support them to achieve something with them. So that’s the that’s the most rewarding for me. So helping clients, helping them attain their goals.

 

Rich, your host 

Tell me what that looks like out there in Prague, because that’s really what I think for many of my listeners who might not be part of the industry, we’re actually getting people who just want to know what life is like on the other side of the world. So what, what is team building like in Prague?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Well, most importantly, it’s, it’s a lot of fun for the people to bring the good atmosphere, the good mood for them, okay? And during that entertaining afternoon, let’s say we work with them with some short games. And for the people, the most important is, is to to bring the energy for them. Because chick people, they’re they’re very different to even Italians or A lot of German people, they are quite similar to us, but completely different to the United States. We are very boxy. We are really like to be in our walls. We we don’t want to interact so much. We, we like our standards. We we do want to go out and try something new very often, even though we like it, and many new generations, they like it much more than the others, but still, we’re a lot of in the borders. So the most important is to take them out of these boxes, as we say, and and then they interact, and they have fun, and then they learn a lot. So that’s the there’s the most important for us.

 

Rich, your host 

Well, how do you do that if you have a people who, culturally, are so used to being closed off, how do you get them through the door? How do you get them to open up? Because one of the problems that I’ve always had, especially even here in the States, is that people are afraid to look foolish. They’re afraid to be step out of their comfort zone, especially with people that they work with. How do you get people in the Czech Republic to open up to you.

 

Jakub Skorik 

It’s always depends on the group. We always, we always have a lot of annoying questions to our clients, if we work with them together for the first time, okay? And we try to understand the mentality of the team. We try to understand what they exactly do, who they are, pretty much. Of course, it’s a little bit difficult if you have 250 people, but still you can, you can understand the mentality inside, and then it really suits each group. Suit something a little bit different. For somebody, some kind of silly, funny game. For somebody, we use some kind of physical touches, for example, during the icebreakers. So always something different. But all the time works when our staff and everybody from our team are enthusiastic about the game, and that’s that’s work always 100% time, and they are not then scared to do any kind of silly things, which we prepare for them.

 

Rich, your host 

Give me an example if you can. What are some of those annoying questions you ask your clients when you’re just getting to know them?  Okay, so you’ve got the client. They’re hooked. They want you to come in and perform your magic for their team. And you mentioned icebreakers. Now, can you describe to my team out there what an icebreaker is and what some of your favorite ones?

 

Jakub Skorik 

The basic stuff about who they are, what is, for example, the normal working routine, if they have any kind of issues inside the team, what is their experience with the previous team building? What has worked before, whatnot?  Yeah, all these kind of all these kind of things to to get them know better, personally as well as professionally. So who they are, ladies mans, all these kind of things, as many details as we can.  The icebreaker is very quick, short game, which is very quick explanation, and which takes five to 10 minutes maximum, sometimes something to warm up the people. So that’s I would describe, basically the energizer or the icebreaker. My favorite one is actually evolution. I don’t know if you have heard about this one. Go ahead and well, I have, but let’s assume they haven’t. So go ahead. Oh, okay, okay, so it’s actually based on the paper scissor rocks. You just start as an egg and you just walk around the meeting space as an egg, and you’re looking for another egg. You play Paper Scissors, works. Who wins? He develops the chicken. So then you walk like a chicken around the meeting space, and again, you’re looking for another chicken. And this you can add as many characters as you want, and at the end, we say that now you can come up, once you develop the human being, you can come to the podium and you can look at the zoo, which is which is walking around. So that’s pretty much my favorite one.

 

Rich, your host 

That is great. I like that one too. Do you have any others that you like?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Actually, I just remember right now with another paper scissor rocks, when you have the cheerleader, yeah. So you play Paper Scissors rocks, and who wins, has a cheerleader from his opponents, and then you’re looking for another opponents with one cheerleader, and at the end you you end up with with two people fighting with paper scissors. Works with bunch of people cheering for them, which is really great as well. Yeah, yeah, it really is. That’s that that last round is always so energetic. It’s really wonderful.

