Chapter 9 Chapter 8 Ernesto Bertarelli, Switzerland: A Model of Watchmaker Spirit
In Europe, there is no rich man more charming than Ernesto Bertarelli.
He was born in a wealthy family. His grandfather’s company was founded in the early 20th century and became the most prestigious biopharmaceutical company in Europe early on. He began to follow his father in the business world when he was 10 years old. The company makes an annual budget. At the age of 31, he officially succeeded his father and became the CEO of the international company of the entire family business. He is talented and has successively obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS from Boston University. The crown prince of the Swiss industrial dynasty”; he led the inland country’s sailing team to participate in the world’s most famous America’s Cup sailing competition for the first time and won the championship, which not only made the event return to Europe for the first time after more than 150 years, but also brought the It was pulled from the bottomless pit of swallowing money and transformed into a lucrative event...
Young, handsome, and personable, Ernesto Bertarelli looks remarkably glamorous on the list of the world's richest people.Now only 40 years old, he is the CEO of Serono, the largest pharmaceutical biotechnology company in Europe and one of the three largest biochemical companies in the world.Ernesto Bertarelli's personal net worth is 5.8 billion US dollars, ranking 77th on the 2005 "Forbes" list of the world's richest people.
No one knows what kind of miracles this rich man with excellent Swiss entrepreneurial qualities will create, or what colorful life he will create.
Ernesto Bertarelli was born in Italy on September 22, 1965, but his nationality belongs to Switzerland.
In Switzerland, apart from the world-renowned Roche Pharmaceutical Group, Ernesto Bertarelli's Serono is another very famous pharmaceutical company. In 1906, Ernesto Bertarelli's grandfather acquired control of the company, thus starting the entire family business.In the early days, Serono mainly extracted protein for medical purposes. In 1978, the drug developed by Serono assisted the birth of the world's first test-tube baby, which made the company famous and established its leading position in conception drugs.
By the time Ernesto Bertarelli was born, his father had succeeded his grandfather as CEO of Serono.
"When I was a kid, I remember him (my father) sitting me in the chair at his desk and telling me, 'Someday you're going to sit in my chair and you're going to be (here) ) to make a decision.’ That made a big impression on me,” recalls Bertarelli.It was under the intentional cultivation of his father that Ernesto Bertarelli, who was only 10 years old, began to meet various clients with his father.By the age of 17, Bertarelli helped his father's company prepare the annual budget, and officially joined Serono at the age of 20.But even though he is the son of the company's CEO, Ernesto Bertarelli has worked as an ordinary salesman and also served as the company's project manager.
In 1994, Bertarelli went to Harvard University in the United States for further study and obtained a master's degree in business administration.When his classmates were rushing out to interview and find a job, he was busy looking through piles of company documents that his father sent him every week.
In 1996, Ernesto Bertarelli succeeded his father who died of cancer and became the vice chairman and chief executive officer of Serono. He was only 31 years old this year.
If anyone inside or outside Serono might have had any doubts about the succession, their doubts were quickly dissipated.Bertarelli quickly made some achievements. He greatly increased the company's investment in research and development. In 2001, the company's research and development expenses reached an astonishing $300 million, accounting for 24% of sales that year, greatly exceeding the 1993 $114 million for the year.Due to the successful development of new drugs that sell well all over the world, Serono's total sales increased from US$809 million in 1996 to US$1.546 billion in 2002, and its net profit increased from US$50 million to US$321 million.
In addition to managing Serono, in the early years, Ernesto Bertarelli also invested in real estate, high-end resort hotels, and invested in Argentine farms in joint ventures with friends.
Although it was his grandfather and father who laid the foundation for the company and created wealth, Bertarelli used his superhuman intelligence and excellent management skills to double the annual revenue of Serono and develop it into a world-leading biochemical company. one.He established Serono branches in 45 countries around the world, established the Serono brand, and also established a centralized management model of a modern enterprise.
