blue - Entrepreneurship as a passion

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Entrepreneurship as a passion

Winter Edition 2013

“A company creates prosperity, from which everyone benefits, directly and indirectly. This is the true role of a company in society.”

Michele Alessi, Entrepreneur

Front Cover: Henry Ford (in car) and Barney Oldfield pose with a Ford-powered AAA “Big Car” in the 1920s. Oldfield raced many of Henry Ford’s early creations to victory. Those were credited with helping Ford Motor Company become a leader in the early automotive industry.

Back Cover: Thomas Alva Edison, Inventor, physicist and entrepreneur (1847–1931)

Editorial

Dear readers, If nobody does anything, everything comes to a stop. This is why entrepreneurs are so important – so we can all move forward. Every society needs people with the drive to build something new or take on an existing problem and make it better.

But why do these people become entrepreneurs? What drives them? The majority are men and women who want to change and improve something in the world around them. With their willingness to take on risk and their engagement, day in, day out, they face many challenges and unknowns.

Michele Alessi hits the nail on the head when he says that entrepreneurship requires passion: for ideas, products or services, but also for people and the environment. Only with the ability and the strength to deal with complex issues can an entrepreneur attain long-term success.

In other words: entrepreneurs help society move forward – a contribution that we must acknowledge more and more, also publicly.

I wish you a stimulating and interesting read about the passion of entrepreneurship.

Sincerely yours,

Georg Schubiger, Head of Private Banking

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Content

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Precision landings.

Resource planning is an existential issue if a language service provider wants to deliver quality and meet deadlines. Is this planning expertise perhaps the secret to the rapid development of CLS Communication under the leadership of Doris Albisser and Matthias TrĂźmpy?

What makes Alessi, Alessi is our passion.

By creating jobs, an entrepreneur gives employees a part of their identity. That is because people care about more than just money; their work is also part of who they are. An interview with the entrepreneur Michele Alessi.

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Photo: Getty

Photo: Reuters

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Photo: Laif

Facts about entrepreneurship.

Some eye-opening figures about companies and the people who start them.

16 From daring to succeeding.

In the beginning there is always an idea – and the courage to make it a reality. Entrepreneurship exists in all shapes and sizes.

Foto: Gallerystock Photo: Getty

18 Macro: A tricky upturn.

Why, in spite of a synchronous global economic recovery, a nuanced approach is needed.

Competence: Comprehensive business succession planning.

To guarantee a company’s long-term existence, it is essential to plan for its succession in a timely manner.

Photo: plainpicture

Photo: Gallery Stock

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24 Competence: Advisory services for entrepreneurs.

Investment advisory services must balance the potentially competing interests of private and company wealth.

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Blue page: News from the Vontobel Group.

A compilation of highlights from all our business areas.

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Interview: Patrick Preuss and Kilian Borter

The traditional Italian company Alessi manages to operate successfully in a difficult political and economic environment. In this interview, CEO Michele Alessi describes the success factors that have shaped the company. Particularly striking is the fact that its positive development is closely connected with both social responsibility and well thought-through succession planning.

Theme: Entrepreneurship as a passion

What makes Alessi, Alessi is our passion.

This past summer, Alessi for once made international headlines not with new products, but with your project “Good Work – the Factory for the City”. What's it all about?

We decided that together with our employees, we would help the financially distressed city of Omegna. Anyone from the company who wanted to participate could take up to eight working days off to do charitable work. The vast majority of our employees have participated, clocking some 9,000 working hours for the project – the equivalent of about five years of work done by a full-time employee working normally inside a company.

How did you come up with this idea?

It was a gut decision. I was tired of the negative mood and wanted to make a mark somehow. We’re suffering, too, from the difficult economic environment and sluggish demand. But instead of switching employees over to part-time work at the expense of taxpayers, or having them produce just to increase inventories, we decided to initiate this project.

Have you yourself also taken part?

Yes, of course. Personally, I’m all thumbs, but for three days of clean-up work in the city, I managed. It was a great experience.

Not only for me, but also for the employees. Passers-by applauded us – something that made our employees feel very proud.

The whole thing sounds a little like a Corporate Social Responsibility programme.

To be honest, I don’t believe that all Corporate Social Responsibility programmes reflect the core social responsibility of a company. True, many of these programmes address some exciting issue or other, and they may make sense in individual cases. But compared to the true responsibility of a company, 6 Vontobel blue Theme

which encompasses totally different aspects, the social impact of such programmes is usually marginal.

What then is your understanding of the social responsibility of a company?

A company plays an important role in society through its very existence. If an entrepreneur cares about his employees, his product and the return his company earns, he primarily has economic success in mind. But by doing these things, he’s also taking on an important role in society, namely by creating jobs and by giving the company’s employees part of their identity.

This is because people care not just about money; their livelihood is part of their identity, too. Beyond that, the products and services of a company only come into existence in the first place because they meet a need of the public. With us, that need

Michele Alessi Alongside his brother Alberto, Michele Alessi leads the company Alessi as its CEO. Founded in 1921, the company’s credo is “There is no product that cannot be made better by design.” The Italian design firm is known for its stylish everyday objects and re-editions of design classics. Some of the stand-outs from among Alessi’s design items are the tea kettle by Michael Graves and Richard Sapper, and the legendary and controversial citrus squeezer “Juicy Salif” by Philippe Starck.

With 500 employees, the traditional Italian company manufactures its products in Omegna, a small town in the Piedmont, and distributes them worldwide through 26 flagship stores and over 275 multi-brand stores.

Michele und Alberto Alessi –

Photo: Carlos Jones, Laif

a team with drive and passion.

Blindtext Blindtext Blindtext Blindtext

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is for more art and poetry in simple everyday objects. And finally, a company creates prosperity, and that benefits everyone, directly and indirectly. This is the true role of business in society.

Does this responsibility sometimes sit heavily on your shoulders?

I understand what you mean by that. Yes, responsibility can indeed be a burden for entrepreneurs. But it's just part of the job.

You cannot choose whether you want it or not. Moments like the applause of passers-by for our employees are deeply satisfying in this respect. And these moments are clearly in the majority.

You launched your project during a crisis period. Is it easier for a family-owned business to implement ideas like this?

