Swiss SME Day 2021: When surprises are the new normality

After it had to be cancelled last year, the Swiss SME Day 2021 was almost back to normal. 1000 visitors came to St.Gallen to make up for what the pandemic measures made impossible for months: To meet in person, to exchange ideas and to listen to exciting presentations.

Swiss SME Day 2021 and the new normality

The conference theme "SMEs and surprises - bang for the buck" has lost none of its topicality this year. In his opening speech, host Tobi Wolf noted that uncertainty remains high across all industries. This means that companies must be prepared for surprises more than ever. According to a survey conducted among SME Day participants, the shortage of skilled workers, cyber incidents and material procurement are currently cited as particularly big challenges. Tobi Wolf showed how the virus has completely changed the way we live: Our consumer behavior, the working world - but also solidarity and behavior towards our environment. Contactless payments are being made, virtual weddings are being celebrated, and mobile work is being done from everywhere. All of this does not stop at SMEs. According to the survey, 60 percent of the survey participants want to actively face the new normal. "We need more curiosity and a desire for new things in companies," concludes Tobi Wolf.

Lifeboats for SMEs

A somewhat more pessimistic view was then expressed by Konrad Hummler, former owner of the private bank Wegelin and today operator of a think tank for strategic contemporary issues. He still senses a certain fearfulness and a division in society. The economy was saved by an "overall bailout," but by accumulating a gigantic mountain of debt. Hummler described as surprising not necessarily the occurrence of a pandemic itself, but the failure of authorities to manage it. He compared the handling of the pandemic to the sinking of the Titanic: carelessness, arrogance coupled with the ignoring of information, which ultimately culminated in ineffective containment and a lack of lifeboats. And it is precisely such lifeboats that companies need. Konrad Hummler recommends a return to old virtues: Reserve building, redundancies, collective backup systems and - especially central: friends you can rely on. "An entrepreneur, even if he is up to his neck in water, should not be on his last legs," says Hummler.

About cultural creativity and bureaucracy of authorities

Christian Jott Jenny, mayor of St. Moritz and cultural organizer, then delivered a cheerful roundabout, peppered with many anecdotes. He compared municipalities with SMEs: municipalities also compete with each other in the same way as companies, but the decisive difference is that - thanks to taxes - they have quasi-guaranteed income and can therefore not be "run into the ground". Jenny also noted that until a few years ago, municipalities copied a lot from the business world (New Public Management), but today it is rather the other way around: under the aspect of corporate governance, companies are beginning to orient themselves more than ever to co-determination processes, such as those that take place in municipalities.

Christian Jott Jenny - a trained classical tenor - took aim at bureaucracy in a musical performance. In a chanson, he described the laborious search for an application form through many offices. The fact that every form of satire and joke ultimately also has a kernel of truth was also shown in real terms by the following anecdote: the OC of the SME Day only received official confirmation at 2:24 p.m. that the event had been approved ...

Startups as the SMEs of tomorrow

Another program item at the Swiss SME Day 2021 was the "Inspiration Session": Three startups pitched their business ideas. Andreas Brenner from Avrios presented a SaaS platform for fleet management for SMEs, Jan-Philip Schade presented his FinTech startup Kaspar& and Sandra Tobler represented Futurae Technologies AG, an ETH spinoff that has developed a cybersecurity solution. In the end, Kaspar& and its investment app came out on top in the audience's favor. Marc Schlegel, founder of Lizza, a company that developed a low-carb pizza dough and caused a sensation within a short time, also joined the Inspiration Session via video stream. In the meantime, Marc Schlegel has made a successful exit and reported back from his vacations in a correspondingly relaxed mood.

Our "unreasonable" brain and a trip across the Atlantic Ocean

The last block of presentations was given first by the neuroscientist Lutz Jäncke and then by Gabi Schenkel. Lutz Jäncke asked the rhetorical question: Is our brain rational? He explained that the answer to this question can only be "no", because our brain is not made for rational decisions. Many decisions are made unconsciously because our brain is constantly busy "interpreting away everything that gets in our way. Reason is only a philosophical explanation shaped by the Enlightenment. But the unconscious processes in our brain are dominant.

Endurance athlete Gabi Schenkel was the first Swiss woman to cross the Atlantic alone in a rowing boat. Needless to say, she had to deal with many unforeseen circumstances on this adventure - broken oars, partial failure of the navigation system. She used impressive pictures and short films to describe how she had to deal with her 75-day loneliness. She vividly showed how one experiences beautiful moments differently when one also knows the opposite side of them - a point also emphasized by Lutz Jäncke in the subsequent discussion with moderator Steffi Buchli.

Next Swiss SME Day: October 28, 2022

And there was also something to celebrate on Swiss SME Day 2021: namely the 75th anniversary of the Institute KMU-HSG. The history of the institute was humorously told musically by the voice artist Martin O.. One of the many milestones was, of course, the founding of the SME Day in 2003, whose story will be told again next year on October 28, 2022.

More information: www.kmu-tag.ch