Month: November 2012

How to become an extremely successful chemical company?

Author: Manuel Blunier Photo: Chemische Fabrik Schärer & Schläpfer AG Nowadays small chemical producers face immense challenges. The chemical industry is in continuous upheaval due to the growing competition from Far East. In addition, raw material prices are tremendously volatile. Especially small Swiss companies have many more problems to tackle. High fixed costs, a strong currency and large dependence to raw material suppliers lower the profit or limit the ability to act. But why are still some of these small chemical companies …

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Social Media guidelines versus recommended procedures

Author: Colette Richter You can call it Web 2.0, the social Web or any other neologism, more and more companies and organizations do have internal social media policies to protect themselves and their brand reputation. If not, it is absolutely overdue. If your business is involved with any social media channel, it’s important that you have a set of guidelines to steer your interactions with customers, and more importantly, prevent anyone on your team from ruining your reputation. In fact …

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A&F Brand Image: Casual Clothing & Controversy

Author: Ana Ingold “We hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that”, said Mike Jeffries CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch. This is the business philosophy Abercrombie and Fitch has been building its apparel brand on during the last 17 years. And this lifestyle brand which is called “Casual Luxury” by insiders definitely sells. A&F have more than 5000 …

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German-Swiss tax dispute: No BATNA, no deal!

Author: Philipp Bircher Berlin-Berne, we have a problem! Well, not just one, we certainly know that. But there’s one controversial subject that outshines all the others at the moment: the dispute over non-taxed funds of German citizens in Swiss banks. In a nutshell: The German government accuses Swiss banks to be a shelter for German tax offenders. This is mainly due to the perception of Switzerland as a “tax haven” which is based on the country’s legislation allowing banks to …

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When East meets West – Culture dimensions

Author: Colette Richter Images from “East meets West” by Yang Liu @Yang Liu Design, www.yangliudesign.com Hermann Schmidt Verlag Mainz, 2012, 9. Auflage ISBN 978-3874397339 Being responsible for several overseas markets including China, I often receive questions from staff members or friends why guests from China are like this or business people behave like that… How come people are prejudicing without knowing anything about a culture? Saying this, making certain assumptions or in other words stereotyping people, it makes sense to …

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Lack of preparation will always cost you money!

Author: Manuel Blunier It is a fact that in all wealthy European countries (UNDP, Human Development Index, 2011) price negotiations are not traditionally prevalent. Surprisingly enough, that most multinational trading company are situated exactly in these regions of Europe. In my personal sales career most negotiations have led to a price reduction but rarely to a price increase. However, I hear again and again how important it is to have well trained negotiation skills. The question must be: what characterizes …

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Cross-Cultural Etiquette and Behavior – The Basics

Author: Hanne Tontsch Find here some of the questions which you should ask yourself if you encounter international business partners. These are some basics that will help you to honor your business partners and customers in their culture and they pave the way to successful interpersonal relationships. As an example The new CEO of a company in the outdoor sector meets in a suit on a potential Japanese partner. He is dressed very casual and and he wears clothing that …

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Pilatus, a Swiss mountain goes global

Authors: Manuel Blunier, Ana Ingold, Doris Kündig, Colette Richter Beat Wälti, Director of Marketing and Sales, and Member of the executive board of Pilatus-Bahnen AG, explains how a tourist destination and attraction markets its offerings on the international stage and what a role social media is playing in this: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH25K8w8U6k&w=530&h=298]

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Können globale Werbekampagnen kulturelle Barrieren überwinden?

In unserer globalisierten Welt spricht man oft von „Global Advertising“. Es scheint, als ob sich für international tätige Unternehmen in standardisierten Werbekampagnen ein massives Sparpotenzial verbirgt. Aber zahlt sich dies auch langfristig aus? Martin Grolms von Technik Kommunikation ist der Meinung, dass länderübergreifend identische Zielgruppen nicht standardisiert beworben werden sollten. Es kann zwar zutreffen, dass sich der Lebensstil und die ökonomischen Aspekte einer Zielgruppe in verschiedenen Regionen unwesentlich unterscheiden – Mythen, Geschichten und die Kultur jedoch trennen die Welten. Die …

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