In the end, it was us who brought new technology to Japan

Jan Hasík’s PURPOSIA Group holding company has had another successful year. Undoubtedly, the most significant event of last year was the merger of the PURPOSIA holding company with the MTX Group industrial holding company and the creation of the joint venture Coral Construction Technologies, which literally stormed the market with its unique 3D concrete printing technology. The holding company presented its 3DCP technology at a number of major construction trade fairs, including the world exhibition EXPO in Osaka, Japan, and is celebrating great international success with it.

In our interview, we asked Jan Hasík, director of the PURPOSIA Group holding company, how he perceives the holding company’s involvement in the world’s EXPO exhibition, what the merger with the major engineering company MTX Group means to him, and what his plans are for the future. In the interview, he also assesses the situation on the labor market, the future of robotization and automation in the construction industry, and reveals the criteria he uses when investing in new companies.

Jan Hasík’s long-term positive influence on the domestic construction market is confirmed by the Construction Personality 2024 award, which he received in September 2025 as part of the Moravian-Silesian Region Construction competition. “It is a great honor and confirmation of my career so far. It confirms that I am a builder and that I probably do my job well, even though we all make mistakes from time to time. For me, it is proof that one must do business sustainably, responsibly, and honestly, and success will come on its own,” said Jan Hasík.

What is important to you when building a new company? What do you look at when considering investing in a new company?

The main purpose of business is, of course, to generate profit. The most important thing is to know whether the company has a future, whether it is economically sound. On the other hand, we always find out what the current staff is like and how we will get along with them. It is important to realize that when you buy a company, you also buy the people. And if everything doesn’t fit together, people will start quitting, so in three months you won’t have a company, but an empty shell. You can buy excavators and machines, but quality people are hard to find. In short, in order to make money, we first need to test how the staff of a given company works, and then decide whether to buy the company.

How big of a problem is it for you to find good people in the construction industry?

In construction, it’s kind of fashionable to complain about the lack of people. However, as soon as we started to focus intensively on the personnel side, we began working with secondary schools and universities, participating in job fairs, and we started to succeed in attracting quality people. It’s simply a matter of actively focusing on human resources, and I think we are not only succeeding in attracting young, promising people, but more importantly, we are able to retain them. We have minimal turnover in our companies. That’s why I say that it’s not enough to just complain, but it’s necessary to work with schools.

Where we are not entirely successful, of course, is in the blue-collar professions. Here, we are able to fill work crews and assembly workers on an individual basis, which only reflects the overall social trend of a lack of interest in apprenticeships. Do you know anyone who has sent their son to learn bricklaying? I don’t. And I don’t know of anyone indirectly either. I don’t know of any vocational schools, so logically these professions don’t exist. Foreign workers are a partial solution, but that’s not sustainable in the long term either. So we see robotization in construction as a long-term solution.

Can robotization completely replace construction workers?

We don’t want to replace people entirely. Our goal is for our excellent, experienced, and qualified installers to only do skilled work. The remaining 80% of simple work, such as installing panels on facades or roofs, can be done entirely by machines. People will still be needed for special surfaces around corners, windows, doors, and the like, because a certain degree of creativity and improvisation is expected here. So we see a path forward in robotization, and we are currently working on its development.

Speaking of robotization, was this one of the topics you took to the world exhibition in Japan? Were you able to gain any new knowledge from Japanese companies that could be implemented in our conditions?

Yes, but not to any significant extent. We found that most of the technological processes are almost the same as ours, but there are some details, nuances, for example in aluminum production and prefabrication, where there is a technological difference in one step that increases labor productivity. I don’t want to go into great detail, but I thought that the Japanese would be further ahead in robotization and would use it to a greater extent in construction, but this is not the case. The level of robotization in their construction industry is basically comparable to ours.

When you sum up your trips to Japan, what was the biggest benefit for you?

Above all, promoting our company and building awareness of our firm, because the Japanese are significant investors in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and indeed throughout Europe, and they like to work with companies that are familiar with their practices and culture. We were an official partner of EXPO 2025 in Osaka, which made us visible to the rest of the world as a company. Together with our partner MTX Group, we were able to present our joint company Coral Construction Technologies and its 3D concrete printing technology for the first time at EXPO, which attracted a lot of interest. So in the end, it was us who brought new technology to Japan.

But back to the question. The benefit was precisely the comparison of the use of state-of-the-art technologies in the construction sector. Then there was the training of our staff, shifting the perception that we are not just a regional Czech and Slovak company, but a European company with ambitions to be global. Thanks to our contacts with Japanese companies, the perception of my colleagues who traveled with us is changing. A total of sixty of us went to Japan, and I can see how my colleagues’ reactions are gradually changing when we implement a project in Europe. They take it as if we were actually building at home.

In Japan, we also focused on architecture, of course. We took a tour of skyscrapers and other buildings that are not common in our country. So, to sum up, I consider the education of our colleagues to be really important.

The only thing that disappointed me a little was that at EXPO in Japan, we again based our presentation as the Czech Republic mainly on beer and not, for example, on technology.

The connection with the MTX Group through the establishment of the joint venture Coral Construction Technologies is a relatively big business event of 2025. What other joint plans do you have for the future with this industrial giant?

First of all, I would like to say that I greatly appreciate this connection, because on their part it is a sign of trust in our abilities and professionalism. MTX Group has historically been our customer, for whom we have assembled and reconstructed various halls, and thanks to that we had the opportunity to get to know each other. This cooperation subsequently led to a convergence of our interests, and now we are jointly developing 3D concrete printing technology. And yes, as I said, we have joint plans for the future, primarily in the area of robotics. However, we are now focusing intensively on our new company, Coral, which has enormous potential.

Last year, the PURPOSIA Group established Foredeck, which is the only company not related to construction. Will other companies outside the construction industry follow?

We founded Foredeck to take care of our movable assets and to develop our business in passenger transport and tourism. We now offer our customers and partners personal air and private boat transport.

That is our declared plan for the next 300 years. In 150 years at the latest, we want to have a bank – I’m not joking – we simply think in these terms, and the structure of the company, which is not based solely on me, makes this possible. Once the entire PALACE hotel has been renovated, our capacity and activities will expand. In addition to rental housing, we want to operate part of it as a hotel. Every week, I receive an offer to buy some real estate. If we are successful and see the point in it, why not expand the business in this direction as well?

You are a passionate athlete. Is team spirit important to you?

Absolutely, it is one of the core values in the company as well.

And what has made you happiest recently?

Every day brings me something to be happy about. A positive attitude and politeness are essential. My colleagues and I always say that even if we don’t make any money, at least we’ll have a laugh.