Navigating Leadership Transitions in Family Businesses

Timestamps:

7:55 - Is Ypsomed just an insulin company?

10:12 - Selling B2B and B2C simultaneously

18:33 - Doing an IPO in 2004

20:20 - How to make your stock 7x

22:47 - Getting into regional politics

This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place this year on May 14th 2025. Click ⁠here⁠ to purchase your ticket.

About Simon Michel:

Simon Michel is the CEO of Ypsomed, the leading developer and manufacturer of injection systems for self-medication. He is also the head of Swiss Startup Supporters, a new startup days initiative. Simon holds an MA in Media and Communications Management from HSG and worked for the consultancy Arthur D. Little and the telecommunications company Orange Communications SA before joining his father’s company, Ypsomed, in 2006.

In 1984, a company named Disetronic was founded by the brothers Willy and Peter Michel (Willy being Simon’s father), in Burgdorf, Switzerland. Disetronic was the first company to introduce a micro insulin pump to the medtech/pharma market. Besides its infusion systems, Disetronic also specialised in injection systems. In 2003, co-founder and main shareholder Willy Michel sold Disetronic’s infusion business to Roche and kept the injection business — that’s how Ypsomed was born.

Simon first joined Ypsomed as a Business Development Manager of Diabetes Care, and rose through the ranks until he became CEO in 2014. He credits this gradual rise, based on concrete achievements within the company, as the reason for his easy integration in its team. 

Nowadays Ypsomed focuses on the treatment of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, polyarthritis, Alzheimer and migraines. On 22 September 2004, Ypsomed was registered on SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticket SWX:YPSN.

Simon is also affiliated with FDP (The Liberals party) and is a member of Switzerland’s National Council. When asked about Switzerland’s political strengths and weaknesses, he identified the following strengths:

• Strong majority support: Switzerland takes an average of 6 years to get a new law approved. This makes its political system quite slow, but this slowness has the advantage of ensuring majority support for many of the laws approved.

• Strong R&D: The Swiss government invests CHF 10B per year in education and research, out of a CHF 90B budget. This results in a robust education system.

• Independence and neutrality, which give Switzerland international credibility.

Simon also identified 2 weaknesses in Switzerland’s political system:

• Speed: This system is, indeed, quite slow, and unnecessarily so, in Simon’s opinion.

• Left vs Right disagreements: Simon opposes the Swiss left’s ideas of rebuilding Switzerland as a state-run operation less reliant on private enterprise. He considers this a political weakness.

The cover portrait was edited by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.smartportrait.io⁠⁠⁠

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