Institutions with deep roots and long histories hold something genuinely rare. They carry a heritage that cannot be manufactured, resources that took generations to establish and a reputation built through decades of consistent delivery. The challenge for the leaders who inherit that foundation is not simply to protect it. It is to understand what makes it worth protecting and then build deliberately around those strengths while preparing the organization for what comes next. That kind of leadership requires both respect for the past and the courage to improve on it. Prof. h.c. Zoltán Richtárik, PhD., DBA, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Liečebné termálne kúpele, a.s. – Kúpele Sklené Teplice, brings that discipline to his role. His approach is shaped by international education, practical operations, evidence-based decision-making, continuous learning, and discipline through sport, with a consistent focus on building institutions that grow stronger rather than simply larger.
Leading with Global Insight, Discipline, and Purpose
Professor Richtárik’s approach to leadership has been shaped by international education, practical management experience, and exposure to different cultures and environments. By the age of 26, he had completed six higher-education qualifications across four countries, including an MBA at the London School of Business and Finance with dissertation research, as well as doctoral-level studies in international business management and business administration.
This international academic background is not simply a collection of qualifications. Each country and academic environment exposed him to different cultures and approaches to business and management, contributing to the perspective he brings to organizational decisions.
The objective as CEO is not simply to preserve what already exists. It is to protect what makes the institution exceptional, improve what can be improved, and build new sources of sustainable growth around its existing strengths.
He does not pursue certifications simply for recognition. He has completed more than 50 professional certifications and structured learning programmes, whose value lies in acquiring frameworks that can improve decisions, processes, and management.
He also sees “Sustainable development as building an organization that can grow commercially while strengthening its processes, people, customer proposition, and ability to adapt.” He also values learning from different markets and environments over time, with care and thoughtfulness.
Connecting Heritage with Future Development
As CEO of Liečebné termálne kúpele Sklené Teplice, Professor Richtárik balances strong heritage with the responsibility to prepare the institution for its next stage. The spa has a history dating back to the 16th century. Its strength is not simply its history. It combines natural thermal resources, therapeutic potential, and distinctive assets that cannot easily be replicated elsewhere.
The clearest example is the Parenica cave steam bath, a naturally formed cave with hyperthermal thermal water. It is considered a Slovak and European rarity and is one of the defining characteristics of Kúpele Sklené Teplice. For him, Parenica is not simply a spa procedure, but a strategic asset, part of the institution’s identity, and an important element of its future potential.
His responsibility as CEO includes financial performance, sales, customer experience, people, processes, infrastructure, and commercial opportunities while maintaining a clear view of where the institution needs to be several years from now.
His role is to establish priorities, create accountability, allocate resources, and ensure operational decisions contribute to the broader strategic direction. The objective is to protect what makes the institution exceptional, improve what can be improved, and build new sources of sustainable growth around its existing strengths. The intention is not to change the institution for the sake of change, but to build intelligently around the strengths that make it distinctive.
Decisions Built on Value and Evidence
Professor Richtárik approaches strategic decisions through three questions: What creates value? What can actually be executed? Is it sustainable over time?
His background in international business, business administration, project management, and strategic management gives him a broad framework for evaluating decisions. He also places importance on business intelligence, financial information, financial analysis, and data.
Before making an important decision, he wants to understand the available evidence, the assumptions behind it, the risks, and the likely operational consequences. Data tells him what is happening and can help explain why, but leadership is still required to decide what should happen next and turn evidence into action.
He is particularly interested in structured problem-solving and process improvement. His work with Lean Six Sigma has reinforced the importance of identifying root causes rather than repeatedly treating symptoms. He is also strongly influenced by Lean management and the Toyota Production System, particularly process discipline, waste reduction, standardization, and continuous improvement.
For him, “Operational excellence means making performance repeatable. If a process depends entirely on one individual remembering to do something correctly, it is not yet a strong process.” Strong organizations build systems that make good performance more consistent and sustainable.
Leadership Through Discipline and Accountability
Professor Richtárik is particularly influenced by Japanese management traditions, especially their emphasis on collective harmony, long-term thinking, humility, discipline, and continuous improvement.
His approach is not to treat one national management culture as universally superior. He takes useful principles from different environments and adapts them pragmatically to the organization.
He prefers a leadership culture based on substance, consistency, accountability, and collective performance rather than one dependent primarily on individual charisma or personal visibility.
One of his strongest principles is that decisions should be evidence-based. He prefers analysis, data, and a structured understanding of the problem to decisions driven by emotion or assumption.
For him, continuous improvement should be part of everyday management. The question should constantly be whether a process can be simpler, faster, more reliable, or more valuable for the customer.
Managing Challenges with Operational Understanding
One central challenge is leading an established institution while creating conditions for future development. Heritage is a major advantage, but it can also create attachment to processes and assumptions that may no longer be optimal.
Professor Richtárik’s approach is not to change things simply to demonstrate change. Every significant change should have a purpose and create a meaningful benefit.
Another challenge is balancing different customer groups and business requirements. A therapeutic spa has responsibilities that are fundamentally different from those of a conventional hotel or wellness resort. At the same time, modern customers expect convenience, quality, digital accessibility, attractive experiences, and clear value.
This makes prioritization essential. Not every opportunity deserves investment and not every problem requires a structural solution.
He also considers it important for a CEO to never rely exclusively on information coming through management layers. Information can be incomplete, interpreted differently, or presented without the full operational context.
