The company bexio was founded four years ago and developed a simple, cloud-based business software for small businesses in Switzerland. Thanks to rapid growth, it is now one of the leading providers with over 15,000 customers. Now the company has been acquired by Mobiliar, which claims to be the largest SME insurance company in Switzerland. With this acquisition, Mobiliar wants to strengthen its position in the SME market. "also expand digitally," as it communicates. „Together with a strong partner and solid parent company, we will be able to further develop our platform even faster and more sustainably," bexio itself writes on its own Company Blog. It is emphasized that the company will not be integrated into Mobiliar, but will remain independent. Current contracts will remain in force, as will the management and founders as well as the entire team as contact persons. The existing cooperation between bexio and Swiss Life is also not affected by the new ownership. To the new owners it is important that the company retains its start-up character and can concentrate fully on its own growth, according to the statement. "Mobiliar gives us additional impetus to develop further as an SME platform and to quickly realize the needs of our customers," bexio continues to write.

"If someone authorized to represent another enters into a contract on his behalf, the represented person, and not the representative, becomes entitled and obligated." This is stated in Article 32 of the Code of Obligations - as far as it is relatively clear. But what happens if there is actually no authorization, but the supplier assumes in good faith that it exists? If the employer has created the appearance of a corresponding authorization to the outside world, the representative effect nevertheless comes into effect on the basis of Art. 33 Para. 3 OR. The good faith of the supplier is protected insofar as he has not acted carelessly. This is intended to strengthen legal certainty in commercial dealings.

What is a prima facie power of attorney?

A so-called "prima facie power of attorney" may already exist, for example, if an employee uses the employer's business stationery or e-mail address, at least if he orders items that correspond to the company's business purpose. This would, for example, easily be affirmed in the case of a large order of meat for a restaurant, but not for a trust company. The quantity must also be correct; if an employee orders a few boxes of chocolate bars for a kiosk, a prima facie power of attorney would be assumed, but not if a ton of chocolate is ordered.

When may goods acceptance be refused?

If, for example, an employee is entered in the commercial register with individual signing authority and the supplier is not aware of any internal restrictions on the power of representation, the purchase agreement also binds the employer and the latter must pay the purchase price. However, if there is already a lack of appearance of authorization, the supplier must take action against the employee if the employer does not subsequently approve the contract (Art. 38 para. 1 CO). If the authorization is not given, the employee is liable unless he proves that the supplier knew or should have known of the lack of authorization. In other words, the employer may only refuse to accept the goods if there is neither an expressly announced nor a prima facie power of attorney.

Verify signing authority

Conclusion: As a supplier, things must not get this far in the first place. The creditworthiness check is also accompanied by a check of the authorization to sign. This requires reliable information from a reliable partner!

To the author:
Raoul Egeli has been President of the Swiss Creditreform Association since 2008 and President of Creditreform International since 2014, as well as a member of the Chamber of Commerce of the SGV. He is also Managing Director of the Creditreform Egeli companies in Basel, St. Gallen and Zurich. From 2009 to 2013, he was the central president of TREUHAND|SUISSE. Raoul Egeli is the author of several specialist books on the subject of credit and receivables management. www.creditreform.ch

Once a year, St.Gallen becomes the meeting place for Swiss SMEs - this year for the sixteenth time. This year, the Swiss SME Day will once again focus on the current challenges facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): What do SMEs have to pay attention to, how do they make decisions, and how confident can they be in doing so - this is what expert speakers will be talking about.

Transform and turn

After the introduction to this year's SME Day by host Tobias Wolf, Elgar Fleisch, researcher in the "Internet of Things", explains his topic "the digital belly". Miriam Baumann-Blocher, Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of Läckerli Huus AG, deals with the aspect of "tradition versus innovation". After lunch, Myriam Locher, founder and CEO of Bettermind, talks about "how artificial intelligence teaches us to think bigger." This will be followed by the presentation "How to decide in the South Pacific?" by Hansjörg Hinrichs, owner "Pacific Society". "The art of clear thinking" reveals Rolf Dobelli, author, while former soccer referee Markus Merk closes the conference by "Sich(er) entscheiden".

At no other conference are Swiss SMEs closer to each other.

The Swiss SME Day is an established and sought-after platform for the exchange of entrepreneurs and executives from Swiss SMEs - in line with the motto "At no other conference are Swiss SMEs closer to each other". Patronage for the Swiss SME Day has been assumed by important institutions: The Swiss Trade Association (SGV), economiesuisse, the St.Gallen-Appenzell Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and the Cantonal Trade Association of St.Gallen. The event is supported by a number of co-sponsors and long-standing main sponsors to whom SME concerns are very important: Raiffeisen, Helvetia, ABACUS, OBT and Swisscom, as well as numerous SMEs from the industrial and service sectors.

