Jakub Krajcovic
Investment Manager, Sandberg Capital | AGSM MBA 2018
Making good companies great
Guiding an organisation to grow and reach its full potential takes skill – and a little audacity. Krajcovic brings both to his role at Sandberg Capital in his native Slovakia.
Sandberg invests in companies managed by ambitious leaders in Central and Eastern Europe. Sandberg takes a 10X approach to investing in small to medium companies with growth potential. Companies like Webglobe that Jakub and his team have scaled from a local web hosting company into a regional powerhouse in five short years.
Their buy-and-build strategy saw revenue leap by 500% as the business expanded across Europe – culminating in Sandberg’s recent sale of Webglobe to online domain and hosting giant Group.One.
Private equity’s about more than just numbers. It’s about working with people and helping them do more and be more. Hopefully, because of me, people are now working better jobs, feeling more satisfied, and being more creative.
The challenge of being a challenging leader
Jakub’s leadership style blends challenge and support to create a high-performance culture where innovation thrives.
He spends a significant amount of time hiring key talent and fostering a collaborative environment where employees feel empowered to take risks.
“We built a unifying narrative from the start with Webglobe. A clear vision and a common culture designed to bring everyone on the journey. We created a high-performance team that was eager to tackle big challenges.”
But he acknowledges that not everyone shares his passion for high performance and rapid growth, and that’s okay.
"I really like to challenge people. I believe in merit and I’m very candid with my team. If you make the mission extremely clear, then those who can’t or won’t embrace it will self-select out. Thankfully that very rarely happens when you’re able to keep your promises every step of the way.”
Jakub says one of the best tools he gained during his AGSM MBA was how to give people objective feedback using a “Situation, Behaviour, Impact” framework.
“You start by describing the situation – what happened – then outline the behaviour of the person in that situation. The third step is examining the impact their behaviour had on the business. It’s a more objective way of making someone aware of the consequences of their actions. People need to feel safe to make mistakes. It’s how you both react to those mistakes that matters.”
He’s also a big fan of work-life balance. Mindful of his own young family at home, Jakub instituted a Silicon Valley style unlimited leave policy, encouraging his team to take time off as needed.
“We wanted to make sure people knew they had the flexibility to manage both their professional and personal lives. You can’t drive growth if your team is burnt out.”
Daring to change his game
Before Sandberg Capital, Jakub was a senior IT manager, responsible major projects like the digital transformation of PwC’s computing infrastructure. Successful as he was, he wanted a bigger challenge.
I felt like I needed to change and do something more impactful and be in a position where I could influence the world just a little bit more. The drive was there, but I didn’t have the tools, or the confidence. AGSM changed that.
The program equipped him with the vocabulary, frameworks, and strategies to lead and excel business and awakened a new passion for private equity so he took a leap. He left a lucrative IT role and changed countries to change his career.
“The MBA rocked my world. I went in thinking I’d gain new skills, but I came out with a completely different perspective on what I could do.”
Bringing ideas to fruition
The seeds for the Webglobe project were sown during his AGSM MBA “Strategies for Growth” course. With a little serendipity, he was able to apply what he learned in the classroom directly to the real world.
“During the course, we had to choose a company and create a growth strategy for it. I reached out to a small Slovakian web webhosting company I knew, and that exercise became the foundation for massive growth.”
The risks were considerable. Jakub not only bet on the company’s core technology but also on the founder – who he trusted to help bring other web hosting firms on board.
The company, Webglobe, rapidly expanded into multiple markets, creating high-quality jobs and providing better services to customers across Central and Eastern Europe.
Impact starts with action
Jakub’s says doing an MBA at AGSM ranks as one of the best decisions of his life – second only to marrying his wife.
My experience at AGSM was nothing short of life changing. I met incredible people, learned from world-class faculty, and was exposed to opportunities I didn’t even know existed.
AGSM ranks among the world’s best MBA programs but with the added benefit of being in “the most beautiful city in the world, Sydney”. The AGSM alumni network and ecosystem continue to fuel his career, beyond providing connections that opened doors in private equity.
“Do it. Put everything you can into it. The environment, the quality of teaching, the network – it’s all immensely valuable. If you’re at a crossroads like I was, AGSM can provide the tools and the perspective to change your life.”
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