The "Guide to Compliance - Pragmatic & Holistic" empowers every organization to develop its own compliance and thereby protect its most important asset, its reputation. In it, author Christian Wind pools his experience as a corporate lawyer, BoD secretary, general counsel, and consultant to provide a valuable guide for anyone who wants to get a handle on their compliance.

The guide describes a wide range of measures, from reviewing existing compliance systems and concepts for completeness, strengths and weaknesses to implementing a comprehensive and modern compliance management system.

Compliance

Compliance is on everyone's lips today. There is hardly an organization, be it a group, an SME, a public authority, a foundation or an association, which can avoid this topic. As a cross-cutting issue, compliance affects all areas and functions of an organization and everyone in an organization has to make an active contribution to it.

The model of the compliance cube, consisting of the six dimensions of organizational culture, embedding, activities, people, resources and foundation, is intended to provide a simple explanation and pragmatic coverage of the essential requirements and elements of the relevant compliance standards for an appropriate and modern compliance management system.

Based on this, every organization should be able to set up such a system efficiently and effectively in the long term to protect its most important asset - its reputation - or to systematically review and continuously improve it. What is your compliance status?

www.staempfliverlag.com/verlag

Stephan Isenschmid, Managing Director Swiss Leadership Forum (Image: twitter)

"The KMU Business Circle provides factual and hype-free information with the aim of supporting SME executives," says Stephan Isenschmid, Managing Director of the KMU Business Circle. "Wildly throwing around technical buzzwords while lapsing into digital ectasy, as cultivated by some market participants, does not help Swiss SMEs in any way," he adds pointedly.

580,000 SMEs form the backbone of the Swiss economy and employ around 3 million people. The digital transformation and associated innovations and developments pose a major challenge to Swiss SMEs and their managers. The SME Business Circle addresses this challenge and accompanies the companies with selected content and target group-oriented events. The primary goal is to provide sustainable support for Swiss SMEs and their managers so that they are equipped for the change processes driven by digitalization.

Leadership and customer orientation

The SME Business Circle, supported by the initiative partner JobCloud AG and the academic partner CEIBS (China Europe International Business School), is based on a powerful network with specialists from all areas of (digital) business transformation and addresses current content, specially prepared for SME executives. One of the most important aspects of this is "Leadership". "Managers must not only succeed in motivating their employees sustainably, but also in providing them with a corporate culture that allows them to grow beyond themselves. Only in this way can SMEs be successfully led into the (digital) future in the context of change processes," says Renato Profico, CEO of the initiative partner JobCloud.

Added value for companies and executives
"The SME Business Circle is essential for Swiss SMEs and their managers. It helps to understand the numerous approaches and solutions in the field of digitalization and thus to gain an overview so that, based on this, new business models can be developed and implemented," says Stephan Isenschmid, Managing Director of the SME Business Circle. The intensive exchange of information on current topics of interest to SME managers is promoted through continuous, high-quality events.

In doing so, context-oriented networking among like-minded people is promoted. The SME Business Circle gives space and time for this. The calendar of events starts in March 2018.

www.swissleader.ch

SQS CEO Roland Glauser will retire in the course of this year. As part of a far-sighted solution, the SQS Management Board worked with him two years ago to arrange his succession and communicated this at the Annual General Meeting in May 2017.

Felix Müller, previously a member of the Executive Board, was appointed as his successor as CEO. He took over this key function as of 1 January 2018. The elected person has been making his extensive experience available to SQS since 1999. He successfully managed the Services division from 2007 to 2016 and took over the Industry division last year in line with Roland Glauser's succession plan.

The Board is extremely pleased to be able to ensure internal continuity with Felix Müller.

www.sqs.ch

SATW is a network of eminent personalities from science and industry. SATW has a total of 300 full members, 28 corresponding members and 13 honorary members. Individuals who are particularly committed to the goals of SATW and/or to the technical sciences can be elected as full individual members. Persons who are outstandingly active in technical and scientific fields abroad may be elected as corresponding members.

All members were elected by secret ballot by those eligible to vote, under the direction of the Election Committee. For the year 2018 a total of 10 new individual members were admitted, 9 of them regular and one corresponding, see listing.

Full individual members: Prof. Walter J. Ammann (Global Risk Forum Davos); Dr Magdi Batato (Nestlé); Dr Silvio Bonaccio (ETH Zurich); Prof. Edouard Bugnion (EPFL); Dr René Burkhard (Pronovo AG, formerly Swissgrid); Daniel Neuenschwander (European Space Agency); Prof. Danilo Pescia (ETH Zurich); Prof. Gábor Székely (ETH Zurich). Corresponding individual members: Prof. Sibylle Günter (Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics).

