Our Grandmasters
Are you familiar with the "10,000 Hour Rule" popularized by journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell? It says that before a person can become a master in any field, he or she must devote at least 10,000 hours intensively to it. But some of our colleagues at Hässlers have been practicing their bookbinding craft for over 100,000 hours! So when we call them grandmasters, it is not an exaggeration.
We often say that we don't believe in shortcuts and simple solutions. Our work is based on honest craftsmanship that takes time, that you can't learn in a few weeks, and that none of our digital machines can do alone. As the Czech proverb says - repetition makes the master. A comparison with top sport is suggested here, in which you also get nowhere without hard and long training. A nice example is legendary basketball player Herb Magee. When he explains to kids what got him to the top of the world, it's actually simple. He's been shooting 500 balls a day his whole life. And when he misses, he analyzes why. How he stood, how he moved, what detail ruined his shot.
And that's how we think it is in our craft. You can't get to the top without long-term daily practice and constant effort to improve. It's not enough to stand at a machine and push a button. (Not to mention that many of our old machines don't even have any modern buttons.) Our products tend to be so complex that you have to play a real symphony of bookbinding craft. We have demanding clients who choose us because they expect a perfect result. And we couldn't deliver that without the work of our master craftsmen. We have a lady in our workshop who has been operating a laminating machine day in and day out for 40 years. And she's probably worked over 100,000 hours on it. Do you think there are many people in the world who can do the job better than her? That experience at Hässlers is no exception. Today, we consider it an honour to introduce you to 3 exceptional colleagues who not only have unique experience, but also, thanks to their exceptional versatility, a deep, comprehensive knowledge of the entire craft.
DITA
Mrs. Dita is Production Manager at Hässlers. She is a bookbinder through and through. Her years of experience and incredibly nimble hands, which conjure up workable technical solutions for even the most complex products, are invaluable. Her work is commonly admired even in "fancy" offices in Stockholm or Paris.
JAROSLAV
Mr Jaroslav likes to say that in our industry "you have to be able to take advice". Improvise and find solutions. He has been doing it himself for 56 years. Nowadays, he works mainly as a mentor at Hässlers. And thanks to him, we can be sure that there is hardly a task that we can't handle.
DAVID
My colleague David is two generations younger than Jaroslav, but he knows all our bookbinding and packaging machines perfectly. That's why he is the technical director at Hässlers. He can set up any of our machines himself so that the result is a perfect product. He's only been doing the craft for maybe 10,000 hours so far. But he's exactly the kind of person who makes you feel like he's traveled through time.
Hässlers are not just a printer. Our industry is more complex and requires a multi-functional focus, as demonstrated by the range of our projects. But the absolute foundation is almost always honest, meticulously executed bookbinding. It allows us to realize a variety of products, including those that require modern solutions to contemporary design needs. But most of this is not "corporate know-how", as is often stated. By the very nature of the craft, it lives because of its practitioners. In our case it is thanks to people like Dita, Jaroslav, David, Lenka, Vera, Hanka and others. Thanks to the masters of their field!