Under an overview called "The right manager at the right time", Kornferry recently published an interesting manager typology. Based on more than 4.4 million assessments of managers worldwide, the HR and organizational consultancy presents prototypical profiles of the successful manager in the respective development phase of the company.

"It is almost impossible today as a single individual and professional personality to lead a company in a qualitatively equivalent manner at all stages," says Mathias Kesting, Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry Hay Group. "Rapid technological development and permanent change mean that we will see serial top leaders more and more often. If a company leaves a specific phase, it's also time for these managers to move on."

Important phases

In the auditing of more than 4.4 million managers worldwide, concrete correlations emerge as to what the most important competencies, personality and character traits as well as drivers and motivators are for specific company phases. Mathias Kesting says: "Probably the most important phases of a company are the foundation, the growth phase followed by a phase of stability, a period of innovation and, time and again, turnaround. We took a closer look at these in a study."

In the following, we will show which are the three most important competencies, personality traits and motivators of managers who can succeed in the respective phases of a company.

1) Foundation / Start-Up

"The start-up phases of companies are characterized by relative chaos and strong growth," says Mathias Kesting. That's why a successful manager in this phase needs the ability to make decisions even in uncertain situations and without a fixed framework. "Founders often succeed in developing innovations - and at the same time convincing others to do the same. In fixed structures, however, they often reach their limits."

Competencies: Creating innovation and innovation culture, showing perseverance, convincing people

Personality traits: self-confidence, curiosity, willingness to take risks

Drivers & Motivators: Independence, Challenge, Responsibility

2) Growth

"Whoever succeeds in leading a new company to growth does not necessarily have to be the right person to unlock growth potential for an already mature company," says Mathias Kesting. "This misconception occurs time and again. In reality, however, completely different competencies are required: In this phase, too, it is necessary to convince other people. But in an already grown, politically complex internal as well as external stakeholder network. Only those who are capable of addressing investors and supervisors, executives and employees, analysts, politics and society, and many other stakeholder groups and cultivating positive relationships with them will be able to implement more growth in a company that has already grown."

To do this, managers need a high level of cooperation and stamina while maintaining focus.

Competencies: Strong industry and market expertise, stakeholder management in complex organizations, communicating vision and goals.

Traits: achievement drive, cooperativeness, credibility, drivers & motivators: Challenge, Competition, Power & Influence

3) Stability

The focus in stability management is primarily on maintaining market share in a mature industry. The most important task is to secure the position. Mathias Kesting says: "Innovators and sellers don't deal well with such rigid scenarios. They will put all their eggs in the growth basket, even though the first priority is to secure the position. This is why companies should rely on managers who are experienced above all in optimizing existing structures and processes. They don't want to set off for new shores right away, but are driven by structure and stability."

Competencies: Acting responsibly, planning and aligning, optimizing work processes.

Traits: Focus, connectedness, cooperativeness

Drivers & Motivators: Structure, Stability, Collaboration

4) Innovation

A company in an innovation phase operates in a volatile market in which growth is no longer possible and all processes have already been optimized. That is why new products, services and sometimes completely new business models are needed in order to be able to return to a growth phase. "Mental agility is probably one of the most important characteristics of successful managers in innovation phases," says Mathias Kesting. "That means seeing opportunities where others haven't looked yet. Discovering connections that were previously not obvious. Thinking around corners in the truest sense of the word. But on the basis of what already exists, because we're not talking about a start-up here," says Mathias Kesting.

Competencies: Creating innovations, Courage, Strategic - methodical competences

Characteristics: Mental agility, self-confidence, willingness to take risks,

Drivers & Motivators: Challenges, design motivation, independence

5) Reorganisation/restructuring

Poor performance over a longer period of time causes a company to slip into the loss zone - or to be on the verge of doing so. There were no sparkling ideas for innovation, optimizations did not take hold, growth was no longer possible. "There are hardly any successful companies that have not experienced serious crises themselves," says Mathias Kesting. "What we're looking for are managers who don't lose their nerve so quickly and who manage to restructure the existing system in such a way that it becomes economically viable again. This sometimes includes very tough decisions such as discontinuing business areas or structurally laying off employees. At the same time, there is hardly a corporate phase in which things can be done more quickly and efficiently."

