Preparatory Seminar 2021 – Day 5
is it Friday yet? Today was our last day of the Preparatory Seminar.
In the morning we started with the yearly Career Fair and had the opportunity to meet and participate in speed interviews with our partners Accenture, Bachem, Bertschi AG, BBC, EBL, KPMG and Zenith Technologies.
Lunch was followed by an interesting keynote speech by Simone Wyss, who talked about International Collaboration. A panel discussion moderated by Michael Jeive with the speakers Javier Bargas, Gian Carlo Alessi, Sergey Malashikhin and Sean O’Connor on business resilience in times of crisis was the finale.
We thank all our speakers, attendees, delegates, and supervisors for their incredible contribution to this week.
Dr. Simone Wyss – International Collaboration
Speech Dr. Simone Wyss
On the last day of the preparatory Seminar, Dr. Simone Wyss gave an enthusiastic speech on international collaboration. Starting with a brief introduction about Switzerland global enterprise, who she joined in late 2019, she highlighted how the organisation, with a mandate from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), promotes export, investments and helps Swiss small and middle enterprises (SMEs).
Dr Wyss then took her audience on a fascinating journey around the world to give an inside into important cultural aspects of four important economic regions. The first stop on her tour around the world was Delhi. India has a huge market and growth potential which can be challenging for incoming SMEs because of the import tariffs imposed by the Indian government to protect India’s economy. For Swiss SMEs this can already be enough to stay away from this market but for companies like Ganser, a Swiss SME specialized in Diesel engines, Switzerland global enterprise is more than willing to help and to connect the company to the right person to achieve progress. So, after studying India’s hierarchical culture where one must be very flexible and even more so patient, after five years of negotiation, Ganser was able to acquire a contract with Indian railways, which employs over one million people. A success for the small Swiss SME and more than likely really fulfilling for Switzerland global enterprise to see their expertise bear fruit.
Traveling further east but staying in Asia we arrived in the land of the rising sun, where it is even harder for an SME to penetrate their market because to do that, one first must become a champion of the Chinese culture. To be successful in China you must gain the trust of your potential business partner. Only after that can you start talking about business and money. Also being able to read between the lines and having the right connections in the economy and the Chinese government are essential for success.
From the 2nd largest economy, we then travelled to the largest one, the United States of America. There are quite a few differences in the mindset of an American businessman compared to his Chinese counterpart. While the Chinese takes his time the American wants you to get to the point. Because as we all know, time is money. So, you must be able to sell your product and yourself in a short and powerful pitch. Also, do not worry if get rejected the first time. Just learn from your mistakes, improve your pitch, and return next week. In Switzerland this might seem a little rude, but in America you are someone who will not throw in the towel, and this mentality is very well respected in the US.
The last destination of our international journey took us to the Middle East, where we learnt that you must keep your customer in mind and that someone from the Middle East might not see the same value in a product as you do; and vice versa. This concluded the fascinating presentation by Dr. Wyss and after an engaging series of questions, we wished her “goodbye” until next time. Since we all see each other twice in life.
– Written by Lukas Widmer