Funds for high-tech start-ups increased 22. January 2007 by Thomas Jannot Three major German high-technology companies support founders of high-tech start-ups. At the end of 2006 DaimlerChrysler, Bosch and Carl Zeiss contributed six million Euros joining a fund for high-tech start-ups which had been set up in August 2005 by the German government, industry and the KfW bank. At the same time the KfW bank increased …
Medium-level management dissatisfied 18. January 2007 by Thomas Jannot A survey among 1400 employees in medium-level management in Europe, North America and Asia seems to prove that the mood at this management level is marked by demotivation and dissatisfation worldwide. The “Middle Manager’s Outlook” survey by Accenture comes to the conclusion that 39% of those questioned are dissatisfied with their professional situation and 23% …
Salaries of managers in SMEs increasing particularly fast 18. January 2007 by Thomas Jannot A study called “Germany Salary Increase Survey 2006 – 2007” conducted by Hewitt Associates has revealed that manager salaries increased by 3.3% in the year 2006 which represents a much bigger rise than that experienced by other groups of employees which on average earned 2.6% more. As was already the case in 2005, the salaries …
Figures and facts on Germany available in English and German 17. January 2007 by Thomas Jannot Everyone wishing to be informed about the economic, social and ecologic situation of Germany as compared with its European neighbours may download a brochure called „ Im Blickpunkt – Deutschland in der Europäischen Union 2006″ from the website of the Federal Statistical Office. On more than 90 pages there is a lot of information collected …
Surveys among own staff strategically more and more important 16. January 2007 by Thomas Jannot About two thirds of companies are regularly conducting surveys among their employees which represents an unprecedented figure. This was the finding of a joint study “Staff surveys – trends of 2007” by the Kienbaum and Hewitt Associates consultancy firms. However, the character of these surveys is increasingly changing: these surveys are always less a mood …
New web site prepares staff of SMEs for work abroad 16. January 2007 by Thomas Jannot Whereas employees in major companies who are sent abroad can generally ask their colleagues for advice, staff working in small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) quite often have to collect all the necessary information on their own. In order to help them in this respect there is a new web site called iXpatriate.de which went online …
Share of R&D in EU´s GDP stagnating 15. January 2007 by Thomas Jannot The expenditure by the 27 EU member states (EU27) on research and development (R&D) accounted for 1.84 percent of the EU´s GDP in 2005 which is the same value as for the year 2004. In real terms, however, expenditure rose by 1.5% in the period from 2001 to 2005, as was reported by the European …
Market for organic food booming 15. January 2007 by Thomas Jannot A new study by the GFK research institute on the consumption of food organicly produced has revealed that in 2006 ninety percent of all German households at least once bought organic food. For the period from January to September 2006 expenditure on organic food also increased by 17 percent as compared to the same period …
International credit transfers have become cheaper 15. January 2007 by Thomas Jannot EU legislation on international money transfers has lead to major cost cuts for bank clients. Thus, the costs for a money transfer of 100 Euros which had amounted to 24 Euros prior to new EU directives now on average stand at just 2.50 Euros. Furthermore, the new rules have provided incentives for banks to invest …
Information site on EU research policies online 15. January 2007 by Thomas Jannot A new and to high-tech entrepreneurs very interesting information tool has gone online recently: Erawatch. This information platform provided by the EU Commission provides up-to-date information and analyses on the development of research systems and research policies of all EU member states as well as information on the latest documents relating to research policies, research …