Nicolas George Hayek (19 February 1928 – 28 June 2010) was a Swiss businessman of Lebanese descent, and the co-founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board of

The Swatch Group The Swatch Group Ltd is a Swiss manufacturer of watches and jewellery. The company was founded in 1983 through the merger of Allgemeine Gesellschaft der Schweizerischen Uhrenindustrie, ASUAG and Société Suisse pour l'Industrie Horlogère, SSIH ...

Early life and education

Hayek was born the second of three children to a Lebanese Greek Orthodox Christian family. His father trained as a

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental doctor, dental physician, dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry, the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. The dentist's supporting team aids in provi ...

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic Church, ...

. He had an older sister, Mona, and a younger brother, Sam. Hayek studied at the

University of Lyon The University of Lyon ( , or UdL) is a university system ( ''ComUE'') based in Lyon, France. It comprises 12 members and 9 associated institutions. The 3 main constituent universities in this center are: Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, which f ...

Personal life

Hayek met Marianne Mezger, an

au pair An au pair (; : au pairs) is a person working for, and living as part of, a homestay, host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family’s responsibility for child care as well as some homemaking, housework, and receive a monetary ...

and the daughter of Swiss industrialist Eduard Mezger, in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

in 1950. They married in 1951 and moved to Switzerland. They had two children, Nayla and G. Nicolas "Nick" Jr. In 1964, the family moved to Meisterschwanden, a village west of

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. Hayek lived there for the rest of his life. In the year of his death, 2010, Hayek had an estimated net worth of $3.9 billion.

Early career

Hayek worked as an

actuary An actuary is a professional with advanced mathematical skills who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require investment management, asset management, ...

for

Swiss Re Swiss Re Ltd is a Swiss reinsurance company founded in 1863 and headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. It is one of the world's largest reinsurers, as measured by gross premiums written. Swiss Re operates through around 80 offices in 29 countri ...

, before briefly managing his ailing father-in-law's engineering company.

Hayek Engineering

Hayek founded Hayek Engineering, a

management consulting Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultant ...

firm, in

in 1963.

Swatch Group

In the early 1980s a group of Swiss banks asked Hayek to oversee the liquidation of

ASUAG Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie AG (ASUAG; French: ''Société Générale de l'Horlogerie Suisse SA'') was the former biggest Swiss Watch Industry Group that had been created with the assistance of the Swiss Government and the Swiss Bank ...

and SSIH, two Swiss watch-making firms that were in turmoil due to competition from Japan. Hayek believed the Swiss watch manufacturing industry could be competitive and that restructuring operations and repositioning brands would help ASUAG/SSIH recover. Hayek identified problems in products, policies, distribution, and leadership. "ASUAG for example owned more than 100 separate companies – some big, some small, some modern, some backward. Most of these companies did their own marketing, R&D and assembly. It was crazy." He invested in

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

and standardised parts and tooling. This produced

economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of Productivity, output produced per unit of cost (production cost). A decrease in ...

, improved quality, and allowed production to be centralized. The restructuring of the companies coincided with the invention of the Swatch watch. Its colorful appearance and marketing helped Switzerland regain a large share of the lower end of the watch market from Japanese makers. The design used almost half the number of parts of a traditional wristwatch to reduce cost without compromising on quality. After the reorganisation ASUAG and SSIH merged, initially becoming the Société Suisse de Microélectronique et d'Horlogerie. Hayek's son Nick Jr. became the CEO of the

Swatch Group The Swatch Group Ltd is a Swiss manufacturer of watches and jewellery. The company was founded in 1983 through the merger of ASUAG and SSIH, moving to manufacturing quartz-crystal watches to resolve the quartz crisis threatening the tradition ...

in 2003. His daughter Nayla succeeded him as chairperson.

Death

Hayek died of a

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest (also known as sudden cardiac arrest CA is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When the heart stops beating, blood cannot properly Circulatory system, circulate around the body and the blood flow to the ...

while working at the Swatch Group headquarters on 28 June 2010.

Press

*''

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a not-for-profit, independent corporation that is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. ''HBR'' is published six times a year ...

'', March–April 1993. Message and Muscle: An Interview with Swatch Titan Nicolas Hayek *''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' Interview, June 2010. Nicolas Hayek: Time Bandit

Video

*Video (French), TSR Interview, 1988 *Video, CBC Interview from the 1990s, Part 1 *Video, CBC Interview from the 1990s, Part 2 *Video (French), Q&A with L'Hebdo, May 2009 *Video (French), Pardonnez-moi, L'Interview de Darius Rochebin *Video (French), TSR News Report, June 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayek, Nicolas 1928 births 2010 deaths The Swatch Group Hayak Swiss watchmakers (people) Swiss businesspeople in fashion Lebanese businesspeople in fashion Swiss billionaires Lebanese billionaires 20th-century Swiss businesspeople University of Lyon alumni People from Koura District People from Biel/Bienne Lebanese emigrants to Switzerland Greek Orthodox Christians from Lebanon Swiss Christians Eastern Orthodoxy in Switzerland