BLUE - TIME

Vontobel Private Banking The magazine for private clients Autumn Edition 2010

Time Comprehending time: The essence of time Football Time: Almost everything in 90 minutes Macro: How does the investment landscape look in the years to come?

“The biggest difference between time and money is that you can’t save them the same way.”

Nadine Schöneck-Voss, Sociologist

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Editorial possible to create a so-called “geography of time” – a map dependent on such factors as economic stability, growth, the population density, temperature, etc. In our northern latitudes, words like “speed” and “deadline” are often used as synonyms for time. So it is hardly surprising that in economically successful networks, time is equated with money.

However, if you ask people who have plenty of money what they wish for the most, the answer is: “More time!”

The way we deal with time speaks volumes about ourselves. Our clients’ time is precious. At Vontobel, we take the time that is necessary; in Private Banking we set our watches to the needs and wishes of our clients.

Dear reader, Do you have time?

Do you often steal a glance at your watch? Do you set up schedules and allow the electronic calendar to run your daily agenda? Do you find yourself getting agitated when you have to wait? Do you take time for personal conversations? Do you sometimes even have the feeling that time is melting away between your fingers?

Everyone has his own sense of time, and each culture interprets time in its own way. Based on these differences, it is

In this issue of blue, four personalities share their views and experiences on the subject of time, a concept which, for them, is not – or is no longer – linked to money.

I would be very pleased if you would take some time for blue.

Cordially,

Peter Fanconi Head of Private Banking peter.fanconi@vontobel.ch

Content Theme: Time ∙ The essence of time ∙ Time Facts ∙ Man proposes, nature disposes ∙ Almost everything in 90 minutes ∙ Where only the present counts

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Macro: How does the investment landscape look in the years to come?

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Opportunities: E-Mobility moves into the fast lane

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Blue Pages: Vontobel bulletin board

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Care & Share: “I was the youngest guest at the retirement home”

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Column: Time we have enough of

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Culture and cuisine: Inside Zurich

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Time is one of the most precious resources of the modern human being. “Time is money” is the credo of our everyday life. We try to save time whenever we can. Yet at the end of the day, the person who is truly rich in terms of time is the one who can freely waste it. A conversation with sociologist Nadine SchöneckVoss about the nature of time.

By Heike Isselhorst

Theme: Comprehending time

The essence of time The writer Elias Canetti once said, “Everything got faster so there would be more time. There is less and less time.” Thanks to a variety of technological advances, we have more time today than we ever did before. And yet time pressure dominates us wherever we look. What happened to all that time we saved?

This question takes direct aim at the heart of the issue of time today, i.e. the gap between actual time saved and the perceived shortness of time. Modern man has access to countless technological achievements that make life easier and help save time. Just as I’m speaking to you now, for example, a washing machine and dishwasher are running – isn’t that practical? And alongside all these technological aids, we also have a wide variety of everyday techniques available for dealing with time, allowing us to optimise our use of time.

Why then does time always remain in short supply?

The problem is our insatiability. It is not in our nature to simply while away the time we save – preferably in some enjoyable way. We try to fill this saved time with new activities, to use the new time sensibly.

So the problem is homemade?

Take, for example, communication via e-mail at work. Not even twenty years ago, people communicated professionally as well as privately by post. A letter was written, placed in an envelope, stamped and mailed. A response by post could be expected in a week at the earliest. E-mail has made all this superfluous. A truly enormous gain of time, which without doubt has made our day-to-day work life easier. And what have we insatiable human beings done with it? We use the time gained to increase our communication activities to an extreme degree. Today we send more e-mail than we have ever written letters. This has more than offset the time savings we achieved.

Such a zero-sum game would not be so bad. Why does it still feel as if we had less and less time?

Because of people’s insatiability, it is not just a zero-sum game. We over-compensate for the time savings. That’s why the end effect is that we now spend much more time than before with written communication. And so it is with almost all human activities. We have so many more opportunities today to fill up our time. Previously, our lives, and the choices we had concerning what to do, were much more sharply defined for us. Only the very few among us could decide, for example, whether they wanted to use their time for a shopping trip to Milan or London. That was simply outside the range of options for most people.

But in this regard, surely no one wants to turn back the wheel of time?

Not at all. Of course it’s wonderful to have all these opportunities. But the huge supply of possibilities seduces us into squeezing more and more – as much as possible – into a quantum of time that is still fixed. This results in a permanent surplus of opportunities, which gives us the feeling that we don’t have enough time. Despite all the options, time is the bottleneck.

Would we have more time, if we could get a grip on this insatiability?

Not necessarily. Because even if we had fewer options, we still have to choose one or the other. And each of these decisions commits our energies and takes time: How will I spend my evening today? Will I go to the movies or to a restaurant? Will I meet friends or spend the evening on my own? Many people think long and hard about these and other everyday decisions. When you add it all up, these everyday decisions, though actually small, really devour our time.

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You are a sociologist of time. Why did you decide to focus on time as a research subject?

There is a critical experience behind my decision. As a young student in my early twenties, I spent an academic year in the United States. Up till then, I had led a relatively timeless life in Bochum, on the day-to-day level. It was only when I arrived in Texas that I realised for the first time that my stay at the university there was limited. And no matter what, I wanted to enjoy this limited time fully and completely. The price for this was an acceleration that swept over my life like a huge wave. The quiet life was over. I got into the habit of sleeping only five or six hours a night, so I could fit all these new activities into my day.

Fortunately, I had never been someone who needs a lot of sleep. However, after returning to Germany, I found that I couldn’t get back to my old rhythm. I too had become insatiable, and this realisation is what awoke my interest in the phenomenon of time.

The theologian Augustine already recognised the difficulty of defining the concept of time. He posed the question, “So what is time? If no one asks me, then I know; but if I try to explain it to someone who does ask me, then I do not know.” What does time mean to you?

Indeed, the concept of time is vague, and very much depends on whom you ask. If you ask physicists, philosophers, chronobiologists, sleep physiologists, theologians, or even sociologists, the answers will always be different. For me,

time tends to be a problem. The way we deal with time has a sharply economic character. This is also reflected in the many expressions we have in the German language that focus on the constant scarcity of time, and the value that is connected to it.

For example, “stealing someone’s time.”

Yes. Stealing time is a good example. But there are many other phrases as well which associate time with economic values in a broad sense: investing time, saving time, gaining time, losing time – the utilitarian nature of time is clear in many phrases and expressions. In contrast to other cultures, we have a strong tendency to see time in economic terms.

How much truth is there in Benjamin Franklin's dictum “time is money”?

There are in fact a number of parallels between time and money. As we see it in our western society, both are precious, scarce commodities. The saying “time is money” not only expresses the aspect of scarcity but also the principle of opportunity cost. In other words, the question as to what I could have done with this time window, if I had not been spending it in conversation with you. Or to put it even more clearly: how much could I have been earning in that time? Especially people who are strongly performance-oriented, or who even work on commission, can tell you that every single minute of the day has a monetary value.

So it is true: Time is money?

At first glance, it may be true. But on closer observation, it emerges quickly that there are some very big differences between time and money. The most important is that money and time cannot be saved the same way.

Small amounts of money can be collected quite nicely and used at a later date. With time, this is impossible. Just try to collect small amounts of time!

You may gain such a small tidbit of time, for example, by showing up early for a meeting, perhaps because everything went very smoothly beforehand – yet in spite of the fact that you’ve saved time, you have nothing to show for it, since, depending on your nature, politeness will forbid you from calling attention to yourself before the agreed time. After all, you got there too early…

“Because of the myriad options we face, there is a permanent oversupply of possibilities, and this gives us the feeling that we don’t have enough time.” time is, for one thing, the time measured by a clock, i.e. intersubjectively verifiable time, apportioned time, an agreed convention. The social character of time is also evident when we visualise that time, in the way we imagine it as a continuum, does not exist outside of man’s perception. The division of time into minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years is an artificial apportionment, and even the linearity of time is a very systematic notion which was invented by man.

In nature, this kind of gradation does not exist. Only this social construct, i.e. time as measured by the clock, enables coordination and synchronization, social interaction.

