Mastermind

James Boyd spoke to Alinghi Director and General Manager, Michel Bonnefous about what makes the Swiss team tick

Landlocked Switzerland is not the first country you would think of to excel at yachting. True there has been Pierre Fehlmann, the Bourgnon brothers and Bernard Stamm, but otherwise Swiss sailing is not a huge sport.

What Switzerland does have are outstanding businessmen, who enjoy sports and one such person is the bespectacled, jovial Michel Bonnefous, General Manager of Alinghi and the man who runs the show alongside Russell Coutts. A sailing enthusiast Bonnefous grew up with Ernesto Bertarelli in the same district in Geneva and the two have been lifelong friends.

Professionally Bonnefous describes himself as an entrepreneur ("if that is not too pretentious...") and while the head of Alinghi, he still has businesses in Switzerland in the dairy, law, finance and financial advising and film industries. Aside from being a close friend of Bertarelli's it was largely because of his business and management skills that Bonnefous was chosen for his role.

He and Russell Coutts were the embryonic Alinghi team's first employees and if Alinghi's success in the Cup from a sailing and technical standpoint is attributable to Coutts, then their success in achieving their objective, the unquestionable slickness of their operation and the fact that their budget was substantially less than a few other challengers on Halsey St, are down to Bonnefous.

In the America's Cup, as perhaps in business, it is said you can live or die by the first five decisions that you make. Bertarelli may not have reached five by the time he handed over to Coutts and Bonnefous.

"Quickly Ernesto delegated the management, so we have been in charge since day one with Russell," Bonnefous takes up the story. "We have had a few phases of work, mainly we decided to be a kind of matrix organisation, where I was in charge of the operation, mainly making things happen and fast and Russell was in charge of the performance, that meaning having a fast boat, a sharp crew. At the beginning we started on our own with just the two of us in the office and then we built the whole thing in different phases".

"I think it is important that the people who spend six or seven days a week on the project are in charge," continues Bonnefous. "And that is the way it works. I’m sure it would be very good or even better if Ernesto was in charge, but he was working for Serano. That is the key - if you work for an entity you have to delegate the management for the another one. For sure some big decisions we always came back to Ernesto to challenge our ideas."

We broach the thorny topic of whether or not the campaign would have happened if Bertarelli hadn't been on board. "I think Ernesto positioned himself clearly at the beginning. He said if I am good enough I will go on the boat. I think if really he didn't succeed to perform on the boat we would still have a campaign. It was clear at the beginning that he is a good sportsman and a good sailor. He really is a good sailor Ernesto. So it was not a concern - we knew he was good and he proved it."

Another interesting point about the set-up of Alinghi is that their name means nothing. It is not Team Russell Coutts nor Team Ernesto Bertarelli nor the name of their primary sponsor. "That was on purpose," says Bonnefous. "I think it’s a team. If you want to associate people behind a team it is better to have the name of a team than an individual. I think Ernesto is a team player - that is certainly the origin of this choice.

"If you use the name of an individual, it is a one man show - we are not like this. We wanted to create a team, mainly trying to avoid having big figures taking the lead, but really having the opportunity for a lot of credible people being able to express themselves through Alinghi like Rolf Vrolijk, Grant Simmer, Jochen Schuemann - all those people who are great sailors or great designers have the opportunity to identify themselves with Alinghi."

From nothing the name Alinghi is now known throughout the civilised world following their AC triumph. Quite what use of this brand they will make - if indeed there is anything to make out of it aside from being able to hold the AC - remains to be seen.

Interestingly Bertarelli's company, the pharmeceuticals giant Serano is not among the sponsors to benefit from this success. Bonnefous says that they pitched to the board of Serano - Bertarelli chose not to be involved with the process - and the Serano board refused!

Aside from Serano's lack of interest, Alinghi were quietly one of the most successful in raising sponsorship for their challenge - Bonnefous estimates that perhaps half of their budget came from sponsors such as UBS, Audemars Piquet, RiRi, etc.

Bonnefous says that their budget was $55 million and has got up to $60 million (a lot less than some figures bandied about). He also thinks that the $100 million figures for Oracle and OneWorld (and certainly Prada) are equally inflated. "I think perhaps OneWorld and Oracle spent more than us because they purchased assets that we didn’t purchase. And they had a very big programme right at the beginning while we started slow and increased our activities gradually. So I think on that side we spent less money than team."

Part of the reason for this was the clarity with which Coutts and his team went about the Alinghi program. "Certainly Russell had a clear vision of the game, and a huge knowledge of it. That is definitely the case. But also you had people like Grant Simmer, who knows the game very well too."