I think it is. For this reason alone, namely that a family-run business automatically has a longer-term perspective. You think in terms of generations, not quarters. Listed companies operate under a totally different kind of pressure. In those firms, you look at the quarterly results and hope they will be well received by your shareholders. There is a risk with this pressure that you focus mainly on the company’s short-term financial success.

Long-term thinking also requires that you don’t wait till the last minute to hand over to the next generation of entrepreneurs. I’m 63 now, and my professional career is slowly coming to an end. So the question of succession, and the next generation at Alessi, has preoccupied me for quite some time. And automatically, I think of my predecessors. How did they hand over the company to us? What was important to them?

pany’s leadership. Alessi has become much more international.

As a small company with around 500 employees, we are currently present in 86 different countries. It’s a huge challenge to build up, and maintain, a solid position in so many markets.

How are you preparing your successors for this challenge?

We have developed standards which precisely define the relationship of the young generation with the company. The basic idea is that only those family members will work for Alessi who feel a calling for it and have a natural predisposition for such work. This is not meant in any way to be judgmental. There are other vocations that are just as strong and valuable. My daughter Nicoletta, for example, leads an agency for social projects in Milan. Incidentally, she helped get our project “Good Work – the Factory for the City” off the ground.

How do you actually separate work and family?

We make a very clear separation. I'll give you an example.

At Christmas dinner at my mother's – which she still makes every year in spite of her age – all the members of the family gather together. When we’re there, the subject of business never comes up. Overall, I think we do a good job of keeping the two separate.

“We don’t have a single designer in the company.”

So the handover is not a simple task?

That’s right, it isn’t. Family-owned businesses are shaped significantly by each leadership generation. The organisation has to adapt to their respective characters. When it comes to handing it over to the next generation, this is a particularly sensitive issue for the company. Not only the people change, but perhaps also the leadership model and ideas about how the company should be organised and continue to grow. This can be very critical.

You are running Alessi in the third generation. Is the fourth generation ready yet?

We’re a big family, and the fourth generation encompasses 14 individuals, two of whom are already working at Alessi today. In my view, they haven’t yet completed their introduction to the company. Especially in the sense that it’s no easy task that is awaiting them. I think their starting situation will be far more difficult than mine was.

Why is that?

Alessi is in a very different place now compared to where it was about 40 years ago when my brother and I took over the com8 Vontobel blue Theme

Let’s come back to the theme of succession planning. You’re saying that there are people in your family who are made for Alessi and others that aren’t?

That’s right. But we’re preparing the next generation so they can make up their own minds on this issue. No one in the family should feel any pressure that they definitely have to work at Alessi, if their interests lie elsewhere. Another principle is that the young generation should gain experience in other companies.

We don’t want them to come directly to Alessi after graduation from their studies. Once they’re here with us, they will be supported just like the other managers, going through training courses and education programmes in order to expand their knowledge of the business.

If the two young family members you mentioned earlier didn’t exist, what would you do with the company then?

We already have a good mix in the company between family members and external managers. In the case you just proposed, these managers would simply take the reins. But luckily we do have two members of the family who are potential successors.

Has a sale of the company or an IPO ever been an issue?

We constantly receive enquiries from companies wanting to buy a participation in the company, and we even get many outright purchase offers. But we’ve never seriously discussed doing this. I personally don’t think an IPO would be a good move. There could be good reasons for doing this, but so far, we have fortunately always been in a position to foster the

Photo: Alessi

Negative mood and shortened working hours? Employees of Alessi – with their boss – prefer to roll up their sleeves for a charitable cause, under the slogan “Good Work – the Factory for the City.”

further development of our company ourselves, without needing outside investors.

Is being self-financing Alessi’s recipe for success?

II don’t think there is a “recipe”. What makes Alessi Alessi is our passion. And here I’m not only talking about the family, but the entire workforce. We have an extremely low staff turnover. People who start their working life with us often stay all the way to their retirement. I also think that we have a coherent strategy that is geared toward the long term, and that we benefit from the fact that we have never sought only to maximise profits.

Does it matter that you have always remained true to your roots in Omegna?

Being anchored here has had more advantages than disadvantages, bottom line. In Milan, we wouldn’t have a workforce that identified so strongly with us as we do here. This has become a characteristic of Alessi. We are all proud of our products, and together we can make it through difficult phases.

Speaking of difficult phases, the economic situation in Italy is not good. And politics are not contributing much to calming things down.

This is a separate chapter. We have got used to the idea that we shouldn’t expect anything from politics. Instead, Italian companies have learnt over the years to help themselves. This has made us stronger. We are used to fighting against various adversities and we don’t allow ourselves to be defeated by them. It’s in this context that our project “Good Work – the Factory for the City” is meant to set a good example. Perhaps it will even become the blueprint for a future model for the kind of partnerships that can work between private companies and the public sector.

Alessi is on track to post record earnings in the current year. In spite of the crisis, is the famous Italianità helping you move forward?

I don’t know if it’s the Italianità or simply our clear focus on high quality design. My brother Alberto, who is responsible for design at Alessi, has been the driver of an important development with us in the past few years. We define ourselves today as a producer of design objects. For example, for us a bottle opener is far more than a bottle opener. It’s a design object in your household.

Something you don’t hide in a drawer.

How do you manage to work together with around 300 designers and still convey the impression that your customer is buying an Alessi product?

In actual fact, we don’t have a single designer in the company.

We don’t see it as our task to make the design itself. We bring the best designers together and choose from their ideas. Our core competency is the selection and commercialisation of the products. The Alessi product catalogue is a kind of encyclopaedia of design. And by the way, I’m very optimistic about this type of business model.

So Alessi will continue to grow?

Not necessarily. I don’t think Alessi should continue to grow a lot. We are positioned in the high price segment and we address a specific market requirement. By “optimistic” I meant that Alessi will continue to have a place in the market for a long time to come. Our raison d’être, combining art with utilitarian objects, will continue to be appreciated.

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2’055’000 people work for Wal-Mart. The American retail giant is now the largest employer in the world, followed by the Indian State Railways with a staff of 1.7 million.

15% of the entire workforce in Switzerland is self-employed. No other country in Europe has such a high proportion of its population working independently.

99.7% are SME’s

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Of all the businesses in Switzerland, 99.7% count as Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, employing 67% of the country’s workforce.

One in 4 Europeans has tried to start a company at one time. In China and the USA, the number of people having a go at starting a business is as high as 4 out of every 10 people.

