Toolmaker Hilti has revolutionised the construction industry with its innovative solutions and design and is cited as one of the world's top employers with which to work.

The chairman of Hilti was in Dublin recently to reveal the strategy behind its success.

Michael Hilti, the son of the company's founder Martin, came to Dublin for the launch of Hilti's state-of-the-art Irish headquarters in Citywest. Hilti, one of the world's leading tool and fastening systems manufacturers, has operated in Ireland since 1958 and has seven plants here.

According to Hilti, a native of Liechtenstein, the company's remarkable success has been built around the belief that customer satisfaction ultimately depends on the happiness of employees and suppliers.

The company has built up a large client base in Ireland and, despite the negative outlook for the Irish construction industry, Hilti says the company remains positive for its performance in Ireland and will continue to invest.

It has a number of projects in the pipeline, including involvement in the redevelopment of the Lansdowne Road stadium and predicts the further acceleration of production in Ireland.

"It is true that Ireland is not a big market for us but every market counts," Hilti says. "We invest in countries for the long-term even when there are slight economic blips."

The company's employment record has surpassed goals and has won the company hundreds of employer awards. Its employee retention and integration rate are 86 and 90 per cent respectively. Last year, it recruited 1,395 employees.

According to Adrian Murphy, managing director of Hilti operations in Ireland and the United Kingdom, the slightly different manner in how Hilti operates is refreshing.

"The striking thing is that, for a company which operates in 120 countries, people are very accessible, which is unusual.

"But we are not a publicly traded company and we like to do things differently.

"We are not beholden to the interests of shareholders and tend to invest in our people more. We are more interested in how the company can make a difference in the long-term rather than how the company makes profit," he explains.

Hilti's employment record has won the company hundreds of employer awards. As Mr Hilti says, it is working towards a seven-year goal to 2015 in which it aims to recruit 10,000 employees and to double the company's turnover from 4 billion Swiss francs last year.

He insists this is not over ambitious; rather the plan will maintain the motivational mindset that has made Hilti the leading company in its field.

"It is important to strike a balance between our corporate culture and what the individual brings to the company and you have to have clear rules," Hilti continues. "We may have the world's best soccer player in the corporation but they need to play according to our rules."

The rapidly expanding company has kept a relatively low-profile in terms of marketing but is now concentrating on building a better public profile to attract great employees to the firm.

Murphy says: "We have a lot to say as a company but haven't worked on mass advertising or becoming a household name in Ireland or Britain.

"We are working on building up ourselves more as a brand to attract the best people to the organisation."

Aside from its building tool and systems operations, the company has undertaken rather unusual projects more recently.

Its research and development laboratories, based in Liechtenstein and China, contributed to the company branching out into mining and saw it merge with archaeologists to discover part of an ancient city off the coast of Alexandria Egypt, thus ensuring that there is always room for innovation.

According to Hilti, "a large part of what Hilti does is that where you look closer, there is always an opportunity and to ask always how we can do things differently".