How universal is this convention regarding time? In other cultures, time seems to play a different role than it does, for example, here in Switzerland.

The Swiss and certainly also the Germans are generally inclined to punctuality. If you meet people from other countries, a clash of cultures is not uncommon. This is because it is not only punctuality that is highly culture-dependent, but the entire way in which people interact with time. How people think about time, and the relevance of time in heir interactions with each other, is very different from one society to another. Western Europeans are primarily aware of time as a very precious resource, and in a day-to-day sense, we view it especially in terms of loss, i.e.

So in this light, small tidbits of extra time are not a good investment?

In very many cases, that’s true. For most people, this is often very frustrating. At some point during the day, you’ve managed to save some time – and with some degree of effort – or you were in a frantic rush. Maybe you didn’t even have a chance to finish your coffee in the morning, but had to dash for the bus. And then, that afternoon, you arrive ten minutes early to a meeting and, by sitting there waiting for the meeting to start, you feel, emotionally speaking, that you are wasting precious time that you could have put to such good use a few hours earlier.

Most people don’t like waiting in any case.

It’s true, for many people waiting is real agony. That is why some of us, quite consciously, show up a bit late for a scheduled appointment – because for them waiting is,

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subjectively, such a terrible experience. Having to wait for someone or something produces precisely these small tidbits of extra time which you can’t do much with.

But can’t you use an unexpected wait to some positive purpose?

Whether and how much waiting time is perceived as negative, is closely dependent on how much influence you have on the situation. You can observe a good example of this among the passengers in an airplane when there has been a delay. Here you have a situation that the people affected have no influence over. They have relinquished the responsibility for their time management and cannot do anything about the delay. In such cases, the waiting

Delays at the airport: being forced to slow down often becomes an

Photo: Gallerystock

unexpected gift.

time is often accepted gratefully; people submit to their destiny fatalistically. The forced slow-down they must endure becomes a gift – a time windfall. Many people in this situation delightedly turn to reading or some other activity that under normal circumstances they would not have considered doing at all. In addition to the calculated flight time, which they may have planned out with great precision before, they now have an extra hour on the tarmac before the actual flight. For them, it is a time window that had not existed before.

Will the phrase “I have no time” also rule our lives in the future?

For much of society, having no time is fashionable these days; it functions as an intangible status symbol. Anyone who always has time – whose time is unlimited – comes across as suspicious. Imagine you are looking for a new doctor and hear on the phone that you can practically

have an appointment any time you want – you would be taken aback by this. On the other hand, if you learn that you have to count on a waiting time of ten days before you can see this doctor, you feel reassured that this is a professional with many patients, someone who is in demand. Such a lack of availability can be used quite deliberately to increase your appreciation by others.

By merely pretending to be busy?

Yes. That may not be as shameless as it might seem at first glance. It is basically a social game that many people master.

Especially when it comes to things that are not high priority, many people use lack of time as a pretext. Their motivation is by no means always to increase the regard others have for them. Because in our society, it is perfectly legitimate not to have any time, you can protect your own stock of time.

Will we still be haggling over time in 50 years as well?

I assume that the lack of time that we communicate to each other will not remain the measure of all things forever.

There is already a social vanguard today which is resisting the Diktat of time. In the future it is more likely that it will be fashionable to have a good grip on one's time and consciously take time for oneself. I do not have an exact idea how long it may take for such a change to come about. It won’t be from one day to the next, but I am confident that we will find a positive way to deal with time.

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Nadine Schöneck-Voss is a research associate for the Chair of Political Sociology and Comparative Analysis of Contemporary Society at the University of Bremen. Already as a student, she dealt with the phenomenon of time, and for her study “The Driven Human Being... And Am I Normal?” she was recognised with an award from the Körber Foundation in Hamburg. As a passionate marathon runner, time plays a significant role for her in addition to her research interest. Her personal best time is 3:43:56.

Time Facts

Photo: Keystone

Time management: an ancient tradition?

Already about 2,000 years ago, the Roman philosopher Seneca captured the essence of modern time management in his work entitled “On the Shortness of Life”, writing that “No one is to be found who is willing to distribute his money, yet among how many does each one of us distribute his life! In guarding their fortune, men are often close-fisted, yet, when it comes to the matter of wasting time, in the case of the one thing in which it is right to be miserly, they show themselves most prodigal.”

For his book “A Geography of Time”, the sociologist Robert Levine measured the tempo of certain activities in different countries. Things that can help indicate the “living speed” of a society are such variables as the accuracy of public clocks, the speed of pedestrians, and the time it takes for a postal employee to sell a stamp. In the international league table, speedy Switzerland ranks in first place.

I’d rather be showering It would appear that many Swiss couples must understand each other quite well without actually speaking. In any event, studies show that they set aside an average of 91.25 hours a year, or 3.8 days, for conversations with their partner. They devote significantly more time, however, to other activities. Men, for example, spend 6.2 days a year in the bath or shower, while for women the average time spent soaking and scrubbing is 7.1 days.

The official time

Photo: SPL, Keystone

From the measurements of over 260 atomic clocks worldwide, located in over 60 different institutions, the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) in Paris establishes the International Atomic Time (TAI) as the reference time.

A topic with legs A Google search for the keywords “time management” returns over 800,000 hits.

More fun, less grind Many Swiss spend their working hours sitting in front of a computer screen. And they spend a large part of their free time sitting as well – namely, in front of the TV. The average time spent watching television is 22.3 hours a week.

Extrapolate that over a lifetime and it comes to 9.3 years.

For Mr. and Mrs. Average Swiss, the total consumption of media – Internet, radio, TV, games, telephone, DVD, etc. – accounts for 47.5 hours every week, easily surpassing the number of hours in a work week.

Time to go The earliest illustration of a clock being worn on the body can be seen in the painting “The Merchant Georg Gisze” painted in 1530 by Hans Holbein

Photo: Interfoto

Rapid Swiss

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By Johann Thalheimer

Theme: Time to mature

Man proposes, nature disposes In 1990, Thomas Bär began to smooth the way for his exit from his previous world as a Zurich lawyer and banker, and his gradual transformation to a Tuscany-based wine producer. Twenty years later, one can see it was a good decision, as it has not only made Thomas Bär's life more colourful but also given him a new understanding of time and nature.

We meet, as arranged, in the law firm of Bär & Karrer in Zurich. Here, in this modern, functional building, some 120 lawyers are at work. Starting in 1969, Thomas Bär helped build up the firm, one of the most prestigious and largest law firms in Zurich, with his childhood friend Robert Karrer. But it is not this part of his life’s work that we are meeting to discuss. Nor about his previous functions at the bank with the same name, with which this offspring of the famous banking family is closely tied. No, at the heart of our conversation is a less well-known aspect of the many activities of Thomas Bär – that of a wine-maker.

Paradise has a name: Gagliole For the past two decades, the tall 73-year-old has been operating the Gagliole winery in Tuscany, located in the middle of the Chianti Classico region, halfway between Florence and Siena. The estate comprises ten hectares of vineyards. Carefully constructed stone walls stand witness to the fact that vineyards have been planted on this land for centuries. Atop the hill, encircled by row after row of Sangiovese grapes, shimmering silver olive trees and stately cypresses, are estate’s residence and production facilities. There can be no doubt that Gagliole is one of the most beautiful wineries in the region, thanks to this preferential location. Is it any wonder that already in the year 994 AD, it was so considered so lush that the Lombard king Berengarius decided that this property would make the perfect wedding gift for his son Hildebrand?

Today, Thomas Bär regards the winery as more than a personal hobby for himself and his wife Monika. For him, it is a cross-generational project. Running a winery, he believes, would only make sense if one can be sure that the next generation will also be committed to it. “What I'm doing today at Gagliole,” he says, “I’m also doing for my descendants.

It would not be satisfying to be doing this all for myself.”

And yet it was he who decided in 1990 to purchase Gagliole when, after a few failed attempts, the opportunity arose.

When and where did the attraction to wine making begin for this city dweller? Bär explains that as a young lawyer, he was looking after a South African client for the firm and had to travel now and then to the Cape top see him in person.

