are the direct descendents of the oldest classic horse breed in Europe. Its origin dates from the 1500s when Archduke Karl II, the son of Emperor Ferdinand I, founded a stud farm in the village of Lipizza, hence the name Lipizzan Horses (also known as Lipizzaner). These horses are born black, but most of them turn entirely white within about a year. Only white stallions are featured in the performances of the Spanish Riding School. By the way, had it not been for the efforts of General George Patton, the school and its horses would have been annihilated during World War II. What a great tragedy that would have been.
The little village of Piber, approximately 35 km west of Gratz, in the beautiful countryside of Austria’s west Styria, is the home of these exquisite Lipizzan horses. Fortunately, Leila and I were able to see them there when we visited Europe in 2005. It took us most of the day to go through the immense complex, which includes a museum full of carefully restored antique horse carriages. We got great pleasure from the graceful white mares and cute black foals. Their barn was immaculate; with not the slightest hint of manure in the air. We later learned that all the barns on the grounds were cleaned every two hours, around the clock.
Getting back to the 1920s, I should add that mother’s first cousin Steffy, her husband Hugo Gratzer and son Otto also lived in Vienna during that period. Hugo was an auto mechanic and Steffy a seamstress. The fact that mother had a relative from her own side of the family at hand, made her life in Vienna that much more delightful. Years later, we found that Steffy, and her family, were the only ones on mother’s side who escaped with their lives. They had left Vienna when Jews were still allowed to travel, and had booked passage on a ship bound for the U.S.A. But when they reached New York, none of the passengers were permitted to disembark, and the ship was ordered to return to Germany. The captain, a German mind you, did not want to be part of such cruelty and, instead, sailed into Cuba. Once again, the ship was turned away with all its unfortunate passengers. So, he tried again, and went to Caracas, in Venezuela. Bingo, that worked and the Grazers were given a new lease on life. They became a prominent family in Caracas.
Anyway, it was during our parents’ happy days in Vienna that Harry appeared on the scene. He was born on February 22, 1928. And a few months later, another notable event unfolded.
Father found out about a great business opportunity that fit perfectly into his long-term plans. An established shoe store had come on the market in the capital city of Berlin, Germany. And, what made this potential acquisition especially interesting, was the financial clause. The terms required only a minimal amount of up-front financing, an amount that was within the range of father’s affordability. Obviously, this was the break that father had been praying for, and he wasted little time closing the deal.
The family moved to Berlin at the end of 1928, and began a new kind of life, the life of a proprietor of a small retail shop. A life that turned out to be full of hard work, long hours and nagging financial worries. Father and mother worked side-by- side in the store, and spent little time on social activities.
Father changed the store’s name to “Schuh Haus Diamant”, and immediately turned his efforts toward improving profitability and sales. He reduced expenses by carefully managing the level of the inventory, and improved sales by replacing the store’s limited assortment of styles with more alluring and catchy patterns and colors.
As luck would have it, father decided early on to stock the store with merchandise produced by a well-known Czech manufacturer, the Bata Shoe Company. In the footwear industry, the Bata Shoe Company was renowned for the high quality of its production and for its mid-priced fashionable footwear. In addition, the company had ongoing programs for cooperative advertising campaigns and a guaranteed 24-hour re-supply policy. Obviously, that was exactly what father needed for his new store, and he made good use of all the advantages that came with the Bata brand.
Over the months, father developed a personal relationship with some of the Bata’s marketing managers, and it did not take long before they tried to recruit him for the company. They recognized his talents and decided that he would be a great asset for the firm. Bata was expanding rapidly, and it was in need of capable men and women, especially those with some years of retail experience.
It was around that time that a great event occurred-my birth. I was born on March 24, 1930, and a few months later, father signed up with Bata’s retail division in Czechoslovakia.
We left Berlin during the month of November 1930.
06. Father’s Career At Bata
I do not know why father abandoned his dream of owning and running his own store. Maybe it was on account of me. I was another mouth to feed and the growing family needed a decent and dependable income, the kind that one could not really expect from a small retail business. The company he was joining was known for great career opportunities, above average pay and exceptional benefits, such as the company-managed savings accounts that rewarded employees with the unheard of yearly yield of ten percent.
Without question, future events proved that father made the right decision to join the Bata organization. And, since he often spoke of those times, I was left with a good appreciation of what the company was all about, the company that eventually affected our lives to such a great degree.
The founder of the company, Mr. Thomas Bata, became an apprentice in his father’s modest footwear-manufacturing establishment during the late 1800s. By 1932, the year that he died in the crash of the company-owned airplane, he had transformed his hometown of Zlin, Czechoslovakia, into a modern industrial center that mass-produced some thirty-six million pairs of footwear per year. The town, about 150 miles east of Prague, was owned entirely by the company, and employed a total of 20,000 workers. It featured low-rent housing, free access to medical care, schools, a cinema, a great indoor market, a department store, and large athletic facilities where various company teams competed vigorously for trophies. It became a global enterprise, with an industrial center famous for its mass production techniques and up-to-date technology. It was the most modern enterprise in the country, wielding a huge economic impact on the young republic and, to some extent, the world across state borders. For instance, there was the time when the German railroads, which moved the bulk of Zlin’s exports to various German seaports (the Czech Republic being a land-locked country), informed the company about a substantial freight-rate increase. The company did not even bother to acknowledge receipt of the new rates, much less enter into any negotiations about them. Instead, it purchased a large fleet of trucks and started to do its own hauling across Germany. Within a few weeks, according to father, the railroads canceled the new freight rates, submitted some of the lowest rates ever, and took those dreadful trucks off the company’s hands by purchasing them at premium prices.
Father also mentioned a couple of other instances that I found really interesting. The first one had to do with the extraordinary concept (we must remember that we are talking about the1930s) that went into the making of the chairman’s office in the company’s new headquarters building. The architects installed it in an elevator that moved swiftly and quietly up and down the 16 floors of the headquarters. This saved the chairman’s time and kept the office personnel on its toes... no one knew when the boss would pop-up unannounced on their floor. By the way, the boss at that time was Jan Bata, he took over the management of the company after Thomas’ death. They were stepbrothers, and Jan remained in charge until Thomas Junior came of age.
The other instance tells of Bata’s entry into Africa. The initial decision to break into that market was made in the early 1930s, when the company charged two budding marketing managers to size up the business outlook on the continent. One was instructed to do his research up and down the East Coast, while the other was assigned to the West Coast. The one that had gone to the East Coast telexed the following discouraging news; “No one is wearing any footwear. No reason to waste time. Returning home”. Then headquarters received the now-famous telex from the second guy: “See great opportunity. Everyone here in need of their very first pair of shoes”. It is not difficult
