Thanks to a tip on the Superblog I found out about the movie “Dutti der Riese”, which I decided to watch on my birthday last Wednesday.
My learnings:
# Dutti probably was one of the greatest Entrepreneurs Switzerland has ever seen
# He did not just have ideas, dreams and visions, but also the energy to implement all ideas in a very determined fashion
# Migros was a revolutionary concept by the time they started (today it’s a boring standard supermarket)
# Migros was the first company that brought the concept of the “Supermarket” from the US to Europe (the US inspired Dutti several times)
# Migros expanded very early to Germany (Berlin) and seemed to flourish there — until the Nazis gave foreign businesses like Migros a very hard time. Who knows, maybe Migros could have been Aldi.
# Migros was a very controversial concept and polarized very strongly — either you were pro Migros or contra Migros, but nothing between.
# Dutti was not afraid of losses and bad press — he all took into account to achieve his goals
# Enemies made Migros strong. If the suppliers didn’t stop to supply Migros, they never would have started producing products themselves (one of their key success factors)
# Dutti was a serial entrepreneur: Migros, Hotelplan, Migrol, …
# Dutti had a strong and supportive wife behind him
# Migrol was a HUGE project. They built the first refinery not controlled by the OPEC countries
# Migros expanded successfully to Turkey with “Migros Türk”
Conclusion:
Awesome! Switzerland definitely need more Dutties! Go watch the movie, it’s a must-see!
