The history of the company

MJS: Brüco Rümlang AG was founded in 1968 by a Mr Brühlmann. The name Brühlmann & Co. was shortened to Brüco. The company initially supplied panel builders with wiring, then later on with sheet metal as well. Unfortunately, the company ran into difficulties, so the shareholders asked Richard Studer from Walchwil to save Brüco. As the managing director from 1977 onwards, Studer helped the company to regain its former glory. At that time, Brüco sold products made of black plate on an order-by-order basis and eventually specialised in the production of housing for electricals.

MJS: After my two years of military service, which I finished as an officer, I came back full of enthusiasm to Sulzer Winterthur. Unfortunately, the company reduced the working hours for the staff shortly afterwards, so I started checking out the job listings. One ad immediately caught my eye: Sheet metal fabrication, small company, Zurich. Soon after that, I had an interview with Richard Studer. It went well, and I cheekily asked about promotion opportunities within the company there and then. Studer looked at me a bit surprised, smiled, and then pointed to his own leather chair: “Mr Strebel, if you are as good as you say, then you can replace me one day.” That clinched it for me, and I left Sulzer Winterthur for Brüco Rümlang AG, where I worked from 1981 to 1985.

MJS: It all started with a request from PTT for modem cabinets, which took us into the 19-inch-standard business. The server cabinets we started producing took the industry by storm. Suddenly, everyone wanted our server cabinets. The breakthrough then came when we acquired IBM as a customer. At our peak, we were even supplying the Swiss Federal Office of Information Technology and Systems with our server cabinets, which were so robust and well constructed that they could have survived a nuclear bomb attack. It wasn’t long before our server cabinets led us to become the leading supplier in Switzerland.

MJS: Following the years spent doing my apprenticeship and travelling, I was itching to do something new. After a conversation with my former boss, Richard Studer, I returned to Brüco as the operations manager and climbed the career ladder very quickly. For health reasons, Richard Studer decided shortly thereafter to emigrate to Thailand and sell Brüco Rümlang AG to the highest bidder. So, that was my moment!

MJS: No, that desire evolved over the years and as these opportunities emerged. I realised during my military training and various jobs that I wasn’t suited to being second in command. I always had a drive to reach the top. Higher, faster, better.

MJS: You need to know what you’re working for, and people out there need to be able to see what your company stands for. For that, you need to have a company vision. Even in the early days, I dreamed of a company with a flat hierarchy, where everyone pulls together. It was therefore important to me to work together to develop a vision. I travelled with my 40 employees to Toggenburg for two days to formulate our vision, which we approached through meditations and discussions moderated by Wendelin Niederberger. In the middle of the second night, we finally got to the point where, from scraps of words and keywords like “enthusiasm” and “joy”, we could formulate our vision in German, which translates to something like “The tide of enthusiasm tangibly sweeps people along with it”, which we simplify to “Enthusiasm is captivating” in English.

MJS: My wife and her twin sister have been with me from the beginning. They also invest their heart and soul into this company. My sons Matthias and Thomas have joined us, too. But neither my wife nor I pushed our sons into thinking they would have to take over our company one day. Nevertheless, we were delighted to announce in 2020 that they were taking over the reins.

MJS: Talk of the Big Belly self-pressing bin in the US gave me the idea of a self-sufficient Littershark. However, the development process was quite sluggish, and at some point I fell out with the electrical engineer who was working on the project at the time. So I needed to look for a new one, and my son Matthias, who was 26 years old at the time, threw his hat into the ring on the condition that he could bring his brother Thomas, a trained computer scientist, on board as well. So the two of them joined the company, took on the solar-powered Press Shark, and even won several prizes with it in Germany.

MJS: Photovoltaics on the top of the Littershark power the self-contained battery drive, which in turn uses a rotary spindle motor to drive a compactor that uses a force of 500 kilogrammes to compact the litter that people throw in. This reduces the frequency at which the bin needs emptying by four to seven times.

MJS: To me, the fact that my sons have the right skills to continue running my company is like winning the jackpot. I am the creative one, with all the collateral damage that brings, and they are the organised strategists. The way things are going right now, it couldn’t be better. Actually, at the age of 64, I still feel too young to step back and let the new generation take over. But I sensed that they want to take a different path than I did, and I don’t want to stand in their way. Making that transition from operational to strategic thinking, and taking a step back is not easy for me, but I have to do it.

MJS: We sought a mediator for this and held several family meetings to clarify any issues, establish our values and set the course for the future. We found that really helpful.

MJS: It’s really exciting to see how my sons go about their daily work. They follow a different working model and embody different values. For instance, they have introduced a dads’ day. I really admire their straightforwardness and honesty, and I’m immensely proud of that, even if they don’t like to hear it

MJS: My sons’ goal is to be led by the hive mind, or collective intelligence. They believe in the common good and are thereby carrying my ideas forward without us even having talked about it. Matthias and Thomas have also established wild swimming as a component of the company purpose, and they are also working on a project together with beekeepers. I think that’s fantastic! They are also changing the strategy and concentrating on the products that sell particularly well. I often followed my instinct without much calculation or budgeting, whereas my sons are better business managers.

MJS: When I handed the business over, I handed my sons a metaphorical relay baton that can be split into two parts – one for each of them. My wife and I formulated our company credo, which consists of the formula L (love) x E (enthusiasm) x C (clarity). Love what you do, be enthusiastic about what you do, and create clarity with your employees and in your product range.

MJS: I’ll continue to give seminars and will also focus on my second company, ODE, which I founded in 2002 with a friend and established on Alp Grüm. Our question was: What would we do if everything went to pot? As a result, we founded the Oasis of Emotions, where we deliver seminars that help people understand how important the human element is for a company. Having my grandchildren, and thus another focus, makes it much easier for me to let go of the company. When one door closes, another one opens.

MJS: Digitisation of disposal systems is important, as it enables customer loyalty and makes everyday life easier.

MJS: The Littershark is intended to give a sense of familiarity to anyone who encounters it anywhere in the world.