The World Economic Forum (WEF) supplemented the Global Competitiveness Report with an index (GCI) in 2005. Since then, the WEF has published a comprehensive annual report and country rankings on competitiveness. The term "competitiveness" is defined as "the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine a country's level of productivity".

In the 2017-2018 report, Switzerland achieved first place in the ranking of all countries for the ninth time in a row.

The pillars of competitiveness

Switzerland is in first place in the ranking of all countries. It is followed by the USA, Singapore, the Netherlands, Germany, Hong Kong, Sweden, the UK, Japan and Finland. The ranking per country is determined by collecting nationwide data in twelve categories, which the WEF defines and uses as pillars of competitiveness:

•     Institutions
•     Infrastructure
•     Macroeconomic environment
•     Health and education
•     Higher education and training
•     Efficiency of goods markets
•     Labour market efficiency
•     Degree of development of financial markets
•     Level of technological development
•     Market size
•     Degree of development of the companies
•     Innovation

Each main category is in turn broken down into numerous subcategories in order to be able to determine competitiveness as precisely as possible on the basis of a wide range of criteria. For those who can and want to take the time: the report goes into extreme detail on the methodology of the survey, the significance of the assessment bases and the ranking of the individual countries on around 380 pages.

Pros and cons and confusion

Switzerland's ranking is gratifying, but is regularly "crossed" by other studies that set other priorities and then do not consistently assign Switzerland a top ranking. However, different focal points and measurement methods are not directly comparable. The latter, i.e. the measurement method used in the WEF study, is currently under discussion.

An article worth reading on the subject in the online edition of the Aargauer Zeitung ("How Switzerland's high competitiveness can be explained".). Several economics professors examine the question of whether and how Switzerland's high competitiveness can be explained. In particular, they examine the study design and measurement method, which they believe could lead to distortions, and examine the evaluation criteria.

The details on Switzerland are clearly summarized in the WEF Report 2017-2018 on pages 278 and 279 in the report.

Detailed information and downloads

The Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018 puts numerous influencing factors in relation to one another and thus creates connections and suggestions for consideration that are worth reading. The report weighs in at around 380 pages - those who like it quicker and lighter will also find links with summaries here:

To the Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018 (PDF)

Ranking list (PDF - Ranking list at a glance)

Report (Overview of key facts)

"Heatmap" (Interactive country overview)

The World Economic Forum 2018 will again take place from 23 to 26 January in Davos-Klosters.

www.weforum.org

Promoting relevant and credible sustainability reporting: This is the aim of the project "Focused Reporting - an opportunity for Swiss companies" initiated by engageability and öbu, which entered its third round in 2017 in partnership with RepRisk and the Business School Lausanne. The analysis of around 100 Swiss corporate reports reveals current trends and practices.

Sustainability management and reporting go hand in hand

The analysts from engageability and the Business School Lausanne examined both the completeness of the reports and the credibility and relevance of the topics reported on. Around a third of the companies already address the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their report. The majority of the reports analysed achieve a medium score in the overall evaluation, while ten companies clearly lag behind and three companies score very well.

Menu and More AG is one of the leaders. The children's and youth catering provider has worked intensively on the further development of its sustainability management over the last three years since its participation in the first round of the project, which is clearly reflected in the report. In addition to the SME, Geberit International AG is also one of the three best-ranked companies. The supplier of sanitary products has been publishing not only financial, but also ecological and social key figures for years. Finally, Nestlé is one of the leading Swiss companies in terms of sustainability reporting, and one that regularly makes the headlines when it comes to sustainability. However, Nestlé can't be blamed for its reporting: The multinational company, which is headquartered in Vevey, sets itself impact-oriented and time-bound sustainability targets, the achievement or failure to achieve which it reports on transparently in its annual report.

Consolidation of annual and sustainability report in trend

"We are particularly pleased that an SME is among the leaders this year," says Seta Thakur, Managing Director of öbu. Reporting on sustainability topics by SMEs is still the exception, as the benefit in relation to the effort is misjudged by the companies. Of the 100 or so reports analysed, only nine came from SMEs. "However, reporting is not only an external means of communication, but also an internal management tool," emphasises Barbara Dubach, Managing Director of engageability. "The process of producing a sustainability report should serve the strategic development and consolidation of business and sustainability strategy." This is also reflected in the current trend: more and more companies no longer publish their sustainability report separately, but integrate it into the annual report.