 

Rich, your host 

Yeah. Okay, so if you don’t mind, let’s talk a bit. We’re gonna change a little gears here and talk about the Czech Republic itself. What is it about, uh, teamwork in the Czech Republic that makes your job so necessary. What are some of the the challenges you face when doing team building in the Czech Republic?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Well, first of all, we have to say that in Czech Republic, the perspective, the perception of the of the team building is, I would say, a little bit older, or I would say the perception is not that well received yet. So we’re still quite developing in this way. So many times we have to explain what is the added value of the team buildings. That is not. Um, just some kind of fun afternoon where they drink a beer and play some football. Even though many companies, especially multinational, they they understand why the team buildings are necessary. But for a majority, we explain why it’s necessary to do the team building. So that’s, that’s the first thing, which is very important to say that I would say we are, like 10 years or maybe seven years behind the Western Europe, yet still, because that was affected by the communism time which we had here, still until 89 until 1989 so we were heavily affected by that, and we are still developing then, from those who understands why, to use the team buildings for their team the most challenging is the communication. That’s pretty much the daily thing which we do in our team buildings. I would say that’s the most common goal, which we set up with our clients, that they would like to improve the communication and passing the the experience, passing the knowledge from one to another one.

 

Rich, your host 

Okay, Jacob, if you can please just hold on. I’m going to get back to this real quick. But first I want to take a break for a moment to tell all my team out there about the catalyst team building Network, an association of team building providers with representatives in over 90 countries speaking more than 20 languages. The catalyst network is widely regarded as the voice of the team building industry. Network members share resources, best practices and business opportunities. Catalyst partners are learning from each other and pushing the boundaries of what is possible in team building. Catalyst network members share a common goal of creating highly relevant, socially responsible, good value experiences for their clients. So for more information, please visit catalystglobal.com, the catalyst team building network, the world’s largest network of team building providers. All right, so you’re telling us, Jakub, that team building is still not all that well received in Prague and the Czech Republic. What were the early days like, I mean, what kind of team dynamics are they looking for in the Czech Republic?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Well, basic, basic team building here looks like that you’re going to the pop and you have a nice evening with your colleagues and or you have some, some kind of party. We just make a joke that this is really good. This is pretty much the perception or that they are going, for example, to the mountains, and they do some, some kind of hikes together. They spend one day during the weekend, and that’s, that’s pretty much the the perception of the team buildings here. So there you are.

 

Rich, your host 

You’re talking to a client. You’re trying to show them this, this all new way of doing things, and they’re telling you that the main thing they want to work on is communication. How do you sell them on trying this new dynamic to get that goal?

 

Jakub Skorik 

First of all, first of all, we try to figure it out. What is the actual problem? How does it look what? What exactly is the problem in the communication which they have? And based on that, based on that, we we check our programs, what we have, what we can do for them, and then we are discussing how we could amend it towards this goal. So the selling, the selling for us is, I don’t want to be negative, but it’s more about finding the issue the program the problem, which, which they have and trying, trying to solve it. Of course, sometimes we figure it out that our our programs, our products, don’t fit this, this issue, and that we should create something either tailor made, or that they need to use something else if they want to figure if they want to solve it. So it’s more kind of like an open discussion, and if we agree that this can be the solution, then then we sell it.

 

Rich, your host 

What are some of the problems with communications that you’ve seen, without going into specifics, naming companies or people or anything like that, from the basic ones that there are some personal problems,

 

Jakub Skorik 

sometimes we figure it out that the the company has difficult communication structure. For example, they they force them to use, I don’t know, three different softwares, for example, to reach three different, uh, departments. What else? Of course, the distance. The distance is very often the the issue that they have different branches in different cities, okay, and even though the people, they know each other for a very long time, they just don’t work together properly. So maybe these two will be great examples. I would say, Okay, no, that is, that’s great.

 

Rich, your host 

Now let’s talk about, of course, distance here in the US, we are still we’re actually just starting to loosen restrictions on lockdown due to the COVID 19 pandemic. What kind of challenges are you facing over there in Prague?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Well, first of all, our distances are slightly different to yours in the United States. Sure, our country is much smaller, right? But, yeah, in COVID 19, actually, Republic, they handle it very well, or we handle it very well. Okay, even though we we had some some deaths. But still, I. We had like 8000 people, maybe sick. Okay, so it was very, very low number. And now, actually, in these days, as we speak, you can do events up to 1000 people, if I’m not mistaken. Oh, good. And you don’t need to carry the face mask on the street just in inside of this of the spaces. But this should be released in like three, four weeks. Good for you. So, yeah, yeah, this is really, working really well. And now you can, you can even travel around the Europe again, as as we were used to. So great. It’s really good. Yeah, that’s fantastic. Congratulations, by the way. That’s that’s got to be a huge relief, hopefully, hopefully.