In Ernesto Bertarelli's own words: "My father created a platform, but I do things myself."
Ernesto Bertarelli is amazing. He not only has the dazzling Harvard Business School MBA title on his head, but also has a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University. A European Wall Street Journal even called him "Crown Prince of the Swiss Industrial Dynasty".
Serono was first established in Rome, Italy. In 1977, Bertarelli's father moved the headquarters of Serono to Geneva, Switzerland.As early as the 1980s, Serono, which began to devote itself to the research of biotechnology, had developed more than 10 kinds of gene recombination drugs, most of which were already on the market.After Ernesto Bertarelli became the company's CEO, he made up his mind to broaden the company's product range and therapeutic areas.For this reason, Bertarelli has increased investment in the research and development department, and the company invests an average of 25% of sales in research and development every year.
In 2000, Serono's worldwide sales revenue reached 1.14 billion US dollars, and in 2001, its sales revenue was 1.38 billion US dollars, with a growth rate of 21%, becoming the fastest growing company among the world's top 500 companies announced by "Forbes".
Also in this year, under the leadership of Ernesto Bertarelli, Serono's shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the United States.The U.S. listing of the stock raised $1 billion for Serono, but Bertarelli didn't use that money to make blind acquisitions.Instead, he took a slower but more logical step, targeting the U.S. market. "We can be a biotech bridge in Europe, but our future is in the United States," Bertarelli said.
His idea is not wrong. In the first year of entering the US market, Serono’s sales in the US market accounted for 35% of Serono’s total sales. Bertarelli plans to increase this proportion within 5 years to 60%.In order to achieve this goal, Ernesto Bertarelli is also working hard to push the company's trump card drug for multiple sclerosis developed by recombinant DNA technology into the US market - Rebif's sales in markets outside the US have reached 380 million US dollars , and accounted for 38% of the market share outside the United States, but Rebif was blocked from the U.S. market—after hard work, Serono finally obtained the permission of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2002 to distribute Rebif in the U.S. .Analysts expect Rebif to control 35 percent of the $4 billion worldwide market for multiple sclerosis drugs by 2005.
In addition to the American market, Serono is looking for a wider space in the world. By 2004, Serono had established branches in 45 countries, and its products are sold in more than 100 countries and regions.After entering China in 1994, many of Serono's drugs have passed the review one after another, began to enter the Chinese market, and achieved success in some fields.
"Serono's turnaround has been very successful, and the company's pilot, Bertarelli, has a bright future," said a biotech analyst at Commerzbank.
What really made Ernesto Bertarelli stand out and become a media darling was his sailing team winning the America's Cup and his outstanding contribution to the promotion of the event.
The opportunity to form the fleet was also quite fortuitous.After the 2000 Copa America, Ernesto Bertarelli met New Zealand captain Russell Coutts, an Olympic gold medalist and three-time Copa America winner.After this meeting, Ernesto Bertarelli, who had longed to ride the wind and waves in the sea since he was a child, had the idea of building his own fleet.After the second meeting, Coutts expressed his willingness to join a new team - rumors pointed out that the New Zealand team was dissatisfied with the low salary, and Bertarelli was paid 2.5 million euros, which is the market price. 5 times, signed a three-year contract with Coutts, and then he successfully poached the New Zealand team's tactical expert Brad Butterworth and other sailing elites.
Unlike some other rich men who participate in the America's Cup purely for the show, Ernesto Bertarelli himself is a pure sailing fan.Although he lives in Switzerland, which has no coastline, he has learned sailing in the Mediterranean Sea in southern France since he was a child, and has participated in many sailing competitions, large and small.Therefore, forming a sailing team this time is a very prudent choice for him.While starting to form his own fleet, he also exerted his influence and proposed that "in order to facilitate the purchase of ships and recruit members by each fleet, the restrictions on the nationality of the crew should be abolished, and the ban on the simultaneous sale of engineering technology and performance data with the hull should be abolished." regulations; moving the race to Europe and having cities vie for the right to host it, pushing the teams to come up with more tricks to please the sponsors, and also giving the teams more opportunities to raise money to compete" and so on, and won Supported by the competition committee.