"Focused Reporting - an opportunity for Swiss companies".

The Focused Reporting project aims to promote relevant, credible and complete sustainability reporting. As part of this project, engageability - the Competence Center for Sustainability & Stakeholder Engagement - and öbu, the Association for Sustainable Business, analyze sustainability and annual reports of Swiss companies on an annual basis.

With around 100 reports evaluated, this year's analysis is the largest evaluation of its kind ever conducted in Switzerland. For the three-stage evaluation, external tools of the official project partners, such as the "Reporting Matters" methodology of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development WBCSD, the global database on environmental, social and governance risks of RepRisk, as well as the Gap Frame developed by the Business School Lausanne BSL, were consulted in order to verify the relevance and materiality of the topics addressed in the reports. The project is supported by the Federal Office for the Environment FOEN in 2017.

More about the Focused Reporting project can be found on the sites of www.engageability.ch or www.oebu.ch

The SAP Blockchain Co-Innovation Program enables SAP customers and partners to learn about applications that can capture various events in a blockchain - from product design and development to manufacturing and logistics for product tracking. The program also looks at serialization of parts and order verification for inventory management and product provenance and authenticity. SAP is also exploring digital supply chain scenarios in which different suppliers store quotes directly in a blockchain to improve efficiency across their business networks.

The Digital Ledger System (the audit-proof "ledger" of transactions) with SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain Services now supports first solutions across the Internet of Things (IoT) to coordinate manufacturing and the digital supply chain. Companies such as Capgemini, Deloitte, GrainCorp, HCL Technologies, HERE Technologies, Moog Inc, Natura Cosméticos S.A., NetApp and PeerNova are testing initial application scenarios and business models.

Dynamics in demand

"At Moog, we recognize that distributed ledger technology will be a key enabler for more digital, connected and streamlined workflows across industrial, medical and aerospace companies," said George Small, chief technology officer, Moog Inc. "We believe that shared and distributed transaction ledgers are key to collaboration and openness. Our collaboration with SAP will accelerate the development of distributed ledger tools and the infrastructure necessary to make our vision of the future a reality."

"In the digital economy, an iterative, fast-paced approach in close collaboration with our customers and partners is imperative," said Dr. Jürgen Mueller, chief innovation officer, SAP. "With the blockchain service as part of the SAP Leonardo digital innovation system, we enable open collaboration around distributed business processes in peer-to-peer networks."

SAP Leonardo Blockchain

SAP's SAP Leonardo Blockchain Early Access program focuses on industries such as automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, and utilities. The SAP Leonardo Blockchain Early Access program gives users and partners access to standard SAP products that have been enhanced and optimized with blockchain capabilities.

Participants in the new program will experience firsthand how SAP Leonardo Blockchain solutions enable companies and their business partners to access the same information without the need for centralized control or management.

Customers and partners have the opportunity to sign up for the Early Access program until early Q1 2018. More information about the program and how to participate is available on SAP's Blockchain website:

www.sap.com

At the same time as the SME Day, the SME Day Study 2017 was also published, in collaboration with OBT. On the occasion of the annual SME Day in St. Gallen, which in 2017 was held under the theme "SMEs - Confidence in Change", the University of St.Gallen (KMU-HSG) also publishes a thematically appropriate SME study with the support of OBT.

The latest edition shows how Swiss SMEs view change and market dynamics. The study can be obtained free of charge via the OBT website.

"Confidence in Change"

The theme of the SME Day 2017, "Confidence in Change", can be interpreted in two ways: One is having confidence in change or confidence itself is in change. In their study, the five authors from the University of St.Gallen (KMU-HSG) address both interpretations and look at the question of what attitude Swiss SMEs take to this topic.

With over 1,000 participants each year, the Swiss SME Day is one of the largest conferences for managers and entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized enterprises in Switzerland. Speakers included Wolfgang Jenewein, Gabriela Manser, Martina Gerster, Ludwig Hasler, Wolfgang Frick and Philipp Riederle. The day was moderated by Patrizia Laeri, with Hazel Brugger providing intermezzi. Urs Fueglistaller handed over his role as stage host to Tobias Wolf.