543’000 companies were founded last year in the United States – each month.

481

Photo: Getty, Laif, Keystone

Billion US dollars in revenue were generated last year by Royal Dutch Shell.

This turnover is higher than the gross domestic product of Taiwan.

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1367

is the year when the oldest

still operating industrial enterprise in

Switzerland is first mentioned, a bell foundry in Aarau called Rüetschi. “Fusa sum arow” (“Cast in Aarau”)

is the inscription on the 14th-century Barbara-Bell, which tolls to this day in the cathedral in Fribourg.

years old

is the age of the oldest still existing corporation in the world: Sweden’s “Stora Kopparbergs Bergslags Aktiebolaget”. The original participation certificate, which can be considered a “share” in the company in the modern sense, documents a 1/8 ownership in the copper mine in Falun, and dates from the year 1288.

705 AD is the founding year of the oldest company in the world, the Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan Hotel in Hayakawa, Japan.

860 different varieties of ice cream

7’340’000 micro-enterprises

In 1980, the entrepreneur Manuel da Silva Oliveira founded Heladería Coromoto in Merida, Venezuela, because he wanted to make new, more attactive flavours of ice cream. Since then, he has produced more than 860 varieties – and landed in the Guinness Book of Records. At any one time, at least 60 different flavours are always available in his shop.

were started up with the help of small loans provided by Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, founded

by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.

The pair behind the company’s rapid development: Matthias Trßmpy and Doris Albisser.

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Text: Urs Thaler // Photo: Gian Paul Lozza

Theme: Entrepreneurship as a passion

Precision landings.

Translations are all about deadlines. Texts come in today and must be translated quickly and competently. Will two days from now be all right? Tomorrow would be even better. Or could it perhaps already be done today? The global language services provider CLS Communication knows its way around this business, ensuring precision landings when it comes to translations and other language services.

Airports are the modern gateways to the world. On an average day at Zurich’s international airport, 740 aeroplanes take off and land, whisking 67,766 passengers and 1,245 tonnes of cargo and mail into Switzerland or out into the world.

In nearby Glattbrugg, you can look out across to the airport from the 5th floor windows of the offices located at no. 33 Sägereistrasse, and get a feeling for the immensity of this daily activity. Here in these offices, the global language services provider CLS Communication has its headquarters. Like the airport, CLS is also a gateway to the world, although unlike the arrivals and departures of aircraft, its traffic consists of invisible packets of text that travel virtually, rather than physically, around the world. But if all the language and translation jobs that the company receives and processes from its more than one thousand clients worldwide were in fact physical packages, many passers-by would stop and gaze up in amazement at Sägereistrasse no. 33 in Glattbrugg, astounded by the sheer volume of packages flying in and out, minute after minute. They would be

Matthias Trümpy has been Group CEO of CLS Communication since August 2013. The graduate in business studies joined the company in 2005 as Group CFO, in charge of finance and Management Services.

Before joining CLS, Trümpy worked for large corporations, including stints in France and Mexico.

Doris Albisser is the founder of the language service provider CLS Communication, and led the company as Group CEO from 1997 to 2013. After handing over the operational responsibility to her long-standing deputy Matthias Trümpy, she became Vice Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors.

even more amazed if they could see that CLS clients, like airline passengers, can choose from a wide variety of services.

A network that spans the globe Focusing on high-quality language services, the company is active around the world. Six hundred employees and a network of some 5,000 certified external specialists ensure the flawless quality of language solutions, generating annual group turnover of around CHF 90 million. The Swiss company, which is one of the leading language service providers worldwide, has offices in China, Singapore, Spain, France, the UK, Germany, Denmark, Canada and the United States.

Ms. Doris Albisser, who led the company as CEO for 16 years, recently passing on responsibility to Matthias Trümpy, is sometimes amazed herself at the enormous growth that CLS has achieved since it was founded in 1997. “We started out with about 40 employees,” says the Lucerne native. The company was created because the former Swiss Bank Corporation and Zurich Insurance decided to outsource their language services.

Frau Albisser, who had recently established herself as an independent language service provider and consultant, was attracted by this entrepreneurial challenge, and soon after, CLS Communication began to take shape. The road to independence led to a management buyout in 2003, allowing the entire management team to become shareholders along with her.

Frau Albisser relates that in her 16 years as CEO, her job went through some four fundamental changes. “When you are responsible for a company, you are constantly confronted with rapidly evolving challenges,” she says. “This makes your work exciting, varied, and demanding – but also very satisfying.” Do you need to be endowed with an entrepreneurial gene, or is it an activity that can be learnt like any other? Current CEO Matthias Trümpy is convinced that to a large degree, the craft of management can be learnt. “But the courage and decisiveness you need cannot be,” he says. “In that respect, something like an entrepreneurial gene probably does exist, and you either have it or you don’t.”

Doris Albisser enjoys being an entrepreneur. She says she could no longer imagine working without the freedom of manoeuvre she has as an entrepreneur. Something else which she considers important, however, is mindset: “For an entrepreneur, being orientated in your thinking toward finding solutions is more Vontobel blue Theme 14

Photo: Getty

In a globalized world, language services are more in demand than ever. In this business, the companies that survive will be the ones who can cope with the demands of the international market. CLS is clearly one of the winners of globalisation.

important than simply focusing on problems. As an entrepreneur, if I pursue the big picture, making sure that my thinking and actions are broad-based and directed toward the long term, then the company will benefit a lot more than if I’m constantly interfering in everything and rummaging around in ultimately insignificant details.” In the case of CLS Communication, this big picture can be discerned in the consistent way the business has become more international.

Boosted by a global perspective The company’s first branch offices abroad were opened in London and New York. From the very beginning, Frau Albisser and her management team colleagues knew that positioning the company internationally was a clear must if it wanted to move up into the ranks of the leading language service providers.

