Study: Everything will be different, it will be good for almost everyone

Change is of great strategic relevance for companies, as it can have a positive or negative impact on their long-term competitiveness. However, when things are going well in the company, many find it difficult to recognize change. At the same time, it is even more difficult to take strategic measures that are perceived as disruptive or even painful today, even if they are intended to ensure competitiveness in the long term. Change is a constant companion for companies. The KMU-Spiegel 2018 survey conducted by the University of Applied Sciences St.Gallen (FHS) examined the opportunities and risks of change for Swiss SMEs, and the SMEs surveyed in this study perceive their market and competitive environment to be more volatile than stable. However, according to Prof. Dr. Rigo Tietz from the Institute of Management IFU-FHS and head of the study, there is good news in this finding, as SMEs are aware that a lot will change in their sector over the next year, with around a third of those surveyed even expecting major changes. "In the opinion of over two thirds of the survey participants, there will be very significant changes within the next ten years," says Tietz. Respondents cited technological change and changes in customer requirements as the main drivers of change. this link can be downloaded.Overall, Swiss SMEs are rather optimistic about the near futureEven if it has become more difficult to be successful on the market in the long term, the study revealed that more than half of all respondents see opportunities in the expected changes, while only around 20 percent see risks as outweighing opportunities. Risks cited included price erosion, cost pressure and falling margins, globalization and increasing international competition, declining customer loyalty and new customer needs, as well as a lack of qualified personnel, while opportunities included aspects such as digitalization and the use of new technologies, a focus on specific market niches and Switzerland as a business location combined with a very positive external perception as a synonym for quality and reliability. SMEs therefore have predominantly positive expectations with regard to most success indicators such as sales development, while only the profit margin is expected to decline in almost all sectors. Only in the ICT sector do the positive expectations slightly outweigh the negative ones.Manufacturing industry also cautiously optimisticRepresentatives from the manufacturing industry, the ICT sector and the service sector are more confident about the future than the overall average, while companies from the agricultural sector are much more cautious. The situation of companies in the manufacturing industry in particular has improved noticeably. While the currency situation with the strong Swiss franc and the high location costs in Switzerland compared to other countries have dominated the discussion in the sector in recent years, positive signals such as good order backlogs and slight growth impetus are increasingly being seen again.Rigo Tietz explains this by saying that automation is perhaps not so scary for the manufacturing industry because companies can generally only hold their own in Switzerland if they have already achieved a high degree of automation in their processes and are always one step ahead of the competition from abroad with their products. What is already there can no longer be scary in the future.Changing demands of employeesThe more pronounced the changes in the company's environment are, the more the company must also change and implement new forms and models of work in whole or in part. Employees in all sectors, of all company sizes and of all generations want more flexibility in terms of time, space and, increasingly, content in the workplace than is currently provided by companies. Managers are seen less as authoritarian authorities and more as coaches who can offer both content-related and personal feedback and support. Major changes can already be seen in the ICT sector, in the manufacturing industry and in services, while there is less freedom in the construction, hospitality and agricultural sectors. meeting such employee wishes step by step may become an important criterion for attracting qualified employees or retaining them in the long term. How a blueprint for a sustainable working and organizational model for companies can or should look can hardly be answered in a general way for all sectors and types of company. This is because the respective situations of companies often differ fundamentally from one another. Instead, a suitable form must be found that suits the respective company and industry.