The next SME Day will be held the rest of Friday, October 26, 2018. - – The study "SMEs - Confidence in Change" can be ordered via the Site from obt can be obtained free of charge.

Project management is a so-called competence domain. At the end of 2016, the International Project Management Association (IPMA) published version 4.0 of the Individual Competence Baseline (ICB4). The broadly applicable IPMA standard, which comprehensively targets the skills of project managers, is particularly important in the European region.

Worldwide, more than 50 country organizations now support IPMA, so that by the end of 2016, around 250,000 project managers had been certified at various levels.

Three areas of competence

The structure of the teaching material is based on the three areas in project management according to ICB4: Context (interaction with the parent organisation and society), People (personal and social competencies) and Practices (technical management competencies).

Analogous to previous versions, the ICB4 describes the "what" about project management. In addition to this, AWK's Project Management competence area summarises its specific know-how on the "how" and contributes its practical experience in project management.

Target group

The teaching material is aimed at anyone who leads projects, works on projects or is involved in project delivery, wants to improve their competence in project management, is seeking IPMA Level D or C certification in project management and teaches or develops training courses in project management.

The book "Project Management - Certification according to IPMA(ICB4) Levels D and C." - basics and competencies, methods and techniques with numerous examples is available from AWK Group:

www.awk.ch

Sustainable corporate management can mean many things. In this context, sustainability rating agencies play the decisive role as an influencing force, whereas the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are currently still of little significance for most companies.

The Impact Study was conducted in partnership with the PRI (Principles of Responsible Investment) among nearly 500 companies worldwide.

Drivers for more sustainability in corporate management

In general, there is great unanimity in the assessment of the topic of sustainability on the corporate side. More than 90 percent assign it a high to very high importance. The strongest drivers for increased awareness and commitment on the part of companies are the sustainability rating agencies with their inquiries and analyses:

61.3 percent of the companies state that they were motivated to deal with sustainability aspects - exactly the same value as four years ago. In second place with 60.3 percent are the requirements and expectations of customers.

Over 36 percent of companies - almost four percentage points more than four years ago - also confirm that the requirements of sustainability analysts have an influence on their fundamental business strategy. This development is becoming increasingly relevant against the background that a large proportion of companies want to be attractive to investors and are therefore intensifying their sustainability performance.

The benefits of sustainability ratings for companies

For almost 80 percent, being listed in sustainability funds and indices is an important goal. Accordingly, almost two thirds (62.2 percent) of the companies already integrate information about sustainability management into their general financial market communication. Almost all companies (93.1 percent) assume that communication with financial market players who act sustainably will become more important in the future.

More than 70 per cent also stated that they regularly use sustainability ratings to benchmark themselves against their competitors. According to oekom research, sustainability ratings have a very high leverage effect. However, this high status is equally associated with a great responsibility, which must be reflected in a distinctive quality management system in the agencies.

 The complete study is available here for download ready.

UN Sustainable Development Goals unfortunately without label

The UN Sustainable Development Goals have been created as a reference framework for unified sustainability objectives. However, the results of this study show that assistance and guidance are still needed in order to understand how they work and to be able to act in accordance with them. Only 17.4 percent of companies are already actively aligning their sustainability-related management systems with the UN SDGs. For 15 percent, the SDGs are at least an aid for their own sustainability reporting. However, a slight majority of companies (58 percent) would be motivated to improve their sustainability performance and increase their commitment to implementing the SDGs if there were an SDG label to guide investors in their decisions.

The hurricane season in the US and the Caribbean is costing Swiss Re dearly. The reinsurer expects total costs of around USD 3.6 billion for the third quarter. Meanwhile, total insured losses from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the earthquake in Mexico are estimated at around USD 95 billion.

Harvey and Irma

The hurricane season, which runs until November, is already one of the most devastating in the US since records began. From the end of August onwards, events in the Caribbean and the southeast of the USA have been in overdrive.

Harvey hit the Texas coast on 25 August, with massive rainfall causing severe flooding, particularly in the Houston region. It is estimated that Harvey may have caused insured costs of 25 to 35 billion dollars. However, a large part of this falls to the national flood protection programme.

Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida on 10 September. And here, too, experts expect a burden of 25 to 35 billion dollars for insurers. The Caribbean was hit by Hurricane Maria after Irma. Loss estimates for the region range between 10 and 20 billion dollars. The US territory of Puerto Rico was also badly affected. (Source: SDA)

www.swissre.com

In addition to preference management, users of the new data protection management dashboard ("Profile and Privacy Management Dashboard") can now check whether their online products, solutions and services meet the requirements of the new EU data protection basic regulation (DSGVO). Although the DSGVO is EU legislation, it has global implications. From 25 May 2018, all companies that work with or store data on European customers and consumers will be subject to these regulations.

The basic data protection regulation

The basic data protection regulation gives back to EU citizens the control over their personal data, even if they are stored and managed in private third party systems. The regulation gives individuals the right to know what data is stored about them and who is authorised to access it.

They can correct their personal data and decide whether and how the data may be used for other purposes or delete it permanently. If the regulation is violated, the company faces severe penalties, so the basic data protection regulation must be taken seriously.

The ForgeRock dashboard supports the following DSGVO requirements:

• the right to information
• the right of access to data
• the right to correction
• the right to revoke consent at any time
• the right to delete the data permanently or the "right to forget".

Consumers have full control over their personal data and sharing settings in a single platform. At the same time, the dashboard sends a clear message that companies respect the privacy of their customers and comply with the basic data protection regulation.

In addition, the ForgeRock Identity Platform has added WeChat, Instagram, Twitter and Salesforce to the list of identity providers, and also integrates marketing tools such as Marketo and Adobe Campaign.

For organizations, the dashboard API model with flexible personalization capabilities and fine-grained data sharing capabilities is a comprehensive solution for managing people, services, and things needed throughout the enterprise process, including existing systems and infrastructure.

The Profile and Privacy Management Dashboard is here available as demo. The Profile and Privacy Management Dashboard is officially available from 27 October 2017.

The SICHERHEITS-Fachkongress 2017, which will be held during the security fair, offers in its 21st execution a large "fireworks" of topics around risk management, organizational, operational and technical security, occupational safety, health protection, fire protection as well as information security.

Affiliated congress

Thirteen self-contained half-day topic modules deal with these issues in a relevant manner. The current safety topics are examined from a 360° perspective on people, technology, organization and processes. 78 speakers will be on hand, and a large number of practical and solution-oriented presentations will be given. The half-day modules, which are subject to a charge, will be held directly in the exhibition halls in the "Forum blau"(Hall 3) and the "Forum rot" (Hall 5) at Messe Zürich.

Interesting are certainly such specialist lectures as "Blackout and power shortage?". Nevertheless, all speakers are experts in their field with a high practical relevance. They are able to convey their knowledge and experience to the participants in a holistic and profitable way. A holistic and comprehensive view of organizational and operational safety-relevant is given.

Current safety topics are examined from a 360° perspective on people, technology, organisation and processes. 78 speakers are on hand for this, a variety of practical and solution-oriented presentations can be heard.

SICHERHEIT 2017 (Exhibition and Congress), 14 to 17 November 2017, Messe Zurich

www.save.ch

The jury of the HCM Excellence Award 2017 has awarded Credit Suisse and Saba the "Excellence in Learning" prize. With this award, HCM emphasizes the importance of cloud-based, intelligent talent management solutions. Through such solutions, Credit Suisse was able to create a new type of learning platform. By using Saba Cloud, Credit Suisse makes its mandatory employee training more effective and also offers it on mobile devices.

Employee-supported learning 

The cloud-based talent management solution Saba Cloud replaced Credit Suisse's previous eLearning program in January 2017. In order to comply with compliance guidelines, the financial services provider has set up a Governance Board that centrally reviews and approves all mandatory training courses.

Saba Cloud enables Credit Suisse to make its eLearning offerings more interactive. Instead of linear, purely text-based training courses, assessments that test participants' prior knowledge and videos are now used. In addition, Saba Cloud allows the target group-specific provision of training courses as well as effective time management. Further improvements have also been achieved with Saba Cloud:

• All mandatory continuing education courses are managed centrally.
• A significant increase in the number of participants in non-compulsory continuing education courses.
• An increased completion rate for all continuing education courses offered.
• Increasing use of mobile eLearning offerings at senior management level.