The event is offered and organized by the Swiss Institute for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises at the University of St.Gallen (KMU-HSG) and the agency alea iacta ag. Registration for the Swiss SME Day is now open via http://www.kmu-tag.ch/Anmeldung possible. In recent years, the event was always sold out early.

It was in 1998 that Alexis Caceda, together with his friends Reto Kasser and Dominik Breitenmoser, launched Netstream. Since then, the company has established itself as one of the most successful providers of Internet, telephony, hosting and TV solutions in the Swiss business customer environment. It has also enjoyed good success so far with the cloud solutions it launched at the beginning of 2018. Today, the company employs around 90 people and operates its own data center in Switzerland. More than 30,000 customers benefit from its services in the areas of cloud, connectivity, hosting, streaming, voice and wholesale. According to Netstream, the company is committed to continuity, both in terms of its customer relationships and in the management of the company. All three founding members are still active in the company. They share a passion for IT and telecommunications projects as well as the pleasure of working with their employees and customers, according to the statement.

Innovative products with added value for customers

"The ICT market is subject to a continuous development process. Netstream's goal is not only to keep up with this process, but to always be one step ahead of it and to inspire our customers with groundbreaking products," explains Alexis Caceda, CEO of Netstream AG. To ensure this, the focus in the design of all products is on added value for customers. In the future, this intention will also be reflected via Netstream's brand world. To this end, the company will present itself with a new logo and a new website, among other things, from September 2018.

Anniversary marks milestone

In addition to the new brand identity, further innovative new products will be presented to the public in the fall. For example, work is currently underway on a new solution in the TV area. With this, the company wants to continue a success story, as it was Netstream that launched the first Internet TV offering on the Swiss market in 2004 with "ADSL.TV". "The launch of ADSL.TV marked the beginning for the distribution of TV programs via the Internet in Switzerland," recalls Caceda. Since then, the offering has developed rapidly and is now indispensable. In fact, customers are constantly enjoying new services. Caceda promises, "Fall 2018 will be a milestone: for our customers as well as for Netstream as a company." This will be underpinned by a branding show on September 5 at the Air Force Center in Dübendorf.

More information

"Protect climate. Strengthen SMEs." According to this motto, the Swiss Climate Foundation has been supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that make a contribution to climate protection for ten years. This can be done by saving energy in their own operations or by developing climate-friendly products. So far, 1,400 SMEs in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein have benefited from a total of CHF 18 million in funding.

From the economy for the economy

The Swiss Climate Foundation was founded on July 4, 2008 by service companies such as banks, insurance companies and consulting firms. The trigger was the CO₂-Act of the Federal Government, which came into force in January 2008. The law imposes a levy on fuels. The federal government pays part of the levy back to industry. Service providers benefit from this rebate because, compared with industrial companies, they generate little CO₂-emissions. Various service companies have therefore decided to voluntarily donate the surplus from the rebate. To this end, they have jointly established the Swiss Climate Foundation. Meanwhile, the number of partner companies has grown from 11 to 27.

Support in all industries

The Swiss Climate Foundation supports SMEs in all sectors. Improvements to buildings, machinery, heating and cooling systems account for a large proportion of the energy efficiency measures supported. In cooperation with the Energy Agency for Industry EnAW and the Cleantech Agency Switzerland act, the foundation also supports SMEs that enter into a voluntary target agreement with the federal government to save energy. The development of climate-friendly products is also promoted. The support contributions are non-repayable donations and are paid out after predetermined milestones have been reached.

More information

According to the Recruiting Index MEM Branche Schweiz©, the recruiting behavior of the Swiss MEM industries (mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and metal industry) is - in the long term - sustainable and stable in Switzerland. Nevertheless, Switzerland counts more than 240,000 unemployed. The largest share (54,443) of these are people without recognized training. Commercial and retail trades account for 30,678 unemployed, the largest number with level II education. The professions of economics, in turn, already form the fourth largest number of unemployed with 7,883 people, according to the figures communicated by Swissmechanic. Practitioners with higher education (tertiary level B), on the other hand, are not to be found among the unemployed - the market has dried up. In short, there are too many academics, but too few practitioners with further training.

Practitioners, not academics

As the new index shows, it is not enough to be voted the most innovative country in the world for years by independent institutions, Swissmechanic complains. This innovative strength must be converted into sustainable jobs for the Swiss workplace. This does not require academics, but practitioners with a high level of expertise. This shortage of skilled workers must be countered by all means as quickly as possible.

Efficient implementation of priority for nationals

More than 120,000 people without work are without support from the unemployment fund. They are increasingly burdening the social costs of the municipalities. The priority for Swiss nationals is intended to counteract this development. Its implementation is already foreseeably highly inefficient, as the industry association notes. "We cannot wait for the ensuing resentment of the population to lead to further political decisions that jeopardize our ability to export," writes Swissmechanic in a statement dated July 1, 2018.

