"Beautiful views"

Good managing directors are not only responsible for financial development or strategy management. Rather, they ensure that nothing is lacking. Peter Bieri, Managing Director of the Swiss Association for Quality (SAQ) for 14 years, has transformed the Swiss association for management systems into a widely recognised centre of excellence.

Since taking up his post in 2005, Peter Bieri has been responsible for an upswing at the SAQ. Not only has he been able to expand the office, "a small team of three women and me", by 14 employees and 13 freelancers (see box), as the audience was informed in his moving speech at the SAQ celebration, but he has also managed to integrate the two subsidiaries, SAQ Qualicon and Ariaq, into a prosperous association structure.

Remaining true to his "calm and conscientious, typical Bernese manner, he got down to work", SAQ President Ruedi Lustenberger visualized an exemplary trait of Peter Bieri at one point in his acceptance speech during the highly idyllic farewell party on Bern's local mountain.

A farewell with prospects
You might think that SAQ doesn't need much for a fitting summer party. However, the arrival by cable car, the terrace with its endless panorama, the hoped-for cooling shade, the welcome aperitif accompanied by music, and the filling benches with SAQ friends were more than the icing on the cake at the end of a somewhat hot June month. The weather gods were kind to us, and the speeches attracted a lot of interest.

Peter Bieri once again showed a lot of tact by completing his almost one and a half decade long SAQ history with economic aspects. The retiring managing director also mentioned difficult times for the association and important steps.

"We make decisions every day, consciously and unconsciously, important and less important. Later, when you look back, you realize that a few decisions determine success and failure.

At SAQ, there were four important decisions that led to success: selecting the right employees, i.e. retaining a good team; focusing on personal certification; retaining the regional structure of the association; increasing the participation of the subsidiaries. The results of these decisions are visible today. "It is also the noblest task of the market economy to create new jobs," Peter Bieri stressed in the first part of his speech. "A farewell is always a beginning. When it came to initiating the process of finding my successor, a search committee was formed together with the Board of Directors. One of the first tasks was to draw up a job profile. I was asked: Who are we looking for? My answer was: the opposite of me."

The change should bring a breath of fresh air to the SAQ association system with Dr. Marlyse Roulin. - "As you can see, on gender and native language, the goal was achieved."

Distinguished acceptance speech
"Your work, your SAQ work," Ruedi Lustenberger, SAQ Central President, introduced in his acceptance speech, "can be seen in every respect. Financially sound and organisationally up to date, you will hand over the office to your successor, Dr. Marlyse Roulin, on 1 July 2019."

Ruedi Lustenberger concluded the speech with Massillon's words: "La gratitude est la mémoire du cœur" - gratitude is the memory of the heart. After the presentation of the SAQ honorary membership certificate, Peter Bieri thanked the Board of Directors, the subsidiaries, the members, and finally also many friends and employees in an additional speech. They surprised him not only with a tree for his garden, but also with an SAQ almanac, where the efficient and highly esteemed office manager can be discovered behind and in front of the scenes at company outings, anniversary celebrations or on Swiss Quality Day.