Innovation and risk: Is failure allowed?
Enterprise also means innovation and taking risks. Creating something new is not possible if you don't leave the beaten track. But is it socially desirable in Switzerland to dare something new and even to fail? The synergy, the event of the Swiss SME economy, focused on the Swiss risk culture 15 November 2017 in Bern.
Is the time ripe for innovation and risk or are we limiting ourselves with more and more regulation to such an extent that change is excluded from the outset? Innovation needs entrepreneurial room for manoeuvre: this was demonstrated by examples from participating SMEs at synergy, an event for Swiss SMEs.
A new brand called "Home
Who invests in a Swiss cigarette factory, for example, in times when government prevention and paternalism campaigns denounce tobacco products and impose ever higher taxes? The entrepreneur Roger Koch took a chance and launched a new product with a combination of Swiss tobacco and hemp that really hit the market. For months the product was out of stock (currently it can only be ordered online) and yet there is potential for optimisation: not everything, e.g. the hemp, in this "special cigarette" comes from Switzerland.
How does Logitech remain successful?
Guerrino de Luca, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Logitech, shows that even large companies have to find new ways to stay ahead. Logitech is one of the most successful Swiss startups that has earned its place among the big players in Silicon Valley.
Missed innovations plunged the company into a crisis in 2008, from which Logitech only found its way out again thanks to new products and innovative brands. Digitization opens up opportunities for the company in innovation.
New platforms
New sources can be found via financing platforms such as swisspeers.ch by helpy expert Alwin Meyer in order to find investors for projects even with a higher risk. However, the new possibilities of digitalisation also make the economy and society more vulnerable to new dangers such as cybercrime.
Israeli cyber expert Shira Kaplan helps Swiss companies protect themselves against this. She brings her know-how with her from Israel, where a risk-averse start-up scene with a good environment and in cooperation with the army is doing pioneering work in this area. But does Switzerland need support from Isreal? To be innovative and entrepreneurially flexible these days, probably yes.
