5 Questions for Andreas Baud, Head of Marketing, Sales and Tourism, Schweizer Salinen AG

After the crisis is before the crisis. Whether it's staff shortages, water shortages or the threat of gas and electricity bottlenecks, supply security is currently omnipresent. Global and geopolitical crises have always had an impact on companies and society, but that is nothing new. In tense times, however, risk management in companies becomes even more important. Systematically recording and assessing risks to operations is a management task that our interview partner of the month also takes on as a member of Business Performance.

Andreas Baud is Head of Marketing, Sales and Tourism at Schweizer Salinen AG. Two aspects led him to this role: Firstly, his fascination with this versatile natural element and, secondly, his penchant for the start-up spirit that can also be found in companies steeped in history that are always looking to develop. Salt has been mined in Switzerland for more than 450 years, and since 1909 it has been the mission of the Swiss Salt Works (which was founded at the time as Vereinigte Schweizer Rheinsaline) to extract, store and distribute the vital raw material salt for the Swiss population. The company is owned exclusively by the cantons and the Principality of Liechtenstein, and its primary objective is to ensure a reliable supply of salt to Switzerland.

Andreas Baud has a successful track record in divisional and executive management, in family businesses as well as public limited companies. In October 2020, he joined the Swiss Salt Works, where he is building up new and future-oriented business areas, among other things. This includes, for example, the strategy of transforming the visitor services of the salt mine in Bex, the Schweizerhalle salt works and the Riburg salt works into an attractive tourist offer. At these three sites, up to 600,000 tons of salt of various qualities are produced annually and put to a wide variety of uses. In this way, the Swiss salt works not only fulfill their supply mandate, but also ensure - especially in severe winters - flawless mobility for the entire population. As common as salt is as a product in our lives, as multifaceted and fascinating is its history, which the Swiss salt works want to make tangible to the general public.

Learn more in the interview about Andreas Baud's professional and private beliefs, his first career aspiration and the best advice of his career so far.

Mr. Baud, if you had taken a different path when you were younger, what would you have become?
"Looking back, I would probably go into the hotel business today. I grew up in Flims and often stayed in hotels with my family. At the time, I thought that the only way I would be able to run a hotel one day was if my parents bought me one. So I discarded this career aspiration. After that, I traveled a lot myself, got to know cultures and people and have been fascinated by traveling and the hotel world ever since. The path that exists today via hotel management college would have been exciting to become a hotelier and host."

What is your favorite way to start your day?
"Half an hour at home, in the garden in nice weather, with a cappuccino and the NZZ on the iPad - that's my ideal start to the day. Unfortunately, it's usually much too early, so that I'm then in the office at 7 o'clock. But I like being one of the first to arrive at the office. It gives me some breathing room to get organized before things really get going."

What does success mean to you personally?
"Positive development, whether of projects, employees, people in my environment or myself. I'm a doer: It's part of my basic attitude to want to develop and drive things forward - standing still is not for me. That's why I also look for positions in companies that want to develop further. To be successful, it's important to know yourself well enough to be authentic, even at work. Some people need the certainty that everything will stay the same. This is not the case with me. For me, success is when you're always evolving."

What would you work for free for a week?
"In my younger years, I also once spent a year on a mission for the UN in Kosovo, an exciting life experience (although not entirely free). But at this stage of life, I would spontaneously say: a project week with my children. They are 13 and 6 years old and I would invest in time with them, because that is rather scarce at the moment."

What was the best professional advice you ever received?
"One room, one boss - a relic from my time in military service. I was in the Swiss Army for over 30 years alongside my professional career. At 20, I began to take on leadership roles, certainly doing a lot wrong, but above all learning a great deal. This principle from the military has become a principle for me that has proven itself in many areas. The first step in good cooperation is to clarify and delineate responsibilities. If everyone knows who is responsible for what, everyone does the best in their area and that's how you get ahead together."

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Mr. Baud for his contribution to this article.
This interview was conducted by telephone.

Editor: Neslihan Steiner