Business Day: The exchange of blows and unity - it won't work without digitization
On September 14, the 2nd Swissmechanic Business Day took place in Lucerne. More than three times as many visitors came to learn about the dangers and opportunities of digitalization and Industry 4.0. SMEs, banks, politicians, large companies, research and stakeholders met, all committed, passionate and also critical.
The kick-off at this year's Business Day was critical and political: Swissmechanic President Roland Goethe called for: 1) The mobilization of commercial banks for SMEs. 2) The liberalization of the financial market by giving equal rights to FinTech as an alternative to commercial banks. 3) A realistic and fair opportunity for those SMEs that can overcome the hurdle of digitalization and automation through a loan as a start-up investment. "On the one hand, the money is abundant in Switzerland. Private investors and institutions would also like to invest at good interest rates. On the other hand, there are SMEs that need this money and are willing to pay interest for it. For this, our family businesses need new, digital, economic solutions, because it is a structural problem of the capital market. The money is no longer getting to those who need it, and investors are not getting enough interest. It is not only in industry that a structural change must take place." After this political prelude, the event was divided into three panels: innovation, implementation and financing, with more than different representatives.
Marketing 4.0 at the Business Day
The first forum of the Business Day was opened by the study and practical project of Prof. Peter Jaeschke from the University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen with Swissmechanic. He emphasized that SMEs need clearly defined and communicated goals to be successful, both in implementation and in financing. He also presented the joint DigiNav project, which aims to help SMEs make the new leap into the cold water of Industry 4.0 with the help of surveys and studies. In summary, the company culture must be attuned to change. "Getting ideas cannot be prescribed, only encouraged". The presentation by Otto Hofstetter, CEO of Hofstetter AG, also revolved around this very corporate culture. He described the influence of advertising on society and how digitalization also affects marketing. In this context, he described Marketing 4.0 and clarified that his company reinvests 0.6 - 0.7 % of sales directly back into advertising for new business. Smovie offered a practical example of applied advertising. A company that offers image films via cell phone, which can be made by anyone. This panel discussion offered the following statements in summary: Patrick Berhalter, CEO Berhalter AG, Digital Expert of Swissmechanic: "You have to optimize platforms holistically. If you don't go along with that, you'll be left behind." Andreas Rauch, from GF Fischer emphasized, "The whole organization has to work if you want to transform customer trust from the real to the digital world." These two statements summarize the general view on company culture: People are and must be the basis of digital transformation- without this connection, digitization remains pointless and useless.
"Without data we are nothing"
The subsequent forum was introduced by CVP President Gerhard Pfister. In his speech, he spoke across party lines about the problems of the credit crunch and the connection between knowledge, tradition and profession. On the credit crunch, he made it clear that although there was enough money in Switzerland, it was not reaching the right ones, namely SMEs. In this sense, he also presented the idea of an SME fund and pleaded for financial aid for trade-oriented guarantee cooperatives.
Mr. Wisard from Tectris AG told how his company's factory burned down completely in July and how digitization, or rather the storage of data, not only made the reconstruction process extremely easy, but was a condition for its continued existence in itself. He believes that data is worth more than machines because it was the only way they could design a recovery plan and survive without their machinery or buy the machines - not the data. Nicely summarized by Mr. Wisard: "Without data we are nothing!"
There is agreement that the corporate culture plays an enormously important role, and with it teamwork and cohesion. This is especially true because the demands placed on employees are developing faster and faster.
Against the credit crunch
The final round at the Business Day was opened by FDP Council of States member Ruedi Noser. He began by presenting the financing of digitization as a huge problem, partly because he feared piracy due to the digital availability of data. Furthermore, he emphasized that he would rather hold SMEs accountable for the financing problems. Many did not have a reasonable business plan or wanted financing for projects that they would not finance themselves. However, he emphasized that he sees bank regulation as one of the main causes of the lack of lending to SMEs. He listed problems such as the location issue and made it clear that solutions should be sought through market means. In this sense, he also called the idea of a fund idiotic.
This was followed by Alwin Meyer from swisspeers. He introduced the principle of crowdsourcing and the crowdlending etc. that came out of it. He explained how these methods can be used by platforms like swisspeers to boost SME financing or in his words: "We want to get the illiquid SME credit market liquid again". Furthermore, he also saw the so-called investment imperative, which he described as follows: "With digitalization, I have one chance. Either I'm in or I'm out." He also explained how swisspeers can be so successful because of the lot size problem of the banks and why this is good for investors: yield and diversification.
Attilio Zanetti from the SNB joined the final panel discussion. An interesting exchange of views developed between Mr. Zanetti, Mr. Noser and Mr. Meyer. The main topic was the regulation of banks and the sense of banks. While Ruedi Noser would prefer no more regulation, Alwin Meyer insisted rather on a more moderate solution and an expansion of FinTech. Attilio Zanetti also frequently took the neutral position of the central bank in the discussion and emphasized the importance of regulations to preserve our economy after the financial crisis.