Trümpy, who joined the company as Chief Financial Officer in 2005, recalls the period well: “It was a very expansive phase, with an enormous range and variety of tasks. Every day, our growth strategy brought new challenges.” And that was the way he liked it, feeling most comfortable when the situation calls for action. “I want to execute,” says Trümpy. “I like achieving results and moving the company forward.” In August 2013 he succeeded Doris Albisser as Group CEO. 14 Vontobel blue Theme

The two executives make it clear that they have no doubt about the company’s ability to continue posting strong growth in future. Several factors favour their growth strategy. The overall market is currently worth about 35 billion US dollars, and is growing. The industry is still characterised as incredibly fragmented, consisting of a large number of small and even tiny enterprises. Pressure to consolidate is considerable, affecting above all those language service providers that are too small to be international players but too big to remain niche players in their local market and continue to grow – such companies may disappear. CLS Communication does not face these problems because it is internationally broad-based and has reached a size that has catapulted it into the group of the world's leading language service providers. Yet on the other hand, the company has not been immune to the effects of the recent financial and economic crisis. For example, it had to adjust to its clients’ budget cuts. On top of this, translation services are subject to strong price pressure worldwide.

Frau Albisser, today the Vice Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors, admits readily that CLS Communication would never have become the size it has achieved through organic growth alone. “If you only grow organically,” she explains,

“you need time and patience to move forward.” Acquisitions are the faster way to go. There have been periods when offers arrive almost every week in Glattbrugg to take over other language service providers. When the Swiss company wants to open up a new market abroad, it often searches actively for suitable local acquisition candidates. “When it comes to acquiring a company, solid due diligence is critical,” says CEO Trümpy.

“If we’re not absolutely sure that a company and its team will be a good fit with us, we would rather not go ahead.”

Frau Albisser agrees, adding, “In my experience, you can always find a solution to a financial issue. But the social and cultural fit is a necessary prerequisite to successfully integrating an acquired company.” For this reason, CLS Communication sets great store in open communication, flat hierarchies and a lot of autonomy. “All our employees have to be willing to collaborate cross-border, producing professional and results-orientated work. In teams, dynamism and creativity should be able to develop as freely as possible. This is only possible if we give individual employees enough leeway and responsibility in their work and in the means to complete the assignment,” she says.

The road ahead Where do the Vice Chairman and the CEO see the company in ten years’ time? Doris Albisser is convinced that CLS Communication will continue to grow in the future. “Globalisation has made us winners,” she explains. “The more international integration increases, the more translations and language solutions are needed – after all, a company can only sell its products and services if the relevant information is also available in the language of the local markets. So there will be even greater demand for us in the future than today. Asia will be one of our strongest growth markets.”

CEO Matthias Trümpy sees things much the same way. “Even in the year 2023, standing still won’t be part of the Group’s vocabulary. It’s important that we continuously adapt to changing market conditions.

So in many respects the company is likely to be set up quite differently than it is today.“ And of course CLS Communication will surely have broken through the magical threshold of CHF 100 million in sales long before then.

It may well be that additional foreign subsidiaries will have been added to the Group, for example in Japan and the Middle East.

The future is exciting.

“If you only grow organically,”

she explains, “you need time and patience to move forward.”

Growth strategy requires a strong financial partner The fact that the Swiss company opened twenty offices in ten countries over the last decade is evidence that it has successfully moved into the top tier of globally active language services providers. Zurmont Madison played a key role in the process. This Swiss private equity fund has acted as CLS’ financial partner since 2009, and holds a substantial stake in the company. “Without the access to capital that Zurmont Madison provided us,” Albisser and Trümpy affirm, “we would not have been able to enter into the larger acquisitions we made in the last four years.”

Indeed, since Zurmont Madison has been a financial partner to the company, the number of CLS Communication’s employees has almost doubled. Three important acquisitions were made in this period: the Danish company Scandinavian Translators, the Canadian firm Lexi-tech International, and 4-text, a German-based company.

Remaining competitive as a global language service provider requires not only quality, service, size and reach, but also technology and security standards – and these require considerable investment. Here too, the company wants to be the benchmark, or even the benchbreaker, thanks to its sophisticated industrial processes.

One gateway closes, another stays open As the visitor leaves CLS’ headquarters in Glattbrugg, evening is falling. At the airport, another plane is taking off, rapidly gaining altitude. The giant silver bird flies away in a graceful arc and soon disappears over the horizon. In these early evening hours, the airport is operating in full rush hour mode. But the later it gets, the fewer aircraft take off or land. By half past eleven, the airport’s day is over. After that, air traffic is strictly forbidden.

For six and a half hours, the Swiss gateway closes to the world.

The other gateway to the world, however, remains open. Clients of CLS Communication are served 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This advantage can only be offered by a global language service provider that can effectively exploit different time zones. If an urgent order arrives in Glattbrugg late in the evening, for example, it is passed straight on to New York. If it’s already nighttime there, then the text goes to Singapore instead, and from there it comes back, freshly translated, twelve hours after the order was received, ready to be sent to the Swiss client the following morning. “Our translations follow the sun,” as Doris Albisser says.

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Text: Patrick Preuss

Theme: Entrepreneurship as a passion

From daring to succeeding.

Entrepreneurship has many facets and can be found in all sizes and shapes. But there is one thing that all successful entrepreneurial ventures have in common. In the beginning, there is an idea and the courage to make it a reality. market niche he is developing. Vapiano is a deliberately simple and modern alternative – a restaurant you could even go to alone. Service is delivered directly at individual stations at Vapiano, whilst freshness and the quality of the products are emphasised first and foremost. “We use almost no finished or semi-finished products. We make all our pasta and sauces fresh every day.”

A fresh road to success

Photo: Getty

In order for this effort to pay off, of course, a certain number of guests is required. The outlet at Bellevue in Zurich, for example, serves at least a thousand people a day – from students to businessmen.

People love Italian cuisine everywhere – from London to New York, from Dubai to La Réunion in the middle of the Indian Ocean. By marrying typical Italianità with modern gastronomy, the trendy German restaurant chain Vapiano chalks up worldwide revenues of around 280 million Euros a year.

Delight is one of life’s key attitudes. That’s the principle on which Gregor Gerlach, the CEO of Vapiano, based his business idea – an idea that he is executing with his restaurants at a pace that is anything but leisurely. By 2015, he wants the number of outlets in the Vapiano chain to reach 250 around the world.

