Josef Blažek

* recorded in the personal card:

• born on 29 July 1875 in Žarošice
• education – lower Secondary Grammar School in Uherské Hradiště
• foreign language skills – German
• hired by the company in 1906
• residence – Villa in Letná, later Prague

During his numerous business trips, Tomas Bata met many people, and so it once happened that "the young business traveller Josef Blažek and the young shoe manufacturer Tomas Bata met on a train in Břeclav". They started talking and this conversation changed the direction of Blažka’s life. Until that moment, he worked as an accountant and traveling salesman at Kneiselov's confectionery factory in Holešov, then he left this job and moved to Bata shoe company. At first, he worked as an accountant, he soon demonstrated his skills in running a shoe factory. Already in the years 1907-1909, he became Bata's representative, and in 1916, Bata appointed him the company confidential clerk, i.e. his authorized representative. During the First World War, in difficult operating conditions, his tirelessness and effort won Bata’s great recognition. In 1925, when he reached fifty, he fulfilled another mission – he became the head of the Prague office at Bata company. As the nationwide reach of the company's activities grew, so did the importance of this Prague workplace, where Blažek worked.

Tomas Bata through the eyes of Josef Blažek: I was solving the problem with the supply of the leather – it was poor quality and the delivery was delayed, Tomas Bata asked me how it was going, I answered: "I would like to say that it is difficult, that the whole thing is getting too complicated, but I prefer to answer that we are working on it gradually. I know what you would say to me, that we should solve the whole matter like peeling an onion, layer by layer. Well, I know that, so I say we peel and peel, we can't avoid tears, but we peel.” Tomas Bata then laughed with his heart, I think I have never seen him laugh so intensively, so loudly that he burst into tears. And when he finally caught his breath again, he added: “Sometimes it's better to skip all the peeling and just cut the onion.” I took his words to heart then. I cancelled the whole delivery. In two days, I found a better and higher quality, mainly more responsible supplier.

Josef Blažek, 1940 (SOkA Zlin, o. č. 3245, p. č. 1)