Kistler's company history is a thriller. It's also a bit of a rag-to-riches story, which is typical for quite a few of Switzerland's SMEs. In 50 years of steady growth, Kistler evolved from a most modest one-man start in a 10 square meter workshop to an international group of 27 subsidiaries with three dozen distributors worldwide.
The anniversary book tells the story on 230 pages. There is a historical section full of the tales of first-years veterans. The second and much larger section, however, is dedicated to the Kistler people of today and portrays them, as single individuals and in groups, in their divisions, Business Units and international subsidiaries.
It all amounts to a fascinating picture of a pulsating enterprise whose success is based in equal parts on the achievements of outstanding and far-sighted pioneers and the daily endeavors of a well-trained and highly motivated workforce.