Our story

The number symbolises cooperation, empathy, accord and harmony, intuition and balance. From another perspective, it signifies contradiction, representing a kind of alternative. And so 2022 marked a year of progress in cooperation within the 22HLAV team. We sought inspiration from “holacracy” (decentralized management and organizational governance), implementing certain principles of it into our processes and reflecting them in our organisational chart. By being more organised and adhering to our mission, vision and strategy, we have gained more flexibility, while our staff are able to do more of what they want to and enjoy. 

By 2021, our team comprised 60 people, twice the number of that in early 2019. A notable feature of 22HLAV is the unlimited flexibility we enjoy in the way work is undertaken. In connection with this, staff members are able to carry out tasks with a view to their individual time-related limitations, these being external commitments and other interests, often studies, sports activities or family (usually new additions to the latter). The team has also been professionally reinforced in the sphere of taxation by taking on Markéta, Alžběta and (a little later) Zuzka as licensed tax advisors.

In 2019, we began to transition to a turquoise”structure” and self-management. In parallel with expansion at the firm, the change in organisational setup happened in the spring. We had been considering a typical pyramid arrangement, whereby a line manager oversees a team and gives instruction as and when necessary. However, a workshop on developing organisations and a related book (Reinventing Organizations by Frederick Laloux) caught our collective eye instead. In these, the highest level of development designated as “turquoise” (teal) really stood out. Laloux describes how organisations don’t evolve like machines but living organisms. Great freedom and responsibility go hand-in-hand with this, along with the necessary capacity to immediately react to change and make decisions promptly. Other aspects comprise transparency and the need for everyone to be aware of everything going on, to trust and rely on each other and work together effectively. The result is formation of a single entity that identifies communally as “we”, and this sense of mutuality extends to the marketplace and society surrounding the organisation (viewed by others as relative to this competitor), as it shares the same trajectory.  We started out by declaring our mission and values with tremendous agreement and harmony. 

With Czech certification as an accounting expert under her belt, Mirka passed all the requisites for ACCA status and became a member of the international organisation. In the meantime, a new arrival - Tomáš - augmented the team of tax advisors, while Honza and Filip were awarded auditor licences. By this time there were about 30 of us at 22HLAV.

22HLAV is the name stated in the register of companies. It took us over a year of brainstorming to come up with it. In fact, we’d approached professional marketing firms to think of options, but it all came to nought. When asked about the various potential names, there was always someone who didn’t get on with them. Finally, we settled on 22HLAV. Most local people were rather indifferent to it, while others thought it a little “weird”. Anyway, 22HLAV (which translates as “22 HEADS”) came out of a discussion about how our work is about people – wonderful, smart and creative individuals. A Czech saying then occurred to us along the lines of: “What a clever, little head you are”. As for the “22”, it’s pretty common to put a number before a word. Although not at all a conscious nod to Joseph Heller’s classic novel Catch-22, the digits seemed to fit and so the company’s name was born.

The senior auditor team gained two new members – Kamila and Mirka, who had qualified as auditors. The group of senior auditors was joined by Milan, who before coming to work for us had been involved in what’s referred to as the Big Four (then the Big Six).  A year later, Vítek became the first staff member to pass the tax advisor examination and was registered with the Czech Chamber of Tax Advisors, hence so was the company.

Cooperation with clients from non-profit organisations got underway in 2006. This primarily concerned audits of the financial statements of non-governmental NPOs. Since then, we have become increasingly interested in non-profit organisations and their activities. Over time, such cooperation with NPOs of various types, especially NGOs, was extended beyond auditing, going on to include accounting, taxes, payroll and economic and legal consultation. It still fascinates us today!

Despite operating in Prague and Central Bohemia for a long time, 22HLAV opened its first office in Prague in 2005 (Prague 4, Michle). At the same time, it joined the MSI Global Alliance, a worldwide industrial body that brings together accounting and law firms from across the globe, facilitating mutual assistance in services provided to large clients and the sharing of professional and other expertise. 

A beautiful old house with a garden near a roundabout in Ústí nad Labem was restored, prior to becoming the registered headquarters of the company and the workplace of its staff in the summer of 2004. This building had plenty of space for the team to grow. Soon, Vlasta’s family members Mirka and Vítek joined her as the founders, and together they set about broadening the firm’s activities.

Vlasta and Miloš agreed, as the founders, that professional services in accounting and auditing and the sale of professional literature had too little in common and decided to go their separate ways. Miloš continued to sell such literature under another company, while the other continued to focus on the field of economics, expanding from accounting, auditing and expert services to encompass things like payroll, taxes, consultancy on mergers, divisions, acquisitions and cross-border transactions, and financial and economic management.

Vlasta, one of the founders, obtained an auditor’s licence after passing the requisite exams, and was subsequently entered as an auditor into the register of the Chamber of Auditors of the Czech Republic. The company was also registered in the same year. Vlasta obtained a licence two years later as an expert in economics and the specialised area of prices, estimates and the valuation of businesses. This all meant that one of the first goals of the firm had been successfully achieved, permitting it to develop further.

Oh, yes. 22HLAV’s humble origins date back to 1995 (prior to the existence of the company’s name), emerging from tremendous efforts made by Vlasta and Miloš in financial activities. They set out to achieve professional fulfilment by providing accounting and auditing services in particular, though selling expert literature on the subject also took place. The founders were soon joined by two more people, leading to the opening of the small team’s first office in the basement of a house. So, not unlike a typical garage-based company, then. :-)