The Year 2014
Dear friends
After a rather easy-going 2013, the year 2014 was a more 'normal', i.e. busy year again.
It started with finalizing my projects for Siemens Building Technologies, which I left in early spring 2014. Siemens made an impressive effort to find a new role for me - amongs others, we discussed setting-up a JV in China, etc. - but nothing suitable materialized within a meaningful time frame, as Siemens was reducing the headcount pretty much 'across the board'.
That way, spring and summer of this year were rather relaxed, although I started with a consulting project already one month after I left Siemens, supporting a start-up company for medical devices in respect of their business planning and financing needs.
On the private side, we continued to do some short trips and exploring new areas of Switzerland. Staying in one place and doing some kind of day-trips to explore the region.
This year, we stayed in Yverdon to visit the area of the 'Three Lakes' (Lakes of Neuchâtel, Bienne & Morat). It's still the same mode of traveling as we did earlier with the motorbike and which we are now doing with my convertible.
In parallel, I gave two presentation again on conferences organized by 'Thought Leader Global' and I even got the opportunity to do an in-house workshop on turnaround management and to give a presentation on post-merger integration for one of the 'big four' audit & consulting firms.
... and obviously, I spent some time visiting lectures and seminars at the University of Zürich, HSG, ETH, etc. plus continued taking Arabic lessons for some more months, as I still would like to work in the future for a few years in that region. And - very important - I learnt how to set-up my own website. The structure and design has been done pretty quickly, but preparing all the text was quite some work ! Nevertheless, it was fun and turned out to be a useful and easy tool - also for 'publishing' this year-end letter.
Beginning of October, I started with a new, truly full-time engagement for ABB Switzerland as COO of their gas-insulated switchgear business. In that context, I took over two departments at the same time - the project execution, covering engineering, project management as well as installation & commissioning - and the production itself. That way, I'm currently responsible for a staff of about 370 employees.
Finally, I would like to wish you and your loved ones all the very best for the upcoming holidays as well as for the New Year.
With kind regards and looking forward to keep in touch with you
Toni
