Strategy, culture and execution in practice: how CRA kick-started growth and long-term resilience
A transformation that addressed not just processes, but also people's behavior, management decision-making and customer experience across the whole organization. From strategy to real change in everyday practice.
Identifying the problem
České Radiokomunikace (CRA) is a key infrastructure provider in the Czech Republic with a long tradition in telecommunications and data centers. In 2022, Cordiant became the new owner and a former sales director took over as CEO. This change brought a new strategic direction focused on innovation and growth.
CRA faced several key challenges:
- The need to expand the service portfolio beyond traditional broadcasting.
- Increasing profitability while managing the impact of inflation and unstable supply chains.
- A shortage of specialists on the market, particularly in IT and security.
- The need to adapt to digitalization and changing customer expectations.
Project goals:
- Strengthen the position in the IT infrastructure and managed services market.
- Expand data center capacity and the cloud services offering.
- Increase operational efficiency with the goal of 5% annual EBITDA growth.
- Develop new service areas such as IoT, 5G broadcasting and security services.
- Transform the corporate culture to support strategic goals and employee engagement.
Strategy and implementation
CRA's strategy was based on the "onion growth" model, which builds on existing assets and competencies and expands the service offering into new areas:
- Diversifying the distribution mix, with a focus on internal and online channels.
- Strengthening digital and customer-oriented services.
- Optimizing processes and making effective use of data to enhance customer experience.
- Developing a corporate culture that supports personal accountability, a proactive approach and teamwork.
Implementation steps:
- Expanding data center capacity – adding new locations such as Zbraslav and implementing ESG standards.
- Digitalizing processes – introducing self-service technologies and optimizing internal systems.
- Developing IoT and 5G services – expanding the portfolio with new technologies and products.
- Employee training and development – programs to build competencies in IT and security services.
- Culture transformation – a new narrative emphasizing accountability, teamwork and discipline; introducing rituals such as STOP/START/CONTINUE.
Measurable impacts of the transformation
- Significant revenue growth while maintaining high EBITDA – stability thanks to greater service diversification.
- Increased market share in data centers and cloud services, helped by the successful acquisition of Cloud4Com.
- Retention of high engagement and key employees, both at CRA and at the acquired company.
- Transformation of the corporate culture led to higher engagement and removed internal barriers between teams.
- Roll-out of the strategy and culture across the company with a high level of acceptance and understanding of the strategic framework.
České Radiokomunikace
České Radiokomunikace (CRA) is a key infrastructure provider in the Czech Republic with a long tradition in telecommunications, broadcasting and data center operations. Under owner Cordiant, it is growing its portfolio in IT infrastructure, managed services and cloud services.
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