Saba supports more than 31 million users at 2,200 customers in 195 countries and in 37 languages.

www.saba.com

Brainloop AG can guarantee the secure operation of its SaaS platforms and internal network for the next three years. In an independent report, TÜV Süd concludes that the cloud provider complies with the standard. The certification is also valid for Brainloop's Swiss cloud platform.

DIN ISO/IEC 27001, or ISO 27001 for short, is an internationally valid standard. The certification confirms that Brainloop has taken the necessary precautions to ensure information security, confidentiality, integrity and availability of the hosted data.

Second certification

Back in 2016, Brainloop's certification was expanded to include the implementation recommendations of ISO 27018. This standard addresses the protection of personal data in the cloud. ISO 27018 requires extensive notification, information, transparency and verification obligations from providers: Requirements that Brainloop fully complies with.

"The re-certification according to ISO/IEC 27001 underlines our claim to offer customers a highly secure SaaS platform," comments Gabriel Gabriel, Managing Director Brainloop Switzerland. "In this way, we make a significant contribution to ensuring that our customers can meet all the necessary security requirements."

Brainloop is the leading solution provider for cross-divisional collaboration with confidential documents in the company and beyond. The cloud-based solutions support with their logic the audit-proof adherence to legal requirements as well as compliance policies. Brainloop customers use the solutions for various deployment scenarios, for example within the executive or supervisory board, in project collaboration or due diligence, in purchasing, sales, contract management and in the area of know-how protection in research and development.

Brainloop AG, with its headquarters in Munich and locations in Switzerland, Austria, France and the UK, was founded in 2000. The company counts numerous medium-sized companies as well as the majority of DAX 30 corporations among its customers.

You can find information about the certifications here

http://www.brainloop.com

Machine learning, as an area of artificial intelligence (AI), is expected to become the standard in financial services over the next five years. As proofs-of-concept and use cases come into focus, myriad uses of ML will impact different business functions.

Fraud prevention, robotic services, regulatory compliance, and credit scoring will create tremendous growth opportunities for the use of ML by financial services firms.

Case studies

The latest Frost & Sullivan study, "Disruption in Global Financial Services, 2017-Machine Learning is imperative," provides an overview of the market dynamics of machine learning and covers technology trends and drivers, as well as barriers to market adoption. It also provides case studies and profiles of some key market players, including Google, IBM, Orange, Swisscom, Onfido, Darktrace, Klarna, Infosys, SAP, and Rasa.ai.

"The biggest advantage of ML solutions is their ability to learn from every transaction and case. Today, businesses and consumers find it easier to deal with hybrid services. However, the fact that machines evolve very quickly, learn continuously and this knowledge can be used to improve customer satisfaction and experience - that is the biggest differentiator," explains Digital Transformation Senior Industry Analyst Deepali Sathe.

"ML enables speed and accuracy, and these are critical criteria for companies in the financial services sector that are facing growing challenges in terms of efficiency and cost."

Strategic needs for success and growth include:

• various industry participants, such as regulators, incumbents, and startups, working together to build a robust ecosystem where ML's potential can be fully realized;
• Provide secure access to data to help ML systems detect normal and misbehavior;
• Ease of use and security of data and transactions when using robotic services;
• The ability to capture both structured and unstructured data to enable ML to master cognitive skills and spot behaviors that reveal a fraud scheme; and
• strong back-end algorithms to offer relevant results for services such as credit scoring and financial inclusion.

"A lack of professionals with knowledge and skills related to ML and a lack of training opportunities are preventing ML from spreading quickly," Sathe said. "On the other hand, education in the market is essential. Financial firms are still not fully aware of the opportunities ML offers and what the associated benefits and implications are for their own business. If these aspects are combined with the associated costs and expenses, in terms of maintaining legacy infrastructure, then ML only needs three or four more years to become the standard in this industry."

Further free English-language information on this study can be found at here 

The study, "Disruption in Global Financial Services, 2017-Machine Learning is imperative," is part of Frost & Sullivan's Digital Identification Growth Partnership Service program.