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In today's fast-paced business world, managers face a crucial challenge. How do they manage to ensure both the efficiency of operational processes and the right moment for strategic impulses, taking sustainability into account? Time is a complex and multi-layered concept that has always fascinated and inspired people. Ancient Greek philosophy offers us three different perspectives on time that help us to better understand its depth and meaning: Aeon, Kronos [...]

In today's dynamic world of work, especially in Switzerland, we are seeing a significant fluctuation rate - a development that poses challenges for companies. According to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), around one in seven people in Switzerland changed jobs in 2023. The willingness to change jobs was particularly high among young employees aged between 15 and 24, with almost one in four people deciding to take a new [...]

A recent report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) shows that around 20.4% of young people worldwide are neither in employment nor in education or training. Young women, who make up two thirds of this group, are particularly affected. In a world increasingly characterised by economic uncertainty and social change, international companies in particular are faced with the challenge of responding to this development. For Swiss companies operating abroad, [...]

In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has influenced many areas of our lives and work. While AI undoubtedly brings numerous benefits and efficiency gains, it also triggers fears and uncertainties - especially with regard to the workplace and employees. In Switzerland, a country known for its technological innovation and strong labour market, concerns about job losses due to AI are an increasingly discussed topic, which [...]

Loneliness in leadership is a widespread but often underestimated phenomenon that can affect both the personal and professional sphere of a manager. This isolation can affect decision-making, well-being and ultimately the success of the organisation. Loneliness in leadership often manifests itself in isolated decision-making. Managers may feel that they have to act without sufficient support or input from others, which is a considerable burden and can affect the quality [...]

In the modern business world, employee development and retention are decisive factors for the sustainable success of a company. These two aspects are closely linked and make a significant contribution to increasing productivity and ensuring the future viability of a company. Through holistic leadership and skilful future management, managers can effectively overcome these challenges and create a positive corporate culture that promotes the growth of both employees and the [...]

Smart company management means not only mastering the present, but also actively shaping the future, and this also includes mentoring and strategic support in succession planning. When entrepreneurs plan their succession strategically and at an early stage, they lay the foundations for long-term business success. Supporting the succession of a company is a decisive step for the long-term success and continuity of the business. It is not only about [...]

The German Benedictine priest and leadership trainer Anselm Grün described it like this: "Above all, leadership means awakening life in people, drawing life out of them" Society is giving companies more and more responsibility, business cycles are becoming shorter, things are becoming more complex and the ambiguity of information is making it increasingly difficult for managers to find the "right" course of action. The term "Zeitenwende" (word of the [...]

We can observe that conflicts or disputes in larger organisations are increasingly being conducted in public. The best example of this is the dispute in November last year between the Board of Directors and the CEO of Open AI. Following the dismissal of the CEO, there was an internal revolt by the employees, which led to the reinstatement of the CEO and the dismissal of the board. Different value [...]

Based on the job advertisements, it can be stated that in today's modern working world, at least one digital competence is required to cope with the work accordingly. The requirements in terms of digital skills will increase even more rapidly and, if the various studies are to be believed, companies will have an acute shortage of digital skills in the coming years. Although Intel found in a recent study [...]

The workload is increasing and almost half of employees feel stressed at work. One observed phenomenon is that the number of managers in companies is increasing and consequently the complexity and potential for conflict is growing. While the working population has grown by 8.3 per cent in the last ten years, managers have seen an increase of 38 per cent. Today, every 12th person in the labour force is [...]

Sickness-related absenteeism is reported to be in the billions. In 2022, employees were absent from work due to illness for more than nine days on average. The premiums for daily sickness benefits alone, with which companies insure the wages of their sick employees, would amount to 4.6 billion Swiss francs in 2021, as the "NZZ" recently wrote on Sunday. Stress, bullying, workplace disputes are responsible for workers becoming mentally [...]

The human brain tries to direct its actions and decisions in such a way that physical, social or even emotional pain, or stress, can be avoided. The realisation that human action is driven by pain avoidance is not new and should be balanced with motivational needs in relation to one's own understanding. As the brain strives for pain avoidance and well-being, it tries to create coherence or congruence between [...]

