George Clooney: “I’m proud to call him my friend.”

Extracts.

Nicolas Hayek, Wall Street Journal, June 2010
“I took over Breguet when I purchased it because I saw that people who didn’t understand anything about the brand had ruined the spirit of the company. They were treating it as a commercial operation and it is not a commercial operation – it is something completely different. The man, the manufacturer Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823), no one has been capable of measuring him in all his dimensions. For some he is a big technical guy, for others he is a wonderful scientist, for some he is a great artist. But no one has realized that he was a very b communicator. He was capable of communicating the development of the watch – he convinced the Tsar of Russia that he had not only the best watches but also that they were works of art.”

George Clooney, Wall Street Journal, June 2010
“I’ve never sat in a board meeting where the CEO is spending most of the time making sure that people are the priority. Not just his employees but everyone. I’m proud to call him my friend.”

Nicolas Hayek, Sorbonne, Paris, April 2010
“I’m like a kid who runs across the road without first looking to see if a lorry is coming. Any entrepreneur has to take risks to innovate. We’re all born with the ability to be creative and let our imagine run wild, but society kills this innate belief in fantasy. Yes, an entrepreneur creates products, wealth and employment by surmounting obstacles, but an entrepreneur is also an artist. It all comes down to the pleasure of creating. I haven’t worked a single hour, I’ve spent my whole life having fun!”

Nicolas Hayek, Tribune des Arts, March 2010
“Swiss watchmaking isn’t just about luxury watches. Swatch is just as valid as Breguet! I gave a diamond-studded watch to the Queen of Spain as a gift on an official occasion. That was fifteen years ago and I still remember the disappointed look on her face. Coming from me, she had hoped for a Swatch!”

Nicolas Hayek, “Economy Day” of the Swiss Business Federation, September 2009
“Don’t get me wrong: there is no doubt that Anglo-Saxon culture and mentality have enriched our world with many overwhelmingly positive and outstanding developments in countless different fields. But the exasperating finance mentality which unfortunately dominates the American and, to some extent, English stock exchanges, with their two-faced governance acrobats, with their hypocritical false lip-service, endless financial sermons, glut of speculators, gamblers and money-grabbing fund operators, Pharisees only too eager to point out the non-existent splinters in the eyes of others whilst ignoring the blemishes in their own, are no help whatsoever to industry, or indeed to the American or even world economy as a whole.”

Nicolas Hayek, L’Express, July 2009
“I’m convinced we can develop and maintain industry in Europe, in fact I prove we can every day. We manufacture watches in Switzerland in 165 factories. The Smart rolls off production lines in France. And that’s not all: our new company, Belenos, will set up the infrastructure needed to produce clean energy here. I’m an optimist. Some would say a fool. I thought up the idea for the Swatchmobile and away I went. General Motors didn’t dare and Mercedes, after Smart, never produced the hybrid car I designed and that was part of our contract. Instead, Toyota jumped in with its hybrid model, the Prius. If we want to improve cars’ fuel system, we need to think outside the mechanics box, which a lot of automakers just can’t do. So I set up Belenos, named after the Celtic sun god, to produce not a car but an engine. Once it’s ready, automakers can buy it if they want. I don’t need their money and I don’t need public money. We’ve got the cash, we’re investing and we’re keeping control.