However in management and accounting terms, Bonnefous also ran a tight ship. "We work very well with Russell. We have this matrix system of work, we already share that. We worked a lot and we tried to spend our money very efficiently. Both Russell and me have been concerned about this, not only to save money, sure that was important - but decisions about money are key decisions. Which car do you want buy tomorrow? A sports car or a station wagon for you family? You have to make a decision. Do you want to be selfish or generous? The decisions behind money are key decisions. And that is an important process. If you have too much money and have no decision process behind money - you decide nothing, so that is important."

By 'matrix management' Bonnefous says his job was to make things fast and efficient while Russell focussed on speed, team performance, design performance.

One of the quirks of this next America's Cup is that the winners will not be holding it in their own country. Bonnefous gives some insight on why the 32nd America's Cup will not be taking place in Switzerland. "I think we could easily imagine doing that on multihulls, but I think we have to be serious. To change the boat is a process that takes at least two years. We thought it was very interesting to change the boat this time, but we renounced this as it is a serious task. To start the process in a few months time we might discuss with designers to see if we can change the boat for next time. But it is a huge investment - there are 80 ACC boats in the world. There are serious teams all around. You can’t change them all and bring them all to Switzerland. We have another problem in regular wind and also logistics. Most of the area around the lake is occupied by private houses or cities and you don’t have harbours with logistical facilities."

While he has been general manager of Alinghi, now Bonnefous' remit has grown to include sorting out the next America's Cup. The choice of venue will be the main task. "I think we will take some time with Russell to see how we organise all our sailing world - now because the picture is a little bit bigger than before! We will try to make a decision about the venue before December, but we prefer to have this period as it gives us a buffer if we don’t obtain a good commitment from places. It is not easy - the Olympics take five years to negotiate a venue. So nine months to obtain everything is not a long time. The most important thing is to find a place which meets all the key elements for making a good defence and there are not so many places with that kind of capacity."

Bonnefous says it is impossible to tell how much the America's Cup is potentially worth as an event. An Ernst & Young audit suggested that in 2000 event in Auckland it was worth NZ$700 million (roughly £233 million) and the figure may be closer to twice this in 2003 (as Auckland didn't have to revamp Viaduct Basin). "I don’t know," admits Bonnefous. "But the America’s Cup is a very profitable event for the country who hosts the Cup. I have had some numbers - for example Eurosoccer, brings a return of Euro 500 million. But you have to build stadiums, you have to have a lot of security. But the America’s Cup also brings people for two years to a place and they live there. You don't need a lot of infrastructure because it is on the water. And the image of the America’s Cup is worth a lot. It is technical - so a country or a city could build a new profile just by the fact that they hold the America’s Cup. But we will see – I can tell you in a few months!"

When The Daily Sail points out that the America's Cup is elitist and a rich man's sport, Bonnefous says that is not something which he can readily influence, nor does he want to. "The Cup carries a certain number of values that we respect and we like. Certainly like the tradition and aristocracy, but also technology, team spirit and those are definitely values that are linked with sailing and the America’s Cup. And we will certainly have sponsors sharing these kind of values.

"The America’s Cup has its own values so they will automatically be linked with companies who have those values too - it is not artificial. We don’t want to influence this. So why do we have Audemars Piquet, UBS private banking, Louis Vuitton, Prada in this game? It is because they like those values. It is their market and we will not change that. Soccer will be always better than the America’s Cup to reach a mass market."

We put it to Bonnefous that the venue has some effect on the glamorous nature of the America's Cup. "I think that is wrong," says Bonnefous. "Auckland was not glamorous place before the America’s Cup came but I didn’t know it before."

A regular criticism of the America's Cup (mainly by ISAF and the organisers of other races) is that it falls outside of the four yearly cycle the rest of our sport adhers to.

"That is the way it is," explains Bonnefous. "This is clear in the America’s Cup: Most of the teams need support from a yacht club or in the US a syndicate with a certain number of individuals gathering to finance a team or in Europe there are more individuals who help a team to exist. Those people are motivated to go in this game, because if they win they can do what they want with the event. As long as it like this I don't see how you can change it without demotivating those people who come in this game.

"But I quite like the fact that it is a non-conformist event. The only continuity we could dream of is a certain expertise about how to manage the event that could be given to the Cup holder through the time plus things like the stock of images, the expertise in negotiations or the values, maybe a management company. But the winner has to be in charge of the event at the end."

In much the same way as Glenn Bourke inspires confidence in the future of the Volvo Ocean Race, so with Bonnefous we get the impression the America's Cup is in safe hands.