Your Swiss subsidiary, run on the ground.
A foreign group that sets up in Switzerland must run an entity subject to Swiss law, Swiss social insurance, collective agreements and authorities, often before it has found who will lead it. The firm takes on that management under a mandate, for an agreed period, and reports to headquarters every month in a form group management can read without reworking it.
Three situations.
This format answers a specific moment in a subsidiary's life. Outside these three cases, one of the firm's other formats is the better fit.
A new entity with no local management
The company is registered, the first employees are hired or about to be, and group management steers it from abroad, between other priorities.
An integration after an acquisition
The group has just acquired a Swiss company. Contracts, pay, processes and reporting must be aligned with the group's without losing the clients or the people who carry the business.
A management position left vacant
The country manager has left, or the search has lasted for months. The entity is waiting for decisions nobody on site has the authority to take.
What the firm takes on.
Management of the entity, within the scope agreed in writing with headquarters. Decisions that commit the group beyond that scope are submitted to it, prepared and argued.
Employer compliance
Employment contracts compliant with Swiss law, social insurance, pension fund, applicable collective agreements, staff regulations, work permits for employees coming from abroad.
People
Recruiting the roles that carry the business, leading the team, annual reviews and, when the time comes, preparing the arrival of a permanent director.
Partners and authorities
Fiduciary, bank, insurers, landlord, distributors, communal and cantonal administrations: one resident counterpart who knows their customs and their pace.
Steering by the figures
Budget, cash, variance tracking and reading of the entity's accounts, prepared to group requirements and reconciled with the Swiss books.
Two steps.
The first step establishes the real state of the entity; it is useful to the group even if it goes no further. The second is proposed only if the first shows that management on the ground is the right answer.
- Step 1
The subsidiary review
Interviews with headquarters, employees and the main partners; review of contracts, accounts and current obligations. The report sets out what is compliant, what is not, what it costs, and the decisions to take in the order they must be taken.
- Step 2
Management under mandate
Mike Ciabatti runs the entity on site, one to three days a week depending on the workload, for an agreed and renewable period. The mandate can end with a handover to a director hired by the group; the firm then prepares that arrival.
The report to headquarters.
Every month, a document of four pages at most, in English or French, always built the same way. It follows the firm's method, the decision instruction: what is established is kept apart from what is assumed, and every decision asked of headquarters comes with its options.
Figures and variances
Activity, result and cash of the entity against budget, with the explanation of every significant variance.
Decisions requested
What headquarters must decide, by when, with the options studied and the firm's recommendation.
What was decided on site
Decisions taken within the delegated scope, and what they commit.
Open risks
Obligations falling due, disputes, possible departures, dependencies: what may cost if nothing is done.
Conditions.
They are set out in the written proposal and add to the firm's general terms of engagement.
Registration in the commercial register
Where the group wishes to register Mike Ciabatti as director or board member of the entity, registration requires cover under the group's directors' and officers' liability insurance and a review of social security and tax obligations during the subsidiary review.
Fees
Fixed fee for the review, fixed monthly fee for management, invoiced in advance. The firm publishes no rates; amounts are set out in the proposal.
Independence
The firm takes no stake in the entity it manages and receives no commission from its suppliers.
Who runs it.
Mike Ciabatti has run a services company of some sixty employees, taken over from its founder, whose organisation he rebuilt: contracts, social contributions, regulations, processes, pricing policy, and the fitting-out of new premises within the budget set by the board. A trainer of managers and a Swiss militia specialist officer, he works in English and French, his two native languages, and in German.
A subsidiary to run in Switzerland?
Describe the situation in three questions. You receive a personal reply and the proposal of a first thirty-minute conversation, in English or French.