Interview with Urs Bühler
We had the opportunity to interview Urs Bühler for Mosaic Online. It was a great honor for us to meet our former CEO, Chairman of the Board, and owner of Bühler, who has known the company for almost 80 years – since his childhood – and successfully handed it over to the 5th generation of his family in 2014.
Bianca Richle, June 1, 2021
The rumors are true; Urs Bühler really is as modest and down-to-earth as you’ve heard. What’s even more striking is his delightfully dry sense of humor that makes you wonder: “Did Urs Bühler really just say that? Was that a joke?” His sayings are witty; and he never runs out of them.
On May 19, 2021, Jekaterina and I had the pleasure of visiting Urs Bühler at Health Balance, an animal health competence center he established in 2004. He dedicated more than two hours to show us around and give us insights into his daily life. Urs Bühler patiently answered all our questions, and we were even allowed to take a selfie with him.
Mr. Bühler, you handed over the Bühler company to your three daughters Jeannine, Maya, and Karin in 2014. To what extent do you still follow what is happening at Bühler?
I only roughly follow the business figures, if possible, without adding my two cents. I am also interested in the current and potential future innovations within the framework of the Urs Bühler Innovation Fund (UBIF).
What exactly do you do in the UBIF?
Together with an international group of experts from the business world, we track current and future trends so as not to miss any important technological developments.
The Bühler company was founded in 1860 by Adolf Bühler and has now been owned by the Bühler family for five generations. You yourself led the company for 15 years as CEO and for 20 years as Chairman of the Board of Directors. What does it take for a company to be successful?
It’s quite simple: Good people and a good product. And once things are going well, finding the good people also becomes easier and easier.
Do you still have fond memories of your time at Bühler?
I have been with Bühler for a very long time – soon 80 years when including my childhood. Once, an employee wanted to bet me that he had been with Bühler longer than I had, but he lost the bet because I count the time of my childhood and youth. So, there are quite a few things that I have experienced. But what I remember particularly fondly is when, as a child, I could go with my father to the development tower in the test laboratory. There, I worked on experiments with my father. During one of my father’s experiments, something went wrong. He wanted to drill a hole in a window – he thought it was Plexiglas – and the drill broke. My interest was definitely sparked from that point.
When people talk about you, they are impressed by your modesty. Where does this come from? And how did you maintain it?
I always ask myself the question: What is necessary? Is it just a wish or is it really necessary?
What people also mean by modesty is your personality. It seems you don’t take yourself too seriously. And you meet every person at eye level.
When I look at the wisdom of nature, we humans are small and insignificant with our abilities. I am very aware of that all the time.
I now only roughly follow the business figures, if possible, without adding my two cents.
Urs Bühler,
Former CEO, Chairman and owner of Bühler Group
After you handed over operational management of the Bühler Group, which at that time already had 7,000 employees, to Calvin Grieder in 2001, you founded Health Balance, a competence center for animal health, in 2004. What tipped the scales back then for you to embark once again on a completely new project in a completely different field at the age of 61?
The “culprit” was my horse Sunny. I had qualified for the Swiss Military Championships with Sunny. About three weeks before the 1992 championships, he suddenly started to limp, and I had to spend the championships in the spectator stands. I sought two opinions from veterinarians. Both told me I had to put Sunny down. During the championships, I met an animal kinesiologist who claimed she could help me. Since I had nothing to lose, I agreed. And after a change of nutrition, Sunny was doing great again. Instead of putting him down at the age of 14, he lived to be 27.
That is impressive.
After about five years, the animal kinesiologist was no longer able to continue working for me. However, I had various horses and other animals and people in my environment who were in urgent need of her work. So, I decided to take the course to become an animal kinesiologist myself.
And how was the course?
Terrible. It already started with an obstacle. The teacher cancelled the course due to a lack of participants. I was then able to persuade her to hold the course anyway on the condition that I gather 10 course participants. So, I more or less forced various people I knew to participate in the course. After two days, I actually wanted to stop because nothing worked for me. As a technocrat, I was a difficult person to educate.
