A couple of weeks ago McKinsey launched a survey on the organizational challenges presented by social and economic trends. The results for this survey are available now; according to available data McKinsey received 1,317 responses from a worldwide representative sample of business executives. Top 5 of the most important identified trends are: Competition for talent [...]

Quite recently I have found a very interesting study concerning success factors. A large strategy consulting company did analyze these factors for Chinese companies abroad. To compete abroad four major success factors were described:   Productivity and quality need to be improved. It is expected that in the next couple of years the salary level [...]

We all come across various pieces of news and information every day. Most of them don’t get our attention, taken on their own. However, sometimes two seemingly unrelated pieces of information team up in our minds and suddenly become more interesting. This just happened to me. Last weekend, during my course of Real Estate Investment [...]

OK, Porsche’s announcement to increase its share in VW is not really new any more. However, I have spent the last few days thinking about the strategic rationale behind that (among other things, of course). And still, I did not make up my mind. I am not sure if this is a smart or dumb [...]

At mid of December last year I posted about the legal disputes (in terms of copyright issues) and the opportunities to generate “Web 2.0-returns”. Now we will face the next level of the copyright battle. Viacom (the media company) takes Youtube to the court and claims compensation for copyright violations. The amount of money or [...]

Lower Saxony, a federal state in the north of Germany, is VW’s second-largest shareholder after Porsche. Due to the so called “Volkswagen law” the state is in a very comfortable position to control the company. The law came into force on 21st March 1960, when the former Volkswagen GmbH was privatised and converted into a [...]

When reading the FT today I discovered a piece of information, which – when put together with some other things – seems to form up a very interesting bigger picture. It was in an analysis of the success of Indian companies in global markets and it said that Indian Tata Motors has a “one lakh [...]

About one month ago I predicted that Toyota will invest more efforts in the German market soon. So far it seems as if this prediction is in tune with reality: Today, German newspaper Handelsblatt writes that Toyota is going to launch the larges billboards advertising campaign ever in Germany to introduce its new “Auris” model. [...]

There are probably more economic indicators around than any single person can make use of. Lots of figures and indices may serve as an early sign for some potential future trends in specific industries or whole economies. I have some rather uncommon personal favorites. The first two are not so much early indicators but quite [...]

Contrary to the United States, where Toyota and their luxury brand Lexus have gained a considerable market share, both brands have been struggling for years in Germany. According to official statistics, both brands together have a market share of new cars sales of only 4 %. Although Toyota had been enjoying a reputation for superior [...]