Competencies: Making difficult decisions, Strategic agility, Efficient use of resources.

Qualities: credibility and straightforwardness, agility in ambiguous environments, empathy

Drivers & Motivators: Design Motivation, Challenge, Rapidly Evolving Business Environment

More about the "KF4D survey" can be found at here

Laws are there to regulate things and define responsibilities. But sometimes they first create a need for further clarification. This is the case with the new Continuing Education Act, which has been in force since 1 January. This first national law defines the framework conditions for the management and promotion of continuing education by the Confederation and the cantons. It also makes a statement on quality.

In principle, the law places responsibility for quality in the hands of the providers. In the case of publicly funded continuing education, however, the law requires that the Confederation and the cantons ensure quality in the areas of information, the qualifications of trainers, learning programmes and qualification procedures. What this means, however, remains vague. The Confederation has so far refrained from regulating the implementation of the article of principle with an ordinance and from tackling coordination between the Confederation, the cantons and providers.

Federal proliferation

"The result is that each canton is once again cooking its own soup," complained one school owner at the first national conference on quality in continuing education, which took place in Bern on 2 October. And she was not the only one who voiced her displeasure at the development at the conference. The fear that the Continuing Education Act will awaken the federal desire for individual solutions is causing concern, especially among course providers with offerings in several cantons.

In fact, the detailed work has yet to be tackled. The director of the Swiss Association for Continuing Education, Bernhard Grämiger, also advocated this in Bern. He addressed the representatives of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) directly on the subject of coordination. However, they saw the conference as the first step in this direction.

Cantons also want clarification

However, it is not only the providers or the association that need clarification, but also the cantons. Hanspeter Steiner from the Education Department of the Canton of St. Gallen represented their point of view. However, he doubted that the Confederation would be able to exercise effective quality control over provision. However, this will be the case in higher vocational education and training from next year, when graduates of preparatory courses will be supported directly by the federal government. Supervision of these courses by the cantons will then cease and the Confederation will be responsible for quality control. A concept of how it intends to carry this out is still lacking.

"We are looking forward to this with horror," said Hanspeter Steiner. For him, proximity to and an overview of the scene are essential prerequisites for sorting out "black sheep". To exercise control, for example, on the basis of failure rates, as Theres Kuratli from SERI brought into play, is considered insufficient even by the providers. For the SVEB, which had already commented on the problem before the conference, the Confederation is even violating the Continuing Education Act.

The conference thus shed light on the problem areas. At the same time, it brought together the key players in the quality discussion in a first round, private providers, representatives of universities, cantons, the Confederation, label holders and quality experts as well as various associations - more than 100 people in total. In addition to the legal framework conditions for quality and quality assurance, the conference dealt with the topic of quality at the level of the organisations, the offers and the trainers.

It became clear that quality is a matter for the majority of training providers. This was also evident from the results of the 2016 education survey on the topic of quality. It is based on a survey of 337 continuing education providers from all three parts of the country, which was conducted by SVEB between September and November 2015. Caroline Meyer-Quevedo, member of the SVEB Executive Board, presented her key findings at the conference.

Customers and employees are the focus

The focus of the quality efforts of continuing education providers is primarily on customers and employees. The majority of respondents concluded that quality is good when customers are satisfied. As a rule, quality assurance is also worthwhile. The majority of respondents consider the benefits to be significantly greater than the costs. When it comes to labels and certification, positive effects are not seen in terms of customer influence. On the other hand, a certification process promotes the internal discussion of quality issues within the organization.

The majority of the organisations named evaluation as the most important instrument of quality assurance. But after evaluation, action must be taken to implement effective improvements, urged Hans-Peter Karrer, who acted as conference moderator and at the same time supports organisations in quality development himself as an entrepreneur and consultant. He missed a stronger use of coaching in the implementation of improvements, which had to follow the evaluation.

He was supported by Ruth Meyer Junker. As an auditor, she has carried out numerous certifications. Quality, she said in her keynote, cannot simply be assured, rather it must be constantly developed. The challenge is that continuing education providers are in an incessant process where basically everything is in motion. While digitalisation has an influence on learning content as well as on forms of learning and challenges not least the administration of training providers, the expectations and values of both customers and members of management and teaching staff change from generation to generation.