Vapiano’s concept is uncomplicated and fresh, paired with a stylish “fast-casual” ambience. “What I miss at the classic fastfood chains is the freshness, whereas if you look at the traditional Italian restaurant around the corner, it hasn’t changed in 30 or 40 years,” says Gerlach, explaining how he arrived at the 16 Vontobel blue Theme

And even though the search for suitable sites is difficult, the entrepreneur still sees huge growth potential. “Perhaps in Saudi Arabia,” says Gerlach, “you can’t serve pork or wine, but fresh pasta is something people love all around the world.” One place the German has not yet ventured, however, is Italy – the motherland of pasta and pizza. www.vapiano.com Busy as a bee Our cities abound with patches of green, and the many parks, gardens and other areas left to nature are a paradise for insects. In Zurich, two beekeepers realised that this fact could be the key idea behind a new business.

Since January 2013, Anna Hochreutener and Tom Scheuer have headed up Wabe 3 (“Honeycomb 3”) in Zurich. This is the name of their small enterprise, which currently encompasses more than 30 colonies of bees in very different locations around the city of Zurich. Six beehives, for example, are housed on the flat roof of a building belonging to Zurch’s public transportation administration. Others can be found on the roofs of community centres throughout the city. Up here, they are undisturbed and, with easy access to the many green islands in their respective neighbourhoods, can go aboit their business pollinating

Photo: 123 RF

For Hochreutener and Scheuer, Wabe 3 is not just a small business, but a project that is completely focused on sustainable and humane beekeeping. Interested residents of the city have the opportunity to adopt a hive for one year. Then, accompanied by the beekeepers, they can visit “their” bees and acquaint

themselves with some of the secrets of beekeeping and the key elements involved in this work. Wabe 3 is thus contributing to the natural diversity of the urban space whilst simultaneously fascinating the general public.

Alexis Caceda, Reto Kasser and Dominik Moser began providing services as teenagers, working out of their home. At that time, 1998, the young entrepreneurs sold computers, offered Internet access, programmed web pages and implemented their first IT projects. "At first it was just a hobby," recalls Alexis Caceda, Netsteam’s CEO today. "The reason we set up our own DSL provider was that we wanted to get onto the Internet faster and cheaper.” Every decision led to another one, and Netstream just kept growing. Today, the Internet service provider employs 70 people and provides more than 25,000 business and residential customers with services and solutions in the areas of Internet, telephony, hosting and streaming. In addition, several large TV providers rely on an application that the Zurich company developed on its own.

In order to survive in this dynamic market, both the range of services offered as well as the company’s technical infrastructure need to be expanded on a permanent basis. For this reason, the company invests heavily in the development of their own solutions and infrastructure. For example, several million francs were invested in the expansion of the company’s own data centre. Caceda summarises the business philosophy the three still live by: "In all our decisions, the key principle that guides us is that we have to maintain our entrepreneurial autonomy.”

For Netstream, the service quality is important. But because the company wants to continue to grow in both B2B and B2C parts of the business, it is also vital to increase its market awareness. So the company’s management team decided to invest more resources in marketing and communication. Since a short Photo: Getty

the city’s flowers. The two young entrepreneurs consciously chose the city for their beekeeping venture. "The city is actually better for the bees than the country," says Frau Hochreutener. "The city is warmer, the season lasts longer, and there is a greater diversity of plants than in the countryside – and also less pesticides.“

In a good year, the two beekeepers reckon that each hive will yield up to 20 kg of honey, although in this startup phase, the yield is still much lower, of course. But in its first year of operation, Wabe 3 is already selling fine honey, packaged in a beautiful gift box that makes it an excellent Christmas present, for example – one especially for nature lovers. And the Wabe 3 project has expansion potential. Next year, the two city beekeepers want to place additional beehives in Zurich. "We are shooting for 80 hives in 2014," says Scheuer. In their second year, they expect a yield of about 600 kg of honey. Make no mistake: the city on the Limmat is abuzz with anticipation. www.wabe3.ch Autonomy is critical They were aged 17 and 18 when the three founders of the company started the business, working out of their parents’ homes. Today, Netstream is a leading provider of Internet services and operates its own data centre.

while ago, the results could be seen on hoardings at the football pitches of the highest Swiss football league: Netstream has become a main sponsor of FC Zurich. "It was time to take the next step," says Caceda. www.netstream.ch

Who hasn’t heard the legendary tales of now successful corporations that got their start back home in the founder’s garage?

The Zurich-based firm Netstream is one of these companies.

Vontobel blue Theme 17

Text: Christophe Bernard, Chief Strategist, and Dr. Walter Metzler, Senior Economist

Macro:

A tricky upturn.

To wit: the world economy is heading for a synchronous recovery. But the financial markets will continue to hold their breath, thanks to the erratic US monetary and fiscal policy. When it comes to investing in an environment like this, what is needed is a nuanced selection of asset classes.

The summer and autumn months were marked by an unhappy communication on the part of the US Federal Reserve, coupled with the country’s shameful financial policy. On the monetary policy front, many words were uttered, but no action was taken, to curb the purchases of securities. On top of this, the US Congress, following a government shutdown lasting several weeks, could only manage to cobble together a transitional solution as the country veered toward the point of insolvency in mid-October. The shutdown of the federal government slowed the economy down, which had already been losing momentum as the autumn progressed. The Federal Reserve now has its hands tied in the months ahead. This is especially true since in February 2014 the Fed's leadership will pass from Ben Bernanke to Janet Yellen. For the stock markets, this may initially mean a continuation of the liquidity-driven bull market. But given the upcoming fiscal milestones in mid-December and early February 2014, the markets will have to reckon with renewed turmoil.

Synchronous economic recovery expected in 2014 In principle, the economic outlook for the next year appears quite positive. In the USA, the housing industry and unconventional energy sources will continue to serve as two strong axes of growth. In addition, steady improvements in the labour market are building a reliable foundation for strong consumer spending. For example, domestic car sales – not widely noticed – have returned to normal levels. Finally, the government’s budget consolidation is likely to be less dramatic in 2014. At just under 2.5 percent, the growth rate of gross domestic product in the USA should clearly surpass the 2013 figure.

in the peripheral countries, as well as the declining pressure to save. In the UK, growth is expected to accelerate to about two per cent, whilst we are expecting for Japan the third consecutive year of above-average economic expansion, i.e. at the rate of about two percent as well. Since the emerging markets are also showing signs of overcoming their current economic weakness, the picture of the global economy that is presenting itself for 2014 is one of synchronous acceleration.

