{"id":366,"date":"2017-12-11T15:13:49","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T14:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog?p=366"},"modified":"2017-12-11T15:15:43","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T14:15:43","slug":"location-disadvantages-for-sme-in-the-swiss-machine-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/location-disadvantages-for-sme-in-the-swiss-machine-industry","title":{"rendered":"Location disadvantages for SME in the Swiss machine industry?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Strong franc as location disadvantage<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>About 200 member companies of Swissmechanic were surveyed for the study. The results were alarming.<\/p>\n<p>The companies pointed to the overvalued Swiss franc as the greatest location disadvantage by far. In almost 40\u00a0percent of the companies interviewed, the strong franc had a negative impact on employment.\u00a0The second location problem mentioned was that in more than 50\u00a0percent of the businesses, profit margins had deteriorated in the period from 2014 to 2016, due to the strong franc. Currently, almost half of the companies have a profit margin of less than 5\u00a0percent, which is not tolerable in the long run. Some 10\u00a0percent are recording losses.<\/p>\n<p>What is more, many companies have difficulties getting loans:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In 2015, one in every five companies was refused a loan to finance its business activities. In the years before and after 2015, this figure was one in every eight. Furthermore, one in every three SME was requested to secure its loans with mortgages.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Demand for a strategic exchange rate target<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Based on the analysis, the authors of the study recommend various actions: The Swiss National Bank should target a strategic exchange rate of EUR\u00a01 = CHF\u00a01.18 to 1.20. To solve the credit dilemma, alternative financing forms must be elaborated, apart from bank loans, and\u00a0the guarantee system\u00a0for SME must be improved. Moreover, the investment regulations of pension funds should be reviewed. Vocational training and additional training must be strengthened as the basis for innovation, especially in view of the challenges of digitisation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alexandria.unisg.ch\/252656\/\">The study can be accessed here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo on <a href=\"https:\/\/visualhunt.com\/re\/c4b941\">Visualhunt.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Strong franc as location disadvantage About 200 member companies of Swissmechanic were surveyed for the study. The results were alarming. The companies pointed to the overvalued Swiss franc as the greatest location disadvantage by far. In almost 40\u00a0percent of the companies interviewed, the strong franc had a negative impact on employment.\u00a0The second location problem mentioned [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[27,38],"tags":[],"acf":{"excerpt":"<p>Accounting for about one-fifth of value created, the machine industry plays a key role in the Swiss economy. SME represent the backbone of the industry. Under the title \u201cEconomic significance and problems of the SME in the Swiss machine industry under special consideration of the companies organised by Swissmechanic\u201d, Prof. em. Dr. Franz Jaeger and Dr. Tobias Tr\u00fctsch have prepared a study commissioned by Swissmechanic and the trade union Unia.<\/p>\n","school":false},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lam.unisg.ch\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}