With most of the others I had dragged along, however, it went wonderfully, and they really had fun. On the third day, I only went to say goodbye and because I was, so to speak, responsible for the course taking place. And there, suddenly, it worked for me, too.
How did this breakthrough feel?
Exciting. An opening of new worlds. In the beginning I had such a joy that I almost overdid it a little with the energetic testing.
Can you explain what exactly is done in kinesiology?
We work with a muscle test. Every piece of information is energy and information. The muscle reacts to the information by staying strong or becoming weak. So, with skillful questions, we can elicit the causes and develop a plan to bring the system back into balance.
At Bühler, you were known for placing a lot of emphasis on innovation and driving it forward. Has your view of science changed since you started working in a field that is difficult to explain scientifically?
On the contrary. What I do is pure physics – vibrational theory Volume 1. Either you’re interested in physics or you're not. I am interested in it.
What started with one course has grown. Today you own Health Balance, a center of excellence for animal health. The facility is impressively large and offers a wide range of medical services for small animals and horses. That is a unique set-up, right?
Health Balance includes a classical small animal practice with an extensive range of conventional medicine for dogs, cats, mice, and much more. In addition to conventional medicine, we also offer our four-legged patients complementary medical services such as physiotherapy, osteopathy, and aqua training for dogs.
When I consider the wisdom of nature, we humans are small and insignificant with our abilities.
Urs Bühler,
Former CEO, Chairman and owner of Bühler Group
And for the horses?
In our center there are also spacious stables with 20 horse boxes. For example, a horse can recover for rehabilitation after an operation or injury to the musculoskeletal system.
How does such rehabilitation work?
A team of trained therapists takes care of the well-being of the animals. Depending on the needs, different therapies are used – the aqua trainer, the dry treadmill, or the horse walker – they support the animal in the targeted muscle development or in the rebuilding of motor skills.
The architecture also seems very special.
Architecturally, we have chosen the room dimensions and shapes in such a way that the vibrations that are created have an optimal influence on the healing process.
How many patients are you currently treating?
Our barn is full, and the small animal practice is doing just as well.
What does a typical week look like for you?
It goes from the stable visit, to a wide variety of human and animal cases that I take care of, to various sessions – my daily routine always has surprises in store for me.
Does working with animals work the same as with humans? Or where is the difference?
Animals don’t try to fool you. Just like children.
What motivates you to keep working for Health Balance well past your official retirement age?
Nature’s system for maintaining health and recovering life is extremely exciting and fascinates me day after day.
Urs Bühler, born in 1943, led the Bühler Group as CEO for 15 years and as Chairman of the Board for 20 years. Today’s impression that it was always clear to him that he would one day follow in his father’s footsteps is deceptive. As a teenager, he thought about becoming a surgeon. But the affinity and perhaps also the talent for technology was stronger. Nevertheless, it was clear to him for a long time, even when he was already studying mechanical engineering at the ETH in Zurich, that he would not join the company. For him, Bühler at that time meant moving around the world with “machines”. He did not imagine this to be very exciting, let alone innovative.
Continue to be proud of the fact that you can be number one in the market, then you will remain so.
Urs Bühler,
Former CEO, Chairman and owner of Bühler Group
Nevertheless, when he had to do an internship during his studies, he went to Bühler for a few months. “I was surprised at how many interesting problems there were to solve. After that, it didn’t take long until I was hooked,” says Urs Bühler. While in the US, he joined the company full-time and worked at various sites in the US, Braunschweig, and Switzerland in the decades that followed.
In 1986, he became CEO of the Bühler Group, and in 1994 he additionally took over the Chairmanship of the Board of Directors. In 2001, for the first time in the history of Bühler, he handed over operational management to someone outside the family. Calvin Grieder became CEO. In 2014, Urs Bühler stepped down as Board Member and handed over the company to his three daughters Jeannine, Maya and Karin. At that time, he said that “even if we are not perfect, I hope that as a company we can contribute to a slightly better world.” Since then, he has been involved in the Urs Bühler Innovation Fund (UBIF), which was established on the occasion of his departure. In addition, he is still Chairman of the Board of Health Balance AG and Chairman of the Board of UZE AG.
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