Problems are synonymous with opportunity for entrepreneur Lucas Rondez
Series Swiss entrepreneurs abroad,
Episode 5:
Lucas Rondez does not regard himself as an expert in anything, although his life story suggests otherwise. To pursue his dream he felt he had to leave Switzerland for China.
Lucas Rondez’s entrepreneurial journey started at the age of 15 when he organised a downhill roller-skating race in his home village of Bassecourt, in the canton of Jura. He managed to find found sponsors, obtain permits to close the road and invited participants from all over the world. The event was a success and gave him his first taste of being an entrepreneur.
“I absolutely loved it, as I was creating something from scratch and I could see the results straight away,” he says
The experience instilled in him a desire to broaden his horizons. The Jura countryside, meanwhile, is not exactly Manhattan, and his family was not the adventurous type.
“My father has never been on a plane. He’s afraid of flying, so we never travelled much. Everything was a big question mark for me.”
Our series profiles Swiss men and women founding and building businesses abroad. Through their personal stories, we explore why they choose to pursue projects beyond Switzerland’s borders, the working conditions they encounter there, and the challenges and opportunities.
Through their life stories, this series also showcases how the Swiss Abroad community contributes to Switzerland’s economic, cultural, and political influence.
The first step into the unknown was an apprenticeship in a bank. It was a world he knew nothing about, and there were no family footsteps to follow. Rondez’s mother told him that working at a bank was like organising a roller-skating competition. And so, with expectations a world away from reality, Rondez landed at Swiss bank UBS.
While working for the bank, he was able to travel to Canada, with the goal of learning English. There, he met people from all over the world, particularly Asia.
“It was a completely new experience for me; let’s face it, there weren’t many Asians where I came from in the Jura.”
Meanwhile, China was opening itself to the world. Meeting people from there made Rondez want to visit Asia. But when he asked to be transferred to China, his superiors flatly refused, saying he did not have the right profile. He would prove them wrong.
Learning from people
In 2007 that Rondez decided to turn his life around. One Monday, he handed in his notice at UBS, and by Friday he was on a plane to China.
“I don’t have years of studies behind me – if fact, I didn’t study at all. I don’t like learning in a classroom setting, but from the people I meet. I love exploring new things in different places, meeting more and more people.”
This how Rondez describes himself. It explains perfectly why setting out into the unknown and starting from scratch on the other side of the world was the most natural choice for him. It is also clear, from talking to him, that he has an inordinate ability to connect with others and not to be daunted by difficulties.
In Hangzhou, now one of the most industrialised and cutting-edge cities in the world, he spent over a year putting this talent into practice, trying step by step to cope with the language and meet as many people as possible. In so doing, he met someone who worked at a local bank, who subsequently hired him.
His dream, however, was still to set up his own business.
“But to do so, you need a plan, connections and resources. And at that point I had absolutely nothing. So I told myself I might as well do what I already knew how to do.”
The bank, again, proved to be a valuable platform. He used his time there to forge contacts across all sectors, including with many entrepreneurs. By 2015, he was ready to take the plunge.
From entrepreneur to ‘meta-entrepreneur’
“For me, a problem is synonymous with an opportunity. I thrive on problems, as they push people like me – who like to innovate and see things from a different perspective – to react quickly and find solutions,” Rondez explains.
This entrepreneurial philosophy is the foundation on which he has built the rest of his professional life. This includes his first project, “Ni-hao” (Mandarin for “hello”, the only expression he knew when he first arrived), a mobile app designed to help foreigners deal with challenges of daily life in China.
“China isn’t complicated, really. It just becomes so if you don’t have access to information,” says Rondez.
With Ni-hao, he hit the nail on the head. In no time at all, the app had more than 100,000 users.
“This started to draw people’s attention to what I was doing and, above all, how I was doing it.”
That is how Rondez became, in a sense, a “meta-entrepreneur”, helping foreign companies seeking to gain a foothold in China.
“I knew there were people who were more interesting than me, smarter than me, with even more ambitious projects, but who lacked the relational aspect, the contacts and the access to funding that I had.”
Sights turned to the US
Then came the Covid-19 pandemic and the country’s total lockdown. His company, the business incubator Ni-hub, was brought to a sudden halt. But what, after all, is a pandemic, if not a huge problem? And what is a huge problem, if not a great opportunity?
Together with a Chinese entrepreneur who was also stuck because of the situation, he launched into the production of face masks. Rondez had two marked advantages over others: he was on the spot in China, where everything was manufactured, and was well-versed in the foreign markets where demand was strong.
“We started selling face masks and the business exploded. We built a multi-million-dollar business in just a few days.”
The two entrepreneurs quickly realised how promising the healthcare sector was in the long term. They also understood that the pandemic would shift the paradigm of the global supply chain, which had proved vulnerable in an emergency.
This prompted them to set their sights on another highly dynamic market – the United States – and to start manufacturing medical gowns there. To overcome the major obstacle of labour costs, they invested all the proceeds from the sale of the face masks in automation. Their factory in Los Angeles now produces these essential medical supplies with a very small workforce, and their company, Taromed, is now a market leader.
‘I’d never have become an entrepreneur in Switzerland’
Rondez doesn’t think he would have been as successful if he had stayed in Switzerland. His family would have pressured him into sticking with his secure job at the bank and the Swiss entrepreneurial ecosystem was not right for him.
“I don’t mean to say Switzerland doesn’t offer opportunities for entrepreneurship – on the contrary. There are many excellent companies. Personally, though, I would never have made it in Switzerland; I wouldn’t have had the necessary background, nor access to the resources and people who helped me to become an entrepreneur,” he says.
In his view, the greatest advantage of being an entrepreneur abroad is being different, and it is from this difference that solutions arise. As a Swiss in Switzerland, he says, he would not have stood a chance against people who had studied for years and had impressive degrees.
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An ideal time to be an entrepreneur
Swiss recognition came, however, while he was in China. For two years, until recently, he was president of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce (SwissCham) there. He joined the organisation six years ago, driven by a desire to make a difference.
“As a Swiss entrepreneur in China, I felt that SwissCham wasn’t offering me anything. So, rather than complaining, I should get involved,” he says.
He never thought he’d become SwissCham’s president.
“I knew the board includes people from Nestlé and Novartis – people who have studied for decades, top executives. But the fact that I was different worked in my favour, I think.”
According to Rondez, entrepreneurs are born not made, and they quickly recognise others of their ilk. They are people with a constant drive to seek new challenges and to leave their mark – however big or small – on the world.
So what does he think of the times we are living in, amid geopolitical tensions and concern about the rise of artificial intelligence?
“Everything will change, for better or for worse, and it’s a perfect time for entrepreneurs. We live in a fascinating world,” he says.
Edited by Daniele Mariani. Adapted from Italian by Julia Bassam/ac.
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