Hidden Champions - Market Expansion Advisory

HSG Alumni Hidden Champions offers exclusive insights into particularly successful, yet publicly little-known Swiss SMEs. The event series allows HSG alumni to experience inspiring business models, entrepreneurial thinking and distinctive leadership cultures at first hand – beyond the well-known large corporations.

Definition

What defines a Hidden Champion?

Hidden Champions are Swiss companies that are barely visible to the public, yet play a leading role in their global niches. They combine specialisation, innovative strength, international presence, deeply integrated value creation and, in most cases, a long-term ownership structure. It is precisely this mix that makes them central pillars of our economy.

Format

A format for leaders and young professionals

The programme is aimed at experienced leaders as well as young professionals within the HSG network. Selected company visits create access that allows deeper glimpses behind the scenes than classic study trips or networking formats.

Each event lasts a Friday afternoon (4–5 hours) and usually comprises:

Welcome and introduction
Company dialogue with the CEO or executive management
Factory tour focusing on technology and corporate culture
Panel discussion on “Leadership & transformation in the SME”
Interactive Q&A session
Networking apéro

The series comprises 2–4 visits per year, across Switzerland, each with around 30 participants.

Commitment

My role as initiator and host

As an active HSG alumnus, I launched the Hidden Champions initiative and moderate the events as host. The companies visited are a selection I curate personally – firms that genuinely live up to the “Hidden Champion” claim. The event series is my personal commitment to Swiss entrepreneurship – pro bono and without commercial interest.

Benefits

What the series offers

For alumni

Exclusive access to entrepreneurial excellence and innovative strength
Direct dialogue with owners, CEOs and leading figures
Inspiration for strategy, leadership and transformation in your own professional life
Strengthening the HSG alumni community through shared experience

For the companies visited

Visibility within an exclusive circle of highly qualified alumni
An opportunity to convey strategy, culture and future topics authentically
Access to an active community with a Swiss-wide and international reach

The event series is an official format of HSG Alumni, the alumni network of the University of St. Gallen with more than 33,000 members in over 70 countries.