S·U·P

George A. FRY, since the early thirties a partner of the Booz, Fry, Allen & Hamilton Group, founds his own company, George Fry & Associates in Chicago.
This consulting firm operates in the fields of marketing, corporate planning and executive search consulting and is later renamed FRY CONSULTANTS INC.
- FRY is very successful and within a short time has set up large network of offices throughout the USA.

The first European branches are established in Zurich and Frankfurt. FRY also has a presence in the Pacific area. - The original idea being to impart American management know-how to the subsidiaries of American companies overseas. Later the branches acquire a life of their own, develop their own systems and concepts and increasingly also provide local companies with on-the-spot advice.

Dr Maximilian Schubart, a resourceful partner of FRY, publishes his subsequently famous book "Vom Tabu der Gehälter" (On the Taboo of Salaries), set up on his own, he shapes the new profession of headhunting. He becomes the star of these headhunter pioneers so shrouded in mystery and glamour. With his Rolls Royce and private jet, he becomes a man of high visibility.

Dr Bernhard Frank, journalist at the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, prepares a report about the big American consulting firms. He voluntarily undergoes several-day interviews and psychological assessment tests by the staff psychologists of FRY CONSULTANTS with the result that he is found to have exceptional talent for the consulting business.

Dr Bernhard Frank joins the FRY consultants organisation as junior staff consultant. Within two years he becomes head of the executive search consulting division responsible for the German market.

ARA, an American company, takes a fancy to the idea of acquiring the internationally successful FRY CONSULTANTS Group and pays a high price to the partners. They cannot be engaged on a long-term basis and turn to other interests.

The partners Dr Ing. Bruno Hake and Dr Bernhard Frank acquire the shares of FRY CONSULTANTS INC. in Germany.

FRY CONSULTANTS Germany is converted into S·U·P - Societät für Unternehmensplanung (Society for Corporate Planning).

S·U·P develops its own magazine named TOPICS, which becomes popular reading in German executive boardrooms. Many of its ideas are later taken up by other management magazines. TOPICS is published on a regular basis for six years. Publication is only stopped after S·U·P moved its head office to Switzerland.

The development and introduction of a new organisational principle and heuristic research method leads to a broadening of activities. Five more subsidiary companies (Heureka GmbH, Sigma GmbH, Gamma GmbH, Delta GmbH and ISE GmbH), are set up all over Germany.

Sale of one division (amalgamated in the subsidiary Delta GmbH) to a group of partners who feel inhibited by S·U·P's strict basic rules.

Reorientation of S·U·P in cooperation with a private bank in Basle and the remaining core team. Transfer of head office to Basle.

Successful expansion of S·U·P to a team of presently 35 motivated employees committed to strict quality rules; creative "maturing phase" of the company: development of a large number of new procedures, partly in collaboration with internationally renowned universities and colleges.

Cooperation with the St. Gallen College produces the E.Q. - Executive Quality Programme. This represents a quantum leap in comparison to previous audit procedures and finds a ready market

An entrepreneur-oriented participation programme is set up for the partners of S·U·P This participation programme focuses the partners on their own industries.

In S·U·P's anniversary year, we are initiating the new partner profit-sharing scheme. This offers partners extremely interesting entrepreneurial conditions and the right to assume complete responsibility for overseeing their respective business sector.

The constellation of more than 25 years of experience combined with the new concepts has over the years led to remarkable successes, above-average growth - in 1998 alone, S·U·P grew by more than 40% - and the opening of new offices in Basle and in Frankfurt am Main.

Establishment of an international Senior Advisory Board. Convinced by the branch focus and the system concept, a number of industrial personalities demonstrate their willingness to span a bridge of trust between S·U·P and the large-scale enterprises they are familiar with.

In a crisis year, the S·U·P cog weathers the storm in rough seas and - in contrast to the general trend in the consulting branch - continues on its course of expansion.

Cooperation with the US American executive search specialists Marymont Group corp. The bridge across the Atlantic makes it possible to fill challenging search projects in the USA and Europe.

The most profitable year in the history of S·U·P to date. The cooperation with Marymont Group corp. also proved extremely successful in the first year with the filling of numerous cross-continental positions.