Stirred, not shaken
Heinz Bischof has been the new managing director of the media agency Universal McCann in Zurich since early April.
Heinz Bischof has been the new Managing Director of the Universal McCann media agency in Zurich since the beginning of April.what distinguishes Heinz Bischof from Ian Fleming's novel hero James Bond? Clearly, the new managing director of Universal McCann would never order a dry martini shaken. Whether he takes it when business is going well is up to him. The fact that he knows how to use a shaker and a bar spoon is part of this man's career.
But first things first: The new Managing Director at Universal McCann in Zurich specifically chose Mosse-Annoncen as a training company for his commercial apprenticeship. "Unfortunately, no agency experience" was the initial disappointing rejection when he later wanted to join a real advertising agency. Bischof therefore decided to take a two-year "foray into gastronomy". After a retraining course at the Swiss Innkeepers' Association and a further training course to become a barman, he finally had an entertaining time as a bartender in Geneva. There he spent long nights at the bar listening for hours on end, "acquiring a knowledge of human nature". A quality that still serves him well today when talking to customers. "Finding out what matters to the other side," is how he sums up his experience.
Bischof returned to advertising in 1979. After applying for a job as a consulting assistant at Gisler und Gisler, he ended up in the media department of this advertising agency "rather by chance", where he worked as a media planner for five years. "But I soon realized that this job was not just my profession, but my vocation". As a side job, Bischof first taught at KV Zurich (advertising assistant training) and later also at Sawi.
He then moved to Young & Rubicam, which was still based in Bern at the time, as Head of Media, where he took over the management of the media department. At the same time, he was responsible for building up the media department in the increasingly important Zurich branch.
At the end of 2001, the then Managing Director of Innomedia and later Media Planning wanted to change direction again after almost twelve years. Media research or a switch to the media side would have been the options before the development work for the new Polycom communications school finally got him the most excited. During his brief period of self-employment, Bischof took over the management of this first comprehensive communications training program in Switzerland, which is offered jointly by Sawi and SPRI in Lausanne and Zurich. He established contact with potential students and lecturers, informed the careers advisors, looked for training rooms and finally drew up the entire communication concept.
"It's something pleasant and interesting to get together with people who want to delve deeper into the subject matter. You constantly have to be at the forefront of developments," says Bischof today about his sideline as a lecturer.
In his main job as Managing Director at Universal McCann, he is attracted by "such interesting budgets" as Camel, Unilever, Coca-Cola, XL Capital and Roche. After many years working in smaller agencies, he now likes the fact that managing employees has become a bigger challenge.
Bischof has also set himself ambitious goals for New Business at Universal McCann. At the moment, the carousel of budgets is not spinning as fast as it used to. "But there are also very exciting jobs that we will be applying for."
Skillfully juggling numbers and ice cubes: Heinz Bischof.
Andreas Panzeri
But first things first: The new Managing Director at Universal McCann in Zurich specifically chose Mosse-Annoncen as a training company for his commercial apprenticeship. "Unfortunately, no agency experience" was the initial disappointing rejection when he later wanted to join a real advertising agency. Bischof therefore decided to take a two-year "foray into gastronomy". After a retraining course at the Swiss Innkeepers' Association and a further training course to become a barman, he finally had an entertaining time as a bartender in Geneva. There he spent long nights at the bar listening for hours on end, "acquiring a knowledge of human nature". A quality that still serves him well today when talking to customers. "Finding out what matters to the other side," is how he sums up his experience.
Bischof returned to advertising in 1979. After applying for a job as a consulting assistant at Gisler und Gisler, he ended up in the media department of this advertising agency "rather by chance", where he worked as a media planner for five years. "But I soon realized that this job was not just my profession, but my vocation". As a side job, Bischof first taught at KV Zurich (advertising assistant training) and later also at Sawi.
He then moved to Young & Rubicam, which was still based in Bern at the time, as Head of Media, where he took over the management of the media department. At the same time, he was responsible for building up the media department in the increasingly important Zurich branch.
At the end of 2001, the then Managing Director of Innomedia and later Media Planning wanted to change direction again after almost twelve years. Media research or a switch to the media side would have been the options before the development work for the new Polycom communications school finally got him the most excited. During his brief period of self-employment, Bischof took over the management of this first comprehensive communications training program in Switzerland, which is offered jointly by Sawi and SPRI in Lausanne and Zurich. He established contact with potential students and lecturers, informed the careers advisors, looked for training rooms and finally drew up the entire communication concept.
"It's something pleasant and interesting to get together with people who want to delve deeper into the subject matter. You constantly have to be at the forefront of developments," says Bischof today about his sideline as a lecturer.
In his main job as Managing Director at Universal McCann, he is attracted by "such interesting budgets" as Camel, Unilever, Coca-Cola, XL Capital and Roche. After many years working in smaller agencies, he now likes the fact that managing employees has become a bigger challenge.
Bischof has also set himself ambitious goals for New Business at Universal McCann. At the moment, the carousel of budgets is not spinning as fast as it used to. "But there are also very exciting jobs that we will be applying for."
Skillfully juggling numbers and ice cubes: Heinz Bischof.
Andreas Panzeri