 

Rich, your host 

Now, okay, let’s shift some gears here. One of my favorite things to do is to work with charitable organizations. Do you have anything like that that you work with in Prague?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Yeah, yes. We, do. We do. We. We have, actually two preferred associate or organization in Czech Republic with whom we work. Actually, just today, I have been there just to give them one bicycle for one one boy. But it always depends on the clients as well, because many times the clients, they already cooperate with some kind of charity program. Okay? So then either we work with them, or if they don’t, then, of course, we use ours. But majority of the clients, they want to have a local impact, right? So they they focus on the local problems. Which, which we which we discuss.

 

Rich, your host 

What are some of those local the charities? You don’t have to tell me specifics about the problems, but let’s get some love to the charities themselves.

 

Jakub Skorik 

The most, actually, with whom we work most is actually focused on the on the kids in the orphanage, and on starting their lives after they leave the orphanage, so they’re giving them support in the ones they’re 18 and they leave the orphanage. So they are supporting it, and as well, they are supporting, actually families who are taking the be the kids from the orphanage to have a normal family. So this is who we support most.

 

Rich, your host 

And how do you do that? How do you actually, what is it that you do for that charity? It’s either financial support, direct, okay, so,

 

Jakub Skorik 

or actually, very popular is building a Dream Program here in Czech Republic, right? So we have done that quite a few times for listeners. It’s it’s actually building a bike, and afterwards, this bicycle is donated to the kids. So, so this is very something which is very popular here.

 

Rich, your host 

Yeah, it’s popular here, too. That’s always good to know. But actually, with that in mind, Gaca, one more time, I’m going to step away, and I want to tell all my friends out there about b1 g1 which can make your business a real force for good when you’re part of b1g1 you bring new purpose, meaning and relevance to your business by making giving a core of what you do, unlike conventional giving models, b1, g1 helps small and medium sized businesses achieve more social impact by embedding giving activities in their everyday business operations to create unique giving stories. Every business transaction can impact lives from just as little as one cent. So please visit B1g1.com to get started. B1, g1, business for good. All right, and we’re back with Jacob. Jacob, let’s talk about you for a little bit. What are some of your favorite events that you produce?

 

Jakub Skorik 

I love the foremost, this most role, because I’m still a big boy, okay, my life, I love the formal building of formulas and then racing with them. Okay, that’s the Formula One racers guys, we call them over here, yeah, the flat out Formula One.

 

Rich, your host 

Yeah, nice. Very good. Do you have any memories, maybe silly memories, of one of those events that you were running in? Yeah?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Yeah. We, we did, actually, for one IT company, and they put, actually a boss in the formal, and they actually, instead of pushing, they hooked up to big guys as the engine. And he looked really scared when he when they were running really, really fast downhill. And he was in that pharma, so that was really his, his face was saying, everything nice. So, so, yeah, that was, that was really, really funny, really nice, very good.

 

Rich, your host 

Let’s kind of flip it. People are always curious to hear about nightmare scenarios like the like, the worst challenge you’ve ever had to overcome during an event.

 

Jakub Skorik 

Well, yeah, there’s always, always something, always something which goes wrong. And yeah, I like to say that our job as the Event Manager sometimes is to make it that the the the minor thing is not working. But yeah, we do plan pretty much everything, everything, well, good, yeah. But yeah, few times, few times we we just had some issues with the preparation. So you just end up, like two minutes before the people entered the space. So most probably it was because of the technology issues that something was connected to something, and, for example, the router didn’t speak to tablets or something like that. Yeah.

 

Rich, your host 

So, so that took us down, but, but all the rest. How do you overcome? Yeah, yeah. What is it that you do to overcome moments like that? Like if you were a facilitator standing there and suddenly your your electronics weren’t working, what would you do? We just make a joke on that,

 

Jakub Skorik 

honestly speaking, for example. Okay, so this is the test version. Now we’ll plug in the normal one into into some kind of fun. And it sometimes happen, it’s the technology so you can do anything with that.

 

Rich, your host 

So well, um, let’s talk about you then for a minute, if you don’t mind, in your personal life, do you find that you know being in the team building industry affects your personal life at all? Yeah, actually a lot. Yes. Well, I mean, your whole family has been in it since 1999 so what was it like being raised in that?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Well, the great thing is that meeting a lot of new people all the time, that’s the most important, and I think the biggest advantage that even though, when I was teenager and I was helping at some kind of event or something like that. I could meet a lot of foreign people. I could talk to them in English. I could listen to their stories, what they’re doing. So that was very helpful. It helped a lot to be open minded for the new stuff, even though, still many times I’m very stubborn and I don’t want to wait, I don’t want to go in certain ways, but all the rest it’s, it’s really great advantage, and it’s very important to see all different approaches to different stuff. So, so that’s very, very good.

