You were recently nominated to head up the FJD. What motivated you to seek out this role, and what do you think you bring to it?

Georges Kromach: The FJD is mostly a networking club of positive-minded people. What’s good is it’s not only about business, it’s more about the friendship and the projects. The people you meet there are, at the end of the day, people for life. It’s a networking club, plus, plus. There is a devotion behind [it] and the Luxembourgish touch, which is sort of wining and dining, of course… But, on the other hand, we have small ways to manage the issues you have in your life… I always say [that] the FJD is a big boy scouts for grownups… it’s more about friendship, relationships. The association gave me so much… I’m giving back. FJD is an association where if you give one, you get 10 back.

I was also away in the US for [a stint], and for me it’s a way to get back in the business world and to meet new people. What makes life good is to meet new people, to meet amazing people--and there are many extraordinary people.

You’ve provided seven taboos for Luxembourg leaders to take into account. What was the genesis behind them?

I was working in Paris [for] five years and then in Luxembourg [for] seven years. Your life quickly settles into a comfort zone. Then my wife got offered a grant in oncology research in New York. She’s an oncologist MD; we have a son together. [She] got a brand-new research project in New York, MSKCC [Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre], one of the biggest research centres… So I unplugged all my stuff here--my job, my associations--and I went there, took care of [our] kid one year, and then used my [parental leave]. So I joined Talkwalker there. That was, I think, the best decision ever…because I entered an American company. It was [a time of] hyper growth.

In New York, I went from comfort zone to learning zone… And then I came back to Luxembourg.

Georges Krombach, President, Fédération des Jeunes Dirigeants

I [was] in an American company in New York--and I recommend everybody do this. If you’re really settled in your job in Europe, unplug everything… New York [is] so energy-driven and crazy, and the best minds of the world meet in New York, that’s for sure. It’s that creativity, business, science… So I went there and met these businessmen in this amazing city--and the drive there, the ambition they have… They all get up in the morning, and they all want to be Elon Musk, so it’s an amazing feeling… In New York, they say, there’s a fear of the void. If you’re not busy, you fail. If you don’t win, you fail… I was mesmerised, flabbergasted by this drive.

At the end, we had to come back to Luxembourg; it was the end of the grant for my wife… I also had this business here and promised those guys I would be back…  In New York, I went from comfort zone to learning zone… And then I came back to Luxembourg, I [thought], ’Jesus, what is happening here? It’s a bit sleepy, feeling well, very fine… Then I decided that my year would be the year [of] ambition. I just wanted to be ambitious. I read a lot about ambition, that it is more the quest to go higher, to do more. It’s not [about] achieving it; it’s [about] the way to go… 

So I wanted to talk about ambition, and then I discovered many other things that are a bit different in western Europe compared to the US. Then I came up with these taboos…

Let’s jump into those. You talk about the taboo of money, a ‘demon’ not much talked about, but one which regulates our life. Should we be more open about money, and how so?

We should be less blocked to show that we’ve made it. When you speak about money, you quickly speak about jealousy. In Luxembourg… don’t show your money, which is the best way to avoid jealousy, because jealousy is one of the sins, you cannot avoid it… But I think people should understand that if somebody has a bigger house, they’ve also worked for it; there’s no shame…. [but] you also need to pay the taxes… In [many] businesses, it’s the social responsibility hype that is normally kind of a… marketing hype… All that is nice, but the biggest purpose of a company is to pay taxes. Because if you pay taxes properly, then the state can invest in infrastructure, schools, research and hospitals. That’s very important. So earn money, and pay the taxes for the money, and then I think everybody’s okay.

You mentioned education, and you’ve said it is broken. What changes would you like to see--and is the fact that the teaching profession has such a strong lobbying voice potentially preventing some change? And should education be preparing young people more for real-life skills?

It’s a bit stuck, as you say, due to the lobby, and it’s in this comfort zone… they say they will not build more ‘lycées classiques’ [academic high schools] because nobody goes into that. Nobody knows this, but they need to build another ‘lycée technique’ [vocational school] every second year, so we have an issue in my point of view.