The process of quality development

This results in the necessity of a "constantly repeating cycle" of quality measures, their implementation, evaluation and again improvement. All this must take place in the interaction of management, learning environment, offer and teaching. The participants unanimously emphasized the importance of a uniform understanding of quality and a uniform language regulation from the management to the lecturers. At the same time, there is no such thing as THE quality. Quality is quite simply when the result is what one wanted, Ruth Meyer Junker summarized. A thoroughly Solomonic definition.

http://www.alice.ch/de/

Arthur Philipp has built up a company that has risen to become a market leader in a short space of time. (Image: zVg)

For 2018, the jury has awarded the prize to Arthur Philipp, not only a pioneer. He also founded his company almost at retirement age and led it to success. At the age of 64, Arthur Philipp acquired APM Technica AG, in the form of a management buyout (MBO) from Leica Geosystems AG.

According to the jury, Arthur Philipp deserves the Rheintaler Wirtschaft prize in particular for his unbroken entrepreneurial spirit, his courage and his curiosity, and is thus also regarded in social terms as a prime example of the fact that one can always change, regardless of one's age.

Smallest company to world market leader

In October 2002, the history of APM Technica AG began as an MBO from the profit center "Materials and Process Technology" of Leica Geosystems AG. The spin-off enabled Arthur Philipp and his employees to build up even more expertise in all connection issues:

Today, APM Technica offers highly specialized solutions quickly and straightforwardly, either as quality products from their range or as products manufactured specifically for the customer. Today, the small business has grown into a leading provider with over 130 employees and locations in Heerbrugg, the Philippines, Munich, La Chaux-de-Fonds and Cham.

http://www.apm-technica.com

The results of the Swiss Engineering salary survey show that the salaries of engineers and architects are stagnating. The 4,858 participants in the Swiss Engineering salary survey earn an average of CHF 112,000, which is even slightly less than in the previous year (CHF 113,000).

Despite a proven shortage of engineers, employers seem unable to adjust wages to the scarce supply. That this has fatal consequences is shown in the recently published study by Swiss Engineering and economiesuisse on the subject of the shortage of engineers (dossierpolitik No. 5/2017). In it, engineers and architects cite salary in third place as the reason why they have turned to another field of work and no longer work in their learned profession.

Possible countermeasures on the part of employers and employees are outlined in the study.

Engineers and architects are "faithful

For many engineers and architects, the last job change was some time ago. 12 % of all respondents started a new job in 2016 or the current year, a further 18 % no more than four years ago. Yet not every job change leads to an improvement in income. Two-thirds earned more after their last change. One in four is currently thinking about a (new) career change.

Half of all survey respondents have never discussed a potential raise with their supervisor at their current job.

Good opportunities for graduates

Graduates find their first job very quickly after graduation, earning an average of CHF 80,700. However, the differences between the various sectors and disciplines are considerable. Architects, for example, can expect a significantly lower starting salary of CHF 66,000 on average. Computer engineers receive the highest starting salary at an average of CHF 88,000.

Startup employees assume wage losses

Those who work in a startup are obviously betting on the future and in some cases also accepting a drop in pay. More than a third of startup employees earn less than they did at their former job. At CHF 98,800, the median salary in startups is significantly lower than the overall mean of all salaries. 40 % of all startup employees are not satisfied with their current salary.

www.swissengineering.ch

Companies are still too vague about personalization. Many companies prefer to rely on the tried and tested for online campaigns: reach instead of personalized content. In the short term, this is also helpful: The probability that a target group can be found somewhere in the broad masses is great.

However, the wastage is enormous. With personalized campaigns, however, I reach exactly the right and important target groups and thus long-term success. But how can I measure the success?

Measured variables

Personalization is certainly measurable: namely with the evaluation of website usage data and the analysis of visitor behaviour before and after the personalisation measures. The most important Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is the conversion rate, that is:

What proportion of users have done what you wanted them to do. This can be, for example, a purchase, a contact or also another expression of interest. In addition, however, increased click numbers, a longer dwell time of the user on the various pages or reduced bounce rates also tell of a successful measure.