A few months after successfully recruiting Russell Coutts, a sailing team named Alinch was finally born, and various preparations began immediately - including the design and construction of new boats in Switzerland.Alynch is a new name imagined by Bertarelli that claims to bring good luck.In addition to attaching great importance to the design and performance of the sailboat and recruiting top engineers, he also paid great attention to the color of the hull. Red represents the determination to win, and anthracite gray represents various cutting-edge technologies of the sailboat.It is said that the design budget of the entire Alinci sailing team is as high as 90 million euros, of which Bertarelli paid 55 million euros out of his own pocket, and received 10 million euros each from UBS and Infonet.
The Alinci sailing team started practicing in 2001, with members from 15 countries.And Bertarelli, who was with this joint fleet, not only contributed money, but also practiced himself. He served as the navigator in the sailing team.He spends time every morning working out in the fitness room.Participating in the America's Cup requires a lot of money, energy and time. Bertarelli thinks it is worth it. He said: "It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hire a group of top sailing staff."
Sufficient financial resources and excellent players bring the highest level of victory. At the 31st America's Cup Regatta held in Auckland, New Zealand in 2003, the Swiss Alinci team led by Bertarelli successfully defeated the two-time champion New Zealand in the final and won the America's Cup, making Switzerland the world's most The oldest sporting competition since its inception in 1851 and the first European country to win.The Swiss team also made history for a team from a landlocked country to win the trophy.
When Bertarelli brought his team back to Switzerland from New Zealand, they were warmly welcomed by the "Alinci" fans at Geneva Airport, and even Swiss President Couchepin rushed to the airport to greet them. Congratulations."I'm the happiest person in the world," said Bertarelli as he stepped off the plane with the silver trophy in hand.
The victory of the game is just the beginning. Ernesto Bertarelli, who has huge wealth and creativity, has another idea: he wants to make this event a huge profit machine.So Ernesto Bertarelli began to cooperate with another billionaire Ellison, and signed an unprecedented agreement with the challenge team of the next game, that is, the sale of the broadcasting rights of the next game will be controlled by The management company that specializes in the America's Cup takes full responsibility, avoiding the chaos of bickering over the finer points of dividing up television rights revenue.And he believes that shortening the race time and stabilizing the weather will make it easier to promote the regatta, which will also win more live and TV viewers.
Elsewhere, Ernesto Bertarelli orchestrated five European cities vying for the right to host the 2007 America's Cup, pitting them against each other to raise their bids.In the end, the Spanish city of Valencia won the right to host the event with a price tag of US$600 million.
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 $1.25 million bond and then "donate" nearly $100,000 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 $100 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.
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 8,000 kilometers away from China, with a land area of only 40,000 square kilometers and a population of more than 7 million, equivalent to half of Shanghai.Although the land is sparsely populated, the per capita annual income in Switzerland is as high as US$34,000, much higher than that of the United States and Japan.Hundreds of the country's richest millionaires are all worth more than 1 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.
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 3 billion Swiss francs, and the effect is that the annual export volume reaches 50 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 7 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.
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 15 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 10,000 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 1982 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 1989, 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.
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 22 technology development centers in 11 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 490 million Swiss francs per year on development. Of course, the huge investment is in exchange for Nestle's annual sales of 545.4 billion Swiss francs.
The richest watchmaker in Switzerland is Hayek, who is also the largest shareholder of the Swatch watch company, with assets of 1.5 billion to 2 billion Swiss francs.In the 1980s, 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 1970, 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 1980s, 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 80,000 partners around the world, investing nearly 4 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 3 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 3.6 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.