Tomas Bata is an example of a person who succeeded in achieving his dream by working hard. He managed to balance morals, efficiency at work, innovation in production, as well as the enhancement of living standard of its employees. The following sections describe the life story of the entrepreneur and visionary from Zlín.
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You can find more information about the personality of Tomas Bata and his areas of interest in the attached file.
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You can find more information about the personality of Tomas Bata and his areas of interest in the attached file.
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(.pdf, 8,38 MB)
Architecture
| 1910 | Architect J. Kotěra |
|---|---|
| 1912 | family homes |
| 1919 | Architect F. L. Gahura |
| 1924 | „A Factory in Gardens“ project |
| 1926–1927 | the town of gardens urbanism |
| 1930 | Architect V. Karfík |
| 1931 | skyscraper urbanism |
Employees
| 1910 | canteen |
|---|---|
| 1910–1920 | supporting artists: Gahura, Kobzáň |
| 1912 | houses for employees |
| 1918 | company library |
| 1918 | company kindergarten |
| 1918 | improving education |
| 1921 | factory opened for excursions |
| 1921 | film screenings for employees |
| 1921 | company band |
| 1924 | company band |
| 1924 | SK Baťa sports club |
| 1925, 1930 | special education: shoemaking: apprentice school (Baťa School of Work), secondary education |
| 1925–1929 | public education reform (experimental schools in Zlín) |
| 1926 | employing the handicapped |
| 1927 | Baťa Hospital |
| 1928 | Baťa Relief Fund |
| 1928 | supporting science – Anthropos Brno |
| 1930 | specialised journals |
| 1930 | Shoe Museum |
| 1930 | zoological garden |
From Zlín into the World
| 1894 | Zlín |
|---|---|
| 1917–1923 | Pardubice |
| 1919-1921 | Lynn, USA |
| 1929 | Otrokovice |
| 1930 | Krasice |
| 1931 | Třebíč |
| 1931 | Bošany |
| 1931 | Nové Zámky |
| 1931 | Ottmuth, Germany |
| 1932 | Borovo, Yugoslavia |
| 1932 | Chelmek, Poland |
| 1932 | Möhlin, Switzerland |
| 1932 | Hellocourt, France |
| 1932 | Konagar, Tilbury |
| 1917–1932 | network of approx. 1,800 shops CZ |
| 1919–1932 | network of approx. 700 shops abroad (from Chicago to Singapore) |
| 1921–1932 | network of affiliated companies abroad |
| 1931 | export of factories and architecture |
Ideas and Actions
| 1912 | T. Bata expressed his intention to build colonies of flats for his blue-collar and white-collar workers; the first group of houses was built in the same year. |
|---|---|
| 1932 | By the last year of Bata's life, 1 564 houses had been built for his staff in Zlín (the total number amounted to 27 210 in 1945). |
| 1918 | T. Bata published the following idea in the first issue of his company’s newspaper: “Flats will be needed. What can be nicer than having a place of your own, where you can even have something to eat and drink in your own garden, where the sun is shining brightly … and where you enjoy being as much as you enjoy lying in a hot bath?”; the company began to build houses with gardens in the same year. |
| 1932 | By the last year of Bata's life, five garden districts had been built in Zlín, surrounding the town in the south and east, and making it the town of gardens (two more districts were built before 1945). |
| 1918 | Architect J. Kotěra submitted to Bata his proposal for a building project related to the premises opposite the factory – apart from residential districts, baths, a department store, post office, hotel, reading room, casino, cinema, nursery school, hospital and two schools were designed. |
| 1925–1932 | Opposite the large factory, the Práce (Labour) square (designed by architect F. L. Gahura) was built, a modern shopping and social centre comprising two department stores, a twelve-floor hotel and the spacious Grand Cinema (with a seating capacity of 2 400). |
| 1919 | Bata's following ideas were published in his company’s newspaper: "the system of company benefits, the aim of which is to encourage gifted and competent manual workers, and the system of profit sharing, the aim of which is to elicit in his employees a sense of joint responsibility for their company as if they were its co-owners". |
| 1924 | T. Bata introduced the bonus system of profit and loss sharing in his company – in this way, staff motivation and performance were increased, and the prosperity of the entire company rose significantly. |
| 1923 | T. Bata said: "Many people insist that it is impossible to build big factories in our country, as it lacks the sea, and its coal and oil resources are not as huge as those in America. I insist that the great welfare of the American people has been built up particularly thanks to the wisdom and hard work of the local people … I want to prove that such factories can be built in our country as well." |