Cooperation should bring more efficiency

In cooperation between the employers' association Swissmechanic and the Swiss Foundation for Work and Further Education SSAW, a solution has now been developed for a more efficient implementation of the priority for nationals: A vacant position can simply be sent to ilv123@ssaw.ch be sent. The foundation checks free of charge for the SME whether it needs to be reported and suggests suitable social benefit recipients if necessary.

www.swissmechanic.ch / www.ssaw.ch

Until now, anyone buying addresses for marketing and other purposes had the problem that they included target persons with low solvency. For the first time in the Swiss market, credit management service provider Intrum, in cooperation with AZ Direct, is offering B2C address selection with an exclusively solvent target group. According to the providers, this is the first time in Switzerland that users can rely on credit-checked addresses.

Daniela Brunner, Head of Marketing Intrum AG, is delighted. "With this innovation, we are generating significant added value for the Swiss address market and thus for marketers. A total of 6.3 million addresses of private individuals have been matched with the creditworthiness database in the 'Intrum Marketingshop'." With this cleansed data, managing directors and marketing managers generate a profitable and sustainable effect for their direct marketing campaigns, the providers are convinced. In particular, the advantages cited are:

• If you rely on addresses of solvent persons, you prevent an unexpected payment default.
• General managers and marketers reduce their administrative burden by focusing on customers with a good payment experience.
• Since no potential new customer is turned away because of their poor credit rating, there is no anger and upset.
• Intrum says it has several years of experience with credit rating data and credit checks.

And this is how the "Intrum Marketing Shop" works: Under intrum-marketingshop.ch the managing directors and marketing managers select qualified addresses. Using various criteria such as household size, behavior or region, they can exclude or limit addresses. They also decide which attributes are supplied with the addresses. For larger address volumes or specific requirements, customers can contact Intrum's specialist department directly.

Source: Intrum AG

Often it is important what words you give topics. Examples: Do you talk in the subjunctive or indicative? Do you say "we become" or "we want"? Do you choose superlatives (e.g. "the shortest delivery time") or talk indefinitely ("a short delivery time")?

The point is that in society and in business, terms sometimes become ingrained that suggest a meaning that, on closer examination, makes no sense. "Strategic planning" belongs to this category for me. Because either you develop a strategy, starting from a strong vision, or you plan, starting from the current state. The result of the confusion in many companies is a weak strategy that is nothing more than a continuation of the past.

What "Change Management" Really Means...

I regularly address the importance of language as an important element of leadership. Today, I'm specifically concerned with the misleading term "change management." What's the problem with it?

When you "manage" change, it means you are reactive. Management is not shaping, but controlling. You control and optimize what is happening anyway. This is undoubtedly an important function in companies. But not for change!

Change must be initiated, shaped and led. This has nothing to do with management, but with leadership.

Initiate changes

So if you really want the change (which is doubtful for most change projects, by the way), here's what you do:

1. Vision. Lead the change instead of "managing" it. Set a bold vision and design the necessary steps to achieve it. This is often exactly the problem: I see again and again "change projects" with an unclear vision, i.e. where exactly do you want to be after the "change"? What do you want to have achieved? Without a strong vision for the change, you should not start a change project.
2. Mindset. Work on the mindset of the people who are to shape the change with you. In my view, inappropriate mindset is the most common reason for unsuccessful change programs. People must be able to clearly identify the emotional reasons for change and then commit to the changes. This is often not an easy task. But if people forget to do this, the change often gets stuck before it has really begun.
3. Courage. Take risks. Yes, that's right, you will never achieve real change that means something without risks and setbacks. This does not require "risk management" but leadership that leads through setbacks.

Keep this in mind during the next change and design you the change instead of manage. This is one of the differences between outstanding and mediocre companies.

To the author:
Volkmar Völzke is a success maximizer. Book author. Consultant. Coach. Speaker. www.volkmarvoelzke.ch

Florence Schnydrig Moser succeeds Marcel Bührer, who left Swisscard in May 2018 to devote more time to private projects. In her current leadership role as Head of Products, Investments & Marketing, Florence Schnydrig is responsible for the development and marketing of Credit Suisse (Switzerland) Ltd. products. As a member of the Executive Board, she also has overarching responsibility within Credit Suisse (Switzerland) Ltd. The new head of Swisscard - the company is owned by Credit Suisse and American Express and is the only company in Switzerland to offer the world's leading credit card brands American Express, Mastercard and Visa from a single source - has extensive industry experience in the cashless payment business and the associated developments and challenges. As a representative of Credit Suisse, Florence Schnydrig has served for over two years on the Board of Managing Officers of Swisscard (equivalent to a board of directors in a stock corporation) and also on the Board of Directors of TWINT AG. She relinquishes these two functions with her election as CEO of Swisscard.