Trial and error as a maxim

As in many areas of digital transformation, the maxim for personalization is: try, try, try. The earlier a measure fails, the faster a company can intervene and learn from it. Especially in the testing phase, however, projects should not go beyond the financial scope.

Often, even small adjustments to the website help to celebrate the first successes. An example: A telecommunications provider shows its visitors the latest smartphone on the homepage. However, if a potential new customer - the IP address can be used to find out whether the user is under contract with a competitor - comes to the page, the start image changes: The focus is then on the advantages of a change of provider or a discount campaign for new customers.

Another, somewhat more complex example: Many car manufacturers offer a configurator with which the customer can put together his car according to personal wishes. However, the design usually disappears after it has been created. However, the company could confront the user with his design again via advertising on third-party platforms or a personalized mailing. In this way, the user comes back to the website and the next step in the customer journey, for example the agreement of a free test drive, can be tackled. A vivid scenario for the fact that online advertising and onpage measures must be perfectly coordinated.

Monitoring is important

In order to really measure the success of the personalization measures, a continuous monitoring process is needed. This must be standardized - before, during and after the activity. As already mentioned in the first article, you need to define concrete goals in advance. During the campaign, you need to use integrated analytics systems to check and measure the metrics for the goals, the KPIs. Based on these results, the measures can always be adjusted and optimized manually or automatically. After a certain period of time, the entire results are evaluated and compared with the goals defined at the beginning. From this, exciting learnings and conclusions can be drawn and hypotheses for new measures can be defined.

Most companies are still at the very beginning of their personalization plans. But anyone who wants to be close to the customer in the future will not be able to avoid this topic.

www.namics.com/

Fredi Gmür was named "Location Manager of the Year" on 14 September 2017 in Zurich. This was the eleventh time that the SVSM Awards were presented to a lucky winner. In front of around 300 invited guests from the location and business development sector, as well as the real estate and construction industry, the

In the past, well-known personalities such as SBB CEO Andreas Meyer, Council of States member Ruedi Noser and Egyptian entrepreneur Samih Sawiris have received this SVSM Award.

Winner focuses on sustainability
"Fredi Gmür focuses on ecological, economic and social sustainability in the development of the youth hostels. At the same time, he has led the company into a new and modern era over the past few years and has thus made a significant contribution to shaping the Swiss tourism landscape and its overnight accommodation offering," says jury president Stefan Vogler, explaining the decision of the six-member panel.

"I am very pleased to receive this award. It is thanks to the efforts of all the employees of the Swiss Youth Hostels and the Swiss Foundation for Social Tourism that we are where we are today. Together we have invested an enormous amount in recent years and will continue to drive forward the development of our network, product and image in the future," commented Fredi Gmür on the unexpected honour.

As part of the modernisation of the network, the room concept of the youth hostels was also adapted to the needs of today's guests. In addition to the familiar multi-bed rooms, the range has been expanded to include family and double rooms - many of which have their own shower/WC. In addition, with special rates for children and senior citizens, the youth hostels are focusing more than ever on a cross-generational guest structure.

www.youthhostel.ch

Women entrepreneurship is on the rise worldwide. Last year, 163 million women started businesses globally in 74 economies, while 111 million led established businesses. This is according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2016/17 Women's Report, which was recently released.

New values for the world

"This not only demonstrates the magnitude of impact female entrepreneurs have around the world, but also highlights the contribution they have on the growth and well-being of their societies," says Donna Kelley, Babson College professor and co-author. "Female entrepreneurs provide income for their families, employment for those in their communities, and products and services with new value to the world around them."

Among the 63 economies surveyed in this report and the last one produced in 2015, GEM found that total entrepreneurial activity (= Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA)) among women increased by 10 percent and the gender gap (ratio of women to men participating in entrepreneurship) decreased by 5 percent. It also shows an 8 percent increase in women's ownership of already established businesses.

Female participation in entrepreneurship in Europe remains low, but the perception of opportunities is growing

Female entrepreneurship rates vary significantly across the economies studied. GEM groups economies in five levels of economic development (according to World Economic Forum criteria) and six geographic regions: East and South Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, North America, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Female TEA rates ranged from 3 percent in Germany, Jordan, Italy, and France to 37 percent in Senegal. In only five economies in two regions (Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam in Asia, and Mexico and Brazil in Latin America) did women participate in entrepreneurship at equal or higher rates than men.

