Richest man

Chapter 19 Europe: Ernesto Bertarelli (2)
In addition, Ernesto Bertarelli also specially funded the establishment of the America's Cup management company and won the management right of the 2007 America's Cup Regatta. He will charge a certain fee from each participating team.Teams must also purchase a $125 million bond and then "donate" nearly $10 to affiliates of the America's Cup management company.The America's Cup management company promises to extract a certain percentage of dividends from the event's TV broadcast and advertising revenue to the participating teams-of course the America's Cup management company will withdraw 10% of the event profits in advance.

Ernesto Bertarelli looks set to recoup the more than $1 million he's invested in this game pretty quickly.

The information disclosed by the media shows that in the next few years, Ernesto Bertarelli is likely to regard sports as one of his important industries.As a Swiss born in Italy, although he moved to Switzerland at the age of seven, he has always expressed a deep love for his birthplace, and he very much hopes to have his own football team in Italy.It is said that several Serie A teams are negotiating with him. If successful, he will be the first rich man in the world to own a sailing team and a football team.

The Characteristics of Swiss Enterprises Seen from Ernesto

To assess Ernesto Bertarelli's wealth wisdom, one has to say Switzerland, the richest country in the world.Switzerland is located in central and western Europe, about 8000 kilometers away from China, with a land area of ​​only 4 square kilometers and a population of more than 700 million, equivalent to half of Shanghai.Although the land is sparsely populated, the per capita annual income in Switzerland is as high as US$3.4, much higher than that of the United States and Japan.Hundreds of the country's richest millionaires are all worth more than 10 billion Swiss francs (1 Swiss franc is approximately equal to 6 yuan), not only second to none in Europe, but also a veritable "country of the richest man in the world"!
In addition, this small country also has many well-known companies in the world. In addition to Ernesto Bertarelli's Serono, Nestle, Roche Pharmaceuticals, Swiss Airlines, UBS, Rolex, Swiss Pictet Bank, Institutions such as Watchi enjoy a worldwide reputation.

Ernesto Bertarelli's ability to control the enterprise can be said to be the concentrated expression of the characteristics of Swiss entrepreneurs for hundreds of years: rigorous, persistent, and full of innovative spirit.

Rigorousness: the basic will of Swiss companies
In 2000, the Swiss timing company was selected to take on the important task of timing almost all World Cup speed events (skiing, swimming, snowboarding, etc.) competitions that year.This includes a total of 65 competitions, with locations ranging from Shanghai to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, from Salt Lake City, USA to Kranjska Gora.At the same time, the Swiss Timing Company is also responsible for the timing of important sports events such as international championships and European Cups around the world.With the Swiss high-tech, the accuracy of Swiss timing has reached one thousandth of a second. It can determine the order of reaching the finish line extremely accurately, analyze the data, display the results, and transmit them to all parts of the world in an instant.In addition, more than half of the clocks and watches in the world today are produced in Switzerland, which means that half of the people in the world are looking at Swiss watches to confirm the exact time.

This is almost a symbolic expression of the rigorous will of Swiss companies.

Two other industries reflect the seriousness of Swiss business: banking and machinery.Banking goes without saying, and the position of a country with few resources, Switzerland, in the field of machinery, illustrates this even better.

The machinery industry has always been a pillar industry in Switzerland. It first emerged in the 16th century with the development of the watch industry. After several centuries of hard work, Switzerland is currently a world leader in the fields of high-precision machinery and robots.In various categories of mechanical manufacturing, Switzerland is almost in a leading position in the world. In the field of machinery, electronic technology and metal processing industry, the annual research funding is as high as 30 billion Swiss francs, and the effect is that the annual export volume reaches 500 billion Swiss francs. franc.In the field of textile machinery, Swiss textile machinery occupies 30% of the international market, firmly sitting in the third place in the world. In addition to the world-renowned giant companies such as Rieter, Sulzer and Saurer in Arbon, there are also Some 40 highly specialized companies produce specialized equipment, system configurations, controls, mechanical and electronic components for the textile industry.In the field of machine tools, after the Second World War, Switzerland took the lead in entering the modern industrial base field of automated flow production and connection operations between different machines.Switzerland is particularly good at manufacturing small and micro combination machine tools, which are used for multi-process and multiple processing of small parts with high precision. The world's number one manufacturer in this industry is Mikron in Switzerland.

