Marc Tinguely, Swiss, is a student in the BSL Bachelor of Business Administration class of 2013-2015. At 21, Marc is already starting his own business – an apparel design company targeting sports clubs that need custom-made, high-quality, and yet affordable sports uniforms. Marc, who has always been passionate about sports, finds that sports and entrepreneurship are very similar – they both push him to improve continuously and reinvent himself.

Sports and entrepreneurship are very similar in the sense that they push me to always be better and to reinvent myself on a regular basis.

What are you passionate about?

I am passionate about a great variety of things in life starting with competitive sports and ending with entrepreneurship in chronological order. I have been doing several sports including cross-country skiing, archery and basketball, starting very early in my life, and I’ve never stopped since. Sports and entrepreneurship are very similar in the sense that they push me to always be better and to reinvent myself on a regular basis.

Share the main reason that made you choose to study business.

I love the fact that studying business opens up the doors of virtually any industry to me. I want to be able to discover different areas of interest throughout my career, not having to remain in one narrow field. I think studying business will allow me to have the chance to discover different fields and to meet people with different cultures, backgrounds and mindsets.

How would you describe your BSL experience so far?

I have had the opportunity to make connections with great people, young men and women who I believe have a great future ahead, but most of all, I have met genuinely good people that will hopefully remain my friends after we graduate.

The fact that we are in small study groups makes the difference for me. With plenty of group work, presentations and discussions, learning feels natural and seamless. Coming from HEC Lausanne to BSL, I found the contrast really flagrant since I went from an average of 800 people per lecture to 15.

How do you see your professional future in 5 years from now?

I am starting my own sports apparel design company at the moment. The type of customers I am trying to attract are sports clubs that have the ability to order in bulk – that allows me to offer them custom-made designs which totally fit their expectations. I hope that in 5 years I will still be doing that and I will have been able to employ people to help me reach my customers and satisfy their expectations.

If there is one significant change you could accomplish in the world, what would it be?

Make sure that everyone has enough food on their plates. I believe that once this is the case, we will be able to solve most other problems in no time, but we first have to make sure people don’t have to fight and struggle for food.

What are the most important values today’s leaders should have?

I do not believe that there is one right way to be a leader; we all have the opportunity to be leaders in certain areas of our lives and everyone is a potential leader to someone else. We all have different ways to lead and influence people around us and I think that the only prerequisite for that is to be able to show empathy: If you listen to others, they’ll listen to you too.

Tell us one personal story that is truly relevant to your BSL experience.

I cannot think of one single story that represents my BSL experience, but what I believe makes BSL stand out is its diversity. We are very likely to have a group homework assigned by an Iranian professor that we have to do in a team composed of one Russian, one South African and one Vietnamese student. Being confronted with this diversity is very interesting and helps us see the bigger picture when discussing a topic.

We are very likely to have a group homework assigned by an Iranian professor that we have to do in a team composed of one Russian, one South African and one Vietnamese student.