Despite low TEA rates, Europe is notable for having more well-educated female than male entrepreneurs, 22 percent more on average. And while women in Europe are less likely to start up than women in economies at earlier stages of economic development, there has been a 10 percent increase in the number of women who think there is a good chance of starting a business in the region.

Ten percent of all female entrepreneurs surveyed run their businesses alone and have no intentions of employing staff in the next five years. Europe has the highest frequency of female one-person business activity, which means they have no intentions of employing anyone.

Political insight to better support women entrepreneurs

"GEM, now in its 18th year, has gained widespread recognition as the most authoritative longitudinal study of entrepreneurship in the world, and therefore provides valuable insights to inform future research and policy-making, as well as the design of interventions that can improve women's entrepreneurship," says GEM Executive Director Mike Herrington.

The data from this latest report shows several important trends and paradoxes and further said, "While economic development and educational attainment are increasing, women's entrepreneurial participation is decreasing and the gender gap is increasing, but business exit is also slowing. While the female discontinuity rate exceeds that of men in the first three stages of development, although at only about 10 percent, fewer women in highly developed and innovation-driven economies have exited businesses, only about two-thirds of the male rate.

There is also evidence for policymakers that women on average have a 20 percent or greater propensity to cite necessity as a motive for starting a new business compared to men - especially in less developed economies. There is also positive evidence that female entrepreneurs have a 5 percent greater propensity to innovate compared to men.

This suggests that support initiatives for women entrepreneurs need to be entrepreneurially tailored and adapted - rather than taking a 'one size fits all' approach.

Find out more about the current Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2016/17 here

The President of the Swiss Management Association (SMG) is Alice Šáchová. Introducing the Forum, Alice Šáchová re-quoted the former Kremlin boss Mikhail Gorbachov: "Those who are late are punished by life". There are companies like Karstadt or Kodak, which did not recognize the signs of the times. It is also possible to be too early, as AT&T's billion-euro investment in the Videophone had shown. Therefore, it is important not to be too early and not too late.

The right timing is crucial in both personal and business life. It can bring success or ruin. Šáchová: "We need to understand the diversity of techniques without leaving employees behind."

Jean-Claude Biver

Jean-Claude Biver has also succeeded in leading brands that had been shut down and thought dead, such as Blancpain and Hublot, to incredible heights. Now he is betting on digital development. The Swiss watch industry had slept through the trend of smartwatches, it was said time and again.

With the recent launch of the Tag Heuer Connected Modular 45, Jean-Claude Biver struck another stroke of genius in the spring and countered the dominance of the technology group Apple: "The technology of the smartwatch has a future. I believe in it. That's why we absolutely have to get in on the action and be in the race. That's where we'll see where it goes. If there's no future for it, we can get out again."

For this, Biver brought Intel and Google on board and brought the only Swiss digital watch to its greatest success.

Julia Kirby on obsolete jobs

Almost half of all US citizens could lose their jobs due to technological progress. The Swiss managers present were somewhat more positive about the possible consequences for Swiss jobs. Many areas are threatened by the accelerated progress in artificial intelligence (AI). How should we react to this?

"We can't stop this development - but we can help shape our future," says Julia Kirby, editor of the Harvard Business Review. She is not so worried about job losses: "Even if jobs are lost, new ones will be created. But when artificial intelligence comes along, the demands change. The different demands define the new jobs."

But she also raises a warning finger: "When competitors invest in artificial intelligence, managers should take a closer look." Goldman Sachs, for example, is investing specifically in artificial intelligence to improve existing processes, become smarter in business and better serve customers.

Daimler from automaker to mobility service provider

Until now, the existence of fully automated cars and those that manage entirely without a driver was still a long way off. At the beginning of April, the Daimler Group entered into a development cooperation with Bosch and is stepping on the gas. Such completely driverless systems could be ready for the market as early as the beginning of the next decade.

