A coincidence led to the founding of one of today’s fastest growing consulting firms, The Information Management Group (IMG). As a post-graduate student at the University of St. Gallen in 1989, Thomas Gutzwiller started a research project based on information management that eventually resulted in the starting up of a small company of 25 people. By 2002, the company had grown into a group with 600 employees and subsidiaries worldwide.

IMG was recognized in 2002 for its successful efforts in Japan with the agribusiness company Syngenta. The IMG subsidiary in Japan, founded in 1996 and staffed solely with Japanese, was a key player in the consulting process for the merger between Novartis, Astra Zeneca, and Alcom to form Syngenta.

An IMG team of local Swiss consultants alongside the team in Japan provided services to merge the systems of these international companies. IMG successfully delivered the most efficient integrated systems solutions in a complicated and multicultural environment.

Today, Japan accounts for 9 percent of the IMG group’s total revenue. “Japan is a success story for us,” exclaims Gutzwiller. “Unlike other foreign companies entering this market, we were profitable very soon.” In Japan, IMG serves mostly international companies but is also currently focusing on building up a local Japanese business client base.

Gutzwiller is certain local companies in Japan will profit greatly from IMG’s services as the group continues to expand abroad, especially to China.

IMG is currently one of the top three consulting firms in Switzerland. In Europe, it is focused on penetrating its largest market, Germany. Gutzwiller believes much of the group’s success is based on its highly skilled workforce. “IMG only hires experienced people,” he explains. “Our employees all have at least three years of practical experience before working here.”

IMG also draws upon its active relationship with the Institute for Information Management at the University of St. Gallen. This partnership continues to provide IMG with the latest and most advanced solutions for information management.

“The meeting of different cultures is not a challenge in this business, it’s a question of perception. The world is a village and the only thing you need to manage are its different time zones,” says Gutzwiller about the ever expanding business of offering global solutions

Gutzwiller plans to serve new markets worldwide while finding more local clients in Japan. In fact, he discloses that Japan is one of his preferred countries to visit for both business and pleasure and he looks forward to the growing success of IMG in this country.