With light and soul

At Westiform, great importance is attached to the fact that the company is a family business: people look out for each other, work together, respect each other, allow different opinions to apply, do not keep quiet about problems and find a solution for everything. The company sees itself as an engine in which every cog and every little wheel is dependent on the other. Otherwise, nothing runs. "I, too, am just a cog in the wheel," says Alain Schindler (48). "True, as the head of the company group, I am in a central position in the gear train, but actually my position is no more important than that of the Westiform employees who practice their craft."

Modesty, gratitude and a positive attitude are central traits of Alain Schindler. He does not flaunt his achievements; his successes are always those of the good people in the company, the "family," in other words. And Schindler is grateful for that, as he is for his work in general, which he obviously enjoys.

"Westiform" is derived from the name of the American corporation Westinghouse, from whose neon division Westiform emerged. Initially, the company was called "Westineon"; in 1984, the company received its current name.

The fact that Westiform, as an internationally active company, allows itself the luxury of an equally charismatic and reserved managing director speaks for the "family" concept: "At our company, great care is taken to ensure that employees fit in with us, feel comfortable and find good conditions at their workplace," emphasizes Schindler. Behind this is a recipe for success that is as simple as it is often disregarded: Those who enjoy their job are also creative, efficient and able to get large projects up and running within a few weeks with a small team. Westiform has already proven this competence several times. Within twelve weeks, the company designed, manufactured and installed the visitor guidance system for the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi: 1,000 labeling elements and 60,000 individual parts on 200,000 square meters. In just six weeks, Westiform built a walk-in model segment of the super airliner for the launch of the A380 wide-body aircraft. And for the Europe-wide introduction of Opel's new corporate identity, Westiform equipped more than ten car dealerships with illuminated lettering per working day, in some cases even in Cyrillic script. "This project was one of the most impressive for me because of its complexity," recounts Schindler. "From the contract negotiations to the financing and logistics issues to the implementation, it was absolutely fascinating."

Light - durable
Alain Schindler was born in Biel in 1962 and grew up in Düdingen near Fribourg. After high school, he completed a commercial apprenticeship and further training to become a certified controller. He also acquired management expertise. From 1984 to 1987, Schindler worked in the fiduciary sector, after which he headed the finance and accounting department of the Klopfstein Group in Laupen near Berne for five years.

When Schindler joined Westiform as Head of Finance and Accounting in 1992, the children of Westiform founder Niklaus Imfeld were not yet old enough to take on a management position in the company. In 1959, the Imfeld family had purchased the neon division of the American company Westinghouse, which produced fluorescent tubes in Switzerland, and expanded the company step by step. Today, three of the four Imfeld children work for the company, and the only nonImfeld on the management staff is Schindler. In this constellation, "the Westiform family" manages three locations in Switzerland, two in Germany and one each in Austria, France, the Czech Republic, China and Japan.

"I've been working at Westiform almost all my life," says Schindler, laughing to cover his pride. In 1995, after three years as Westiform CFO, Schindler additionally took over the controlling of the group of companies, and another two years later the deputy director in Bern-Niederwangen. "Since that time, customer projects and management tasks have been my passion," he says. "I then developed further in these segments and left finance and accounting." 19 years
Schindler is now on board. The relationship seems to have remained fresh.

In his private life, too, Schindler is a steady sort: He has lived with his wife and two grown-up daughters in Schmitten near Düdingen for almost 20 years. The family man seeks a balance to his work in nature - hiking, jogging, playing tennis or snowshoeing. In addition, Schindler can be found regularly on the slopes, for a while on a snowboard, and for the last three years on skis again. Snow is one of Schindler's elements. Until he was twenty, he raced on skis and would have loved to be on the slopes.
I would have liked to have stood on the top step of the podium," he admits. "But I just wasn't good enough." Schindler also has a great passion for handicrafts. His favorite thing to do is tinker with his house, and as soon as the winter is over, he wants to build a swimming pond. It seems unlikely that the manager will ever run out of ideas.

Westiform's business is going well. Nevertheless: "We are operating in a difficult environment," emphasizes Schindler. "We have an extremely broad portfolio, from illuminated advertising to light art and advertising logistics to digital signage, and a large number of competitors, especially internationally. That's why we have to stay ahead of the game." Above all, Westiform tries to stay on the ball with the development of new, sustainable technologies. According to the motto: "Everything must not just be beautiful, it must also have a purpose." At the beginning of 2010, the company launched the innovative ConturaLED light source. Thanks to a sensor, it always shines just slightly brighter than its surroundings. This saves up to 90 percent energy. Coop and Axa Winterthur already use ConturaLED. The company has also developed a process in which acrylic glass elements formed in a deep-drawing process can be evenly vaporized with a thin, translucent silver layer. This produces high-quality illuminated lettering for brand-conscious companies, with which Westiform would like to assert itself in particular against competition from low-wage countries. In addition, Westiform wants to be able to communicate with its lighting systems in the future: "They should not only emit light," explains Schindler, "we also want to know how long and how strong they shine, what condition they are in, and we want to be able to intervene before there is a problem with the light source. We already have the technology for this, but we still have to do extensive testing. Also, the market has to be ready for it. We estimate that will be the case in three years."

The development of intelligent products will continue to enjoy high priority at Westiform in the future. Schindler: "It is quite important for us to be able to further consolidate our technological leadership, especially in the areas of light and surface technology, with a focus on sustainability." With one caveat, to which Schindler attaches the greatest importance: "The main reason why we are successful is not technologies, but our employees. They are our capital." Westiform has always relied on creative employees. Since 1980, for example, the company has sought advice from Swiss type icon Adrian Frutiger, the developer of the Post house font and the typo that has been used for all Swiss street signs since 2003. Frutiger was a member of the Westiform Board of Directors until 2002, and he remains a close friend of the Imfeld family to this day.

People in focus
Alain Schindler likes to deal with people. He is not a desk jockey, but prefers to be on the move, in contact with employees, customers and suppliers. When large projects are handled abroad, he travels not only for the on-site negotiations, but also to be present during the implementation. "I see my strength in leadership, in dealing with the different challenges we face at our sites around the world," Schindler says. "I'm not the one who gives instructions from the boss's chair, but rather someone who masters requirements on site together with the employees. Because you can only understand a situation if you're on the spot." In this respect, Schindler has remained a controller.

Westiform wants to inspire its customers with new, clever products, professional work and a high implementation speed. This aspiration starts with the smallest screw and extends to the complex lighting installation that has to be in a specific place somewhere in the world at a specific time. The company's projects are often very complex. It goes without saying that things sometimes go wrong. But that's not a deal-breaker for Schindler. "Every situation that is negative on the surface often has something good in the depths," he says. "It depends on what time line you look at the story. In the short term, there's a problem, but in the long term, you might be doing one thing better because difficulties once surfaced were fixed."

Schindler does not measure his personal success by the success of individual projects. "I see it more as a great success that we manage to hold our own in a difficult environment with a team that relies on each other and lives a common culture." For Schindler, the other party is the measure of all actions. This is also revealed by his dream of happiness: staying healthy and active, striking a balance between work and leisure, family and friends, not getting caught up in the one-dimensional whirlpool of business life. That sounds simple. At first glance.

Anne-Friederike Heinrich