Family business Carpentry Kos as case study for I2P4Green course 2023-12-12
Education Centre Geoss has been developing its case study as part of the WP4 course material for VET. To gather information, they conducted an interview with the company founder Jože Kos and the director Petra Kos as well as drew from their website and received additional figures.
This case study builds on the experiences of a family business Carpentry Kos which has been offering its clients, house owners, designers and public institutions top quality, custom-designed and manufactured sustainable wood products for furnishing outdoor spaces for more than two decades. The added value of their products, in addition to the high-quality production adapted to the wishes and needs of the client, is built on integration. Together with suppliers, partners, designers, architects, companies in related industries, clients and the local environment, they strive to implement various development projects related to nature, wood and environmental management. They believe that intertwining knowledge and combining experience while respecting tradition and nature are necessary for sustainable development, which is a condition for maintaining and improving the quality of life for all of us.
They consider human capital as the most important but here they also faced some challenges. The biggest challenge for their business is personnel – meaning that a small company has every employee specialized in a certain area, and every missing person who is no longer there causes a greater wound or loss in such a company. The second challenge is ensuring the amount of work is manageable with their available personnel. You need to have time to teach new people and time to transfer knowledge. Balancing between the scope of work and investment in people's knowledge is necessary. The third challenge, connected to the previous ones, is finding external funds for the development on the market. Due to the fact that the company is small, their work creates insufficient financial resources to invest in development. Because there is not enough added value to existing products, there are also not enough funds for development.
The case describes the main challenges, company history and background, facing challenges and implemented solutions to the challenges in the past and a conclusion. It is enriched with several interesting photos and timelines that will be useful for students’ work with the case.
Authors: Saša Ceglar Vidmar This case study builds on the experiences of a family business Carpentry Kos which has been offering its clients, house owners, designers and public institutions top quality, custom-designed and manufactured sustainable wood products for furnishing outdoor spaces for more than two decades. The added value of their products, in addition to the high-quality production adapted to the wishes and needs of the client, is built on integration. Together with suppliers, partners, designers, architects, companies in related industries, clients and the local environment, they strive to implement various development projects related to nature, wood and environmental management. They believe that intertwining knowledge and combining experience while respecting tradition and nature are necessary for sustainable development, which is a condition for maintaining and improving the quality of life for all of us.
They consider human capital as the most important but here they also faced some challenges. The biggest challenge for their business is personnel – meaning that a small company has every employee specialized in a certain area, and every missing person who is no longer there causes a greater wound or loss in such a company. The second challenge is ensuring the amount of work is manageable with their available personnel. You need to have time to teach new people and time to transfer knowledge. Balancing between the scope of work and investment in people's knowledge is necessary. The third challenge, connected to the previous ones, is finding external funds for the development on the market. Due to the fact that the company is small, their work creates insufficient financial resources to invest in development. Because there is not enough added value to existing products, there are also not enough funds for development.
The case describes the main challenges, company history and background, facing challenges and implemented solutions to the challenges in the past and a conclusion. It is enriched with several interesting photos and timelines that will be useful for students’ work with the case.
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