Hidden Champions in Dynamically Changing Societies: The Case of Slovakia

Hidden champions (HC) originally defined by Herman Simon as globally or regionally highly successful companies with specific features have been revealed and studied also in the Slovak context. Based on in-depth interviews with CEO Representatives and additional secondary data researchers provided an insight into the best practices of HC and reality-approved inspirational strategies, other companies can learn from to pursue their future global success. Authors examined the progress of hidden champions defined in 2011 and identified the new strong or potential ones in terms of nature of their market leadership and nature of competitive advantage, and formulated core lessons learned on the path to their success. These companies operate in different environment in comparison with original concept applied in German-speaking countries, resulting from the different historical, socio-political, and economic background of the country, that is briefly introduced. Currently, HC companies perceive new external business challenges that should be addressed, together with their internal management and leadership development needs. Studied companies carefully monitor and rapidly respond to new technological trends (as Industry 4.0, digitalization, automatization, IoT, virtual, or augmented reality), they face demographic problems (a lack of especially IT or technically educated qualified labor force, brain drain) or deal with new business opportunities and also threats from Asian countries. The chapter provides also more detailed case studies of selected companies from the IT and machinery sector presenting their success stories and implications for governments, financial institutions, and business schools how they could support these companies to thrive also in the near future.