This client would often take him to tour the area’s wineries, arousing in the attorney a nascent interest in the culture of wine growing. On several occasions, the client encouraged his Swiss visitor to take the plunge and buy a vineyard in South Africa. “It was too far away from Zurich for me,” says Bär. “I love challenges, but they have to be in a reasonable proportion to my other professional responsibilities.”

In 1990, with the acquisition of Gagliole, the moment had arrived when this made sense: As it was much closer geographically, running the Italian winery could still fit into Bär’s portfolio of professional activities. True, his many family and work commitments in Zurich still made intensive claims on his time, but he could see that a gradual withdrawal would be possible. And so began his entry into a new field of activity.

The discovery of a new world Comparing his work in Zurich with that in Gagliole, Thomas Bär observes at least three differences. First, his relationship to time has changed. As a lawyer, he says, he was a seller of time, and he consequently had to master his agenda. As a wine maker, however, it is just the opposite: “It’s not I that dominates time, but time that dominates me.” In Gagliole, the pace of things is determined by the natural passage of time. For example, it is nature, not Bär as a vintner, that decides how long the maturation period lasts and when the grape harvest can begin.

Thomas Bär (73) produces about 70,000 bottles of wine and 2,000 liters of olive oil each year at the Gagliole winery in Tuscany. Red wines predominate, but a few thousand bottles of white are also produced. On the estate, the former Zurich lawyer and banker takes things into his own hands wherever it is necessary - in the morning mostly outdoors, and afternoons mostly in the office, where he looks after marketing and sales. Clamouring for the Gagliole estate’s exclusive products are avid clients in Switzerland, Germany, America and Russia.

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Bär sees a second difference in that, as a wine-maker, he had to get used to very long time horizons. “If you want to accomplish something in the field of law,” he says, “you can often manage it in a very short time.” Not so in his new field, agriculture. It is necessary to think in terms of much longer periods. “Here, too, it is nature that determines what will happen.”

The Zurich native sees the third difference in the fact that, in his vineyard, his focus is on dealing with very concrete tasks and objects. “As a lawyer, I was living in a virtual world. It was not often that you could see the exact impact of your work. In the winery, this is different – I can feel and see the effect of every decision I make, very quickly and very directly.”

How does a lawyer and banker who is accustomed to success deal with the fact that as a wine producer, he is subject to influences that he can affect only minimally – or As a lawyer, Thomas Bär could finish tasks in a very short timeframe.

Now, in the wine business, he has learned to think in terms of much longer periods.

not at all? “The older I get, the better I am able to accept that,” says Bär. “Today, I even believe that it is good that we humans don’t have control over everything.”

The longer the conversation with Thomas Bär lasts, the more the impression is formed that, over time, the quiet strength and tranquil harmony of the old Tuscan estate has been passed on to its resident – so relaxed and satisfied does he seem to a visitor.

One final question for Thomas Bär: If he had the chance to undertake the Gagliole adventure all over again, knowing about all the disappointments and setbacks that occurred in the past 20 years, would he do it a second time? “Definitely,” says Bär without hesitation. “I would certainly take the chance again. It’s true, there were disappointments, but there were even more moments of joy and happiness.” After a pause, he adds, laughing: “And in any case, my family believes that working in the vineyard has had a positive influence on my development.”

More information: www.gagliole.com

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Football has its own laws. A club that was at the very top of the league tables yesterday, can unexpectedly find itself near the bottom just a few months later. Likewise, a player who is famous today may be forgotten the day after tomorrow. Very few stay at the top over the long run. Ciriaco Sforza is among them – for two decades as a player, now as a coach. He tells us how fast time flies in football.

By Johann Thalheimer

Theme: Football Time

Almost everything in 90 minutes In Switzerland, if there is any football club that is deeply urban in character, it is the Grasshopper Club in Zurich. And yet if you go looking for the blue-and-white players of the GC on a football pitch in Zurich – at least during the week – you will do so in vain. The Grasshoppers have their training camp far out in the countryside, in Niederhasli by Dielsdorf.

And if you go to the Niederhasli train station, you will soon note that the GC Campus is another two kilometres out of town – far out in the verdant countryside, quite a distance from Zurich’s hustle and bustle. But is it also far removed from time? We ask the GC head coach Ciriaco Sforza (40), how a coach who was formerly an internationally renowned player himself, now senses the passage of those 90 minutes on which everything in football depends.

If you want to get to the top, you have to start at the bottom Sitting across from the coach in the club restaurant, you quickly get the impression that here is a man who has definitely found his calling. “Yes, I like it very much at GC,” admits Sforza right off the bat. “I have a young team with a great outlook, and I have a club that gives me time.”

Time. There it is already, that ominous word. In football, as every kid knows, time is a commodity in short supply. No sooner has a coach lost three or four games in a row than the sword of Damocles hangs over him by a thread. One more unfortunate defeat, and the sword will fall – and slice his employment contract in two.

At the beginning of the current championships, Sforza and his team chalked up a couple of defeats. While many other coaches would have already been suffering from nervous flutters, he just sits quietly and calmly. For he knows: GC

is different, GC will give him the time it takes to build up, promote and develop one of the youngest teams in the highest Swiss league. What interests him is the long-term perspective, the qualitatively stable environment and excellent infrastructure that the club offers him and the team at the Niederhasli camp. “Here I like to work,” says Sforza, “even though I know that as far as the league tables are concerned, we are not currently where we want to be.”

Surprisingly serene words from the mouth of the 40-yearold who, as a player, was without doubt one of the more hot-blooded footballers around, one of those exceptionally talented players who represent a blend of the emotional with the intelligent. It's quite possible that it is Sforza’s Italian heritage that shines through in this explosive mixture. Born in 1970 in the town of Wohlen in the Canton of Aargau, Sforza was taken by his father to play on the area’s various football fields as a child and had his first experiences of the game as a street footballer. At the tender age of six, Sforza was already playing for the Junior FC Villmergen, later graduating to Wohlen and from there straight into the highest Swiss league, where he played his first game as a 16-year-old – at the Grasshoppers, please note, the club he now coaches.

Player’s time: 20 successful years as a professional Ciriaco Sforza is convinced that earlier, players were better able to develop their talent, because they were given more time. To be sure, he still remembers the powerful attraction exerted on him as a very young man to move abroad.

But his father made sure that the move didn’t come about too early. “At the time, I had fights with my father over this on more than one occasion,” Sforza admits. “But now I know that he was right.”

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For a professional football player, time is concentrated to a very extreme degree into the 90 minutes of a game. “Plus overtime,” adds Sforza and laughs. Ninety minutes is a long time for a football player. “In every game, emotions are running high, yet at the same time the players have to be extremely focused.” That is why it often happens that the actual playing time that elapses may be 60 seconds but it feels like 120 or 240. The same game is often experienced quite differently by the opposing teams. For the victors the game is over smartly, while for the losers it may be a frustrating and seemingly interminable slog.

What remains of those hundreds of games?

Does Sforza better remember painfully long games, or those that flashed by in an instant? He thinks for a while and then shakes his head. “No, I never really remembered how long a game felt.” There were other moments that made an impression on him – for example, a successful combination that resulted in a goal. Or an important playoff. A concrete situation that is etched into his memory like a photograph.

Especially burnt into his brain from his time at 1. FC Kaiserslautern was the playoff game that secured the German championship for the club. At Bayern Munich, it was a penalty shootout against Valencia in a Champions League game. And perhaps the best memory of all is Switzerland’s legendary 4:1 win against Romania at the World Cup in the USA. On that day, 22nd June 1994, everything came

Sensed time. In a span of 90 minutes, GC coach Ciriaco Sforza lives

Photo: Keystone

through all the highs and lows of a game. Every week.

together perfectly. A great spectacle at the sold-out Silverdome in Detroit, with 55,000 spectators and a Swiss team for whom practically everything went right – not least thanks to the tireless midfield superstar Ciriaco Sforza.