The transformation of mobility poses major challenges in the areas of law and ethics in addition to technical ones. Daimler is conducting a regular sustainability dialogue for the autonomous driving of the future, explains Renata Jungo Brüngger, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and responsible for Integrity and Legal Affairs there:

"We need a social discussion on autonomous driving and good legal foundations. Business, society and politics must be involved in a discourse to create a good solution for the future."

Company succession: When is it time to hand over?

Company succession is one of the central strategic tasks for all entrepreneurs. However, successful succession planning is not only of central importance for the company itself, but also for the national economy. According to a study by Credit Suisse, one in five SMEs in Switzerland is planning a business succession by 2021.

These 70,000 to 80,000 companies account for more than 400,000 jobs, which corresponds to around 10 percent of all employees in Switzerland.

Albert M. Baehny and Franz Julen have already successfully mastered this challenge. Julen has been at the helm of the franchise company Intersport, which is organized as a cooperative with 13 franchisees, for 17 years. He has sensed from various experiences that it is time to let go. "Before making such a decision, you have to listen to your heart and thus do the best for yourself and the company," Franz Julen said. He made a consistent cut and renounced the presidency of the board of directors or the consultant status.

Albert M. Baehny swapped his position as CEO at Geberit for that of Chairman of the Board of Directors. He was aware that his time was limited from the outset. He defined four requirements for his successor - talent as a basis, open to new things, used to working under pressure and a good character to further promote and develop the Geberit culture. "If you want succession and start the process early, it's a nice job," says Baehny.

The Swiss Management Association emerged in 1961 from the Business Administration Institute (BWI) of the ETH. Schweizerische Management Gesellschaft (SMG) is the most important association of over 1200 leading decision-makers in the Swiss economy. Through its networking and platform function, the SMG serves as a source of inspiration for entrepreneurs, C-level executives and board members dealing with strategic and operational management issues.

http://smg.ch

Here is the blurb for ISO 9001:2015 - Guidance for small businesses: Not only small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany, but also in developing, emerging and industrialized countries as the main contributors to the economy there, can benefit from the International Standard ISO 9001:2015 for defining the requirements for quality management systems.

Certification brings advantages

The introduction of a QM system and the corresponding certification according to ISO 9001 2015 makes sense for every company - regardless of the size of the company. The decisive factor is the increasing importance for the customers of a company. More and more customers want or demand certification in order to learn more about the company and its structures.

With a QMS, the company shows itself to be transparent and ready to respond to this central customer request. Accordingly, an increasing number of customers choose their service providers based on whether they are certified. Therefore, if certification is missing, this can become a significant competitive disadvantage.

With the first guide translated into German, "ISO 9001:2015 - Guidance for small businesses", SMEs receive a guide specifically tailored to their needs for the development and implementation of a QM system in their own company. Based on the original text of the standard (highlighted in grey), the contents and requirements are explained section by section and illustrated by numerous concrete examples from many different industries.

The "ISO 9001:2015 - Guidance for small companies" from DIN e.V., German Institute for Standardization is available from Beuth at www.beuth.de

The risks posed to the population by dangerous goods are acceptable. This is the conclusion of a Federal Council report drawn up in response to a postulate from the Committee for Transport and Telecommunications of the Council of States on the mitigation of such risks.

In its postulate of 18 May 2015, the Committee for Transport and Telecommunications of the Council of States had requested that measures be identified to reduce the risks associated with the transport of dangerous goods by rail or road, in particular chlorine. Dangerous goods (e.g. petrol, propane, chlorine) must be transported by rail or road in accordance with international regulations, supplemented by Swiss provisions.

Railways and roads on which large quantities of hazardous goods are transported are also subject to the Major Accidents Ordinance in order to protect the population and the environment from serious damage as a result of major accidents. The Federal Council approved the report in response to the postulate on 28 June 2017.

Joint control

The responsible federal offices (Federal Office of Transport FOT, Federal Roads Office FEDRO and Federal Office for the Environment FOEN) monitor risks across the entire transport network using jointly developed tools. This enables them to identify risks that are increasing, e.g. due to settlement development, at an early stage and to act accordingly.

