Tissot Economic Fund, Le Locle (Switzerland)

At the beginning the 18^th century in the village of Le Locle, in the Jura, the local farmers supplemented their income by turning to watch making. Thanks to their sense of precision, they were able to create the world renowned Swiss watch industry.
For two centuries, it prospered and matured and yet it was heading for a severe crisis. The machanical watch industry experienced significant decline in the early 1970's, with the arrival of the electronic revolution. The increased productivity of electronics led to major unemployment in the watch region. Le Locle, once a prosperous town, lost nearly one third of its population and half of its jobs. Could the former success of the time keeping industry be repeated in new products, using the same regional skills? In conjunction with Hoffmann-La Roche, our response was to create Precimed (now Intermedics) in 1978, the first Swiss company to manufacture cardiac pacemakers.
At the request of the well-known neurosurgeon from Bogota, Professor Salomon Hakim and his son Dr. Carlos Hakim, we responded once again in 1983 by creating Medos, a firm specialized in manufacturing valve systems for the surgical management of hydrocephalus.
This technology transfers matching and conserving regional core skills, led to the creation of the Tissot Economic Foundation.

Change should be seen as a positive opportunity for each individual to build a better future. Ongoing training will certainly help people perceive the positive aspects of change, as long as they receive the necessary support to cope with it.
Today, thanks to the computer and audio-visual aids, teaching has taken off in a new direction, making training a more personalized and decentralized process. It has become interactive, enabling people to become familiar with new work situations. So, change has become less of a threat and therefore more manageable; making one more open to innovation.
The Tissot Foundation is developing educational tools to enable enterprise to attract and retain the best talents.