Knowing their employer’s business strategy is of high importance to German employees. More than two thirds of people questioned think that without knowing the company´s strategy they are not able to do their work properly. Only a minority believe that knowing or not knowing the plans was irrelevant to achieving business objectives. This is the finding of the current survey carried out among almost 10.000 site visitors of the StepStone Internet job portal from 8 European countries. +++

The European Commission has adopted guidelines on establishing the compatibility of public grants aimed at promoting venture capital investment in small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) with the stipulations concerning grants laid down in the EC treaty (Article 87 (⇒ Wikipedia)). The objective is to facilitate the access of SMEs to financial means during their early development phases. +++

Since the launch of Tchibo´s mobile communications business activities in 2004 several other companies called Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) have entered this market segment. Are activities of this kind only a method aimed at reaching new target groups by offering low prices or is the MVNO model a promising business model with real potential? Dr. Jürgen Kaack, writer, consultant and managing director of the STZ Consulting Group has no doubts on that: “In particular small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) should implement this new business model.” +++

The Haufe Mediengruppe, which is a publishing house specialized on judicial literature, points to the fact that from July 1st employers have to pay standardized social contributions of 30 percent instead of hitherto 25 percent for employing so-called mini jobbers. According to Haufe the Taxpayers´ Confederation had found out through a survey in North Rhine-Westphalia that in most cases auditors sent by the pension insurance had detected irregularities examining these so-called 400 Euros employment relationships. +++

The economic forecasting for Germany by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) has been less promising for July 2006 with a fall of 22.7 points to 15.1 points on the rating scale as compared to the previous month (37.8 points in July). Above all economic development in Germany is put at risk by the rapidly growing oil price. Furthermore it is expected that exports are going to lose momentum over the next six months due to a weakening US economy and a strong European currency. It is rather unlikely that this development could be compensated for by domestic demand given that there will be a VAT increase next year. “The repeated reduction in ZEW´s economic indicator is a clear sign for the government´s reform policies not meeting expectations so far. German citizens have to face new financial burdens without the reforms being successful, let alone their being realized”, says Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Franz who is the ZEW´s chairman. +++

350 senior EU officials from the directorate general of companies and industry (GD ENTR) are to work for one week in small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). This unusual kind of work at the economic frontline is part of a so-called “company experience” programme launched on the 17th of July by the Commission. It aims at making the officials better understand the needs of SMEs and assess their problems more realistically. Says Günter Verheugen, who is EU vice president: “Working in SMEs my colleagues and I will gather practical experience on the situation of small and medium-sized entities. On the other hand companies will not only get motivated “interns”, but also “EU ambassadors” who will be able to present and explain those political measures which affect SMEs.” +++

The German office for collecting radio and TV fees (GEZ) assumes that company computers are also used for listening to radio and watching TV, which is an absurd allegation in the eyes of entrepreneurs. Nevertheless from January 1st 2007 fees will also have to be paid for company computers equipped with an internet connection, if the company in question has not already registered any radio or TV post with the GEZ. However, it has not been determined yet whether only the radio fee amounting to 5.53 Euros or the TV fee of 17.03 Euros per month will have to be paid. +++

It is a fact that email marketing is also useful to small and medium-sized entities. Whereas spam emailing is simple, but illegal, legal and serious email marketing requires some adequate technical equipment and so far could only be provided by external service providers or using expensive computer software. These solutions, however, were often too expensive for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). Now an interesting open source alternative called OpenEMM is made available free of charge by the Munich based Agnitas email marketing company for download. +++

With regard to the cornerstones of a company taxation reform which were fixed by the German government on Wednesday, Mr. Mario Ohoven, who is chairman of the Confederation of German small and medium-sized entities (BVMW), declared: “The German government has realized at last that tax cuts mean smaller revenues at first, but will lead to a fresh impetus for investment and growth in the medium term thereby even increasing state revenues. +++

Das jüngste Printprodukt der just 4 business GmbH heißt “Faszination Dual Core”. Dabei handelt es sich um eine 16 Seiten umfassende Beilage im Auftrag der Firma Intel, die in den Aboausgaben der Zeitschriften c´t, ix und Technology Review (TR) des Heise Zeitschriften Verlags erschienen ist. Faszination Dual Core erklärt unter anderem die Vorteile von zwei Rechenkernen in einer CPU, die vPro- und Viiv-Technologien sowie den Unterschied von Dual Core versus Hyper-Threading (HT). Ein kurzes Interview zum Moore’schen Gesetz rundet das Thema ab.