In addition, Switzerland is the second largest country in papermaking machinery in the world, the fourth largest country in packaging machinery in the world, and the fifth largest country in printing machinery in the world.For a small country with a population of only 700 million, this is undoubtedly an extremely rare record.

The world's first micro-balance scale with a measurement accuracy of one millionth of a gram was developed and manufactured by Switzerland in 1952. The world's first first-level balance scale (the first level is the highest level in the world) is made by Switzerland, and the world's first A watch accurate to one-thousandth of a second is made in Switzerland... As far as Swiss companies are concerned, it is the rigorous and accurate attitude that distinguishes them from European companies.

Persistence: the genetic personality of Swiss companies

Ernesto Bertarelli is almost the best example in the world to break the myth of not being rich for three generations, but in Switzerland, being rich for three generations is considered a joke by most people, because it seems that all Swiss people Things are executed well to the end.

Pictet Bank is the largest private bank in Switzerland, accounting for 15% of Credit Suisse's total, and also the largest private bank in Europe with a history of more than 200 years.Its eighth-generation successor, Pictet, told the media that it is he and his parents who have always been obsessed with the development of the banking industry that have made their wealth continue to increase.He said: "I'm a Protestant. Protestants are very frugal in life. That's how I manage money. I don't have a driver, the bank doesn't have a bus. I work 7 hours a day, seven days a week, and half a day a day. Meet customers. The employees trust the bank, and the customers trust the bank, which ensures the development of the bank.”

It is the perseverance and stability of a large number of Swiss like Pictet that makes the Swiss banking industry a leader in the world: at present, Credit Suisse Group (not including the Fengtai Group, which is an alliance with it) manages 1 banks worldwide. billion in assets, and UBS manages $1.7 trillion in assets.

Another interesting statistic is that the insurance industry, which is as famous as the banking industry in Switzerland, has not yet gone bankrupt since the first insurance company was opened in Switzerland in the 19th century.The extent of their dedication to their own industry can be seen from this.

Nestle, the world's most famous food company, is another example of the global spread of Switzerland's corporate culture of obsession. Inside the company, they call this obsession the spirit of clumsiness.

The idea of ​​clumsy spirit first came from Matthew, a famous Swiss watchmaker. When people asked him why his clocks were always so accurate, Matthew always replied, maybe because of my clumsiness.His attitude has also been borrowed by Nestlé, and has brought this philosophical business spirit to the world.Nestle came to China as early as 1979 and successively established 14 wholly-owned enterprises, 19 holding joint ventures and a research center, but it was not until two years ago that the company realized considerable profits.In this regard, a senior executive of Nestlé said: "Coca-Cola brought a top-secret formula, and Volkswagen brought blueprints and technologies, and we not only want to bring these to China, but also help Chinese farms improve cows, Teaching Chinese farmers to grow coffee beans, we even try to change the eating habits that have lasted for thousands of years in China, and the only way to do this is to be persistent and persistent.”

In fact, unlike those multinational companies that only produce industrialized processes, Nestle did start by changing farmers in China: Nestle sent personnel to China to discuss cooperation in April 1979, and formally negotiated the first cooperation with China in 4 Project - joint venture to establish Heilongjiang Shuangcheng Milk Products Factory. However, due to the low milk production and low quality in the milk supply area of ​​the factory, the quality was seriously affected. In order to solve the milk supply problem, Nestlé sent a team of experts from Europe, not only A set of milk collection network and purchase system has been established to encourage the enthusiasm of dairy farmers, and the techniques of caring for dairy cows and milk collection have also been taught to farmers.In 1982, Dongguan Nestle Co., Ltd. began to manufacture and sell instant coffee and related products.At the beginning, Nestlé could not obtain satisfactory raw materials. At that time, the cultivation of coffee beans in China was neither legal nor marketable.In order to obtain local sources of coffee beans in China, Nestlé once again patiently helped Chinese farmers plant coffee beans, not only guaranteeing the total amount of coffee beans purchased each year, but also expressly stipulating the quality standards and base price of coffee bean purchases, payment methods and shipping products to the factory It also agreed to help farmers pay interest on coffee planting loans, and send senior agronomists to teach farmers planting techniques.

