MittelstandsWiki

Food purchases over the internet are still on the rise. Through this medium about 122 million Euros were spent by Germans last year on beverages and foodstuffs which is a plus of 11% as compared to the year 2005, as was reported by the Federal Association of Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM). Of these 122 million Euros in 2006 about 75% were spent on foods and the remaining 25% on beverages. +++

Virtually all topmanagers (93%) with commercial education believe that in general businessmen make better top managers than engineers. At least this is the opinion of participants at the eighth »Manager Panel« staged by LAB Lachner Aden Beyer & Company which is an international personnel management consultancy. However, their top manager colleagues with engineer background are much more self-critical. Only 74% of skilled engineers prefer themselves to businessmen as top managers. +++

In particular in the context of globalization wide-band internet access is becoming increasingly important to small and medium-sized entities. By means of such a kind of fast access to the internet many business processes may be optimized and gaps to international competitors minimized. However, it is recommended to gather information beforehand in order to know about opportunities, costs and obstacles. +++

The textiles business has had a surprisingly good start into the new year according to the association of German textiles retailers. Presumably VAT increase did not have as strong an effect as expected, the reason being numerous sales discounts which were granted at Christmas due to forecasts which were not very promising. +++

Three major German high-technology companies support founders of high-tech start-ups. At the end of 2006 DaimlerChrysler, Bosch and Carl Zeiss contributed six million Euros joining a fund for high-tech start-ups which had been set up in August 2005 by the German government, industry and the KfW bank. At the same time the KfW bank increased its contribution from 11 to 15 million Euros. +++