These personalities will be formally welcomed at the SATW General Assembly on 17 May in Lausanne.

www.satw.ch

A remarkably relaxed Federal Councillor Johann Schneider-Ammann opened the Worldwebforum 2018 and spoke on this year's conference theme "End of Nation". He did not support the end of the nation state for two reasons: on the one hand, Schneider-Ammann said with a wink, because he did not want to criticise his employer (and he needs his job, like we all do). In his remarks, however, he also stressed that a nation was not an abstract vessel, but very much helped to represent and secure aspects such as culture, values, and belonging for people. Rhetorically, he then asked the audience: "Would you feel comfortable with a Google Passport? Or would you like to be a citizen of Amazon?"

Digitization has come

en to stay

The subsequent presentations did not present any stunningly new ideas, but one thing stood out: That similar statements from previous years are becoming more and more concrete and underline the full force and dynamics of digitalization. One speaker compared the digital transformation with the earth's gravity and said that there were still people who wanted to fight against this "digital gravity".

The presentation by Lino Guzzella, President of ETH Zurich, made it clear that Switzerland as a country has the best prerequisites for mastering the digital transformation. The national innovative power, the economic strength and the high quality of the educational institutions would basically put Switzerland in a good starting position. At the same time, Guzzella - like other speakers - pointed out that federal inertia and the frequent lack of willingness to take risks are serious stumbling blocks to prosperous development. He saw the role of his ETH as preparing graduates for careers in flexible, increasingly uncertain economic systems.

Learning the joy of failure

The joy of failure - as proclaimed repeatedly by Elon Musk of Tesla, for example - is definitely not yet part of the Swiss DNA. How could that change? A passionate appeal came from Nancy Pfund, an experienced Silicon Valley investor: using the example of e-car maker Tesla, she made it clear that her selection methods for venture investments are viable and robust. As early as 2006, she had supported the company, factored in the risk of failure - and focused on long-term success rather than short-term success. This requires courage, trust and sometimes staying power.

"Parks, not parking lots"

David Le from Lyft in San Francisco, Uber's biggest competitor, made it clear what "sense contribution" a sharing company like Lyft makes. In doing so, he also made it clear that the next phases of mobility - especially in urban conurbations - are preordained. The next big trend, he said, is the breakthrough of electric mobility, first in vehicles owned by individuals. After that would come self-driving vehicles, which would only be used as a service, but no longer owned. This would solve the traffic chaos in cities and at the same time give substantial parking space back to city dwellers in the form of green parks.

"Compromising kills innovation"

The topic of innovation was undoubtedly a much-discussed one at Worldwebforum 2018. Glenn Gore from Amazon Webservices had an apt quote: "Compromising kills innovation". By this he meant that in day-to-day business, a constructive culture of dispute with winners and losers was essential if individual companies were to move forward. The "harmony-seeking Swiss" should pay particular attention to this. Another speaker told the audience that Switzerland and Europe needed more managed chaos to stimulate innovation. It will be exciting to take stock of this at the Worldwebforum in January 2019.

*Christoph Oggenfuss, Front Office Architect, CE-Owner markITing ag Zurich.  

Digital excellence from Switzerland: For the development of the web portal of the Ticino-based jewellery and watch brand Charly Zenger, the communications agency Octoplus Group was awarded the title of "Website of the day"  excellent.

Thousands of visitors

The CSSDA is an international online platform with tens of thousands of visitors every day that awards and promotes digital work in the field of web design and development. A jury of experts with representatives from various countries evaluates the projects in terms of UI and UX design and degree of innovation and awards them.

Charly Zenger has stood for excellence, tradition and exclusive jewellery and watchmaking since 1944. In developing the new website, the Ocotplus Group wanted to use visual storytelling to create a unique experience for the digital brand presence as well, expressing the elegance and preciousness of the handcrafted jewelry.

"We are very proud to start the new year by winning this important international award. It distinguishes the whole Octoplus team as well as our client's trust in us", explain the founders of the creative agency, Damiano Giannini and Michele Crippa. "Alfredo Paganetti, the owner of Charly Zenger, is in seventh heaven because of the website award," the two continue. "This is the first step of the digital transformation in which we are privileged to accompany the company."

* Octoplus Group is a communications agency with offices in Zurich and Lugano. Its goal is to make a sustainable contribution to the success of brands and the growth of their clients. With innovative and emotional activities, brands should convey unforgettable moments and thus build close bonds with consumers.

www.octopusgrp.com/

The online platform Factory5 enables its partners and users to network and communicate directly with each other. However, it includes various processes, such as Micro5, a miniaturized five-axis milling machine that ensures excellent quality while consuming fifty times less energy than conventional equipment due to its size.

