The ORGANISATOR: The established SME trade magazine celebrates its 100th anniversary

The publisher and book expert Max Friedländer (1879 - 1976) published the first issue of ORGANISATOR on April 1, 1919. This meant that there was a magazine in Switzerland that regularly offered practical help for companies on management issues. This year, what is probably the most established SME trade magazine in German-speaking Switzerland is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

This principle applied then as it does today. In each issue, ORGANISATOR presents key topics for managing directors and managers of SMEs. Surprisingly, the topics have hardly changed in the last 100 years: It's all about organization, leadership, marketing, employment law and much more. What has changed, however, are the technologies used: Whereas in 1919 a well-managed card index formed the nerve center of a company, today this is handled by digitally based CRM and ERP systems. The ORGANIZER has always succeeded in anticipating developments and trends or even setting them itself.

The editorial team is using the anniversary year 2019 as an opportunity to look back into the past. Articles from the archive will be published in every issue. These are sure to elicit a smile or two from readers about the "good old days". In three issues, individual aspects will be explored in greater depth. The April issue, for example, will deal with the topic of "Corporate management in transition". The June issue will be dedicated to the topic "From business letters to social media marketing" and the October issue will feature a special section on "Employee management yesterday - today - tomorrow". For each of these focal points, a link to the present will be established, with comparative moments to be noted.

"Then - in 1919 - as now, companies faced major challenges. What was the final breakthrough of industrial mass production and the beginning of mass consumption immediately after the First World War is now the digital transformation," says ORGANISATOR Editor-in-Chief Thomas Berner. "The constant adaptation to changing conditions accompanies companies every day. This has hardly changed in the 100 years of ORGANISATOR's existence." And publishing manager Rolf Gubelmann adds: "Then as now, managers in SMEs need specialist information tailored to their needs. The founders of ORGANISATOR made this their mission. We want to continue to meet this demand - adapted to today's reading habits."