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Success, pain and suffering And negative memories? There must be some of those, too, in a long career? Sforza agrees this is true. For any player, he says, the worst thing that can happen is an injury. “Even if you do not admit it publicly, I am convinced that an injury really burns into the mind of the player affected and changes him.” Sforza experienced this himself once when he tore his Achilles tendon. “It was also a tear in time, because afterward I was out for weeks.”

Dealing with an injury-related time-out is psychologically difficult for a player. Just as difficult may be the time spent by a player on the bench, although Sforza himself spent little time there. But the few times he did sit on the bench were sufficient for him to learn how incredibly slowly time passes there. “You see your opponents, you see your own team. You think you know just what you could bring to this or that situation – but you can’t do anything, because the coach is keeping you out of the game.” A torturous situation for a player, and Sforza knows it – yet as coach, it is inevitable that he must make some of his players experience it. Week after week.

Trainer’s time: A new beginning, with a future As a professional footballer, the Aargauer has played on teams led by such famous coaches as Roy Hodgson, Otto Rehhagel and Ottmar Hitzfeld. From each man, Sforza has learned something. “But I feel that, little by little, I developed my own approach, which suits me and my temperament.” Both as a player and as a coach, he puts a lot of trust in his instinct, his gut and his ability to “read” a game, grasp the situation faster than others and quickly make the necessary decisions based on these observations.

“In a serious situation – say a championship game – depending on how the game is going, I have to be able

Photo: Keystone

His long, highlight-studded career clearly proves this. In 1991, the 21-year-old Aargauer played his first game on the Swiss national team. In 1993, he moved from GC to 1.

FC Kaiserslautern. Over the next 13 years, Sforza always played for foreign clubs, first for the Red Devils on the Kaiserslautern Betzenberg, then for Bayern Munich, later for Inter Milan and finally back again to Kaiserslautern.

to intervene as a coach with lightning speed, give some tactical instructions or replace a player,” says Sforza. “At training sessions during the week, I can observe things at a more leisurely pace and let a decision form in my mind more slowly.”

Since his move from player to coach, Sforza experiences how important function is in understanding the sensation of time in football. As a rule, he says, a player thinks from one game to the next, and concentrates fully on the 90 minutes. As a coach, he has a very different conception of time. “My time units are divided into days, weeks, months and seasons,” he says. For the team he has to plan longterm – weekly workouts, monthly objectives, annual projects. He remarks that for young players, he is also a kind of timing device. “I give them time to develop,” he explains. “In a mature player,” says the coach, “in general you could say after a month or two whether and how he should fit into the team. For a young talent, you need at least a season to be able to make a proper assessment.”

But he takes this time, because he enjoys working with young players and helping them achieve their potential.

The temptation of quick money Sforza knows that in today's football business, youth development is a highly ambivalent affair. Barely has the talent crystalised in one of his young players when the recruitment efforts begin to lure him away to a wealthy

Talented young players can hardly be stopped any more when a bid comes from abroad – even if the players are only 16, 17 or 18 years old. “The temptation to earn some quick money is too great,” Sforza says, without any illusions. “Many people believe that if they have had three, four good games in Switzerland, they are ready for the big breakthrough abroad. But this is pure fantasy. At that age, they lack the mental strength. And only to train at a big club and then at the weekend never play –nobody needs to go abroad for that.” Sforza tells this to his charges time and again… and time and again, the sermon is in vain.

“When an offer comes, they quickly delete my concerns from their hard disk.”

But that is the reality, and a coach has to live with it.

When that coach’s name is Sforza, however, he tries to meet those challenges realistically. Which means he will simply enjoy working with the “new faces” that emerge to fill in the gaps. And there are certainly some newcomers that are presently making him quite happy at the GC training camp. One of them, for example, is 16-year-old Adili Endogan. This young man is already demonstrating that he knows things you cannot teach – you either have them or you don’t. “Adili is like a diamond in the rough,” said Sforza. “Everything is there. He just needs more polish.” And that is what he is getting now, from the trainer and his coaching team at the GC camp, out in rural Niederhasli.

Maybe that is why the Zurich club has set up its training facilities so far away in the countryside – so the talent scouts from the big European clubs don’t spot the blueand-white diamonds quite so quickly.

Photo: Keystone

Ciriaco Sforza (40) has been head coach at the Grasshopper Club Zurich since 2009. He previously coached FC Lucerne for three seasons. As a player, he took part in 79 games for the Swiss national team. In Switzerland, he played for GC and the FC Aarau before spending a total of 13 years playing for top German and Italian clubs (Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and 1. FC Kaiserslautern). With his various teams, Sforza has been Swiss champion, cup winner, German champion twice, Uefa Cup winner, Champions League winner and World Cup participant. What more could you want?

foreign club. “On one hand, I'm happy because it proves that we really are having some success developing young talent,” says Sforza. “But on the other hand, every departure hurts, because when even a young talent leaves, he leaves behind a gap in the team to be filled.”

Theme

By Heike Isselhorst

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Theme: Forgetting Time

Where only the present counts In the Western world, the Buddhist way of life is often equated with a slowing of the pace of life itself. Meditation, recitations and ceremonies – many aspects seem far removed from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

At the core of Buddhism, it is all about mindfulness, i.e. about being entirely present in the here and now. Time is not important. Even if a truly mindful way of life cannot be learnt from one day to the next.

On the train trip from Zurich to Bern, if you look out the window on the left side of the train shortly after leaving the station in Aarau, you will see a building that, by Swiss standards, is not at all unusual. The Srinagarindravararam Monastery in the town of Gretzenbach in the Canton of Solothurn is a spiritual focal point for many of the ca.

10,000 Thais resident in Switzerland. Built in the classical style, the monastery is now home for six monks and several novices.

The Buddhist doctrine The monastery adheres to the teaching tradition of Theravada Buddhism, the oldest existing school of Buddhism.

The goal of every follower of Theravada is to reach the state of nirvana, in which all the factors that bind one to an earthly existence are overcome and extinguished. Only then can a Buddhist leave the eternal cycle of reincarnations. To achieve this inner state of enlightenment, the basic insight is required that everything in life is full of suffering. All desires, expectations, hopes and plans – everything that is dear to us – is impermanent and will one day be lost to us. Nothing is eternal and this fact, at some point or other, will cause us to suffer.

As Phrakrupalad Kongkiat, the deputy abbot of the monastery in Gretzenbach, explains, “For their entire lives, people are driven by desires. They want to earn money and pile up their riches. Nirvana does not recognise such desires any more. Nirvana is the extinguishing of every wish, every irritation. Our desires are neutralized. When everything unpleasant and difficult is extinguished inside us, then nirvana is reached.” In order to rid ourselves permanently of these human desires, we must concentrate fully on the here and now, on our actions in the present.

Only the present counts In Buddhist doctrine, the past and the future play hardly any role on the path to enlightenment. So what is their relationship with the present? According to Phrakrupalad Kongkiat, “The past provides us with a lesson for our

actions in the present, in order ultimately to improve the future. However, everything that happens, takes place, always and only, in the here and now. We remember the past in the present, and only in the present do we imagine an idea of the future. You cannot touch the future yet; it is not yet real, but exists only in our minds. Only the present is crucial.”

What is it that makes this focus on the here and now so fundamental for Buddhists? The answer is as surprising as it is simple: The past and future are mainly responsible for human suffering. The monk explains: “Many people deal with problems that are already far in the past. Much has already been behind us for a long time, and can no longer be changed. And yet it preoccupies people.”

For people who are not inclined to brood about the past, then it is the future that causes problems. Phrakrupalad Kongkiat explains, “When you think about the future, your thoughts turn often to goals, plans or wishes that you want to achieve in your life. In a manner of speaking, you are therefore dealing with future problems and already suffering for them now, in the present.” For this reason, a faithful Buddhist conducts his life without indulging in any future plans. This is not an easy task. A key to success lies in mindfulness.

