I recommend the documentaryBata the First Globalist - a documentary co-produced by Czech TV and the French-German TV station ARTE in 2019 (only available to watch until 15.7.2023). I have taken an extract of the essential ideas from the documentary. Finally, I recall the important, essential information that is missing and should have been included in the documentary. It is symbolic that the son of a famous father, who participated in the destruction of his work, is watching you in the Czech TV broadcast. Why, even after 91 years, are we afraid to tell the full truth? Even today, we and the world desperately miss the Bata system!JŠ
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Bata created a universe with the shoe at its centre - The first globalist who gave work to millions of people - Work was not just the security of life, but its true meaning - People think, machines toil - Work is not an injustice - Humane shoemaking - Tomas Bata left a trail where his way of thinking still influences millions of people today - What you can't measure, you can't manage -He didn't use the word "problem", he called it a challenge!
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"My desire to live physically was just as strong as my resistance to moral death" Bata's words after his bankruptcy - I found more and more charm and inner satisfaction in my work - I was a slave to myself, but I managed to save the company - I managed to pay off all my debts in two years - I was a socialist, preaching a simple and primitive life, and I became an admirer of it. I was a collectivist and something of a communist, but definitely a socialist. I thought capitalist society was only good for bad people, for outcasts and lazy people. I dreamed of the simple life of Tolstoy. I would buy a small homestead and I would and will sow only as much as I need for myself and my family. No, I won't be a hated factory worker. The socialist was driven away from me by my workers. They looked at me with fearful eyes when they heard any doubt that this Bata would keep it up. As if it were not my life, but theirs. Is it possible to abandon these people? There was no way out, there was no choice but to stay in my place and become a hated factory worker, an outlaw, a slave-owner, in order to serve the people."
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Jan Antonín Baťa: Let's build a state for 40 million people
Jan Antonín Bat'a saved thousands of Jews (he was not decorated because he supposedly did not risk his life in doing so). To this day, the property has not been returned to his descendants, nor has any financial compensation. The Benes Decrees are still in force.
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