IN T E RV I E W Juerg Degenmann with Zenaida Romero, General Manager of the Venezuela office At first, I thought she was North American, but she turned out to be Venezuelan, he said, I went to the country, and we married and had kids. And he hasnt looked back and, although he returns regularly to Switzerland to visit his mother and brothers, he is always happy to return to Latin America. Degenmanns first job in the region was with Swiss-run Canon Business Machines, which he did until 1998, when he was on the sharp end of a badly executed move. At the time, I was working in Bogot for Canon and I moved back to Venezuela. It was quite a big shipment and it was a disaster, he says. Everything arrived broken, and I said never again if I move internationally again I will sell all my stuff and buy new things in the new place. An upset customer Its easy to grow but its very difficult to downsize 38 FF304 Dec_Jan 22 pp36-39 Interview.indd 38 The experience stood him in good stead when, just three months later, he joined Mudanzas Internacionales Global. I had no idea about the industry, he says, but started in the business as an upset customer. Degenmann was brought into the business as sales manager for his languages including English, French, German, a hybrid German/French Swiss dialect and Spanish as well as his contacts in the expat community. He soon discovered that the company was in very bad shape and needed urgent change. We had 150 employees, with a huge payroll and not too many moves, he says. He became General Manager of the company shortly after, and many people left. They were not happy with me as the GM, says Degenmann, but I got the support from one of the shareholders, Edgar Hantusch, who really helped me and taught me about the business. His learning continued and Degenmann says it took two years before he really understood the moving business and started to turn to the company around. This, of course, coincided with more than a decade of upheaval in the country, which, although traumatic, brought a lot of business for movers. I was the right person at the right moment in the right place, he says. He has worked for the company since then, developing a deep connection with the business and its people, some of whom were at the company when Degenmann first took over. For me, Global is my child. I love this company and I grew up with it. And I love my staff. When there is something bad going on in Venezuela, I suffer with them, he says. I feel a lot for this company, and I cannot imagine working for another. He adds that the loyalty goes both ways. Im 100 per cent sure I can count on all our people, he says. Theyre all behind us; and that makes me very happy. Indeed, it is the contact with others at home and internationally that has, over the past two decades, changed Degenmann from the shy Swissborn man who first came to Venezuela into someone with a typically Latin outlook. Im open-minded, he says, I see the world totally differently now. And in this business you make friends all over the world, true friendships. I have at least one friend in every country of the world, and this is priceless for me. This attitude of openness, says Degenmann, has won respect from the businesss competition. He is very used to collaborating in the sector and counts many of his competitors as friends. The worst of times Even at the best of times, Venezuela is a challenging place. Like many people running businesses there, Degenmann has experienced severe challenges, including threats of extortion and kidnapping made towards him and his family, the company and its clients, particularly between 2008 and 2012. There was a lot of crime going on and we have moved families many times where, on Sunday for example, the father was kidnapped, and on Monday we got a call where theyve asked us to move the family out, he says. It was heartbreaking to see families losing a member and falling apart because of crime. And this happened several times. WW W. F I D I FOC U S . OR G 07/12/2021 09:55