| 1931 | The number of Bata's employees amounted to 29 000 (within eight years the staff numbers had risen six times). Tens of new factory buildings had been constructed and equipped with the latest appliances. Since 1927, sophisticated production lines developed by the Bata Company had been used (an assembly line). |
| 1924 | Participants in "Bata's school mission, which was financed by the factory owner and Mayor T. Bata to enable its participants to study conditions in local schools abroad and to use the positive aspects observed for improving the system of education in our county" were sent abroad. |
| 1929 | The experimental education programme started to be implemented in the building of a new junior secondary school; T. Bata said: "We want to teach our children so well that they could be not only our students but also our teachers. (…) I wish that I could learn something new every day as my son does at school. In fact, this is a way to build not only schools for our children but also schools for ourselves to gain knowledge and so to make our lives better, nicer and more comfortable." Thanks to T. Bata, seven new school buildings were constructed in Zlín between 1924 and 1932 (and four more were built before 1938). |
| 1926 | "Bata's new skyscraper (department store) to be built in Brno" was presented during Mayday Parade organized by the Bata Company. |
| 1931 | Zlín’s first skyscraper was finished – Bata's ten-floor department store, which was followed by a nearby twelve-floor hotel (1932) and a seventeen-floor administration building of the company (1939). |
| 1926, May | T. Bata said: "I am happy … that this year our company has achieved such great success that we are able to donate CZK 1 000 000 to build the company’s hospital." |
| 1927, November | The first patients were admitted to Zlín’s new hospital. |
National Economy
| 1922 | half price of shoes – impact on price level in Czechoslovakia |
|---|---|
| 1923 | thousands of new job opportunities |
| 1923 | replacing craft by mass production |
| 1928 | plans for the Prague–Česká Třebová–Kroměříž–Zlín–Púchov–Košice railway |
| 1929 | financing project for Moravia and Silesia |
| 1930 | reorganization plan for water management of the river Morava |
| 1931 | programme for regional development of Central and Eastern Moravia |
| 1931 | enquiry about the role of T. Baťa in the national economy in the "Přítomnost" magazine |
Organization of Work
| 1924 | workshop autonomy system |
|---|---|
| 1924 | participation in profit and loss |
| 1924 | research department (inventions) |
| 1924–1927 | technological racionalization |
| 1925 | psychological-technical laboratory |
| 1930 | five-day working week |
| 1932 | 81 % of total shoe production in Czechoslovakia, 75 % of the Czechoslovak shoe export |
Public Sector Administration
| Zlín 1900 | 2 975 inhabitants |
|---|---|
| Zlín 1932 | 26 350 inhabitants |
| 1923 | Mayor of Zlín |
| 1929 | Member of the Provincial Council |
Work
| 1895 | 50 employees |
|---|---|
| 1931 | 29 500 employees |
| 1894 | precision engineering |
| 1903 | precision engineering |
| 1909 | printing |
| 1915 | tannery |
| 1915 | power station |
| 1916 | retail trade |
| 1917 | agriculture |
| 1917 | domestic shoe shops |
| 1918 | forestry |
| 1918 | brick manufacturing |
| 1918 | newspaper publishing |
| 1919 | woodworking plant |
| 1919 | shoe shops abroad |
| 1919 | company savings bank |
| 1920 | advertising |
| 1923 | shoe-repair shops |
| 1924 | rubber industry |
| 1924 | construction industry |
| 1924 | railway transport |
| 1924 | air transport |
| 1925 | construction projects |
| 1926 | chemical production |
| 1926 | paper processing |
| 1926 | lorry transport |
| 1926 | publishing house |
| 1926 | cinema |
| 1927 | film production |
| 1927 | food production |
| 1928 | chemical research |
| 1929 | pedicure |
| 1930–1932 | tyre production |
| 1930 | insurance company |
| 1931 | textile production |
| 1931 | gas works |
| 1932 | coal mines |
| 1932 | hotel |
| 1932 | shipping |
They said about him…
Jan Kobzáň: „He liked to listen to others, he waited with his words, adopting a pose without being a poseur. … Baťa greets everyone, Baťa sees everyone – even when you want just to pass by discreetly. His ´Welcome!´ sounded so colloquial, like from a neighbour, a friend, somebody from our country and region.“
Noviny Zlín, 24. 11. 1939
Ludvík Vaculík: „Tomáš Baťa uplifted the Czechs from cobblers to Europeans. … Baťa cannot be imitated only technically; he was a spiritual and cultural phenomenon as well. … I think that he was an unidentified utopian, who nevertheless turned a large part of social utopia into reality.“
J. Ruszelák, 2002