Effective, yet agile leadership

During this year’s annual conference, the 41 members of SwissCham, a global network of close to 10,000 companies in more than 100 countries, completed a survey regarding their services and their members’ needs to cope with ever increasing challenges in a complex local and international trade environment. The Swiss bilateral chambers of commerce promote, protect …

Economic forecasts by the Swiss government’s expert group are positive, but Switzerland’s strong currency relative to the euro and costly regulations remain major concerns for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The outlook for Swiss exports seems “relatively favourable,” according to forecasts published in September 2016 by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). That’s if …

Looking at the Russian economy today, it is difficult to distinguish the consequences of EU sanctions from the general recession, which began in early 2013 and was exacerbated by the decline of oil and gas prices over the last two years. Russia’s GDP declined by 4% since sanctions were introduced, corresponding to €75 billion at …

The 21st century began with seemingly bewildering opportunities as a new global business horizon unfolded. The latter half of the 20th century or more saw the international economy divided into predominantly autonomous worlds, the so-called first, second and third worlds. Then at the turn of the century, four major discontinuities occurred. The first and probably …

As SERV looks back on its first 10 years, one of the most striking accomplishments is the surge in deals that have been closed, which could not be covered under its predecessor ERG. When it comes to risk, there have been shifts from some markets to others, but overall the risk remains the same on …

Switzerland is an export country, and the euro-franc exchange rate is hindering growth, but Switzerland’s export volume is continuously stable. Why is that? Swiss industry is very efficient and competitive. That is why the majority of businesses can hold their ground despite the unfavourable euro-franc exchange rate – above all the bigger companies, because they …

An association often made with the Swiss labour market is a skills shortage. How is this apparent in your line of business? As Switzerland’s leading ICT-company, Swisscom operates in an extremely dynamic sector. This dynamism particularly affects job profiles and job descriptions within our company, in the sense that requirements are constantly changing. The skills …