A leader who understands the operation directly is better positioned to challenge assumptions, ask the right questions, and make pragmatic decisions. Operational experience also helps leaders understand how strategic decisions are experienced by the people who execute them. His approach is therefore to combine strategic thinking with operational understanding. The strongest decisions are made when ambition and reality meet.
Continuous Learning and Professional Development
Continuous learning has become part of Professor Richtárik’s professional routine. In addition to his academic qualifications, he has completed more than 50 professional certifications and structured learning programmes covering leadership, strategy, project management, financial analysis, pricing, business analysis, and Lean Six Sigma.
Their value is in acquiring another framework through which to examine a business problem. If a new methodology cannot improve the quality of a decision or the way a process is managed, its practical value is limited.
He currently serves as an Affiliate Professor at UniDAIM in the United States and has been awarded an Honorary Professorship in Strategic Management and Institutional Leadership. His academic engagement complements his executive work, connecting management theory, strategic thinking, institutional leadership, and practical business execution.
His principle is simple: “Learn continuously but apply selectively.” Leadership is not about knowing every new management concept. It is about knowing which ideas deserve to become decisions.
Milestones That Shaped His Leadership
Completing six higher-education qualifications across four countries by the age of 26 was personally significant. Each country and academic environment exposed him to a different culture and way of thinking.
Becoming CEO of an established spa institution at the age of 26 was another defining milestone. It marked the transition from acquiring knowledge to carrying full executive responsibility for people, resources, financial performance, operations, customer experience, and long-term direction.
Sport has also played a major role in shaping him. Until the age of 19, he was actively involved in football, including representing Slovakia and competing at youth level in the UEFA Champions League. In 2025, he finished second at the Amateur World Championships in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Warsaw. The entire preparation was completed alongside full-time professional responsibilities.
That experience reinforced a lesson he learned through sport: discipline is not created when circumstances are convenient. It is built when time is limited and execution is still required.
Balancing Leadership, Learning, and Sport
Professor Richtárik does not believe balance means having equal amounts of time for everything. At an executive level, it means knowing what deserves time and what does not.
Prioritization is one of the most important skills he has developed. A CEO can be busy every minute of the day, but being busy is not necessarily the same as being productive. He has become deliberate about how he uses the time available.
There are days when additional hours would be useful, but the responsibility remains to decide what deserves those hours. He has learned that sustainable performance is built through consistency rather than occasional periods of extreme effort. “Executive leadership, education, and sport all require the same discipline: show up, execute, evaluate the result, and continue improving.”
Developing Future Leaders
Professor Richtárik believes “Good CEOs are not created behind a desk. They are developed in operations.”
Before someone can fully understand how to lead an organization, they should experience its processes, people, constraints, and realities directly. It teaches what is realistic, where problems really occur, and how decisions made at management level are experienced by the people executing them.
He also believes operational experience helps leaders recognize when information has been filtered or interpreted through management layers, allowing them to challenge assumptions and understand problems closer to their source.
He also believes leadership is partly innate. Some people naturally take responsibility, influence others, and remain composed when circumstances become difficult. However, being a natural leader does not automatically make someone a CEO.
The journey toward executive leadership shapes the person. Every role, difficult situation, success, failure, colleague, and manager contributes something. The important thing is to remain disciplined, respectful toward people along the way, and willing to learn from every stage.
Building a Stronger Future
Professor Richtárik’s objective is to build on the heritage of Kúpele Sklené Teplice while creating a stronger, more commercially sustainable, and professionally managed institution for the future.
The spa combines centuries of history, natural thermal resources, a strong therapeutic foundation, and distinctive assets such as the Parenica cave steam bath. The opportunity is to connect these strengths with modern management, digital development, contemporary customer expectations, and a stronger commercial proposition.
He wants to continue developing the relationship between traditional spa treatment, wellness, hospitality, gastronomy, and experience-based tourism. These areas can complement one another and create a more resilient business model when managed as parts of one coherent customer proposition.
At the same time, growth cannot come at the expense of operational discipline. Revenue growth, customer satisfaction, employee capability, productivity, and financial performance need to develop together.
His long-term objective is not simply to make the institution larger. It is to make it stronger.
Professor Richtárik sees his role as connecting heritage with transformation, building a professionally managed and operationally disciplined institution while protecting what makes Kúpele Sklené Teplice exceptional.
His direction as CEO is clear: respect the heritage, strengthen the present, and build the institution for the future.
The People Behind the Journey
Behind every demanding professional journey, there are people whose support makes more possible than they may realize. Professor Richtárik recognizes that achieving so much at a young age has not been solely an individual effort. He is deeply grateful to his family for their support, patience, understanding, and encouragement throughout his education, professional development, sporting ambitions, and executive journey. Their support has provided a foundation that has helped him pursue ambitious goals while meeting the demands and responsibilities that come with them. For him, success is not only about individual achievement, but also about appreciating the people who stand beside him along the way.
He also values the role his partner plays in his life. He believes a strong relationship is built on mutual respect, shared values, and the freedom to pursue meaningful ambitions. Having a purposeful and supportive partner who is committed to her own growth makes the journey more meaningful. For Professor Richtárik, professional achievement matters, but so does having someone beside him with whom he can share the challenges, progress, and milestones along the way.
For more information, visit: https://zoltanrichtarik.carrd.co/