This was most recently the case with the transport of chlorine by rail in tank wagons: in 2016, strict risk reduction targets and corresponding measures were agreed with the companies and authorities concerned in the second Joint Declaration in order to reduce the risks of such transports for the population along the railway lines.

According to the most recent overall assessment, less than 0.5 percent of the routes on the national roads pose an increased risk with regard to hazardous transport operations. FEDRO continuously adapts these transport routes to the current state of safety technology in the context of new constructions, extensions, conversions or renovations. There are no unacceptable risks on the railways.

Switzerland also has a high security standard in international comparison. Sys

tematic risk assessments of dangerous goods transports on the entire road and rail network and assessment criteria for dealing with these risks currently exist in a comparable form only in the Netherlands.

In its report, the Federal Council emphasises that the Major Accidents Ordinance requires coordination with cantonal structure and land-use planning, so that the risks along railway lines and roads do not increase uncontrollably in the future as a result of settlement development. (Source: astra/admin)

www.astra.admin.ch

Etherisc is handing over part of its activities, the development of the decentralized insurance platform, to the newly established Decentralized Insurance Foundation based in Zug.

Last fall, Etherisc made big waves with a new type of flight delay insurance. The insurance, developed on the Ethereum Blockchain, was launched just at the time of the world's largest blockchain congress DevCon2 in Shanghai and was used by over 1000 international visitors. This insurance, which is fully automated with smart contracts, has since been further developed in a targeted manner.

The cooperation with the Zug-based companies Lakeside Partners and inacta opens up a wide range of growth opportunities for the startup: As an early stage investor with a focus on blockchain technologies, Lakeside Partners is the ideal partner with broad experience in the startup environment of central Switzerland.

Blockchain knowledge transfer

On the other hand, the consulting firm inacta provides their IT expertise in information management and blockchain applications. Thanks to its extensive network in the Swiss insurance industry, inacta can connect InsurTech startups such as Etherisc with established insurance companies and thus promote joint innovations.

This is one of the important pillars of inacta's corporate strategy, which aims to bring together established companies and start-ups for innovative cooperation models in the future.

Crop failure insurance

Etherisc has also developed a concept for crop failure insurance for agriculture that works according to the same principles: Risk calculation, premium payment and claims handling are automated and transparent. This not only reduces operational costs.

The customer experience is also massively improved and the insurance conditions are demonstrably fair for the consumer. Thanks to the open platform, these decentralized apps - DApps for short - can be easily adapted to different needs and integrated into other applications.

The perfect blend of experience, entrepreneurship and innovation guarantees the continuation of a new digital era - and all this in the heart of Switzerland, the Crypto Valley.

https://etherisc.com/

Now there is the Federal ICT Security Expert. The federal diploma with the protected title "ICT Security Expert" is open to both professional practitioners and academics. Prerequisite for enrolment : be able to demonstrate practical experience in the field of IT security. This qualification prepares graduates for demanding professional and managerial tasks.

The costs for the courses

There are currently around 60 interested parties, according to ICT-Berufsbildung on request. Further courses are being planned in German- and French-speaking Switzerland. For quality reasons, a maximum of 30 people can take part in the first exam in 2018, after which the association expects 50 to 60 candidates per year.

The cost of preparatory courses ranges between CHF 15,000 and CHF 20,000. In order to promote the federal examinations, the Confederation provides subsidies on application. According to the lead professional association ICT-Berufsbildung, the Confederation will cover half of the costs or a maximum of CHF 10,000 per person from 2018.

Security Competencies

The new job profile was developed by "ICT-Berufsbildung Schweiz" together with the Federal IT Steering Committee (FSUIT) and a broad private-sector sponsorship. These include participating partners such as Microsoft, Swiss Post, Ruag, Swisscom, UBS and the Association of Swiss Electricity Companies (VSE).

According to the official communiqué, this means that requirements from companies and administration have been incorporated into the content of the degree, which "guarantees the relevance of the diploma to the labour market".

Apart from specialist knowledge, social and communication skills will also be part of the training, especially as creating security awareness in the company and managing incidents will be part of the future ICT security expert's range of tasks.

The first higher professional examination, which is offered in German and French, will take place in August 2018. A first preparatory course has just started.

Further information: www.ict-security-experts.ch or www.ictswitzerland.ch