Thomas Bargetzi, Founder & CEO of THOMAS BARGETZI AG, believes that success is the goal of all works, activities, or things you try to achieve, and the result of many little pieces of performance. “I get up in the morning to be successful, otherwise I stay in bed. Success is a mindset. This means you must be a leader, concentrated and focused on the matters you do, with the people you are working with!” he declares.

Bargetzi also believes that failure is the other side of success and that you can only become successful if you’re ready to accept this fact. Likening success in sports to success in life, where sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, he notes that in life, you simply need to win one more time than you lose, which means you’ve won!

From focused sportsman in his youth to business
As a sports addict in his youth, Bargetzi intended to become a professional sportsperson, but his father urged him to get a basic university degree to have access to all the options he needed to perform in his business life, once his sports career was over.

“Don’t crack under pressure. Resignation is never – never, ever an option”

Bargetzi considers this the best advice he ever got, and after he finished his sports career, he went through 13 years of further education, studying finance, management, business administration (an MBA at City University), postgraduate in controlling, and two bachelors degrees in marketing and sales. Equally important for European operations, he fluently speaks four languages; German, French, English and Italian.

Having reached the top of a very big company, the largest brewery in Switzerland, at the age of only 37 years, Bargetzi felt that there must be something else he could aim for, and that goal turned out to be defining a new business model.

Implementing business models speedily and efficiently
Bargetzi noticed that consultants often had very good ideas, plans, and strategies, but little or no idea about the best way to make them operationally successful. With this in mind, he defined the business model of ‘operational interims management,’ which involved taking charge of these ideas, defining them clearly and using one’s own talents to realise and achieve success in what others have planned. Over the years, he started to develop his own plans and through that, developed further efficiencies in his business model.

Trust is like a matchstick – it burns exactly once

“I often consider myself as a toolbox”, Bargetzi says. “The customer chooses the tool, he would like to get. A hammer for huge changes, a knife to cut off parts of a company that don’t work, a spyglass to fix the strategy for the future and see challenges ahead, a microscope to have a real close look at matters, employees, and the things the company is doing. The main goal is to set a plan of action and systematically and rapidly achieve it. A very important element when working with Thomas Bargetzi is that I like to be as fast as possible. Like a racer, I would like to finish the mandate (race) as fast as possible. Some people call me Mr Speed, so endless mandates do not exist in the portfolio of my company,” he elaborates.

Apart from his website, www.bargetzi.com, where he describes how one can implement this newly defined business approach, Bargetzi got together with three business colleagues and founded the Swiss Association for Interims Management (DSIM), where over 100 interim managers got together to share experiences and advice for difficult situations.

“Getting advice is expensive and you don’t know if you will succeed. There are the big four or five companies that most small or mid-sized companies can’t afford. Thus, these companies need consultancy, but more importantly success and results. Having nice plans is not what they need. They need support, action, and hands-on management,” he insists.

A consultant and solopreneur who gets the job done
As a consultant and solopreneur, Bargetzi notes that it is and will always be him taking on the challenge. “I do not have people or staff or the like. Firstly, it is too costly. Secondly, I am the one who has all these experiences – 21 years of interim management, 55 mandates, 19 different businesses and worked on five continents, in 30 countries and 80 cities. So you simply can’t copy and paste this. It’s my passion, my discipline, my home turf!” he affirms.

As the CEO and owner of his own restructuring/turnaround company, Bargetzi’s modus operandi when having a mandate in a company, is to start with ten days of operational analyses, going through each department, talking to many, many people, going out to visit customers to get their input, get the strategy, and understand the job.

Bargetzi follows up by proposing what he would do. “If the customer accepts, I execute what I proposed. I collect as many facts, figures, and data to understand where we make and where we lose money. I then propose actions to achieve the goals,” he explains.

I don’t have dreams left. I once had a dream. And I lived it. I am living my dream

Dare to dream
Bargetzi’s plans for the future of THOMAS BARGETZI AG are to achieve 60 mandates, which means he has five more to go. He also plans to continue working until he turns 70 and to have as much fun as possible in business and his private life. He doesn’t make plans lasting more than two years, because he expects that many things will change, and he always intends to be as successful as the 21 years that flew over his head at an incredible speed.

As an avid sportsman, Bargetzi plays sports five days out of seven, mainly after work, to help digest what he has seen during his day. He also finds that movement is his best way to restore and recharge his batteries.

Bargetzi also has his eye on the new generation, hoping to inspire and guide those who will follow in his footsteps. “Not to forget that for my two beloved sons, I try to be their guide, and for sure for everybody that seeks advice, help, and support,” he says. Bargetzi hopes to convey more than ever that “everything is possible. You simply must watch out, try things, be smart, fast, and daring to fail. Not only education, but experiences will decide your success rate, so move, never stand still, and always try to become better,” he recommends.