Petr Pouchly

My work with freelancers and solopreneurs

There are three typical options for my work with individuals, from one-off consultations at my standard rate €340/hour to larger and longer collaborations, priced individually. Pick your favorite:

1. “I am a freelance professional who wants to go big,” turning a one-man show into a company or agency. — Let me be your mentor for three 90-minute sessions, and you will have your business plan, challenges, blind spots and transition guidelines covered.
2. “I am launching a small business and need a guide for a smooth start.” — Let me be your business consultant for one day a week over a period of 2-3 months. All the essentials will be covered: strategy, processes, leadership, cashflow, hiring, team development, etc.
3. “I have launched a new business and need a mentor.” — We will have as many 1:1 mentoring sessions as necessary over a longer period of a quarter or two, a total of 30 or 50 hours. Come what may, we will deal with all the challenges one way or the other.

My work with companies and organizations

My primary expertise is in business strategy development and building a strong organizational structure around it — including founding values and changes of attitudes throughout the whole organizational culture.

My work experience includes multinational corporations, non-profits, art and cultural organizations, small and medium enterprises, as well as solopreneurs and self-employed individuals. I have reviewed several hundred business plans, product concepts and organizational designs.

Usually, none of this is work for a single person, or a few hours of consulting time. It is a transformational process, which takes anywhere from a few weeks up to some years to finish, depending on the complexity and size of a company.

That’s why I collaborate with other proven experts, while focusing mainly on the overall strategy and its application. This empowers my clients to draw from a much larger talent pool of competent professionals that are in my network of contacts.

I am not trying to simply please my clients. My goal is to help them in overcoming critical challenges, gaining an edge over their competitors, and bringing results — ethically and efficiently. I am always blunt and honest about what needs to be done to push the business forward. Because if no one is willing to work hard on those changes, and to face the hard truths, it won’t work.

The way I see it, a well-functioning organization is able to deliver services or products that make customers happy to pay for them. To achieve this, an organization needs something more than just functional processes and measurable strategic goals. It needs a sustainable motivation and an unfailing willingness to cooperate. On all levels.

About me

I think of work in terms of project design. That is why I draw inspiration from design thinking, game design, and experience-economy concepts. I base my work on scientific knowledge of individual and group behavior from sociology, psychology, social anthropology, behavioral sciences, and even theater studies. And no, I don’t hold diplomas for all of this, but I use knowledge that goes deeper, much deeper, than typical MBA textbooks, self-help talks and business paperbacks.

I employ experience from all my professional endeavors and I don’t hesitate to pay for valuable know-how that I can build upon, if it enables me to create profits for myself and my clients. I have built my own successful consulting business, mentored or designed dozens of others, and seen hundreds more from inside. I have helped with methodical creation of several business incubators and served as a mentor in a number of others.

Each year, I lecture on the practical aspects of running a business at several universities, and I have been teaching Leadership at Masaryk University in Brno as a part of their product design studies, which I co-founded. Apart from that, I often lecture at public and private conference events as well as in companies for their employees and/or management.

I am a geek. I built a number of communities in RPG, LARP and game design. I was creating board games, adventure games and screenplays for role-playing games. I am still an active gamer, though a priority of my leisure time is now in raising our baby daughter. Lots of my working time goes into our design studio Court of Moravia.

I respect the people I work with, and I build strong partnerships — with colleagues as well as clients. I don’t like the word “superior”. I learn, play, read and debate a lot.

What level I am on

• game designer (25+ years of experience, since 1994)
• teamleader (25+ years of experience, since 1994)
• public speaker and professional presenter (20+ years of experience, since 1998)
• trainer (20+ years of experience, since 2000)
• B2B sales manager (15 years of experience, since 2007)
• project manager (15+ years of experience, since 2005)
• product manager (10+ years of experience, since 2008)
• brand strategist (10+ years of experience, since 2009)
• business mentor and consultant (10+ years of experience, since 2011)