Equity exposure needs clear focus For the equity markets, the prospect of a stronger global economy is a good foundation, especially given the unchecked liquidity injection that will be coming from the US Federal Reserve for the time being. However, after an upward trend lasting five years, the valuation of the market no longer presents a favorable picture. In terms of investment policy, therefore, exposure to equities – with an overall weighting of neutral – requires a differentiated approach. Regionally speaking, we are focusing on the Euro zone and the UK, whilst we are underweighting the emerging markets, with the exception of Russia. A second focal point for us is thematic, with American banks, European mining companies and Swiss asset managers on our list.

“Basically, the economic outlook for

As economic buoyancy increases next year, the Fed will no longer be able to avoid scaling back its monetary expansion policies, at the latest by the spring of 2014. Key interest rates in the USA, however, are not expected to rise until the end of the year or early in 2015, at the earliest. On the capital market, this imminent prospect could trigger some anxieties, whilst also tending to lead to higher returns. When it comes to investing in fixed-income instruments in such an environment, a clear underweight in the bonds of the core industrial countries is still recommended.

the next year is quite positive.”

With a growth rate of one percent, we are also expecting a better outlook for the Euro zone, following two years of recession.

Primarily responsible for this result are the lower interest rates 18 Vontobel blue Macro

Photo: Gallery Stock

The global economic outlook is very positive for 2014. But because of various political uncertainties and the way that certain asset classes have developed over the past few months, we recommend a nuanced selection when it comes to investments.

The bonds of emerging markets experienced major setbacks in the summer of 2013, but they still offer interesting spreads. We favor bonds issued in US dollars, as the currencies of the emerging economies, in the face of political risks and rising external deficits, are vulnerable from many sides. The most attractive risk-return ratio in the fixed-income area continues to be provided by high-yield bonds, which proved to be strikingly robust during the turbulent months of this past summer.

side, because production capacities were expanded substantially during the past few years as prices were rising.

For gold, the favorable economic outlook is even a disadvantage. Higher interest rates on bonds mean more foregone earnings when it comes to investments in gold. In addition, the foreseeable normalization of US monetary policy reduces the risk of escalating inflation, against which gold has offered such good protection.

A shadow falls over gold and commodities In our opinion, oil and industrial metals are unlikely to benefit from the global economic recovery. For one thing, although the industrialized countries are picking up speed, their economies are no longer so resource-intensive, whilst the emerging markets have only a modest expansion to look forward to. Second, the commodity markets are well provided for on the supply Vontobel blue Macro 19

A perspective based on systems theory (The) 3-circle family business model.

Text: Dr. Urban Laupper, Succession Advisor / Corporate Finance

Theme: Competence

Comprehensive business succession planning.

Arranging for a company’s succession well ahead of time is among the key tasks of an entrepreneur, as important as the company’s strategic and operational management itself. Succession is essential for the long-term assurance that the company will continue to exist. Only a succession process that gives due consideration to the interests of key stakeholders – family owners, employees, lenders, suppliers and customers – can be successful.

According to a study by the Centre for Family Business at the University of St. Gallen, one Swiss company out of four will face a generational change in the next five years – the equivalent of about 15,000 companies annually. Because of the close link between family and business, family-owned companies are affected by company succession in a special way, in the sense that the interrelationships between the social systems “family”, “ownership” and “company”are either redefined (i.e. through internal family succession) or dissolved (through non-family succession).

The entrepreneur acts at the interface of the three social systems and hence takes the centre stage in the transition process. His role in the succession process is changing, i.e. depending on the affiliation to these three social structures, his status as an individual in the family business in future will be different or non-existing. This stress field between internal and external succession planning illustrates the complexity and conflicts which have to be managed in such a transition process.

The transfer of ownership, leadership and assets in the context of a corporate succession is not in fact a single event, but usually rather a longer, often multi-year process – one that is important to design with great care. Both the succession planning itself, as well as the effective implementation of the solution, is challenging and, for most owner families, usually a challenge they only approach once. For this reason, owners are rarely able to call upon any relevant experience of their own, except in very few cases. The factors to be considered in a business succession are very diverse, encompassing economic, legal, tax, as well as financial points of view. The corresponding solutions must therefore be adapted to situational and individual requirements and capabilities. What’s more, it must also be ensured that the day-to-day running of the company is not adversely affected during the preparatory and implementation phase. Against this backdrop, business succession planning represents a highly complex and, for those directly affected by it, often emotionally stressful process. All the more reason 20 Vontobel blue Competence

Dr. Urban Laupper, Executive Director, Corporate Finance Dr. Laupper joined the Corporate Finance team at Bank Vontobel in 2007 and is responsible for providing advice in connection with mergers and acquisitions, company sales, and succession planning. Previously, he worked for more than six years in corporate finance for the ABB Group, gaining a wide range of experience in several countries through projects focused on acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and corporate valuations. He completed his business degree in 1999 at the University of St. Gallen (lic. oec. HSG), and also spent a year as a Research Scholar at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in North Carolina. Returning to Switzerland, he completed work for his doctorate in 2004 at the University of St. Gallen.

why objective support is important – and this can only be approached comprehensively.

Comprehensive approach to succession Our integrated model for family business succession guarantees a clear overview and provides significant guidance in this complex process landscape (see figure). As an independent succession planning advisor, Vontobel offers family-owned companies all the services needed for a successful succession process – expertise bundled from a single source. If necessary, lawyers, tax experts and accountants can also be brought in and integrated into the process.

Beginning with a strategic assessment, the first step examines and critically evaluates both the corporate strategy of the company as well as the owner family’s succession strategy. Based on these findings, in a second step the financial analysts, taking into account the current business plan, carry out a company valuation from which they establish an initial transaction price.

Developing realistic price expectations by the family shareholders belongs to the first phase of every succession planning process, as it is only with this information that strategic options can be assessed objectively and negotiations carried out later that are supported by a solid factual basis. These first two phases of the process may possibly end with the finding that, in advance of a succession plan, the company needs to be repositioned, reorganised or restructured.

