Economic crisis threatens a quarter of Swiss SMEs

For 17 percent of SME decision-makers surveyed by Visable, war is the biggest threat to their company's business, and even more, 28 percent, see themselves threatened by an economic crisis. Seventy-one percent of participating SME decision makers fear that crises of the current magnitude will occur more frequently (47%) or much more frequently (24%) in the next three years. Strikingly, Corona is still perceived as a threat, with 16 percent of mentions, roughly similar to war. Cyberattacks and hacker attacks are mentioned by 12 percent. "SMEs are really struggling right now. One crisis is followed by another," says Peter F. Schmid, CEO of Visable. "The central issue for the next few years will be to make companies crisis-proof. Otherwise, prosperity in Switzerland and Europe will be threatened," Schmid said. In Switzerland and Austria, 217 people with decision-making authority in small and medium-sized enterprises took part in the aforementioned survey. Elsewhere, we have already reported on further results of the survey.

SMEs complain of sales losses

The threat posed by the crisis scenarios mentioned in the survey is real for SMEs in Switzerland and can be quantified in terms of lost sales: 37 percent of the SMEs surveyed say that their company has lost up to a quarter of its sales since the beginning of 2021 as a result of the major crises. One in five companies (20%) has suffered even higher sales losses.

In concrete terms, the companies are particularly affected by the massive rise in costs: Rising raw material and energy prices account for 34 and 29 percent respectively. And 30 percent complain about supply chain problems. HR departments are also still struggling with absenteeism due to illness and quarantine (28%) and shortages of skilled workers and labor (29%). Rising inflation is an acute concern for one-fifth of respondents (21%).

"Energy costs in particular will become the bread prices of the 21st century," says Peter F. Schmid. "The problem affects the entire population directly (in the case of gasoline or heating) but especially indirectly (through rising production costs in industry). We must quickly and massively reduce our one-sided dependencies on energy and also raw materials. This is the only way to achieve resilience against crises," says the Visable CEO.

Short-time working and staff reductions are also among the measures

The measures companies are using to prevent the crises are not very pronounced and are quite diverse. Specifically, the most significant measure is staff reductions or wage cuts at 23 percent, followed by short-time working at 18 percent. Other precautionary measures include increased provisions at 13 percent, diversification of sales markets, investment in IT expertise and employee training for risk or crisis scenarios. As many as 16 percent of SMEs have operational emergency plans in the drawer for their own measures.

In addition, the survey shows reasonably clear demands on policymakers to increase resilience to crises. More than a third (34%) of companies would like to see tax cuts and other financial support. Thirty percent call for bureaucracy reduction and greater legal flexibility. Exactly one-quarter cite tougher measures against climate change and investment in environmental protection as demands.

All core markets threatened by economic crisis

The fact that the crisis is not only on the minds of SME decision-makers in Switzerland is shown by parallel YouGov surveys in Germany, Austria and France: everywhere, more than two-thirds of respondents expect more frequent crises in the next three years. The French are just slightly more pessimistic than the Swiss: In France, a total of 72 percent fear more frequent crises. In Germany, the figure of 68 percent is on a par with the Austrian result. Visable CEO Peter F. Schmid comments: "Fortunately, there have not been as many crises in Central Europe as there are at the moment for a very long time. It is worrying that more than two-thirds of all SMEs assume that the situation will get worse in such an acute situation. Those who are afraid invest less in the future."

Companies could solve many challenges by moving business units and processes into the digital space. For example, purchasing could be diversified via digital B2B platforms to address supply chain issues and rising commodity prices, as well as increasing sustainability awareness. According to the survey, 14 percent of Swiss SMEs are already implementing purchasing diversification as a preventive measure against crises.

Source and further information: Visible