Turning the gaze inward Mindfulness means to be entirely in the present, in the here and now, and at every moment to be aware of one’s feelings, thoughts, and actions. According to Buddhist doctrine, mindfulness should become a mental attitude

Since its official opening in June 1996, the Wat Srinagarindravararam in the Swiss town of Gretzenbach has served as the spiritual and cultural center for many thousands of Buddhists and Thai people in Switzerland and the surrounding countries. In particular, the wall and ceiling murals in the Ubosoth, painted by renowned artists from Thailand, attract a continuous flow of visitors. With its Sunday school, the temple is taking an important step toward the religious education and upbringing of the Buddhist community in Switzerland. In addition to religion, the monks also teach courses in Thai culture and language, with the support of lay assistants. The temple also gives instruction in the Vipassana meditation technique. The Wat is open to religious visitors daily. For tourists, it is accessible from 1:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. www.wat-srinagarin.com

that characterises and penetrates one’s entire life. An important way to practise mindfulness is through meditation. The popular Western notion of meditation – sitting with eyes closed – is too limited. The deputy abbot of the Buddhist monastery in Gretzenbach is familiar with this shorthand notion. “Meditation is much more than what the West understands by it. It is about being aware of the present in a way that is completely free of values or intentions, without clinging to thoughts, sensations or feelings.” No matter which of the approximately 40 different forms of meditation one may practise, none of them has a clear objective. “If meditation had a goal, it would not work, because the pressure to perform would be absolutely counterproductive. The more we focus on a goal, the longer it takes to reach that goal.”

For Phrakrupalad Kongkiat, Deputy Abbot of the monastery in Gretzenbach, mindfulness means being fully aware of the present in every moment of one’s life. Past and future do not matter.

Learning from the monks More and more people in Switzerland take pleasure in Buddhist teachings and the practice of meditation. They are looking for compensation from the hectic pace of day-today life. For them, the Monastery offers a number of relevant courses. The monks know the causes for this search for inner peace: “The daily life of people in Switzerland and in other Western cultures is full of anxiety and stress. All day long, people are directed outward in all their actions.

Meditation gives them a chance to withdraw; it calms the mind. In the final analysis, everything that allows us to be more at peace is meditation.” Many people find it difficult to disengage from the day-to-day, forget all their worries and desires, and give themselves over to inner contemplation. In at least one respect, the monks at the Srinagarindravararam Monastery have it easier: In their day-to-day life, inward contemplation through meditation and recitation of religious texts is an integral part of the daily routine.

And for everything else in the life of the monastery, there are the 227 monastic rules to comply with.

Curves ahead: Navigating the road through the investment landscape in the next few months will require a sense of proportion and a lot of intuition.

Macro

By Dr. Thomas Steinemann, Chief Strategist of the Vontobel Group

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Macro: 2010 in Review and Outlook

How does the investment landscape look in the years to come?

An eventful year is drawing to a close. In May, the already simmering Euro crisis escalated thanks to the near-bankruptcy of Greece, leading to an accelerated appreciation of the Swiss franc. In the second half, the economic calm set in that we had been expecting at the beginning of the year, bringing interest rates on bonds to historic lows. The economic weakness and persistently high unemployment in the United States led to announcements by the Federal Reserve that it would once again fire up the printing presses and purchase securities, which led to a significant weakening of the dollar and a rise in gold prices. In this environment, characterised by historically low interest rates, by increasing government indebtedness and an increasing shift in power from west to east, viable investment strategies for the coming years are called for. We present our approach here.

When it became clear in May 2010 that Greece would not be able to meet its immediate financial obligations, the unthinkable – namely, the insolvency of a member state of the Euro area – became a reality. Unprepared, the competent

Whether the associated social dynamite goes off after the guarantee packages expire still remains to be seen.

The markets have mercilessly exposed the weaknesses of the political project “Euro” and sent the currency into a tailspin. Already in April, we had sold bonds from our clients’ portfolios in order to reduce the proportion held in Euros.

However, instead of pinning responsibility for the Euro crisis on “speculators”, it should be recognized that the Euro is currently bogged down, and it will now take bold measures to get the currency back on track. However, the European Union has revealed itself to be surprisingly lacking in vision.

The proposals of the European Commission for preventing such crises early in the future are insufficient. It is not enough that the Maastricht criteria should be maintained, but adapted to reality. For example, in the case of government debt, the criteria must not only consider the explicit debt, but also the implicit debt, i.e. the total amount of the country’s social payment obligations. In addition, a fiscal union of member states is crucial. This would be comparable to Switzerland or the United States, where the member states, while enjoying some fiscal independence, are subordinate to a central fiscal authority. These steps should be undertaken as quickly as possible, otherwise the Euro will remain susceptible to declines.

“We should stop blaming the speculators for the Euro crisis.” authorities in Europe were caught by surprise by the events.

Accordingly, it took a relatively long time to put together first the 110 billion Euro protective shield for Greece, set up to last for three years, and then the 750 billion Euro package tied to it for the other EU countries. The delay was unfavourable insofar as the Greek interest rates rose rapidly in the meantime, bond holders subsequently recorded losses that could have been avoided, and the state had to refinance on an expensive basis. In the meantime, Greece has made good progress in reducing its budget deficit. Interest rates have fallen significantly. Nevertheless, the Euro crisis is far from over, and it will be necessary to maintain huge consolidation efforts in Greece for many years to come.

Money is not flowing into the economy As we expected at the beginning of the year, the economy cooled down in the third quarter, and unemployment remained high. The reason for this is that the fiscal stimulus packages, which were adopted in 2009 by most governments, are slowly phasing out, while private households are still paying off their debts and thus consuming less. While the Europeans want to cut their budget deficits already now, and thus increase savings, the Americans have a different attitude toward this problematic. Even in the land of unlimited possibilities, it is becoming politically more difficult to shake loose new money to stimulate economic activity, but nevertheless the Fed wants to start a controversial second round of so-called quantitative easing (QE), i.e. the repurchase of securities by means of printing money. While the first round of QE was right and necessary at the height

of the financial crisis, a second round of QE is unnecessary from an economic point of view – indeed even harmful.

This is because interest rates are already at a low point, and the newly created money is not flowing into the economy.

This is demonstrated by the sustained high cash reserves that banks are maintaining with the Federal Reserve (monetary base as defined by M0). Now, if more money is “printed”, the money supply increases even more and makes an “exit strategy”, i.e. stepping back from an expansionary monetary policy, more difficult. The short-term effect on the financial markets may be that gold continues to rise, bond yields fall further and the US dollar continues its weakening tendency. Perhaps, though, the US dollar is the key to understanding the Federal Reserve.

Will it come to a global currency war?

For a long time, the USA has attempted to dissuade China from a significant appreciation of the Chinese yuan, overtures which the Chinese have been rejecting for just as long.

This situation demonstrates that a fixed exchange rate can be as much a subject of dispute as flexible exchange rates

proportion of bonds from developed countries. When it comes to equities, the increasingly clear rise of the emerging markets finally needs to be taken into account – the market capitalization of emerging markets already amounts to over 10% of the world stock markets. Therefore an appropriate weighting is called for in the equities.

Outlook 2011: Deleveraging is the key word The economic cooling that has been taking place in the second half of 2010 is likely to continue into 2011. There no longer seems to exist the will on the part of most countries to undertake renewed fiscal programmes that would have a negative impact on government budgets.

As concerns monetary policy, the Americans appear ready to extend the existing zero-interest policy even further by quantitative easing. Thus the economy seems largely left to its own devices. Private households have made progress in reducing their debt – also called “deleveraging” – although the process has not yet run its course and therefore, not much can be expected from households next year. Giving us hope are the emerging markets and thus the export side, provided that the currency conflict does not throw a spanner in the works and spoil investment opportunities. We do not expect a relapse into recession, but clear global economic growth within the scope of the possibilities. For this reason, we do not assume there will be any rapid tightening of monetary policy – we expect the first steps, if any, to come in the second half of 2011 at the earliest – meaning that interest rates will remain relatively low for the present, or increase only slightly. For the stock markets, what is crucial is when they can count on the end of the financial crisis and therefore an end to the reduction of debt levels. About six to nine months in advance would be the turning point to a stable, sustainable uptrend. 2011 will therefore be another year of change and transition.

