"Had to redefine ourselves in branding and communications"

CEO Reto Leder was accompanied in his change process by changes in the company's purchasing behaviour, by a younger and more digitally agile target audience and by an aggressive market environment with new providers of venues for corporate events. Strong corrections were required in the product range, in communication, in sales, in operational implementation and, of course, in personnel.

The fact that two larger halls recently opened in the Zurich business hub, Hall 622 and Samsung Hall, did not make the share of the cake any bigger. And the fact that Baden is known as a casino town and ABB base, but that's about it, is also aggravating. In the public perception, Baden is a "provincial town" and has a correspondingly difficult time competing with the neighboring cantonal capitals. In this interview, Reto Leder explains how he rebuilt his business and what goals he pursued in the process.

You've been with Trafo Baden for eight years, but you've only had overall responsibility for two years. When did you realize that change was necessary?

Reto Leder: That was apparent early on. We could see how society was changing, and with it technology, eating habits and mobility. The question was and is how the market, in our case the event industry, is influenced by these changes and thus affects our business.

How was the "product transformer" in 2012?

Although less well known than today, we were already operating successfully back then. We positioned ourselves as an event hall rental company including a catering service; our pricing was primarily based on room rental. This classic model worked well in itself and gave us record years in 2015 and 2016.

Nevertheless, six years later, corrections were required, why?

An increasingly obvious problem has been that the event industry is only alive during the school months. There are few to no events during holiday periods. While our costs were incurred over twelve months, we could only manage during nine months. This had a significant impact on staffing and cash planning.

What did you do about it, you can't give your employees three months off?

That's right. Since local companies and associations are inactive during the holiday season, we had to try to find new markets abroad. Where would demand for events in Switzerland be triggered during the MICE mid-season?

But you certainly didn't look in China or the USA. Wasn't Germany the obvious choice?

Well, we had to find a market for which Baden can be considered a "new" conference destination and which also appreciates the overall Swiss product, certainly also from a tourism perspective. Great Britain seemed to us to have more potential, and so we are working the MICE market there in a very targeted way and in cooperation with Zurich Tourism and a local marketing agency. After two years of work, we have received the first bookings from London.

Through this performance in England, you have gained other insights.

Exactly, we noticed that British customers deal with the topic of offers in a completely different way than we do here in Switzerland. No one there has the time or desire to receive rich and all-encompassing offers. They want quick and clear summaries, without wanting to have every single element of the event dealt with when submitting the offer. At the time of the initial contact, it's all about the date, the space and, if necessary, a few key services; everything has to fit on a maximum of two pages.

So the famous KISS, "keep it short & simple"?

This is exactly what is required and it became a second strong factor in our change process. The demand in the UK has led us to rethink, simplify and better present our offering approach. And to the national market as well. Our own brainstorming resulted in the "Trafo Baden Price Model", which was to become a key acquisition point.

What do these ready-made solutions look like?

We produced simple and clear per-person flat rate offers that allow customers to independently obtain precise and reliable "quotes" within minutes, without the need for our collaboration. In the seminar sector, for example, with flat rates on an hourly basis and additional services such as coffee breaks, lunch buffets or aperitifs. Always included are free WLAN, mineral water and coffee. In this way, the customer can initially budget without contacting us and later also quickly check the billing of the event.

So both the customer and your sales staff save working time?

And how! Because often the same repetitive questions and answers always precede a serious offer. This does not require personnel who send countless "Q&A emails" back and forth.

Besides the two important corrections - additional market and simplified offers - you triggered a third important change.

Exactly. We also had to redefine ourselves in terms of branding and communication. We used to be a hall rental company with additional services, now we're positioning ourselves as a catering company with our own halls. That may sound terse, but it has an impact on our image and how customers perceive us. Because we are not simply renting out space, but are required to provide a high quality of service, creativity and multifunctionality.

I guess that means you're much more critical of your own product?

Yes, we simply could no longer rent out empty halls and then hope that customers would find us "sexy". And so we thought about how we could make our product more attractive with additional services. One theme was to expand our catering offering with much healthier, alternative and colourfully enticing food items. Another topic was the technical infrastructure, which had to be adapted to the new requirements. In cooperation with the specialist Habegger, we were able to massively reduce the technical costs for the end customers with the self-financed installation of a state-of-the-art basic package (keywords image, sound, light, microphones, speakers, etc.).

You're also talking about Hall 37 with a new technical showpiece?

We are also proud of this. We have installed a new 45 m2 LED wall there; an impressive tool for communication and entertainment. And the best thing about it is that it is very attractively priced, also because you can rent the LED wall for just fifteen minutes.

These changes within just under two years certainly also had an impact on the employees. How did this affect them and what were the consequences?

Of course, the new philosophy triggered reflections on the existing or missing competencies. And there were also employees who neither liked the new ideas nor my "new" management style. Also supported by normal processes such as retirement, this resulted in a staff turnover of almost 50 % of the permanent employees last year. Regrettable, but necessary.

Your work is not yet complete, are you still satisfied with the status quo?

There were other corrections, for example the introduction of a new reservation system or the digitalisation of the working time recording with fingerprint identification, which is linked to the payroll software. In addition, the development of a new market takes several years. However, it is important that our new transparent offer system appeals and that the new customer channels seem to work. This is the only way to explain an increase of 33 % more inquiries. We are definitely on the right track. However, I can only be completely satisfied with my change management once it has been proven that all the changes have sustainably improved the financial performance of Trafo Baden.