Public education needs to be more inspired by the private systems.

Georges Krombach, President, Fédération des Jeunes Dirigeants

Then you have this trend of putting people in private schools. In Luxembourg, 11.6% of the kids are in private schools. The trend is rather stable, but why do they do this?… They go there because of the style of education. It’s more like real-life situations. Here, in public schools, you still do Greek and Latin and mathematics… nobody’s learning about project management, nobody is learning about the Python coding, and other things that are used these days. So we get stuck, and I think it’s also a western European thing.

I think public education needs to be more inspired by the private systems, by the American ways of teaching… you need to be inspired. Get out of the comfort zone…

I know many teachers and professors [in] Luxembourg. Of course, they work very hard. It’s a very, very tough job these days… In Luxembourg, the state spends $25,000 per student. The second one is Sweden at $12,500. So we spend more than the second, and our Pisa results are below par… nobody speaks about that.

Switching gears to your taboo focused on the intersection of business and politics: what do you think is preventing entrepreneurs from getting more involved on the political front?

We always shout at politicians; we need them when something goes wrong… On the other hand, nobody wants to go to that position because [perhaps] they don’t find it interesting… For entrepreneurs who get up in the morning and want to change the world, it’s very tough because you have this political agenda, it’s a lot of compromises. You need to please everyone, from the grandma to the baby… at the end of the day, in Luxembourg, the political system is not representative anymore… the head of the Chamber of Deputies is a state employee who never worked in private business. The head of the Conseil d’État is also a state employee. So I think the system is not representative anymore of the normal population, and not at all entrepreneurship, the driving force of the country. We need more willingness, more [getting] out of the comfort zone--also for business people--and maybe have kind of a part or smaller seats in the parliament or ministry groups where we can be part of the system or part of the discussion papers, maybe behind-the-scenes tables to give some input. But, of course, you need people to do that…

It’s also a very personal thing. I mean, [in] the US, you often see that big businessmen join politics or get a seat in the House… In the US, I think it’s more a question of honour…

It’s also [about] the political ecosystem, to sell this more as an honourable position… 

You represent the sixth generation of Landewyck. Can you talk about the challenges of being part of a family-owned business?

It’s a very special blend of business and emotion. [In] normal businesses, you leave the business at 6[pm], and you go home for the emotion stuff. Here, it’s more 25/7, business and emotions, which can be a very dangerous mix…

I think it’s the most rewarding kind of business you can work in because you’re just a passenger on the train… You have to [make it] grow. You are the gardener in the garden, and you need to make the garden more beautiful… That’s a challenge… That’s a big mission we have as family members in the family business, to plant the next tree for the next generations. And that’s a nice challenge… but you need to give back…

Do you think smoking is taboo? And where do you see the future of tobacco, given your line of business? Are there plans to diversify further?

Tobacco is a schizophrenic product. Why? Because the narrative is, of course, that tobacco is bad. But the reality is that tobacco pays a lot of things for society. You should never forget, you have the ministry of health--they hate us, of course--but the ministry of finance, they love us. So one puts up the barbed wire, the other one the red carpet…

So, for us, it’s very confusing. Behind the scenes, it’s very fun to see this… When you are in this business, you have a total distance to this narrative. For us, tobacco is a sixth generation, [my distant multiple-great-]grandfather opened it as a small shop… now it’s an industry. But we still have the same passion for the product, tobacco. That’s one thing. And the other thing, if somebody smokes a cigar, he’s a connoisseur, but if you smoke a cigarette, you’re a criminal… There’s a lot of pressure, and we don’t like this stigmatising society… We have a passion for tobacco, passion for cigarettes… Tobacco has been around since over 2,000 or 3,000 years… and it will still be around in the next centuries… Everybody wants a moment of indulgence. Maybe you have a drink, or you smoke; you love chocolate, or you love tea… 

We always wanted to stay in Luxembourg, to support the Luxembourg industry.