“We do not expect a relapse into recession, but we do expect global economic growth to fall clearly beneath its possible range.” can. When the Swiss franc appreciated this summer as a result of the Euro crisis, the Swiss National Bank also turned to the printing presses as a solution, printing Swiss francs and using them to purchase Euros. This autumn, Japan followed suit with interventions against the yen, as did Brazil against its currency, the real. The recently announced second round of QE may be the American response to the looming currency devaluation race – a competition in which there will be only losers. For unlike the currency agreement of 1985, the Plaza Accord, and the Louvre Accord in 1987, when everyone worked together to establish a currency strategy, now it is everyone against everyone else. But if everybody tries to devalue at the same time, everything remains the same as far as exchange rates are concerned, but there is a price to be paid: interest rates that are too low and an unnecessarily inflated money supply.

Impact on the investment landscape in the years ahead The conditions outlined above will have a lasting impact on financial markets and therefore on the appropriate measures to be taken in our portfolios. Following a unique, twentyyear rally, the interest rates on bonds have reached their low point. Investors have profited greatly from this. Although we are of the opinion that interest rates will continue to remain at low levels for some time, it would seem to be the right time now to make arrangements for what comes next.

Two measures are likely to be effective. First, a reduction in the proportion of the portfolios invested in bonds, in favour of precious metals and commodities. Second, a broader diversification of the bond portion by investing in bonds from emerging countries, where interest rates are higher despite low national debt levels, and correspondingly reducing the

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Inflation or deflation: A guide for investors The latest Vontobel study in the series “Investors’ Insight” looks at the question of whether the current expansionary monetary policies of the major central banks will bring about high inflation levels or not, and what

“It is interesting that in inflationary times, equities provide the highest real rate of return, followed by commodities and real estate.” will be the impact on the major asset classes. The strategy team led by Dr. Thomas Steinemann argues that the money supply is not the crucial determinant of inflation, because the capital created by the central banks does not flow into the economy but rather is held by the banks at the central bank, earning interest at a preferential interest rate. The reason for this is that the demand for capital by the private sector, in the form of loans, is still low, and the banks therefore deposit this unde-

manded money with the central banks. A subsequent risk of inflation exists only when private households are able to reduce their elevated debts back to reasonable levels and begin to borrow from the banks again. At that point, the central banks will need to implement a bold exit strategy and siphon off the liquidity created.

Therefore, a risk of inflation is linked to future monetary policy errors. The so-called “Taylor rule” indicates that the current expansionary monetary policy is quite reasonable given the difficult economic environment.

If, nevertheless, an elevated level of inflation – defined as above 5% – should emerge due to such errors in monetary policy, then the question arises: which asset classes will deliver a positive real return in such conditions, and which will not? It is interesting to note that in inflationary times, equities provide the highest real rate of return, followed by commodities and real estate.

One should avoid bonds and cash. In inflationary times, “real values” – which definitely include equities – offer the best protection against inflation. In those years when inflation reaches its highest level, shares should be avoided, however, and only commodities and real estate still hold their value. It can be seen that a passive investment strategy is not able to take advantage of these findings, whereas an active fund management approach, on the other hand, can.

You can order the detailed study by sending us the order form you’ll find at the end of the publication.

Dr. Thomas Steinemann, Chief Strategist of the Vontobel Group

Opportunities

It may take several more years before the number of electric cars on the street overtakes that of their conventional counterparts. Behind the scenes, however, numerous companies with advanced technologies are positioning themselves to actively accompany the emerging paradigm shift in the transportation sector. Which companies will emerge victorious from this cutthroat competition, and which technological innovations will win out in the market, are two questions which, as a rule, are not easy for investors to evaluate. High time, therefore, for a situation analysis.

By Pascal Dudley, Portfolio Manager, International Equities, Vontobel Asset Management

Opportunities: Identify trends early

E-Mobility moves into the fast lane The ongoing quest for the replacement for the internal combustion engine is leading to profound changes within the automotive industry. While engine technology has been the core competence for automotive manufacturers up till now, in the future this will shift to the battery. The newly established lithium-ion battery market is set to grow from its current size of USD 8 billion to USD 50 to 70 billion in the year 2020, and by 2030 to over 100 billion US Dollars. Advanced companies offer fantastic growth prospects in this sector. Certain Asian suppliers are in the best position, as they have already gained experience in battery design for the electronics industry. They include, for example, the leading battery manufacturers Sanyo and Panasonic, which have already produced car batteries for the Toyota Prius. Also promising is a joint venture between Samsung and Bosch, and the cooperation between the French supplier Saft and Johnson Controls.

Smaller and lighter is the motto In addition to powerful batteries, car makers are also feverishly seeking new ways to increase energy efficiency.

The amount of energy that is lost is still significant. Only 12 percent of the energy generated is used for driving. In the engine, a whopping 60 percent is lost through friction, noise and heat. Some 17 percent will be lost if the car

is stationary, for example idling at a traffic light. During braking, another 6 percent of the energy is lost. BorgWarner has now developed some new approaches to solving this challenge. The American company has found a way to enhance the efficiency of engines with so-called turbochargers. To oversimplify it a bit, these work by pushing air into the engine. More air in the cylinders also means more fuel and thus more power during combustion. This makes it possible to build smaller and lighter engines with the same performance. As a leading manufacturer of turbochargers, BorgWarner has benefited greatly from the industry’s downsizing trend, posting higher growth rates.

Ultra-capacitors: Sales expected to increase by a factor of ten within three years Other approaches to saving energy are provided by startstop technology, i.e. the recovery of energy lost during braking. Although both technologies place high demands on the car battery, thanks to the frequent charging and discharging, there is a remedy to the situation in so-called ultra-capacitors, which store the energy and can easily withstand millions of charge/discharge cycles. The California-based company Maxwell Technologies has extensive experience in this area and was recently selected by automotive subcontractor Continental as a supplier.

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Photo: Keystone

The powerful Tesla Roadster represents advanced electric motor technology, meeting the highest standards in terms of design and the environment.

Electric motors are increasingly replacing hydraulic systems In the area of auto components, a new trend is also evident.

Steering, brakes and air conditioning are still partly controlled by inefficient hydraulic systems. This requires that fluids be pumped mechanically through the vehicle, a process resulting in the loss of a great deal of energy. If the hydraulic systems are replaced by small electric motors, the efficiency could be increased in the steering wheel alone by 3 to 5 percent. The costs are minimal, amounting to an estimated 130 Swiss francs. Given these facts, it is astounding that the penetration rate is only 30 percent. The same goes for brakes and air conditioning. A leading manufacturer of electric motors is the Japanese supplier Nidec, a company which has demonstrated impressive growth. Earlier than expected, it has already won development contracts for electric motors for hybrid and electric vehicles. What is more, the numerous application areas of such electric motors also promise additional potential in the home.

Tremendous growth opportunities through environmental protection In order to increase efficiency in the transportation sector, innovative companies are needed. The profound changes currently at play in the auto industry are creating growth prospects that are not only attractive but rarely seen before. But only those companies will emerge as winners whose technology is able to prevail. This is why it is important to monitor the market carefully and identify the most promising companies. Investors who do not have the necessary expertise for this purpose may benefit from the tremendous growth opportunities that are becoming apparent by means of funds with a focus on clean and efficient solutions enabling industrialization and urbanization to proceed in a more environmentally friendly manner.

Beginnings Electric vehicles are by no means a recent invention.

They are not a product brought into existence thanks only to the last few years’ intensive public discussion of climate change and the perception of our oil-based mobility. Rather, there were already initial attempts to create electric vehicles long before the sparkignited combustion engine came on the scene. At the time, their raison d’être was not the concern for the environment that now dominates the discussion, but the greater efficiency of the electric motor compared to the internal combustion engine. Whereas electric motors close in on 100% efficiency, diesel engines manage just 40% and petrol engines only 30% efficiency.

Basic principles of the electric motor While the electric motor exists in a variety of designs, the basic principle is always the same. The basic principle of the electromagnetic transducer is that it converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.

The electric motor is thus the opposite of a generator, which produces electricity from mechanical energy.

