“Never worked a day in my life,” says Swatch boss

“I have never worked a day in my life,” the Chairman of the Swatch Group, Dr. Nicolas Hayek told an international business conference in Limassol recently, raising a few eyebrows in the process.

The self-made billionaire, who during his career helped create over 350.000 jobs in Europe and turned the Swatch Group into the biggest watch manufacturer in the world, quickly explained himself: “I don’t work, I amuse myself.”

Hayek was speaking at the ‘Shaping the Future: Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Corporate Governance’ conference organized by the Cyprus-based international tax consultants, Totalserve Management Ltd to mark their 35-year anniversary, in cooperation with Socius International AG and Boardroom magazine.

Hayek, who addressed the conference via a live video link, kept on dazing attendees with one memorable quote after the other. “I consider myself a 6-year-old with 75 years of experience,” he said adding that he had never given or accepted advice in his life.

Sporting an unbuttoned shirt collar and a loose neck tie, he urged the more than 100 business managers and executives at the conference to “love their product in order to promote it successfully,” and made it clear that “entrepreneurs are not created through education. Becoming an entrepreneur is an innate charisma.”

“Mr. Swatch”, as he is better known, proved that he can afford and has earned the right to be a little eccentric when at the end of the questions and answers session, lifted up his sleeves to reveal $1 mln worth of watches adorning his wrists.

At the conference, which has been branded as one of the most diverse international business conferences ever to be organised on the island, Hayek was joined by half a dozen other of the world’s top business minds who converged under one roof to share their experiences with the delegates.

Dr. Helmut Maucher, Honorary Chairman of Nestle, led the Swiss food and beverage giant for over 30 years before retiring and is widely considered as the personification of the CEO. His tall, taut stature demanded respect, his demeanour spoke volumes of his vocational background and his words were as wise as they were meagre.

Speaking with intelligent care, he told his audience to be people- and product-oriented and not procedure-oriented and urged them to always think in the long term.

On would-be entrepreneurs, he said: “If you cannot smile, don’t open a shop,” adding that when recruiting new staff, “look into their eyes and not in their files.”

Next on the impressive list of speakers was the exuberant CEO of the St. Moritz Tourist Board in Austria, Dr. Hanspeter Danuser who told the participants to “get big, get niche or get lost.”

He urged them to engage in offensive communication, “because if you don’t, somebody else will.”

Danuser ended his speech with a musical note. To prove his point about memorable marketing, he brought to the stage his alphorn, with which he is inseparable, and engaged in a mini recital. “What are you going to remember in three months from now? Our speeches or the alphorn?” he asked.

On the second day of the conference, Prof. Dr. Helmut Sihler, former Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Porsche said, “the CEO is the most important part of the company,” urging bosses to “manage the future, not the past, never lie since credibility is your most valuable asset, think within the team but always decide outside the team and learn to be lonely.”

Sihler, whose CV includes CEO of Henkel, Chairman of Deutsche Telekom, Lead Director of Novartis, Board member of IBM, Guinness and other companies, kept rattling advice drawn from his life-long experiences: “Listen creatively, think courageously, know yourself and be yourself.”

The conference also dealt with the role of women in business and leadership in general and included speeches from Senior Executive of Delta Holding, Radmila Bajevic, CEO and President of Lek Pharmaceutical, Janja Bratos, Executive Director of the Corporate Governance Network, Anne Simpson and local business woman, Elena Tanou, President of the Cyprus Federation for Business and Professional Women. Their speeches were followed by a panel discussion, during which the men and women attending engaged in an in depth deliberation on how to best balance family life with professional life.

Shaping the Future was also addressed by business consultant, Gerry McGovern, widely regarded as one of the top worldwide authorities on managing web content.

At the end of the event, Totalserve Chairman, Peter G. Economides, commented that “we wanted to mark our 35th anniversary with a truly memorable event, so together with our strategic partners, we have managed to attract these business legends to share with us what they have created and how.”

The conference was supported by the Bank of Cyprus and Cyprus Airways and will be distributed in DVDfrom Totalserve Management Ltd.