When the topic of scaling comes up, almost all of the people I talk to first think bigger, better, more international. And names like Amazon, Airbnb or Uber quickly come to mind – companies that have managed to develop from a startup into a multinational player. Scaling is an issue for companies of all sizes. And for some companies, there are good reasons not to grow, but to deliberately cut back in order to survive in changing markets. [Read more…]
Pushing innovation: the right strategic response to supply shortages
Over or not over? During the pandemic and at the beginning of the Ukraine war, I often found myself in front of empty shelves when shopping. You remember: toilet paper, noodles and later sunflower oil. And companies from B2B also complained about supply shortages – from basic raw materials to pallets or packaging material. What is the situation today and what have companies learned? [Read more…]
Digitalisation: a quick fix for labour shortages?
Up and down the country, digitalisation is being bandied about as the new panacea in administrative buildings, public authorities and small and medium-sized enterprises. Because they all suffer from the same deficiency disease: too few workers.
Let me first clarify what I mean by digitalisation. After all, the term is often used in the same breath as automation. But digitalisation is not about Industry 4.0 or the automation of production processes. Digitisation means the intelligent use of digital tools to create space for something new. Digitalisation is not a megatrend, according to the Zukunftsinstitut, but has points of contact with all currently observable megatrends.
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Strategic HR work – more than finding and retaining employees
I have already written about HR work several times. Today I would like to take it a step further and build a bridge to corporate strategy. In my opinion, this should be much more in the foreground of personnel search than is often the case. You can find out why in this blog post. [Read more…]
Seizing opportunities! On dealing creatively with changing market situations
Small and medium-sized enterprises have proven their flexibility and innovative strength time and again in the past. They are more agile than large companies, decision-making processes are shorter. The task now is to play to these strengths in order to find strategically sound solutions for the weaknesses that have become apparent in recent years. Here are some ideas that might be worth thinking about. [Read more…]