Years before Kodo took its current form, Predrag Pavič was responsible for corporate hospitality and events in Prague. The work was practical: understand what an international team wanted, find the right local suppliers, coordinate the details and make the result feel genuinely connected to Czechia.
One enquiry showed how much a clear offer and a well-built website can change who finds a small local business.
A message from the United States
The website had been carefully prepared in English, German and Spanish. It did not simply repeat the Czech copy word for word. Each version explained the offer in a way that a person outside Czechia could understand before making contact.
That work opened doors. Companies already operating in Prague found the business, but so did teams planning an event from abroad.
One of those enquiries came from an IT team at Microsoft in the United States. They were arranging an event in Prague and did not want another standard corporate format. They were looking for something more local: food and hospitality built around ingredients and producers from the Czech Republic.
They found exactly that distinction through the website.
The website was not only a translation
Publishing several language versions helped, but language alone was not the deciding factor.
The important part was that the offer was specific. It explained what made the experience different and gave an international visitor enough confidence to continue the conversation.
A generic message such as “catering for every occasion” would have placed the business among many interchangeable suppliers. A clear focus on Czech ingredients, local producers and a thoughtfully organised experience made it easier for the right client to recognise a fit.
This is a useful distinction for any company entering a foreign market. Translation makes an offer readable. Positioning makes it relevant.
From online discovery to a local Czech experience
The enquiry began thousands of kilometres away, but the value had to be delivered locally.
That required more than food. It meant understanding the brief, communicating clearly across distance and time zones, coordinating the venue and suppliers, and turning the idea of “local Czech ingredients” into a coherent event for an international team.
The event itself became proof of a simple principle: a small business does not need to look large to win the attention of a large international company. It needs to be easy to understand, credible and clearly suited to the task.
The photographs from the event still document that work. More importantly, the experience continues to influence how Kodo approaches international clients today.
What the experience taught us
1. A clear difference is more valuable than a long list of services
International buyers often review a market from a distance. They cannot easily recognise which local supplier is genuinely suitable. A precise offer helps them decide.
The Czech ingredients were not decoration added after the enquiry. They were the reason the offer stood apart in the first place.
2. A translated website is not automatically a localised website
The English, German and Spanish pages had to explain the same business to people with different expectations and limited local context.
Literal translation rarely does this well. A useful localised page answers the questions a foreign buyer is likely to have: what is distinctive, what can be trusted, how the process works and who will coordinate the local details.
3. Search visibility matters before the first conversation
The Microsoft team did not begin with a recommendation from an existing Czech contact. They found the offer online while planning from the United States.
Good search visibility did not close the project by itself. It created the opportunity for the right conversation to happen.
4. Local knowledge becomes valuable when it is organised
Knowing Czech producers, venues and suppliers is useful. Turning them into one dependable result for an international client is the real service.
The buyer should not have to manage every local relationship separately. One responsible partner should understand the objective, bring in the right specialists and keep the whole process connected.
5. Credibility is built through detail
A strong brand name in the enquiry was encouraging, but the work still depended on ordinary disciplines: clear communication, realistic promises, careful preparation and reliable delivery.
Those details are not separate from marketing. They are what make the marketing claim believable.
Why this story belongs to Kodo
This was earlier experience from Predrag’s work in corporate hospitality and events, not a current marketing engagement for Microsoft.
Its relevance to Kodo is the method behind it.
Today, Kodo helps international companies make their Czech offer understandable, visible and workable. Sometimes that means validating the market. Sometimes it means a Czech landing page, local positioning, marketing, sales groundwork or coordination with legal and accounting specialists. In other cases, it means a website, automation or practical AI.
Kodo does not claim to perform every specialist task internally. We define what the business needs, take responsibility for the work we know well and coordinate trusted specialists where the project requires them.
The goal remains the same as in that earlier event: make a foreign company’s path into Czechia clearer, more local and easier to manage.
A practical lesson for companies entering Czechia
If your company is preparing to enter the Czech market, do not begin by translating every page of the existing website.
Begin with three questions:
- What will Czech customers, partners or employees find genuinely relevant?
- What proof will help them trust the offer?
- Which local details need to be coordinated before promotion begins?
A smaller, clearer local presentation can be more useful than a complete translation that does not explain why anyone in Czechia should choose you.
If you are considering a Czech market entry, talk to Kodo about the practical first step.
