By Marion Widmer

Despite the small size of Switzerland, Swiss companies are internationally well-known and favored - be it for the fabrication of high-quality products such as watches and lifts, or for the reliable rendition of services in the banking and engineering sectors. Most of the companies in Switzerland have fewer than 250 full-time employees, of which almost 90% are micro-businesses with fewer than 10 workers. Nestlé is the largest Swiss company with up to 250,000 employees. While big enterprises are more likely to be run by foreign directors (from Germany, the UK, France and the USA), most companies of small and medium size are managed by Swiss entrepreneurs.

One of the most prominent female entrepreneurs in Switzerland is Gabriela Manser, 46. The CEO of “GOBA” mineral water in the picturesque village of Gontenbad, Appenzell, was awarded the Prix Veuve Clicquot for Female Entrepreneur of the Year 2005. Manser´s company became well-known thanks to the beverage “blossomwell flauder,” which proved to be very successful in bars and clubs all around Switzerland. According to its name – flauder means “butterfly” in Swiss German - it consists of refreshingly light elderflower and melissa. Gabriela Manser took over the family business from her father in 1999. Previously, she had worked as a kindergarten teacher, supervisor, and school director. She is an example of the small but rising number of women who successfully own a business or execute managing positions in Switzerland.

Stefan Zappa is a Swiss entrepreneur who fosters the social aspects of economy. He was named “Swiss Social Entrepreneur 2007,” an annual award by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship to reward socially involved businesses. Stefan Zappa gained the prize for his restaurant concept “Blindekuh,” which was launched in Zurich in 1999. The staff of the restaurant is blind and visually challenged, and the guests eat in complete darkness. Due to the overwhelming popularity of the unique restaurant concept, other venues of the “dark restaurant” have been launched in Basel as well as in several cities outside of Switzerland.

To cross the national border was also the aim of Jürg Marquard, one of the best-known Swiss entrepreneurs. Similarly to Donald Trump, the Swiss publisher of the German Cosmopolitan appeared on the Swiss version of the TV show “The Apprentice.” The self-made businessman was born in 1945 in Zurich and started his career with a loan of 2,000 Swiss francs. In 1965, he launched the music magazine POP, later POPCORN, a popular music magazine for teenagers. Since 1981, his company MARQUARD MEDIA has published Cosmopolitan in Germany, in addition to another 32 publications in Germany, Hungary and Poland. In 1995, he was named “Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Hungary” in Switzerland. A further honor followed in 1999, when Jürg Marquard was awarded the “Euro Crystal Globe” by the European Institution for Economics.