There’s more to the Swiss business market than meets the eye. The following interview with Irene Hotz, Managing Director of intercultures swiss gmbh, reveals a broader picture of picturesque Switzerland.
What differentiates intercultures swiss gmbh on the Swiss market?
„In Switzerland, there are many, small, one-person companies. On the other hand, there are real big relocation companies such as Cartus or Crown that also do intercultural training. There is nothing in-between…with the exception of intercultures swiss. intercultures swiss is a boutique agency that offers consulting services of different kinds. We benefit from the pool of more than 100 intercultural consultants with whom we work. And, intercultures offers tools and products, be it web learning or e-learning or virtual tools. I think it’s quite unique [in the Swiss market] in the sense that intercultures swiss can offer trainers with different cultural backgrounds that do trainings on specific cultures and countries. Plus, they are highly qualified in other business aspects. The high qualification of trainers and consultants is appreciated a lot on the Swiss market.“
What’s something that people don’t know or assume incorrectly about working with Switzerland?
„Switzerland looks so nice in pictures and is quite an attractive place for many Europeans to find work. I actually searched some numbers: One is that almost 23% of people living in Switzerland are non-Swiss. We have roughly 300,000 commuters cross Swiss borders every day. That’s 6% of our workforce coming across borders from France, Germany, Italy and Austria. They go to work in Switzerland every day, but go home to their home countries every evening. This adds to the complexity of our country and culture. „For example, you probably know that we have four different languages within small Switzerland! There is German (which is not the German they speak in Germany); there is French (much like the French spoken in France); Italian; and, Rumantsch. Rumantsch is an old language that is spoken in the mountains only by a few people. So you see that Switzerland is very intercultural itself. „As for politics, Switzerland is not a member of the European Union [EU]. Switzerland has to negotiate every single paragraph of every single issue with the EU on a bilateral basis. For example, a free flow of people is allowed within Europe; flow of tourism and flow of workers so people can go work in any other places [in Europe]. Just recently though, there has been a vote in Switzerland that the country should draw back and establish stronger controls in that area. This [vote] was a result of the direct democracy that we have in Switzerland.“
What does that mean for business in Switzerland?
„We don’t know yet because Switzerland is a country with a high number of international companies and they are basically depending on global business and an international workforce. Furthermore, Switzerland depends on both skilled and unskilled workers from abroad.“
Why do organizations want to start doing business with Switzerland?
„Switzerland has long been a country where a lot of companies set down an office or a headquarters for different reasons. One is that there seems to be an economic openness and a general interest in business. Also, there is high quality labor, high quality business, and to top it off—low taxes.“
What trends are you seeing in intercultural training and/or global diversity management?
„In Switzerland people are starting to realize slowly that there is a necessity for extra training, whether it’s intercultural issues or virtual work. Because they have been used to intercultural exposure for years now, I think Swiss people need more time to realize that they also need more support. Not that they do it perfectly well; they are just used to it. „For instance, I started just recently to teach at an institution for team leaders of childcare or day care [centers]. I teach intercultural cooperation, diversity and gender. These are people who are not working in the international economies…but because of the international and intercultural society in Switzerland, these leaders have children from 10 different backgrounds in their daycare centers. They need to be able to work with the parents and to work with the children—as well as their own culturally mixed teams, of course.“
How do you motivate people to grow interculturally?
„It’s good to speak in business terms and to be very specific on what people can do better. What is the business advantage? How much can organizations benefit financially? This is the language that I need to find individually with clients and potential clients. It’s not just for fun—it’s the hard facts that they want to hear. I do it for fun, of course! „Either people realize that they can save money, or there is a necessity [for training] because they have already made a mistake. Because of the level of intercultural exposure that people experience in Switzerland, people tend to wait quite long before they actually do something. When action is taken, it’s not preventative, but reactive.“
Meet Irene Hotz
Irene Hotz is Managing Director of intercultues swiss gmbh, a subsidiary of intercultures. Before founding intercultures swiss, Irene worked as a Human Resources executive for 15 years, and also spent time working in the travel industry. She studied Business; holds a Masters in Human Resource Management; and, is a trained interpreter and translator. In addition to building intercultures swiss over the past two years, Irene teaches English language to Senior Citizens and serves as an advisor for Swiss federal-level HR practitioner examinations. Irene’s mother tongue is (Swiss) German; she also speaks English, French, (German) German, Italian, Spanish and some Portuguese. She has studied languages in England, France, Spain and the U.S. Irene lives with her family, including two boys aged 13 and 10, outside of Zürich. For more information on intercultures swiss, contact Irene Hotz by phone (+41 44 500 4086) or email.
The above article was included in the Mar. 2014 intercultures e-newsletter.
Photo Credit Title Photo of Irene Hotz: Stefan Meister