Customers Suppliers

Partners

Employees

Money lenders

7 Company Emotions

Assets

3

6 1

2

5

Family

Stress field between internal and external succession planning

4

Ownership

Leadership

Family

et al. (1997) and Simon et al. (2005)

Illustration: According to the models of Gersick

Roles in a family business 1 Family member and managing shareholder (the “Entrepreneur’’) 2 Family member, without function or participation in the company 3 Family member active in the company, without participation 4 Family member and shareholder, without function in the company 5 Third-party shareholder 6 Third-party shareholder active in the company 7 Employee active in the company, without participation

Vontobel blue Competence 21

Corporate strategy • Market situation: customers, suppliers, partners • Strategic success factors • SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) • Business model • Lifecycle analysis: technologies, products,

Transaction execution

management team, etc.

• Due diligence by the successor • Contractual negotiation with most promising

Succession strategy

interested parties

• Owner strategy: Withdrawal/profit distribution

Result: Price fixing, signing and closing

policy, lifestyle to be financed, compensation of

of contractual agreements

inheritance claims, pensions, etc.

• Internal arrangement: family buy-out (FBO), contribution to family trust, etc.

• External arrangement: management buy-in (MBI), management buy-out (MBO), selling the business to strategic buyers or investors, IPO, etc.

Result: Prioritization of alternative strategic options

e Ex n d a

cu t p ion e ns ,tran io sfe n issu r es

5.

ic eg ent t a r St sm es Ass

Integrated succession planning

1.

2.

rs ss o Succe

4.

r ea

ch

3.

Fin an ancia l aly sis

Entrepreneur

L e g al a n d tax issues

Financial analysis • Preparation of financial documentation • Business valuation • Sensitivity analysis (scenarios) • Optimization of capital structure • Separation of private and

company assets

• If needed: reorganization,

Successor search

tion reference point (realistic transac-

financial investor, IPO, dual-track process, etc.

tion price expectation)

• Information Memorandum prepared for interested buyers

Legal analysis

• Contacting and sounding out possible

• Company’s contractual relationships and risks

interested buyers

• Shareholders’ agreements, inheritance and nuptial agreements

• Supporting the preparation of due diligence,

of the company partners

establishing timeline, etc.

• Evaluation of various transaction structures: transfer without monetary

• Defining tactical plan

consideration, placement in foundation, sale of assets or shares, etc.

Result: Non-binding letters of intent

Result: Determination of definitive transaction structure and drafting

by possible successors

contractual agreements

Tax analysis: • Current situation of company and owner family Result: presentation of potential tax consequences depending on chosen transaction structure

Illustration: According to the St.Gallen succession

Result: Establishing a business valua-

FBO, MBO, MBI, sale to strategic buyer or

model by Halter/Frey (2007)

restructuring, etc.

• Presentation of different tangible options:

Comprehensive approach allows individual succession solution.

From a tax and legal point of view, it is important to analyse both the actual situation of the company and of the owner family, and to identify and analyse alternative ways the transfer may be achieved. For the owners and the company itself, the best form in which the transfer takes place, or the way the transaction is structured (for example, as a transfer without monetary consideration or contribution to a trust, or selling company assets or shares ) depends on their individual situations, and should already be evaluated at the beginning of the process with tax experts and lawyers and, where possible, should be quantified and structured.

Since family-owned companies often hold significant non-operating assets (such as excess cash or real estate), any particular tax consequences should be anticipated and appropriate solutions developed to optimise them.

Based on the findings of the above-mentioned analysis of the actual situation, the corporate finance advisors present the most promising solutions for the successor search. In the last few years, there has been a paradigm shift away from internal family succession to finding successors outside the family. There are several reasons for this. On the one hand, many owners who still have no concrete succession plans, or because the upcoming generation lacks the willingness or capability to take over, decide in the final analysis to turn their companies over to an external buyer. On the other hand, some owner families come to the realisation more and more that, as a result of the rapid pace of technological change and the increasing pressures from globalisation, they themselves are no longer the best owners of the company in the future, and therefore they opt to sell. In these cases, for reasons of industrial logic the company is usually sold to a strategic buyer.

If it is desired that selected family members should remain invested in the company, or will exit from the company in several steps, going public and listing the company on the stock exchange represents another approach. If the owner family decides to pursue both of these options, a so-called dual-track process is possible, whereby preparations for a company sale are made in parallel with preparations for an IPO. A dual-track process permits the owners – depending on whether demand for the company exists on the part of strategic and financial investors – to implement the option of an IPO in the short term, insofar as conditions on the equity capital markets allow. The primary advantages of this approach are the greater flexibility in the decision-making process,

the greater certainty that a transaction will occur, and possibly also the optimisation of the sales proceeds.

With regard to the transfer of the business, the following are the significant steps involved in the transaction execution: the careful examination of the company – due diligence – on the part of the buyer, the final determination of the transaction price, the contract negotiations and the determination of payment modalities. This phase comes to an end when the contract is signed and the succession is communicated to key stakeholders. Additionally, from the perspective of regulating the pension plan, the pension advisors and their partners should assure that the asset structure of the owning family is aligned with the succession, and obligations, assets and pension benefits, as well as tax and inheritance factors, are all considered in the planning.

Especially in the context of business transfers that take place outside of the family, consulting and support services that are offered by banks are widely used. External consultants offer some specific advantages: they can identify alternative courses of action from an independent and objective perspective; bring extensive transaction experience to bear on the process; and offer bundled know-how from a single source. By coordinating all the necessary specialists, an advisor also provides a clear benefit to the client by being able to present realistic action alternatives within a very short time and working out a comprehensive solution. This not only extends from the preparation phase to the actual transfer of the business, but also covers legal questions and tax issues, as well as addressing the entire area of investments and pension plans.

“Planning for the company’s succession in a timely manner is one

of the most important and difficult tasks of an entrepreneur.”

In conclusion, succession planning should be initiated as early as possible, at least five years in advance. Succession planning is one of the most important and difficult strategic issues that a company’s leadership, aware of their responsibilities, will face.

This process will have a significant influence on the future of the company and the owner family. For this reason, it is advisable for the parties concerned to evaluate all the internal and external approaches to finding a solution – with a sense of foresight and a willingness to call in trusted advisors from the very outset in order to broaden the possibilities.

Vontobel blue Competence 23

Text: Pietro Radicioni, Head of Private Banking Switzerland

Theme: Competence

Advisory services for entrepreneurs.

The entrepreneur is a prime example illustrating that there is no such thing as an entrepreneur. Especially when it comes to financial matters, it is essential when providing advice to know how the different factors influencing the present and the future also influence each other. A targeted advisory service for business owners needs to focus on a proper distribution of the total assets whilst being aware of the risks involved. Flexible and risk-optimised investment solutions are needed that also take into account the specific life cycle of the company.