Here, the force exerted by a magnetic field on the current-carrying conductor of a coil (Lorentz force) is converted into motion. The torque thus generated can be used, for example, to produce the movement of a vehicle. A DC motor is operated with direct current and is composed of a stationary, usually exterior part called the stator, and the rotor or armature. The stator serves here as a magnet, helping create the magnetic field. In a car, there are several DC motors which are not responsible for propulsion (e.g. those operating the windows, wipers, etc.) DC motors take the direct current from the car battery. With each revolution, they reverse the polarity of the direct current, which results in a continuous rotary motion. In modern DC motors, electronics take care of the polarity reversal – the collector is not necessary.

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Photo: Keystone

Maxwell expects that every two to three years, sales of ultra-capacitors will increase tenfold.

The American inventor Thomas A. Edison sitting in an electric car built in 1882, which was still road-worthy at the time of the photo.

Turbochargers push air into the engine. More air in the cylinders means more fuel and thus more power during combustion. This is

Photo: Gettyimages

why it is possible to build lighter engines with equal performance.

Environmental advantages The drivers of e-mobility can be divided into environmental, political, economic, societal, infrastructure and technological factors, with all of these areas interlinked in a network of relationships. Climate change and the conditions pertaining to fossil fuels (limited availability, price) are leading to a change of climate and energy policies and to changes in society. Electric mobility’s technical advantages, such as high efficiency and energy recovery (recuperation), are contributing to its role in helping to meet national and international standards for emission limits. Against this background, the environmental benefits of electric mobility are a key factor driving it forward.

The future It is still an open question which propulsion and mobility concepts will prevail, and also which countries will take the lead as pioneers in the development of alternative mobility. The only certainty is that the groundwork has already been laid. Companies that get involved in a timely manner in the market development with innovations will be able to hammer out a leading position over the long run in a high-potential growth market. That is why today, the scene is not dominated only by companies aiming to solve highly complex issues such as the appropriate charging infrastructure or the development of long-ranging energy storage.

There is also potential in basic research as well, and in the realization of existing concepts and model series.

Making this happen, and assuring e-mobility’s longterm development, is a task and challenge for both government and industry.

The days of the classic petrol pump are numbered. In the future, E-car owners will “fill ‘er up” at electricity filling stations.

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Blue Pages

Vontobel bulletin board Bank Vontobel (Liechtenstein) AG celebrates 10-year anniversary On 1st October 2000, Bank Vontobel (Liechtenstein) AG started up operations in Vaduz. This year, the 14-member team led by Ruth Egeter celebrates their tenth year in business. The official anniversary celebration will take place on 9th June 2011 at the 10th Finanzforum, which is being hosted by Bank Vontobel.

Award for the best product of the year The magazine “Der AKTIONÄR” (“The shareholder”) has bestowed upon Bank Vontobel its first place honor in the category “Best Product of the Year”. The “Low REITs Volatility Index Certificate” which is based on low-fluctuation, large-cap real estate shares, particularly impressed the judges with its performance and low volatility.

Opening ceremony for our office in Bern On 18th August 2010, the new branch office at Spitalgasse 40 in Bern opened in an exclusive setting, where a team of advisors with several years' experience will look after the wealth management needs of our clientele in Bern and the Swiss Mittelland region. Bern joins Zurich, Geneva, Lucerne and Basel, as the bank’s fifth location in Switzerland.

Dr. Hans Vontobel, Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors, described the opening in his speech as a new chapter in the book of Bank Vontobel, which was founded in 1924 in Zurich.

He spoke about the challenges facing the Swiss financial center while at the same time pointing out its strengths, such as banking secrecy, the strong condition of Switzerland’s public finances, and the country’s political stability.

He continues to believe in the Swiss financial center and particularly in the strengths of the bank, which thanks to a prudent business policy and strong family ownership structure has demonstrated its stability even in the present crisis.

Dr. Hans Vontobel

National Future Day 2010 On 11th November, the event formerly known as “Daughters Day” comes around again, for the tenth time. On that day, Bank Vontobel employees can bring their children to the bank to give them an opportunity to see the world of work in a bank and learn more about gender-atypical jobs.

For one day, girls and boys in grades 5 to 7 accompany their father, mother or another close reference person at work.

Current documentary series of the Vontobel Foundation For over half a century, the Middle East has held the world – and itself – in suspense. The current documentary series from the Vontobel Foundation, published under the title “Crisis Region Middle East”, features an essay by Rainer Hermann, Middle East correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, with maps by Christian Kleeb. Costfree at www.vontobel stiftung.ch.

The Bern team: Adrian Zbinden, Renate Aebersold, Catherine Cherpillod, Urs Frutig (Head of Branch), Barbara Gerber, Roland Bart, Angela Frutiger, Roger Jaeggi (from left to right).

The new derinet.ch – Don’t search: find!

The path from idea to investment has just got shorter. The new website of Vontobel Investment Banking – derinet. ch – simplifies the search for the appropriate investment solution. On the one hand, the site provides an overview of current investment themes; on the other, the intuitive search function enables users directly to find the best match in leveraged or investment products. More information at: www.derinet.ch and www.vontobel-zertifikate.de.

Vontobel at the World Expo

Photo: Keystone

In August, Bank Vontobel, together with its subsidiary Vontobel Asia Pacific Ltd., invited selected VIP guests for an exclusive day at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. The VIPs visited several pavilions, afterwards enjoying Swiss wine and cheese specialities in the luxurious Swiss Pavilion, culminating in a caviar tasting. During the many one-onone discussions, the Bank Vontobel team introduced the virtue of traditional Swiss Private Banking to its guests.

Vontobel FundNet: Comprehensive fund information in one click tobel AsAt the beginning of December, Von stment set Management will launch the inve Net Fund fund information platform FundNet. nt stme inve l provides an overview of all Vontobe iled deta to ss funds. The user receives direct acce fund-specific investment data, publications and Information. www.vontobel.com

CEO Herbert J. Scheidt A sign of continuity: Nominated as Chairman of the Board The Board of Directors will propose to the Annual General Meeting on 3rd May 2011 that the current CEO of the Vontobel Group, Herbert J. Scheidt (58), assume the new position as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Herbert J. Scheidt will thus succeed Dr. Urs Widmer, whose term of office is ending in accordance with the by-laws fixing an age limit for the position. The Board will decide on the appointment of a new CEO before spring 2011.

Named to the Board of the Swiss Bankers Association In addition, Herbert J. Scheidt was appointed to the Board of the Swiss Bankers Association at the end of September 2010, putting a representative of Bank Vontobel back in this prestigious body for the first time in ten years.

Current Studies Inflation versus deflation In the latest Investor's Insight entitled “Inflation versus Deflation: A Guide for Investors”, the investment strategists at Vontobel examine the essential drivers and inflation expectations for the next few years.

They also analyse the returns of different asset classes in inflationary and deflationary times and offer valuable ideas for investors.

Investor Behaviour in the Swiss Market for Structured Products For the second time, Bank Vontobel has commissioned the Institute for Swiss Banking at the University of Zurich to analyze the Swiss market for structured products. The representative study provides information on the one hand about the state of knowledge, investment behaviour and the decision criteria of investors, and on the other shows how they gather information and conduct their transactions.

Order both studies with the reply card at the end of this issue.

Care & Share

By Renata Fäh

Care & Share: For a generation-friendly future

“I was the youngest guest at the retirement home” René Künzli is Chairman of the Board of the foundation “terzStiftung”, which has set itself the goal of giving seniors the appreciation they deserve. Not only because their stock of experience is a valuable asset to society, but also because being meaningfully occupied after retirement is in everyone’s interest.

Mr. Künzli, why are you so involved in helping people in the third stage of their lives?

My parents successfully ran a retirement home. For that reason I grew up with elderly people – you might say, it was an intergenerational extended family. I was the youngest guest at the retirement home. Later, I continued in the footsteps of my parents and built retirement residences throughout Switzerland, together with my wife Silvia. Two years ago, we established the foundation “terzStiftung” to take up issues that are often discussed in business and politics only in passing.

As President of the foundation “terzStiftung”, René Künzli is especially concerned by issues of independence and security in the third stage of life. René Künzli is married, has three children and four grandchildren.

What are the issues you deal with primarily?