How quickly a business situation can change is shown by the fact that as recently as spring this year, an optimistic mood was still evident among Swiss SMEs. The current expert reports show a changed situation and the business situation is rated as unfavourable as it has not been for two years. Is the flexibility sufficient to withstand this situation resiliently and to be able to sustainably assert itself [...]

Upheavals and changes, some of which have an external impact on the daily management routine, are breaking points that are full of opportunities. Strategy changes in response to crises do not work properly, are flawed and have not brought sustainable calm to the system. The prospects of success have also not materialised as expected and attempts are made to patch up what is not wanted or unexpected with the [...]

"Leading means above all awakening life in people, drawing life out of them" (Anselm Grün, German Benedictine priest and leadership trainer). In transformative leadership, the development of employees plays just as much a role as the abstract idea of the development of a company. Social capital, through collective knowledge, builds a community of values that allows leadership to align them together towards a goal or, in the best case, [...]

We live in times of great radical change and restructuring. Many governing bodies are confronted with new challenges and constant changes in an ambiguous information society are now part of everyday business life. Our observations and a wide variety of conversations with managers confirm this trend and are looking for ways and solutions on how they, as a collective leadership body, can steer their company into the future. Many [...]

More and more companies are recognising the economic damage of a non-sustainable, non-values-based corporate culture. According to an article published in the NZZ on 8 March, incapacity to work for psychological reasons is steadily increasing and provides facts from the recently published survey by Swica and the Workmed competence centre of Psychiatrie Baselland. According to the evaluation of examined daily sickness benefit dossiers, 57 percent of all psychologically induced [...]

The recent article in KMU_today of 1 March 2023 looked at the question and its aspects of why over-fifties are dismissed more often than employees of other age groups. "Arc careers" only work to a limited extent, meaning that if older workers would accept a low wage, there is a bias in this regard in terms of their loyalty, although younger workers would often switch after only two or [...]

It is groundbreaking to observe the direction in which a wide variety of business leaders are thinking about the companies of the future and the world of work.Jean-Christophe Deslarzes, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Adecco Group, spoke in the NZZ am Sonntag of 22.1.2023, about what the working world of tomorrow should look like and outlined his answers to the current shortage of skilled workers in Switzerland. [...]

Society is placing more and more responsibility on companies, business cycles are becoming shorter, things are becoming more complex and the ambiguity of information is also making it more difficult to take the "right" course of action. As a result, the world of work has also become a world of learning. In work-based learning, a close connection between knowledge and practice is sought and the learning success must prove [...]

We are on the threshold of a changed image of the leader. Intuitively, we feel the need not only to think about new corporate structures, but also as leaders to consider what qualities and self-image we may develop as leaders in the coming period. The expectations of a manager have increased in recent years and the requirements profile causes a perceived pressure situation that makes classic management tasks less [...]

In the Sunday edition of the NZZ of 26 June 2022, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who was Danish Prime Minister from 2001 - to 2009 and then Secretary General of Nato until 2014, describes having recently looked through his old notes. These notes are from 2008 and come from a meeting between Nato and Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin already made the statement at that time that Ukraine is not [...]

Which company has a culture that has created enough space in its attitude, procedures and business processes for answers and solutions to the rapid acceleration of our world Due to the Covid 19 situation, persistent supply bottlenecks, the Ukraine war, rising financing costs and changes in social developments, the nature of cooperation at the economic level has changed significantly. Change is visible and tangible and, in an ambiguous and [...]

One of the last articles in "investrends.ch/editorial:ras" took up the current mood of confidence among the Swiss population with regard to self-determination and independence and looked at the various factors in the Swiss Life Self-Mood Barometer. The annual Swiss Life Self-Determination Barometer shows that the Swiss population's desire for self-determination has increased in the wake of the pandemic measures. In this survey, it becomes clear that fewer people are [...]

Udo Lattek summed it up aptly when he said: "I want the best eleven and not the best eleven." When leadership teams (board of directors, management, executive committees in public authorities, etc.) are dominated by engineers, natural scientists and economists, an individual conviction can quickly develop that one's own, analytical "skill" is a universally valid means of finding answers to given problems. You know from the outset which things [...]