DHL.

DHL IT service is based out of Prague. The German Deutsche Post acquired this company and now they are the biggest global business service logistics industry in the world. They are in 220 different countries with 5% of the global trading volume. They employ more than 500,000 through out the world and manage 1,000,000 customer transactions per hour. They obvious have strength in numbers. In the late 1980's Germany had privatization of their postal and communication services. The German Government also privatized T-mobile. In the mid 1990's DHL was privatized and had their IPO for stock over the German stock exchange.

DHL had a stable business until the internet came through and made the postal service antiquated in many ways. West Germany turned Eastern Germany around when the Berlin wall fell down by completely privatizing business. Now the Postal services have banks attached to them to back them up as insurance. Deutsche post new privatization and alliance with banks gave them lots of free cash and sent them on a spending spree. In 1998 Deutshe post bought lots of stock in DHL and in 2004 completely owned the entire company. Excel Supply chain was also another acquisition that solidified the company to what it is today. This was the largest logistics supply chain in England.

The basis of the company is basically a two pillar structure with Die Post Fur Deutch land and DHL Logistics company for the world. The business is split into different sectors making up the Global business services, IT services which is in Prague and Malaysia, claiming management, corporate procurement, corporate real estate, fleet management, finance operations, HR operations, In-house consulting, innovative management, insurance and risk management, IT GBS and corporate center, and Legal services.

The BPO Business Process Outsourcing is risky in keeping it in house and centralizing it for quality service. The competition is gaging costs and prices against the market and the main focus is on the customer and the company needs. The main focus is to increase efficiencies and drive costs down because you are competing against yourself with the shared service centers to avoid taxation when distributing the product among shared service centers.

The IT Services business model is made up of build services and run services with the focus of creating new items in IT and continuing the day to day support. These are all made up into three spheres of professional, resource and production.

DHL chose Prague as the center of IT because the central European location provided lower costs and had a strong English background. There are also abounding workers available in IT and telecom skills. The government was supportive of DFI and had a positive investment climate. What is important to note is that in 2004 DHL was big on IT and in 2006 they expanded into GBS.

Skoda.

We got to tour through Skoda's Production plant which make up 5 models of cars that they produce mainly the Fabic and the Octavia. They produce about 2,200 cars/ day with 25,000 employees, 19,000 of those at their main plant. This makes up about 3 sq kilometers of work space. VW bought out Skoda back in 1991 once again when the Czech Republic broke away from communism. in 2009 Skoda had a record breaking 684,226 cars sold. Skoda originally started out as a bicycle company and eventually began making luxury vehicles. They currently have 2,000 suppliers with 90% of their product being exports to various countries within Europe. They do not plan to expand to the U.S. because the market is too mature and they wouldn't be able to break in. The workers for Skoda have amazing benefits with 5 weeks of paid vacation every year. They recently jut bulit a 4,5 million Euro plant for the engines of the vehicles that has allowed them to expand so much with their product. They have an interesting system of getting cars to their consumers by the on demand process. twenty years before it would take people six years to get a car while now they can receive a car in six weeks brand new shipped to the dealership custom made. six weeks may seem like a long time but when the precedent before was six years this time frame does not seem long at all. Also there is no waste in over stocking in cars for the producer. Skoda also makes high performance racing vehicles which we actually got to see in the museum. We also got to go to the various factories and witness first hand how every car is made through out the main processes. I wasn't allowed to take pictures because they didn't want to give away their trade secrets.

Krusovice Brewing Company.

This brewing company that we visited started in 1517 and continues on today. In 1731 it was taken over by the Furstenberg family and then in 1945 after WWII when the communist took over in the Czech Republic it became a state owned brewery. From 1960-1990 the Central Bohemian Brewery Association took over Krusovice under general state ownership. In 1991 the Berlin wall fell down and the communist regime was finally broken to allow for the privatization of business. In 1994 Krusovice went public and became part of binding brewery to be put on its way to large scale modernization. in 1997 they had the initiation of export activities and in 2007 Krusovice Brewery becomes part of Heineken. Heineken is in 120 different countries and is #1 in the world for brand value.

The privatization process was done by issuing coupon stocks in 1991 for shares in the company. In 1986 the company produced 240,000 Hecto liters, 1996 740,000 HL and in 2006 970,000 HL of Beer. Between 2008 and 2010 Krusovice was re-branded and they made the distinction in their business from domestic to export beer with their logo. Domestically they try to brand the beer as good for friends and the atmosphere of where people are. When they export though they try and show that the beer is the Czech royal beer and the beer of kings in Prague as a top premium beer. The slogan goes " A jewel among beers" while depicting a prague street and the old prague castle.

Krusovice Imperial is their premium product which was a gold metal winner in the world beer cup of 2006 in Seattle Washington. This beer was also awarded the world's best pilsner in London in 2009. The ingredients to all their beer is very simple coming down to water, malt, hops, hops extract and fermented to 5% alcohol.

Krusovice Cerne is 3.8% alcohol and is made mostly for the locals with a history spanning more than 100 years in the country. It was awarded the world's best dark beer in London in 2009.

Krusovice packing types are .5 l bottles, .33l bottles, .5 l cans, 30 l kegs and 50 l kegs.

The three main countries that they export to are Russia, SLovakia, and Sweden exporting 96,400 hl, 42,500 hl, and 40,000 hl respectively.

32% of their exports are bottles, 13% are cans, 55% are kegs. In 1991 they only had 16,000 hl of exports but in 2008 they had as many as 289,000 hl in exports. Their manin partner in exports is Heiniken which is involved in exports all over the globe.

In 2009 they had the 10th anniversary of exports in Russia who is their number one country to export to. They had different programs to celebrate such as Slovakia and Sweden. 45% of all they make is exported. They export to the U.S. but only to New York, San Fransico, and Chicago with a total of 4,000-5,00 HL per year. They have a capacity to produce as much as 1,500,000 HL of beer per year with Malt being their greatest cost. Bio-diesel is the main competitor of land production for Malt which is driving prices up in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is the number one consumer of beer in the world with 160 liters per year per person. This figure is including babies.