Today, people make it to old age very well – or so it seems at first glance. However, if you take a closer look, many elderly people are lonely and isolated. Our world is spinning ever faster; more and more is happening secondby-second. Seniors, however, live and act at more of an hour-by-hour pace. What we do is try to make sure that there is still room in today's society for this approach to life. The issues we address include, for example, independence, working in old age, age discrimination and the ethics of dying. We also address practical issues such as senior-friendly products and services.

What is it that drives you?

My commitment was always to what I'm doing today: bringing about a generation-friendly society. In doing this, I was always aware that I cannot change everything all by myself. But that is no reason for me to stop. We need to start with the small things, if we want to move something forward. Fifty years ago, ten young people financed an elderly person; in twenty years, this ratio may be just 2:1.

It is our duty now to create ways for the elderly to remain adequately integrated in the process of work and in society even after retirement. The most important thing for me is that everyone feels: “It depends on me.”

terzStiftung The non-profit foundation “terzStiftung” is committed to independence and security in retirement. It represents and advocates the interests of the aged in politics and business.

It tests, activates, integrates and promotes sustainable generational projects; an example is the “Blib fit” campaign (“Keep fit”) which undertakes action days for physical and mental exercise and diet. The terzStiftung is also a contact organisation for all questions before and after retirement, advising its patrons around the clock on such issues as prevention and health, life and living, finance and law, or mobility and activity.

Contact: rene.kuenzli@terzstiftung.ch www.terzstiftung.ch, www.terzblog.ch

blue 28/29

Column: Dr. phil. Manuel Bachmann

Time we have enough of doing are things for which we can find a shortcut.

Otherwise, we will lose the possibility of doing the other things, too. Formulating it this way, it becomes clear how much our sense of time really is focused on loss.

Dr. phil. Manuel Bachmann is a Lecturer and the Head of Studies of the Executive Master’s Programme “Philosophy and Management” at the University of Lucerne, as well as an Instructor at the University of St. Gall. He publishes a monthly e-magazine for decision-makers called “absolutum”.

Nobody wants to waste time – in order to have more of it.

What is odd here is that people who save time, are usually people who are especially stressed. Time savers cultivate a relationship with time that is focused on loss. They say, We don’t have much time, so we have no time to lose. They are fixated on the idea that time is passing and is therefore always in short supply. Behind this lurks a consumptive logic regarding time, i.e. that time diminishes; it is lost – as if it were something stored in a leaky container. As a conse-

Only those people can be successful who take their time – till the moment has arrived. quence, such people see in every deadline the ominous threat of time dwindling away, and the inevitable approach of zero hour, that moment when all the time has been irrevocably used up – a deadline that is truly dead. Time, for them, becomes like its vivid representation in art and mythology: Chronos, the horrific god who devours his own children.

This negative sense of time is being intensified even more by globalization. iPhones, CNN and multitasking allow us to take part in global events, in real time. This need springs from a deep-seated fear of missing out. Nothing is allowed to take too much time, because there are still so many other things to do. To put it another way, the only things worth

Philosophy presents us with a very different sense of time, a positive one. According to Plato, time is the advancing discharge of a form of energy. It is not a scarce commodity, but, as an energy which brings forth everything, it has its origins in the infinite and is inexhaustible. It is, so to speak, the impulse of the unattempted. We need this energy in order to become real, to actualize ourselves. In order for our ideas, goals, plans and strategies to succeed, we assign them deadlines. But looked at in Platonic terms, the deadline is not definitive but the line of life energy along which ideas, goals, plans and strategies become real. In everyday language, Plato’s sense of time is understood when we say, things are developing.

For this reason, there is no such thing as “dead time“.

Time can neither expire unused nor be irretrievably lost.

You cannot abbreviate anything that takes your time.

This requires you to judge delays and deviations from your plan as neutral. He who comes late, would not have come earlier at all. Time makes something real by virtue of the fact that it takes time. It takes time: on that it depends. And so for everything that should become real, there is the right moment. Goethe called it the “happy moment”. It is implacable, and only happy for those who respect it. Everyone else will suffer, more or less, from problems, extra costs and failures. What is more, people who understand that it all depends on the happy moment will not be continuously proactive. They will take their time – until the moment has come. It is precisely the most successful people who are not continuously proactive, but who act at the crucial moment.

If you are still feeling pressed for time, then there is one thing you should try: to focus on the present. In this respect, Schopenhauer reformulated Plato in more modern terms when he wrote, “No one has lived in the past, and no one will ever live in the future; rather, the present is the form for all living things, but it is also their secure possession, which can never be wrested from them.” We can also understand this to mean, we don’t have time, but rather we are time. And because we are time, we have time enough.

Culture and cuisine blue 30/31

Culture and cuisine: November 2010 – January 2011

Inside Zurich Concert András Schiff Johann Sebastian Bach, Goldberg Variations BWV 988 Zurich Tonhalle, Sunday, 5 December 2010, 11:15 a.m.

Tickets: Tel. +41 (0)44 206 34 34, www.tonhalle.ch To hear Schiff play Bach is one of the most fascinating things one can experience in a concert hall today.

His whole life long, the artist has grappled with the Goldberg Variations, always finding new and intriguing interpretations.

Restaurant

Events

Restaurant Da Angela Hohlstrasse 449, 8048 Zurich, Tel. +41 (0)44 492 29 31, www.daangela.ch The perfect seduction, Italian style. In Da Angela, Marisa Odermatt-Rota brings together all her qualities as a hostess while Antonio Sturiale, with his 14 points from GaultMillau, assures the culinary highlights. Take the phrase “Eating like at Nonna’s” literally, since, in addition to the classics, many recipes on offer here originated from Bianca Rota, Maria's mother.

Expovina – Zurich Wine Fair Bürkliplatz Zurich, Thursday, 4 November to Thursday, 18 November 2010, Tel. +41 (0)44 752 33 66, www.expovina.ch Expovina is the largest public wine tasting fair in Switzerland. On board twelve ships moored at the Bürkliplatz quays, visitors have the opportunity to sample around 4,000 wines from 22 countries on 5 continents. In addition, six speciality restaurants offer guests a range of culinary pleasures as well.

Art Homage to Pablo Picasso's First Retrospective Kunsthaus Zurich, 15 October 2010 to 30 January 2011 Tel. +41 (0)44 253 84 84, www.kunsthaus.ch The Kunsthaus Zurich dedicates itself to Pablo Picasso’s first-ever museum exhibition, which he curated himself in 1932, making his own selection of works to be shown. In the large exhibition hall, more than 70 originals have been brought together from the most famous international collections. A unique event only to be experienced in Zurich.

Zurich New Year’s Eve Run Zurich's inner city, Sunday, 12 December 2010 www.silvesterlauf.ch The traditional New Year’s Eve run through a Zurich that is decked out for Christmas and – for once – carfree. Over 16,000 participants knock back distances from 1.4 to 8.6 km.

NZZ Podium NZZ Foyer, Falkenstrasse 11, 8008 Zurich Thursday, 11 November 2010, 6:30 p.m.

Tickets available two weeks before the Podium.

Tel. +41 (0)44 258 17 80, www.nzzpodium.ch Germany: A Status Report – A bridge between normality and continuous agitation. With Eric Gujer, foreign correspondent of the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”.

Partners: Bank Vontobel, Swiss Re. Moderated by Dr. Martin Meyer.

Locations

Masthead

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Contact blue@vontobel.com www.vontobel.com/blue Printing Climate-neutral printing by Schellenberg Druck AG. Published four times per year in German and English. Reproduction, in part or in whole, is strictly prohibited without written permission from Bank Vontobel AG. Photographers and Illustration Cover and pages 18/21/28: Sandro Diener; pages 3/26: Roth und Schmid; pages 5/8: Dieter Müller; page 11: Sandro Michahelles; pages 13/17: Maurice Haas, 13photo; page 27: Jonas Kuhn Fotografie, Zurich; illustration on page 29: Jürgen Willbarth; page 30: Erwin Züger/Pablo Picasso, Wasserkrug und Früchte © 2010 ProLitteris, Zurich.

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