Pradipta K.Mohapatra
During the twenty years of my acquaintance with Nicolas Hayek, I had almost neglected meeting other illustrious members of the Hayek family. I had regarded the third generation Hayek as the ‘baby of the family'. I could not have been more wrong. Marc's name appeared on my radar when I heard of him receiving his honorary doctorate degree from the European University Montreux. Young scions of business families don't exactly get decorated that way, I thought. When I came face to face with Marc Alexander Hayek at the Blancpain exhibition during BaselWorld 2011, I realised why Marc is his own man. Way back in 2001, the year he joined Blancpain as Head of Marketing and joint CEO, in his interview with Magnus Bosse, Marc said, “I'm proud of what this family has achieved, but on the other side it can be a kind of a burden... It is quite much, what my grandfather expects from a member of this family.” I can only imagine how daunting it must have been for Mark in his early years to cope with senior Hayek's expectations.
When I met Marc this March, he had just crossed forty. Tall and of athletic build, Marc looks mature beyond his age. Marc came across as extremely polite and very collegial . Between him and his group of Vice Presidents, it would be hard to point out who's the boss. Cool, composed and purposeful in his speaking is not how I would have described his grandfather, Hayek Sr.
Born in 1971 in Luzern, Marc developed an interest in diving, fishing and mountain biking. Later on in his career, he would also turn to car racing. After his Bachelors degree in Economics, Marc did not want to join his grandfather's business. Instead, he wanted to set up a business on his own terms. He pursued his love for cooking by setting up a restaurant. Soon, he got into the distribution of fine wine and cigars. Of particular importance to him was trying to understand clients who have fine tastes. He understood that those who value fine wine and cigars don't do it to impress other people. They do it because they truly enjoy it. It is amazing how easily Marc incorporated his learning into the brand positioning of Blancpain. “The Blancpain buyer is an individual who has achieved something in his or her life and does not need or want to buy a status symbol.”
After short stints at Certina and Tissot, Marc joined Blancpain in 2001 to takeover the company from his most illustrious predecessor, Jean-Claude Biver. As is well known, Blancpain, which was originally founded in 1735, went out of business in 1971. Biver, a great believer in mechanical watches, revived the company in 1981. In a move that surprised the industry, Biver sold Blancpain to Hayek's SMH (now Swatch Group) in 1992. Biver ran the business for almost another decade. Getting into Biver's shoes may have been daunting for Marc at his relatively young age of 30 years. However, Marc maintained and fiercely guarded the sense of independence of Blancpain as a brand while integrating common and efficient services with the Swatch Group. He inspired a fierce sense of competitiveness within Blancpain. He often jokingly says, “My biggest competitor is my grandfather in the next door factory because he manages Breguet.”
Hayek Sr's untimely demise sitting at work at his Breguet office brought new challenges for Marc. In July 2010 Marc, as a member of the Group Executive Board, was given the responsibility of looking after Breguet and Jaquet Droz in addition to Blancpain. The new CEO of Swatch Group, Nick Hayek Jr. has already made it known that the Group is going to have three emerging billion dollar brands from the Swatch stable. Breguet will be one of them. If Marc's time under the sun hasn't arrived, it soon will.
On the sidelines of BaselWorld, I displayed a vintage, white gold, rectangular, automatic Blancpain to Marc and his team. The design of the watch (rectangular for a start) was out of sync with the design concept of the Blancpain family. Marc requested his chief watch technician to open up the watch. The rotor of the watch proudly displayed the manufacturer's name, Blancpain Reyville SA. The company had stopped trading in this name in 1940s. Everyone was delighted to see this beauty of the pre-1940s collection. I offered the watch as a gift to the Blancpain Museum. Marc, in his most affable manner told me, “I respect what this watch means to someone who owns it. Of course, the Blancpain Museum will be delighted to display the watch. However, in exchange you must choose one of our current models as a gift from our side.” We have postponed this event till Marc's next visit to India.
Finally, we went through the high points of BaselWorld 2011 from Blancpain. The new range of complicated watches had incorporated some very exquisite engravings on the movement.
Almost as if responsibilities sit easily on Marc's shoulder, he is getting ready for the next round of races as part of the Blancpain Endurance Series. After all, we need to remember that Marc was the champion of the 2009 Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo, where he participated as an amateur driver. It's possible that some of his controlled super charge as a race driver very well spills into his billion dollar dream.