In analysing the needs of a client, the factors age, family situation, income and wealth are usually the most important cornerstones for the evaluation. In the case of an entrepreneur, however, his company, its employees, providers of capital, suppliers and customers are additional factors that need to be brought into the analysis. For an entrepreneur, family environment and business environment are much more closely interlinked. This could mean that the interests of the one may be, to some degree, diametrically opposed to the interests of the other.

Many business-owning families hold a significant share of their assets within their company and see themselves confronted with an unfavourably diversified asset structure, which encompasses concentrations of risk that are not negligible. Senior executives in these companies can find themselves in a similar situation, since they are usually bound to the company for a longer term, by virtue of owning shares and options with a vesting period.

Advisory services for entrepreneurs require a comprehensive view of both their company and private assets. The overall risk situation of the entrepreneur must be made transparent, and in addition to his financial ties to his company, his legal and emotional ties must also be considered. This forms the starting point for an analysis from the standpoint of risk-optimised structuring of his total assets.

Control of the assets by entrepreneurs As the majority owner of his company, an entrepreneur is regularly confronted with the decision whether to add to the company’s capital base, or to shift assets into his own private property.

Likewise, when capital is needed in the company, he must decide whether to fund the requirement from the firm’s equity or to borrow. He thus assumes the role of a risk manager, who must make timely decisions not only about investment opportunities, but also whether to sell the company or just parts of it, e.g. divesting separate business areas. Whilst the entrepreneur may himself have an impact on the development of the company's 24 Vontobel blue Competence

Pietro Radicioni is Head of Private Banking Switzerland at Bank Vontobel AG, Zurich.

assets, when it comes to managing his own private assets, his influence is likely to be much more limited. This is why entrepreneurs tend to be less focused on the management of their own private wealth, even though the effective management of these assets is necessary, owing to the fact that risk is more concentrated.

Individual solution In providing investment advice, approaching a solution is a matter of elaborating possible investment techniques that take into account the entrepreneur’s private and company balance sheet, his risk appetite and return expectations, all within the context of his risk capacity. The solution that emerges from this analysis must be in line not only with the entrepreneur’s personal situation but also with the life cycle of his company (from the start-up to the turning point), and must also meet his expectations for asset growth as well as possible. For all these reasons, a successful approach will be one that is geared to the respective life cycle phase – and it thus requires a high degree of flexibility.

In preparing a solution, the assets – in addition to generating an attractive return – should be optimally structured by means of

broadly distributing the overall risk. In doing so, growth of the entrepreneur’s private assets should be decoupled from that of the company’s or employer’s assets to a certain degree. So for example, the more volatile the company’s assets are, the more conservative the investment solution needs to be for the entrepreneur’s private assets. Important prerequisites are, first, liquidity and second, the possibility to select individual bandwidths between the various asset segments in order to be able to make adjustments to the allocation flexibly and quickly. The liquidity of the portfolio

often plays a crucial role and must be tailored to the situation.

Entrepreneurs are demanding people. In addition to advisory and asset management services, for example, a holistic approach must also consider relevant questions about financing the entrepreneur’s retirement, succession planning or his tax situation. This requires advisors with proven experience and the possibility of calling upon experts to look at specific questions and help develop a suitable solution as members of the team.

“For an entrepreneur, family environment and business environment are

Photo: plainpicture

much more closely interlinked.”

In addition to advisory and asset management services, questions regarding retirement benefits and succession planning are also relevant to entrepreneurs.

Vontobel blue Competence 25

Blue Page:

News from the Vontobel Group.

Strengthening the offer of Vontobel Asset Management As asset managers, we strive to bring our clients' expectations, regulatory requirements and market developments all into harmony. Our asset management capabilities are strengthened by optimising our investment strategies and adapting the strategic asset allocation to changing market conditions. We have also decided that wherever possible, in future in our asset management mandates we will make use of share classes of investment funds, without compensation (also called retro-free share classes). By doing this, we are making a significant contribution to increasing cost transparency in the asset management mandates. This change requires an adjustment to the existing fee structure, which will take effect on 1st April 2014.

Creating innovations and explaining things innovatively – a short video about Vontobel deritrade® Vontobel is a pioneer in fully integrated multi-issuer platforms for structured products. With Vontobel deritrade®, financial service providers are given a tool with which they can automatically create customised investment solutions for their clients and finalise them in real time. Client advisors can immediately compare offers from several different issuers on deritrade® – even during a call on a client, and together they can select the one that is best.

For clients, this means true transparency, and for financial service providers it means more effective advisory capability. New product and process solutions can create fundamental value. But explaining and convincing at the same time represents a new challenge. With Scribble Videos, Vontobel has created an inno26 Vontobel blue Blue Page

vative new platform for presenting the functionality and added value of deritrade® in a short and entertaining way. The video is available on the Vontobel portal for structured products: www.derinet.ch.

Photo: Illustration Bank Vontobel

One team for Germany Growing closer and stronger: during 2013 Vontobel has been bundling together the support services to our clients in Germany. This is made possible by the closer integration of the Private Banking teams that have been looking after our German clients for the past several years. The staff of our German offices in Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt are now working more closely with their colleagues in Zurich. In this way, both sides benefit from their mutual Private Banking expertise. For our clients, this means, for example, that they can choose the booking location for their transactions. They can combine the close personal attention they are used to getting locally in the branch offices in Germany with the simultaneous booking of assets in Zurich. We have repeatedly noted demand for this sevice over the past few months. We wish the newly established team every success!

Our locations Switzerland Zurich Bank Vontobel AG, Gotthardstrasse 43 CH-8022 Zurich, Telephone +41 (0)58 283 71 11 Vontobel Swiss Wealth Advisors AG, Tödistrasse 17 CH-8022 Zurich, Telephone +41 (0)44 287 81 11 Basel Bank Vontobel AG, St. Alban-Anlage 58 CH-4052 Basel, Telephone +41 (0)58 283 21 11 Berne Bank Vontobel AG, Spitalgasse 40 CH-3011 Berne, Telephone +41 (0)58 283 22 11 Geneva Banque Vontobel SA, Rue du Rhône 31

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