Posts in Entrepreneurship

While the benefits of a board of directors are well understood for more established firms, the role of the board for new ventures constitutes a particular challenge. A new venture’s board of directors is highly consequential for its most important strategic and personnel outcomes. Based on the observation of multiple board meetings and several interviews with board members, this article reflects on how organization and strategy influence new venture boards. It summarizes key findings and identifies the most important limitations. It also explains how new international venture boards are impacted… Read More

Benoît Goncerut and Arnaud Cottet (Switzerland) with a master degree from the School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR) and founders of Glacier Optics, have been published in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor on page 58.  Glacier Optics makes sunglasses for climbers and mountaineers as well as for the modern urban fashion market.

Results for Switzerland from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2018/2019 (GEM) Fostering entrepreneurial awareness and positive attitudes toward entrepreneurship is high on Switzerland’s policy agenda. Nevertheless, the intentions of Swiss inhabitants to start a business are lower (6.9%) than in 2017 (10.5%) and under the average for other high-income economies (17.1%). Moreover, only 7.4% of Swiss business people have plunged into entrepreneurial activities (total entrepreneurial activity TEA-rate), a founding rate that is below the average of compared countries (10.4 %). The results of the 2018/2019 edition also show that the Swiss… Read More

Digitization for small and medium-sized enterprises is on everyone’s lips today. There is no question that technological changes have a direct impact on an SME, whether positive or negative. In addition, not only do they determine future opportunities, but they also entail risks. A game on a digital keyboard can make a miniature staccato sound. That is to say: you develop a website with SEO support, place products on Instagram, work with an e-commerce shop solution or recruit employees with the help of social media such as Linkedin. Medium and… Read More

The hurdles of digitization projects in SMEs are often time-consuming and limited in terms of invested capital and lack of expertise. Above all, digitization is tantamount to a strategic management task. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that, in return, companies want personalized advice, training, workshops and access to information. From the perspective of education and training, learning and learning to learn will increasingly need to become key competences. These skills will decide whether we will survive in the labor market and with the help of this meta-knowledge, career opportunities will… Read More