Hilti AG

Hilti are a family owned company founded by Prof. Martin Hilti, a local of Schaan in Liechtenstein. He built a global company from very humble beginnings in a workshop in the centre of the village.

Now Hilti operates in most countries, producing professional construction equipment, including direct fastening guns, screw fasteners, drills, diamond cutting equipment, chemical and mechanical fasteners to name but a few.

They are major employers in the region, and have plants in Mauren and Nendeln within Liechtenstein, alongside their head office just outside Schaan.

"If you think Hilti, you'll see red. Because that's the colour of the synthetic cases for tradesmen, also of the robust Hilti tools. If there are any faces to be seen in their publications, it's usually their customers - pictured big - with a Hilti fastening tool, setting a nail into a concrete wall in some inhospitable place.

Professionals on the job stand in the foreground to such an extent that there's no chance of a personality cult evolving. In this respect, Liechtenstein's largest industrial company shows the same kind of modesty as many Swiss firms.

Hilti managers can't just hole up in their offices in twee Liechtenstein. Even their executives have to make frequent visits to windy job sites and sit in the huts there - because the close relationship with construction people is the company's 'capital'."

From an article by Konrad Mrusek which appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 6 October 2001.