 

Rich, your host 

Okay, do you have any any family of your own right now?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Yeah, my wife, she’s pretending and working in the next room.

 

Rich, your host 

So did you, did you meet her through the industry, or did she come on board when she, when you and her got together?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Actually, actually, actually, we’ve met. She was helping. She was actually a hostess at our events, and actually her sister, she was working in our company. So that’s, that’s how we invite very nice,

 

Rich, your host 

very, very nice. Tell me about, do you find that it actually strengthens your bond, or being, you know, knowing all this about team dynamics, do you know, do you find that it actually helps strengthen your bond with family, with your friends? Or is it just something that people like, Oh, he’s trying to build us into a team again,

 

Jakub Skorik 

yeah, yeah, it, it gives me better, better perspective over certain problems. Okay, I’m not applying even though, actually we are sometimes playing games, which we have in the work, which I have in the company. We play them with, with the people, just for fun, especially during the during the quarantine, when it was complete lockdown and we couldn’t see each other with the people, so we used our actually online games with our friends just to have some fun and to again connect together via zoom or something like that. But otherwise I don’t, I don’t force them to do any kind of, any kind of things, only when they ask me, only when they ask, okay, you don’t force them to just build Formula One racers for you on a whim. That’s probably, that’s probably for the best.

 

Rich, your host 

Jacob, thank you so much for being on the show. You have been, it has been just fascinating, listening to the perspectives from your side of the world and hearing your stories. Thank you so much for being with us. I have to say, unfortunately, I’m kind of sucking up a little bit to you, because now I’m going to turn against you. See, as everyone knows whoever led an event as a team builder, when those people first come in the room and they hear that they’re going to be doing something team building, there is this look of dread that comes over everyone’s faces, because they’re like, Oh, we’re going to play silly games. Well, Jakub, this is kind of their payback, because I’m going to put you through a silly game. It’s time to get you into our speed round. Now what the Speed Round is, for the next 60 seconds, I’m going to ask Jakub a series of innocuous questions. He’s going to answer as fast as he can, trying to give me whatever answer happens to be right off the top of his head. And we’ll see how well he does. Jacob, I don’t know how competitive you are, but our num are, the number to beat is 13 questions answered. Okay, okay, all right, fantastic. Let’s see how well you do. Once we hear the music, I’ll start and asking questions, and away we go. What’s your name?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Jakub

 

Rich, your host 

Do you have any pets?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Yes, dog.

 

Rich, your host 

If you could ask your dog one question, what would it be?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Do you love me?

 

Rich, your host 

who’s your favorite athlete?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Usain Bolt

 

Rich, your host 

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Be nice.

 

Rich, your host 

Oh, lovely. If you had to pick a new nickname for yourself, what would it

 

Jakub Skorik 

be a ghost?

 

Rich, your host 

What do you like to do on a rainy day?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Read the book.

 

Rich, your host 

Would you rather be the best player on a horrible team or the worst player on a great team?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Yeah, the best player in the worst team.

 

 

Okay, you can save me as a goat. What’s your favorite thing to do on a beach?

 

Jakub Skorik 

Play around

 

Rich, your host 

favorite movie? Yeah,

 

Speaker 2 

with the Bruce Wheeler. It’s Die Hard. Heart, nice.

 

Rich, your host 

I’ll accept it. That’s 1010. Answers. Done. Fantastic. Jacob, scoring everyone. Please give them another big round of applause for being on the show. Jacob, do you have a website that anybody within the sound of my voice might be able to go and reach out to

 

Jakub Skorik 

Yeah, it’s actually WW capitalist, team building. Dot Caesar,

 

Rich, your host 

fantastic. Thank you so very much for coming on board Jakub And for you my friends out there, thanks for listening to team building around the world. If you like this show, please share it with a friend or a colleague, and we’d be grateful if you would subscribe to us on Apple podcasts or wherever you find your favorite podcast and leave us that lovely favorable review. If you don’t have a favorable review to leave, just shut up about it. Everything’s gonna be fine. Now all Past episodes can be found at teambonding.com/podcast so my friends, that’s it for me one more time. This has been rich women’s land, and if you are within the sound of my voice, you are now on my team, and I’m always on yours. So thanks everyone, and we will see you next time

 

Intro 

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