Swiss foundation supports company owners instead of schools

The man, who introduces himself as Renat, welcomes the small Swiss delegation in front of his factory building in Bishkek. More precisely, in front of his abandoned factory, because the condition of this production facility is quite precarious.

However, the former guest worker in Russia – a short man with a dark complexion and typical Central Asian facial features – visibly proudly shows the Swiss group the heart of his production: a home-made pressing system that produces special, oversized bricks. These are installed in ventilation shafts of large buildings.

It is a niche product that allows Renat to have his more than 20 employees work in two shifts. The young entrepreneur assures us that he pays them above-average wages.

And Renat has expansion plans: he is reinvesting his profits in new product lines and is planning to buy his own factory. Here it is for rent. Under no circumstances does he want to make the mistakes that are common in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan without a capitalist tradition: that manufacturers neglect their investments and instead divert the profits for private consumption.

 

Renat, there is no doubt about it, is a thoroughbred entrepreneur with ambitions. And this circumstance is closely linked to the Swiss people who are now checking up and down his factory.

These are sponsors of the BPN Foundation or Business Professionals Network. The women and men who traveled to Kyrgyzstan do not want to visit a sponsored child in poor conditions. Rather, they are godfathers of a local entrepreneur: owners of mattress and textile factories, private educational institutions or, as in Renat’s case, a building materials company. BPN itself describes its backers as investors. And itself as a “management consultancy with a charitable background”.

The goal is to help promising entrepreneurs break through so they can expand. Investors’ return is measured by the number of jobs created.

Anyone who has a job, for example working at one of Renat’s machines, does not receive charity, but rather a salary month after month – which is not paid by a Western donor, but by a profitable local company. This is sustainable and keeps entire families afloat in a country like Kyrgyzstan with high levels of poverty and unemployment.

 

The Swiss foundation proves that development cooperation does not have to be what it often is, despite all the good will: a gigantic waste of money. BPN has been supporting entrepreneurs in Kyrgyzstan for 25 years now. That’s another reason why the foundation’s investors came from Switzerland: to celebrate this birthday.

The help does not primarily come in the form of loans, but rather with business training programs and on-site coaching. BPN’s path to development leads through the transfer of knowledge in accounting, price calculation, employee management, marketing, etc.

Founded by a Swiss hotelier and entrepreneur

Founded by the late entrepreneur Jürg Opprecht – whose family owns the well-known spa hotel Lenkerhof – BPN is currently active in five countries, including Georgia, Mongolia, Nicaragua and Rwanda.

But Kyrgyzstan is point zero: it all started here a quarter of a century ago, which is why there are a number of local entrepreneurs who have proven themselves over the years and through many crises. This is not a given in a young country where upheavals occur with a certain regularity.

For example, Erik Kutanow, the owner of a large bakery with 120 employees. He delivers to neighboring Kazakhstan himself and is currently about to take a major expansion step: the construction of a new, three-story factory and, for the first time, his own network of stores.

 

Kutanov is now a role model for aspiring entrepreneurs in the country. He also heads the BPN Business Association and, together with 90 other members, campaigns for better conditions in the country. This is also one of BPN’s goals: to ensure that the entrepreneurs it supports organize themselves.

 

Supporting each other is very helpful in the pseudo-democracy of Kyrgyzstan, where both China, Russia and Turkey are vying for influence. “Companies here are not successful thanks to the authorities, but despite the authorities,” is how BPN country manager Thomas Lauwiner sums it up – in broad Valais German.

Values ​​are also conveyed

In Kyrgyzstan, the BPN brand is synonymous with a Swiss academy for applied business administration. But it also stands at least as much for values. This was emphasized by several speakers at the anniversary celebration who themselves went through the training and coaching program. BPN gives entrepreneurs an awareness of quality, punctuality and honesty. And that long-term thinking that is often missing in a nomadic culture – for centuries people simply packed up their tents and moved on when danger appeared.

A local employee of the foundation, for example, explains that the idea that companies should build up reserves in order to be able to weather crises is foreign to the Kyrgyz people. “If you get into trouble, the whole clan pools money together.”

This solidarity may be all well and good in everyday life, but it doesn’t help an entrepreneur who has to pay dozens of wages. And the company owners who have been through BPN’s program in Kyrgyzstan since 1999 collectively employ over 15,000 people.

 

Investors who have traveled from Switzerland like to hear such figures and explanations. Many of them are or were themselves working at the front line in private industry: as entrepreneurs or managers. They want to help, but are unfamiliar with traditional development cooperation.

Enrico Tissi, for example, worked for many years on corporate management and boards of directors of international companies. In his last operational role, he led Sika’s North American business.

Former Sika manager is among the participants

When he and his wife returned to Switzerland after ten years in New Jersey, they looked for a Swiss aid organization that they could support. A friend recommended BPN, an organization they have been associated with for twelve years. “We are impressed by how carefully BPN selects the entrepreneurs who apply for the program and how they are trained and supported.” Loans are secondary and are only granted if the entrepreneurs can handle money, says Tissi.

They initially wanted to support traditional aid organizations, but then decided on BPN. «In contrast to these, BPN does not distribute money, but rather enables people to build companies and create jobs. So that they can realize their life’s dream at home and don’t have to emigrate to Europe,” says Tissi.

Urs Horat and his wife Hedi are also there. In 2017, Horat sold the electronic components company he co-founded, Compona, to well-known investor Warren Buffett. The trained precision mechanic and his wife have been supporting BPN since 2008.

“We also donate to other organizations, but not to the same extent,” says Horat. “I was convinced by their approach from the start: that they don’t give away money, but rather train entrepreneurs and coach them in their expansion plans. The job growth at the companies that are in BPN’s support program shows how well it works,” says the former entrepreneur.

Horat describes himself as a liberal, an attitude that for him goes hand in hand with social responsibility. His experiences abroad would certainly have been the deciding factor in supporting BPN. Horat joined companies in South Africa on his own in the 1960s, was, among other things, an officer in the local merchant navy and then traveled through South America.

The trip to Kyrgyzstan is a small adventure in comparison. But Horat, Tissi and the other investors are without exception enthusiastic about their visits to the entrepreneurs whose training and support they helped finance.

The offer clearly meets a need on both the donor and recipient sides, so the foundation is currently preparing to expand into another country.

Sponsorship for 250 francs per month

A classic sponsorship costs 250 francs per month and runs for two years. In this way, the investor enables an entrepreneur to receive business training, accompanying training and coaching as well as integration into a local business association. In Kyrgyzstan, for example, one could currently lend a hand to Nasikhat, which runs a primary school. Or Kirill, the owner of a furniture factory.

However, an entrepreneur like Renat will soon no longer need support. Because once he has completed the BPN program, he stands completely on his own two feet: and that is exactly the goal of any development cooperation.