The new CEO of Swisscard is looking forward to her new role: "Like the entire financial industry, credit card providers are facing major changes due to ongoing digitalization. The future will offer customers tangible benefits thanks to new technological possibilities. I'm looking forward to actively shaping this process thanks to my new role." Florence Schnydrig studied mathematics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and also obtained a teaching license as a high school teacher of mathematics. After graduation, she started a career in the financial industry and earned a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst). Since 2000, Florence Schnydrig has worked for Credit Suisse in various functions, including in Zurich, Australia and Hong Kong.

www.swisscard.ch

In times of digitalization and globalization, intellectual property is an important issue for many companies. But how do companies protect their intellectual property for long-term exploitation? Effective IP management creates the prerequisites for this.

At the Intellectual Property 2018 conference on August 29, 2018 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Zurich, experienced attorneys will show you how to secure your rights and renowned IP managers from successful industrial companies will demonstrate what effective, sustainable and cost-conscious IP work can look like today. The conference will be chaired by Dr. iur. Mathis Berger, LL.M. Benefit from the mix of exciting expert presentations and best practice examples and exchange ideas with experts and other participants in a relaxed atmosphere.

The conference is aimed at members of management, specialists and executives from product management, R&D departments, marketing, patent and legal departments, consultancies, lawyers, administration and associations.

Detailed information on the program and registration can be found at www.ip-tagung.ch.

The increasing tightening of tax legislation gives rise to professional management of tax risks in companies. At the New Zurich Tax Conference 2018 on September 19 at the Swissôtel Zurich, participants will learn, among other things, how the cantons are dealing with this. This year's panel discussion and two input presentations will provide insight.

Contrary to widespread belief, house searches in the prosecution of tax offenses are also possible in Switzerland. In the expert panel, more can be learned about the work of tax investigators in the D-A-CH region. An interview on the exchange of information in tax matters will, among other things, bring up which questions are still open and on which points the Federal Tax Administration and the persons concerned are not in full agreement.

 So once again this year, the New Zurich Tax Conference will offer cutting-edge topics, interactive corner presentations and a high level of practical relevance. At the evening program under the motto "Tax meets Jazz", you will have the opportunity to expand contacts, make valuable new business connections and enter into dialog with the speakers. The event is aimed at entrepreneurs, CEOs, CFOs, managers and specialists from the tax, legal and finance departments of companies, executives in tax administrations, tax experts, fiduciary specialists, auditors, lawyers as well as employees of all courts and all instances, politics, associations and science.

 Information on the program and speakers as well as registration at www.nzsk.ch.

After almost two years of preparation, the Kaufmännische Verband Zürich and KV Zurich Business School Weiterbildung founded KV Business School Zürich AG on June 13, 2018. With the independence of the school unit Continuing Education in a new legal form and under a new name, the Kaufmännische Verband Zürich, as the sponsor of the school, is fulfilling a requirement of the canton. This provides for a decoupling of basic and further education in the course of the realignment of the cantonal education policy decided in 2016. Until further notice, the Kaufmännische Verband Zürich is the sole shareholder of the new Weiterbildungs-AG.

Commercially successful, socially anchored

"Urs Achermann, CEO of KV Business School Zurich, is convinced that "with the establishment of the new AG, the association and the school are laying the foundation for continuing education to continue to operate with the necessary agility and flexibility in a demanding, highly competitive market environment and to consistently advance its successfully introduced competitive strategy. From the point of view of the Kaufmännischer Verband Zürich, the commitment as a shareholder is a clear commitment to continuing education, with which the history of the association began 150 years ago. "With the new Weiterbildungs-AG, we ensure that our members as well as those interested in further education from the commercial-business environment have access at all times to an up-to-date, practical curriculum that covers all fields of action relevant to business people and is affordable," says Rolf Butz, Managing Director of the Kaufmännischer Verband Zürich.

New name, proven quality - also in basic education

Currently, around 6,000 students in 12 educational worlds - from Management and Leadership to International Business and Commerce - complete continuing education at the newly named KV Business School Zurich each year. In addition, there are tailor-made company courses and other specific courses for third parties, which are to be expanded in the future. In addition to continuing education, the Kaufmännische Verband Zürich, as the sponsor, continues to separately operate the basic education unit at KV Zurich Business School. The largest commercial vocational school in Switzerland with 4,200 students has taken the independence of continuing education as an opportunity to also position itself under a new name in the future. From the start of the 2018/19 school year on August 20, it will operate under the name KV Zurich.

www.kfmv-zuerich.ch