The Swiss Climate Foundation co-financed the "zero series" and thus contributed to an important development phase. Factory5 aims to make manufacturing processes more responsive, efficient and centralised. It also aims to improve the global value chain by providing all industrial skills (manufacturing, measurement, design, maintenance, etc.) and the necessary management software (MRP, CRM, etc.) and the use of smartmachines.

This optimizes production, increases efficiency and promotes cooperation between companies. The online platform Factory5 unites and coordinates the individual production processes. This concept should soon make it possible to create complete factories and, as the designers would like, make Switzerland "greener, smarter and more connected".

www.klimastiftung.ch and www.maxcomm-green.com

Contacts:

For French-speaking Switzerland: Samuel Vuadens, CEO Mecatis SA. s.vuadens@mecatis.ch. For German-speaking Switzerland: Jonas Hügli, CTO Safelock SA, jonas.huegli@safelock.ch

The newly founded InnoQube Swiss is to become a new innovation centre. The project is "a measure from the private sector and not just a theory, which is intended to bring innovation and digitisation forward in the canton of Graubünden in a very concrete and practice-oriented way", according to the press release. The initiators Quinter, Frei, Zindel (see picture) are aiming for a cross-industry solution. The innovation laboratory for the mountain railway and tourism industry initiated by Bergbahnen Splügen-Tambo AG is also to be integrated into InnoQube Swiss.

Business plans obsolete

At InnoQube Swiss, previous procedures and traditional business plans are questioned and new, practice-oriented methods are developed. For this reason, it is no surprise that various start-ups are integrated into InnoQube Swiss. With their commitment, the investors want to promote entrepreneurship and establish an active culture of innovation, especially in and for the Alpine region. Young companies and innovative projects from all over the world are supported concretely and seriously with knowledge and network.

There will be close cooperation with start-ups in Silicon Valley. In addition to the focused economic proximity, InnoQube Swiss AG should also build bridges to universities, new forms of education and new job profiles. The topics of construction, energy and tourism are already mapped at the beginning. For example, strategic and operational cooperation with the HTW Chur is already being established.

Familiar faces

The people behind this major project are no strangers. Franco Quinter of the HMQ Group is Chairman of the Board of InnoQube Swiss AG. Also on the Board of Directors are Andreas Zindel, owner of Zindel United in Maienfeld, and Internet and communications expert Ivo "FiFi" Frei of Chur-based skipp communications AG.

http://innoqube.swiss/

The Allianz Risk Barometer shows that companies worldwide are exposed to a wide range of risks that can jeopardize the success or even the existence of companies of all sizes and in all industries in a networked economy. Business interruption is thus one of the biggest risks worldwide - including in Switzerland. This is shown by the seventh edition of the Allianz Risk Barometer, for which almost 2,000 risk experts from various companies and the Allianz Group from a total of 80 countries were surveyed.

Business interruptions remain by far the biggest corporate risk in Switzerland, according to risk experts. Whereas last year business interruption was named as the greatest risk in 50 percent of responses, this figure has now risen to 70 percent. There has also been little change in the risk assessment of the following positions: Risks from market developments, for example, are ranked second, as in the previous year, at 45 percent, while cyber attacks occupy third place by a narrow margin (43 percent) in this year's Allianz Risk Barometer.

Swiss companies are more critical than last year about new technologies (rank 5 /2017: rank 7) as well as quality defects, serial defects and the consequence of product recalls (rank 6/ 2017: rank 8). New among the top 10 risks in Switzerland are fire and explosion as well as possible power plant failures. The experts estimate that risks from changes in legislation or greater regulation are lower than in 2017 (rank 6/ 2017: rank 4).

Massive financial losses threaten

"Business interruption is once again at the top of the list in Switzerland," explains Christoph Müller, who is responsible for the business of the Allianz industrial insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty in Switzerland: "There are always new causes for this sometimes existential business risk. For a long time, it was mainly natural hazards or industrial accidents that paralyzed operations. In the digitally networked economy, other new triggers are emerging, such as cyber attacks, IT breakdowns or even the consequences of strikes or terrorist attacks. In such scenarios, massive financial losses can occur without plants or buildings having been damaged or destroyed. For risk managers, this means that the protection of intangible assets such as data, networks or intellectual property is increasingly coming to the fore."

Horrendous cyber incidents

Increasingly, cyber incidents are seen as the new triggers for business disruption. Cyber risk modeller Cyence, working with AGCS, estimates that the average cost impact of a cloud outage lasting more than 12 hours for companies in the financial, healthcare and retail sectors could be around €700m in North America and just under €600m in Europe.

