« A ship that is to put to sea needs not only wind, but also bread, wine, charts, letters of recommendation — and a helmsman with a steady hand. » Hanseatic shipping ordinance · freely after
We take no fee. We take a small share in what we help to build. In return the house outfits its captains. Old families have always held it so; we merely give the modern equivalents their honest names again. What is set down below as Safe Conduct is not a benefits programme, but a charter: four articles to which both sides hold for as long as an entrepreneur sails under our flag.
Three of the four articles apply from the first day. The third — the keys to our houses and cars — is a question of trust and ripens over time. We confer it when it arises of itself; we do not announce it, and we do not bargain it.
Article I · The card of black metal
Anyone can claim money. An American Express Centurion that the concierge of the Mandarin Oriental accepts without a raised eyebrow can be produced only by someone who has done their homework. We keep the master account in Vaduz and issue each of our entrepreneurs a card in their name. A shared credit line stands behind it, set by the house and covered by the house; each captain draws on it as a first officer draws on the ship's chest — with the discipline that belongs to it.
The card is not a credit facility, but a mark of recognition. It saves you the first twenty minutes of every conversation in which you would otherwise have to prove what the other side sees at once. Whoever has never met you knows after three seconds whom they are dealing with. Whoever knows you had thought as much anyway.
Article II · First class, in miles rather than in cash
We sit at the desk. You are our eyes outside. We do not want to see the world from the browser. That is why the entrepreneurs under our flag do not fly at the back. A row 42 with headphones on brings no one anything; four hours in the First Class Terminal in Frankfurt, in the Polaris Lounge in Newark, in The Pier in Hong Kong or — quietest and best — in The Private Room of Singapore Airlines at Changi Terminal 3 are the actual meeting of the day. There the people come and go with whom you will have to do anyway — only a few months earlier than the rest of the market.
Payment is a mixture of miles and cash, according to the relation of the day's price to the award price. The house works both out for you — a good booking service that knows what it is doing is the lowest rung of a family administration. We book in your name, you collect on your status, the house carries the difference. A tight connection in economy is the exception, not the rule; it happens, and it is nothing for which one need apologise.
Article III · Keys and berths
Whoever turns sixty and loses a Saturday in Berlin to a broken hire-car door understands in ten seconds what this chapter is about. We are not too fine for bad hotels; we are too old for them. Time, which at our age replenishes less than it used to, is the only currency in which we do not wish to miscalculate. That is why we place at the disposal of the entrepreneurs under our flag a small, carefully chosen house fleet, in places where we ourselves like to be:
- Arosa
- Haus Jelen. A concept in progress. At Poststrasse 33 there is taking shape, in the coming months, a retreat for the entrepreneurs under our flag — a few days of mountain air, a desk at the window, and now and then a walk with Anna Jelen, who has brought the valley close to us over the years. Reached by the Arosa railway, two and a half hours from Vaduz.
- Vaduz
-
House car. An Audi S7 Sportback in the parking
garage of the Gubserhaus near the princely bank, to be had at
any time. Whoever has an appointment in St. Gallen,
Zurich, Munich or Milan takes the key from the board and
drives.
Office space. In the same house, at Herrengasse 30, a desk of their own for each of ours. With a view of the castle, and a cup of coffee that is not served in a paper cup. - Singapore
- Grab Premium & Executive, without limit. Asia has solved the car better than Europe — not through one's own keys, but through a black car that stands at the kerb in four minutes. Our company account at Grab Business covers all journeys in the upper two classes for everyone who is under our flag in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta or Bangkok.
We do not hand over the key to a house on the first day. We hand it over when it arises of itself — usually in the second or third year of the collaboration, often after a shared weekend. We do not bargain this. Whoever asks has not yet understood that it is not for sale.
Article IV · Practice at the helm
Whoever has been the best in a profession for twenty years begins to grow bored — and boredom is the most under-valued danger to a person with responsibility. We therefore keep every entrepreneur under our flag in practice at the helm, at our own cost. Concretely:
- Tuition
- An annual learning budget per captain, which may be used for a sabbatical week at INSEAD, a programme course at Stanford, a language teacher in Milan, or a private AI tutor — according to the bearer's taste, with no duty to justify it to the house.
- Reading
- Four books a year, which the house sends to each. One on the craft, one on history, one on the natural sciences, and one that no one would expect. You need not read them. We read them too.
- Workshop
- Twice a year a closed workshop with the other entrepreneurs under our flag. A weekend. No lectures, no programme. One question on Friday evening, two answers on Sunday morning.
A sharp mind is the only outfit an entrepreneur does not borrow from us — only the means to keep it sharp.
If you wish to sail under our flag,
write us a letter — see
Office Hours.
We reply in person, as a rule within 48 hours.