It is this clumsy start-up business that has become the best example of the Swiss company's dedication.

Innovation: the only secret to the longevity of Swiss companies
Just as Ernesto Bertarelli rapidly expanded the company’s investment in research and development after becoming the CEO, proposing that the annual investment in research and development must exceed 25% of the current year’s sales, Swiss companies have always been the most innovative in the world One of the spiritual corporate clusters.

Switzerland is a country rich in brand-name products, and behind these brand-name products is the almost obsessive pursuit of innovation by Swiss companies.In order to recruit scientific and technological talents and enhance their own scientific research strength, Swiss companies have stepped out of the circle of their own human resources and recruited elites from various countries.In order to ensure that its own personnel can be given priority in employment, Switzerland has imposed various restrictions on the recruitment of foreigners by enterprises, but it has widely given the green light to scientific research personnel.Enterprises do not need to consider the nationality of scientific research talents and whether they have settled in Switzerland, etc., as long as they are capable, they can hire them, and if necessary, return them to complete the settlement procedures.Some companies simply go to the United States, Germany, France and other countries where scientific and technological talents gather to build laboratories, recruit professional scientific and technological talents locally, and engage in scientific research activities.

The same Nestle mentioned above has established 11 technology development centers in 22 countries including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, Malaysia and Singapore. Each development center focuses on food development that adapts to the consumption characteristics of the region. Research.For example, the technology center in Germany mainly develops meat products, the technology center in the UK mainly develops dairy products, the technology development center for low-temperature and frozen foods is located in Sweden, the technology development center for pasta foods is located in Italy, and the technology development center for soybean series foods The center is located in Singapore.Nestlé spends as much as 4.9 million Swiss francs per year on development. Of course, the huge investment is in exchange for Nestle's annual sales of 5454 billion Swiss francs.

The richest watchmaker in Switzerland is Hayek, who is also the largest shareholder of the Swatch watch company, with assets of 15 billion to 20 billion Swiss francs.In the 20s, when the Swiss watch industry was hit and about to collapse, it was he who launched the plastic fashion watch Swatch and created the Swiss Microelectronics and Watch Federation, which saved the Swiss watch industry.He believed that as an entrepreneur, he should have an obligation to create new products and solve unemployment. In 80, quartz technology began to dominate the watch industry, but the antique watch series launched by Swiss companies became popular all over the world. In the second half of the 1970s, Swiss companies began to produce a variety of luxury mechanical watches. This tendency was further developed and strengthened. Automatic or fully automatic mechanical watches are increasingly popular.Today, Switzerland has most of the top watch brands in the world. It is the continuous innovation of Swiss watch masters that makes the Swiss watch industry gain a century-old reputation.

The pharmaceutical sector in Switzerland has also become the most innovative national pillar industry.Switzerland is one of the countries with the largest number of drug research centers in the world. Every year, 20% of the industry's turnover is invested in scientific research, encouraging innovation and continuously developing cutting-edge new drugs.In addition, the Swiss pharmaceutical industry has 8 partners around the world, investing nearly 40 billion Swiss francs in ultra-modern equipment every year.

In addition, in the world, there is no country that can surpass Switzerland in scientific research investment in the chemical industry. Switzerland's scientific research investment in the chemical industry accounts for 10% of its turnover (8% in Japan, 6% in the United States and Germany), That is more than 30 billion Swiss francs per year.Now, 32% of employees in the Swiss chemical industry are engaged in R&D and innovation, and the annual scientific research expenses of the Swiss chemical industry in foreign companies and research institutions are as high as 36 billion Swiss francs.

The Swiss are creative: Julius Maggi invented instant soup in 1883, and instant coffee, decaf coffee and non-alcoholic beer soon followed.In addition, mustard in squeezed tubes, creme in sealed small containers (added to coffee), children's food in glasses, cheese fondue, yoghurt, chocolate bars with multigrain, these are the first to be developed and produced by the Swiss food industry.

From large-scale mechanical equipment to instant coffee, as long as the Swiss enter a field, they will achieve new creations in this field. "I do things myself." Ernesto Bertarelli's words may have long been engraved in the hearts of every innovative Swiss.Liliana Betancourt: Only a low-key woman
I need retreat, quiet, distance.

(End of this chapter)