Georges Krombach, General manager, export & new generation products, Landewyck

Diversification is, of course, a very big word. It’s also a dangerous one. You should not diversify because the stock exchange wants it; you should diversify because you believe in your product. And we believe in nicotine. We are working on very interesting projects. We did a nicotine ecosystem, working on very interesting projects with nicotine delivery devices…. We are [also] working on some products, on CBD products together with Austrian partners that are getting the source leaf, but we are, of course, very disappointed by what happened with the cannabis [law]… That, for us, is a failure to state, a complete failure… It’s the green elephant in the room.

You chose the Fridhaff industrial zone in the north as the site of your new production facility. How is this going, and when do you expect it should it be fully operational?

We invested €80m in this new facility… We always wanted to stay in Luxembourg, to support the Luxembourg industry. We’ll celebrate 175 years next year… we are a strong believer in Luxembourg industry and the ecosystem, the economy here… The facility is 95% operational… in January 2022, we will be 100% operational. It’s a big success.

Can you talk a bit about the development of the Parc Landewyck office and housing estate in Hollerich?

We founded a real estate company in 2012 called Landimmo. We do this [project] together with Paul Wurth; we founded a GIE [economic interest group] on a temporary basis, and together we will develop and turn this industrial land into housing, commercial and offices. 50% of everything will be housing. It’s also, for us, very important that we provide housing because there is a housing crisis in Luxembourg…

We wanted to provide housing to the country which is in deep need for that. At the end, there will be 400,000 m2 built. The building works start in 2023. There will be a public park, that will be the gem of this whole project… We’re now redoing the building; it will be delivered in the second half of next year, that’s 5,000 m2, [with an] industrial look, concrete ceilings and floors…

We [also] have this project in Ettelbruck, there [was] this factory that was torn down, and they’re building this Ettelbruck One building. That’s 17,000 m2 of office building…

You’ve spent some of your career in the US and Paris. Could you talk a bit about how those experiences further shaped your outlook as a business leader in Luxembourg?

I got more of this can-do attitude that the Americans have because they need to have it. I think inequality in the US is unbelievable. If you go to Harlem [New York], what you see there shocks you for life. The guys you see there, they have nothing…

It’s such an unequal society in the US. It’s so hard to survive, but I think that makes them so hardworking and positive, and this positive way to get up in the morning…get it done, and this can-do [attitude], and even with nothing. They fake it ’til they make it. It’s an attitude. Also how they speak… It’s a lot of hot air, but the way they present, convince you, how they speak, rhetoric--and that’s also something for education. I think we need to have rhetoric classes--how you speak, how you convince people, how you sell your stuff. Jesus, I was impressed. That’s also stage appearance, how you sell yourself. There, everybody has their own personality… In Europe, we have 550m [population]. Normally, we should come up with better ideas. If you do the math… If the Americans want to launch a new product, a new brand, a new service, etc., they do it loudly. And that’s something that was a big inspiration for me, and I want and do this on a daily basis, give this can-do attitude, and speak clearly and think, ‘Go out there, and be great,’ [as] they say. That’s an attitude I took in my backpack, and I want to apply [it] every day. I also want to do that with the FJD. Positive change takes a while.

The seven biggest taboos of Luxembourg leaders

Krombach’s FJD action plan for the 2021-22 fiscal year focuses on these seven taboos, in his own words:

Ambition: This intrinsic force to go further, higher--a force which is hardly appreciated in the grand duchy.

Money: This demon that we dare not talk about or show, but which rules our life

Education: A vector of transmission of knowledge which is broken down, according to our Pisa results

Diversity: This speed which is still lacking in our companies, but which could federate innovation, growth... and atmosphere.

International: Because our country has not been an export champion for some time

Failure: Out of favour, but actually a necessary step in every learning and innovation process

Politics: Entrepreneurship is poorly represented in the Chamber of Deputies, but no one from entrepreneurship feels concerned to enter it.