Spotlight on Success: Jiri Stejskal
By: Brian J. Odelli
Traditionally, when a man leaves his parents’ home to set out on the next stage of his life, it is usually with a new partner and they are headed off for a honeymoon. Rarely does it literally mean leaving everything behind. Yet that is exactly what it meant to 25 year old Jiri Stejskal.
Jiri Stejskal was born and raised in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Prague is a city renowned for its majestic architecture, stunning cathedrals and castles dating back to the early 9th century. In fact, Jiri spent a good part of his childhood living in one such castle. But, during the last days of World War II, when the Red Army marched its way into Czechoslovakia and the country fell into communist rule, the land Jiri had known as a child ceased to be.
In 1984, Jiri had a chance encounter that would make a life long impression on him. “A close friend who had left Prague a few years earlier had been sponsored by a woman who lived in Massachusetts and who was an advocate and sponsor of Czech refugees. Neighbors of this woman had daughters who spent a lot of time at this woman’s home. She told them stories about Prague and what a beautiful place it was. They decided to visit. It was during this visit in 1984, that a relationship began that stands till this day. “I met Molly, now my wife, and we began dating. We both thought that I would be in the States in a short period of time and we would begin our life together. I grew tired of the communist propaganda and deceit. Everything we were told or read was lies. I just knew I had to leave.”
With only $50 in his pocket, Jiri said goodbye to his family and friends and began his journey to America. “I left Czechoslovakia in 1986 as a political refugee and made my way to Austria. My plan was to spend two days there before heading to America. Unfortunately I ran into complications in the documentation process and because of political asylum issues, I ended up staying in Austria for 2 years”. Eventually Jiri did make it to America where he was finally reunited with Molly in the Philadelphia region and it was here that he planted his roots. “I enrolled at UPENN almost immediately. My undergraduate and PhD degrees are in literature and linguistics.” Molly and Jiri were married in 1990 and started a family shortly thereafter. In order to support his young family, Jiri worked as a translator for a local linguistics company. In 1997, while working on his PhD at Penn’s Language Center, Jiri received a call from a large Philadelphia law firm. The firm was faced with a unique challenge. “They were working on a significant case and had a large amount of documentation in Czech that needed to be translated. They asked me if I would do it and I agreed. I incorporated the next day”.
Jiri quickly realized that he would not be able to manage this task alone effectively. He needed help, so he contracted 70 translators to work on the litigation case. With the income generated from the case, Jiri enrolled in Temple’s MBA program. “My MBA gave me the knowledge necessary to develop a business plan and run a company”.
While still immersed in the case, Jiri quickly realized that in order for his young company, Central European Translations, to survive, it would need new customers. He analyzed the marketplace and quickly identified the largest purchaser of linguistic services in the country, the United States government. “The government had just recently developed a new platform for identifying qualified contractors. They have a process that pre-qualifies companies to do business with the government. We applied and were approved”. In 2000, Jiri changed the name of the company to CETRA Language Solutions, Inc. to reflect is expanded operations.
Jiri’s MBA also served him well in other areas of the business. “Our government work is clearly the cornerstone of what we do, but I realized that we needed to diversify our client base. Looking back to our original client, the law firm with translation needs provided a logical “niche” market for us. We now work with other law firms providing translation and interpretation services. It is the fastest growing segment of our business and it is doing great”. CETRA has leveraged its translation and interpretation capabilities into new markets working with a large marketing research firm that conducts “brand recognition” surveys worldwide. The surveys are often completed in a foreign country and language requiring the responses to be translated into English for review. “We could not be happier with the way things are going”, says Jiri.
Today, Jiri Stejskal and CETRA Language Solutions employ 17 people locally and 1,000 translation and interpretation contractors worldwide. It is easy for anyone who has the pleasure of spending even a few minutes with Jiri Stejskal to recognize that this is a driven man, yet someone who is well grounded. He shares a history common to other successful entrepreneurs I have had the good fortune of knowing over the years. No one handed him a thing. He works extremely hard and truly appreciates those around him. This is especially true of his wife Molly (who is an important part of CETRA as well), his children Alice, Joseph and Jacob, the leadership and the employees of CETRA. “If it were not for all of our people, I would not be in the position I am in today. By having wonderful people around me, it affords me the luxury of focusing on our company’s value proposition and our growth”. Growth is something Jiri Stejskal and CETRA have become quite good at delivering. A perennial Philly 100 winner, CETRA was able to deliver over a 30% “year over year” growth rate in 2010.
When I asked Jiri’s about his personal, professional and financial goals for the future, his answers had a profound effect on me. This effect was not so much because of his business goals, but more so by his desire to share his dream with whom he works and on whom he depends. “From a company perspective, we are working to develop the people and systems that will allow CETRA to grow beyond my leadership. I have a tremendous team of people at the company, who could very easily handle the day to day operations. My objective is to spend more of my time each day focused on the marketing initiatives and cross selling our services in order to drive the growth of the company. While I am proud of the fact that our company has been able to post strong growth figures and receive accolades from various organizations, it is not the end all be all. In fact, the things that I’m most proud of are the fact that we provide a livelihood to our employees and the translators we work with. The fact that we can help them provide for their families is very fulfilling. The fact that we are very blessed is something we do not lose sight of. In fact, the CETRA team has come to terms with the fact that there is a higher or meaningful purpose than just generating profits. We are looking at establishing a private foundation, which would facilitate communication between governments and organizations around the world. We are also considering offering our services to those that cannot afford them on a pro bono basis”.
As we sat, talking about his life’s journey, I realized that Jiri Stejskal operates at a different level than most people. He seems to have a boundless energy few possess and yet he carries himself with tremendous modesty. We talked about how he can juggle all these responsibilities effectively. “I try to focus my time and energy on the things that matter most to me. There is my family, my business, my volunteer activities (Jiri sits on the Board of the Entrepreneurs Forum of Greater Philadelphia, is current President of the American Translators Association, is the current Vice President for the International Federation of Translators and is also a member of Vistage) and my fun activities. When asked Jiri what he does for fun, he replied, “I train for triathlons.” I guess that should come as no surprise. The young man who fled communist Czechoslovakia and came to this country with only $50 is truly living the American dream. He is putting his good fortune to work by making a difference in the lives of others and he has no intention of wasting any time. Now that truly is the definition of success.
