Is there such a thing as a 150-year-old startup?
Only 20% of startups make it past the 5-year mark? What are the keys to success? Are these same factors that ensure a company’s sustainable growth on the international stage? Is it possible to balance a pioneering spirit with long-term sustainability, an opportunistic mindset with staying the course, and maintaining the structure necessary for larger organizations?
Taking the example of Zenith Watches, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2015, its CEO, Aldo Magada, will attempt to answer these questions and share his vision of agile, startup-style management for a modern company facing international political, financial, technical, economic, and social upheavals.
With 80 different crafts, Zenith Manufacture has been mastering watchmaking for nearly 150 years. Whatever their specialty—whether technical or artistic, from miniaturization to chronometry, from shaping to working with materials, and from prototype production to logistics— our artisans all share a passion for excellence and take pride in applying their irreplaceable expertise to create timepieces they hope will be timeless.
Relive the highlights of the evening in pictures:
https://asage.smugmug.com/Photos/DinerCEOZENITH/
Aldo MAGADA, CEO of ZENITH WATCHES
A Swiss national born in 1958, married and the father of two children, Aldo Magada graduated from the University of Lausanne in 1981 and, the following year, from the University of La Jolla in San Diego, California. Aldo began his career in sales at Vifor (a health and beauty products company).
In 1984, he joined the Swatch Group. Over the next decade, he held increasingly senior positions at Piaget and Omega, where he served as Vice President of Marketing (Products and Communications) alongside Jean-Claude Biver from 1994 to 1998. In 2000, he was appointed President of Gucci Time Pieces, a position he left two years later to lead, in succession, Technomarine, Reuge, and Badollet.
In 2009, Aldo founded a consulting firm, adding to his already well-established reputation the trust and recognition of many key players in the watch industry. A year later, he joined Breitling to take on the role of Head of International Sales and Development.