Business interruption in first place worldwide

Globally, companies are also most concerned about business interruption (ranked 1) and cyber attack (ranked 2). Large losses from natural disasters (rank 3) also remain a growing concern globally, with climate change and increasing weather volatility (rank 10) also appearing in the top 10 most important risks globally for the first time due to the record-breaking disaster year in 2017. Meanwhile, risks posed by new technologies (rank 7/ 2017: rank 10) are one of the biggest risers in the global ranking.

www.allianz.com

Optimism is relative. However, surveys such as the Swiss Job Index and the PageGroup Confidence Index provide reasons for an optimistic outlook for the Swiss labor market:

1. The number of advertised jobs increased by +25.3 percent compared to the previous year (December 2016 - December 2017): According to the Michael Page Swiss Job Index (December 2017), this is the second year in a row that advertised jobs have shown positive double-digit growth.
2. Candidates have never been more optimistic: according to the PageGroup Confidence Index (Q4 2017), job seeker confidence peaked in Q3 2017 and remained at that level in Q4 2017. 53 percent of candidates are confident that they will improve their overall job situation in the next 6 to 12 months.
3. Interim and temporary jobs increased by 15.3 percent year-on-year (December 2016 - December 2017).Jérôme Bouin, Managing Director of PageGroup Switzerland, has more good news to add: "Many interim jobs are becoming full-time positions."
4. Demand for specialists is outstripping supply: this is particularly true in the IT, pharmaceutical and engineering sectors. "We expect this trend to continue in 2018 - especially as digitalisation in the industrial sector is on the rise," says Jérôme Bouin, Managing Director of PageGroup Switzerland.
5. Companies are investing in sales jobs: the higher the investment in sales, the greater the confidence of entrepreneurs in the increased demand and the resulting earnings. Advertised sales jobs increased by 11% across Switzerland compared to the previous year - particularly in the highly specialised pharmaceutical, medical technology and IT sectors.
6. All regions show strong growth in the number of vacancies advertised: Double-digit year-on-year growth rates in the number of vacancies advertised were recorded in all regions, led by the Central Plateau (BE, FR, JU, NE, SO) with 38.4 and 33.6 percent in Northern Switzerland (AG, BL, BS).

www.michaelpage.ch

Project management helps to handle tasks more efficiently. That is why the tools and methods are necessary in many areas of a company today: in product development and customer projects as well as in trade fair planning and the restructuring of business processes.

More than just to-do lists and appointments

For project management, companies can choose from a variety of applications. But with most programs, in addition to task and schedule planning, costs and working hours must also be manually added and continuously updated. The double entry of figures in several systems then quickly becomes an additional burden for employees. The information is therefore often incomplete and outdated.

However, project managers need precise and up-to-date data for integrated time, cost and, above all, resource management. The latter includes, in particular, comprehensive resource planning. This is because employees are often involved in several projects. Therefore, resources must be planned across all projects. This can be achieved with the help of multi-project management.

This is the only way to avoid massive delays and, in the event of bottlenecks, to find alternatives in good time.

All if-then loops under control

Only a project manager who has an eye on dependencies between resources and departments can react sensibly to changes in the project. Which order can be brought forward in case of a delay? Production can only start when the necessary parts and raw materials have arrived. Timely purchasing in turn depends on the approved parts lists from the design department.

Especially long-runners have to be ordered as early as possible. Especially when a lot is happening in parallel, a professional project management tool helps to maintain an overview. This high degree of transparency can only be achieved by integrating current order, time and resource data - condensed into clear visualizations, from the structure plan to the Gantt chart.

Transparency for stakeholders

If all departments work with a common system, a lot has already been achieved. However, providing all project partners with a separate project management tool is neither practical nor cost-efficient. This is because most stakeholders only need a section of the extensive project information. Ideally, project management is integrated into the ERP system. Then the employees have all the necessary information at their fingertips in their daily work environment: work preparation in production planning, the controller in the financial system.

In addition to figures and data, projects also generate extensive documentation, from drawings to contract documents and confidentiality agreements. Document management, which is also integrated, helps to keep all relevant information centrally and to archive it after the project has been completed.

Identify project risks in real time

One of the core components of sound project management is ongoing cost control. It is important to continuously record expenses and efforts and to compare them with planned figures. With a running cost estimate, project managers keep all project and production costs under control. It is important to take into account not only the expenditures already made, but also the commitment, i.e. the obligations already entered into.

On this basis, it is easy to determine whether the total costs are within the planned range. An additional advantage: If project management is integrated directly into the ERP system, as is the case with proALPHA, for example, costs incurred are allocated to the project in real time and booked in cost accounting at the same time.

Optimize resources, quickly reschedule in case of delays, provide all employees with relevant information and always keep all costs under control: Project management integrated into the ERP system facilitates and accelerates project coordination. This is because all data is always available in real time. Project risks can thus be identified and avoided at an early stage.

www.proalpha.com