Language barriers not as high as expected 12. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot Although there is an extreme lack of experts, particularly in small and medium-sized hightech entities in Germany, the possibilities of recruiting such people from neighbouring countries are not sufficiently made use of. The main reason for this is the fear of language barriers. This fact was revealed by the “Managing Mobility Matters 2006« study conducted …
Dramatic lack of experts in telecommunications 11. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot A recent industry barometer by the Federal Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media, the so-called BITKOM index, not only measured expectations regarding turnover, but also trends concerning the labour market. According to the BITKOM president, Mr. Willi Berchtold, at the end of 2006 the labour market presents quite a heterogenious picture for the …
Ideas for use of Galileo wellcome 11. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot Through a “Green Book on the use of satellite navigation” for the Galileo satellite system the European Commission also addresses hightech small and medium-sized entities and think tanks. According to its preamble the purpose of this Green Book is to open a discussion which is to spur the development of new applications in satellite navigation.
Germany in second place as regards inventions 10. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot Germany comes second worldwide with regard to inventions, but ranks only in midfield as far as innovations are concerned. In future so-called clusters between newly- founded companies and market-oriented scientists may help to turn inventions more frequently into innovations which can be commercialized. A decisive disadvantage regarding the commercialization of innovations in Germany is a …
Germany lacks 22.000 engineers 10. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot There are alarming figures for small and medium-sized hightech entities which play a particular important role in the German economy: Prof. Eike Lehmann, chairman of the association of german engineers (VDI), in his recent presentation of current figures concerning the labour market for engineers laments a substantial shortage of engineers. According to these figures, about …
More money for research and development 7. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot In 2006 the German government has increased the amount of money spent on research and development (R&D) by almost 7%. This is the conclusion of the 2006 Federal Report on Research prepared by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) which was approved yesterday by the federal cabinet.
Small companies at the highest risk of becoming insolvent 6. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot A current study conducted by Creditreform has revealed that among the total number of insolvencies there are always more small and very small entities, whereas the percentage of larger enterprises going bust has remained virtually unchanged. According to this survey, the proportion of insolvent companies with a turnover of up to 0.1 million Euro has …
Frankfurt stock exchange more attractive to SMEs than London 5. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot Going public in Frankfurt is much more attractive than in London in particular for small and medium-sized entities. This is the finding of a joint study by the Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS) at the Technical University in Munich (TUM) and the European Business School (ebs) which was presented on the occasion of …
Statistical yearbooks available free of charge for he first time on the internet 5. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot The statistical yearbooks published by the Federal Statistical Office are no blockbusters, but quite a useful source of information for planning. So far printed versions have been quite expensive. Even the current edition which costs 84 Euro is not inexpensive. What is new is the fact that these yearbooks may now be completely downloaded free-of-charge …
Sweden and Great Britain top at venture capital funding 4. December 2006 by Thomas Jannot Venture capital investment is defined as private equity capital used for investing into companies. For small and medium-sized entities access to venture capital investment is highly important with regard to growth and employment. The amount of venture capital being available in proportion to GDP varies in the single EU member states. And this amount is …