Seduced by awards to stay
Back from a language study trip to England, I really just wanted to earn a little money and then focus on my studies at the Higher Business School in Lucerne. But the temp agency assigned me to at least two weeks of work at Komax in Dierikon. That was in 1987, and I was determined not to stay with such a small company. Meanwhile, I've been working for Komax for 38 years."
“’You can start tomorrow morning as a temporary employee in precision mechanics just around the corner at Komax’, the temporary employment agency in Lucerne informed me after my first spontaneous visit. I wasn't exactly thrilled with this small firm and actually wanted to change jobs immediately. But I kept the promise I made to the temp agency and stuck it out. As luck would have it, Komax won two awards at exactly that time – Max Koch was awarded the Branco Weiss Prize as ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’, followed by the Innovation Prize from the Central Swiss Society for Trade and Industry. The Entrepreneur of the Year award earned Max Koch a half-hour appearance on Swiss television's early evening show ‘Karussell’. From then on, I was hooked and shortly thereafter started as the first technical clerk in Komax's internal sales department. All this despite a customer order with quality issues that I had probably caused myself.”
“What motivated me at Komax from the very beginning was the drive. Things were always moving forward and developing. The proximity to the end customer, especially in the industrial sector, has always fascinated me. I took numerous company tours and got to see what is produced there. From washing machines to emergency power generators to drag cranes. Thanks and with Komax, over the past few decades I have traveled all over the world and have always taken on new positions.”