19
Apr
2018
Like many of my fellow countrymen and women, I’ve switched from commuting by car to by bus and train in recent years. I sold my car after moving to the big city and haven’t been stuck in traffic once since then. I can even prepare for appointments during my journey to the office. It’s no surprise to me that an average of 30 million Germans take public transport each day. I actually now...
28
Mar
2018
Customer retention is essential for every business in every industry. And yet, many businesses are quick to terminate relationships with customers who default on their loans. Could this delicate situation actually be an opportunity in disguise? When customers fall on hard times, implementing a suitable debt collection process might be all it takes to help them get back on track. Here, Volker...
19
Mar
2018
Financial,accounting,investment advisor consulting with her team at office.
It may have been a while since I was a financial accounting student, but I recently overheard a conversation between two students on a train that reminded me of a topic that was the cause of much head scratching not too many years ago. That topic was accruals. It seems that business administration students continue to grapple with this, admittedly, very dry topic. Accrued income, deferred income,...
13
Mar
2018
Razor blades, socks, care products, cereals, drinks, pet food – the list of products that can be ordered online by subscription is long. Last week I showed why there are good reasons for online retailers to opt for flexible subscription models. The most important point is customer loyalty. Retailers create additional touchpoints through subscriptions for consumers, who value the convenience...
12
Mar
2018
global satellite telecommunication technology
It’s almost hard to believe but this year was the ninth time I’ve attended Mobile World Congress (MWC). I first attended the conference back in 2005. Back then it was hosted in Cannes. And, wow, has it changed since the early days!
With more than 100,000 visitors and hundreds of exhibiting companies, MWC has grown to become easily the largest mobile trade event of the year. Now held...
06
Mar
2018
Recently I had dinner at my neighbour's house, which gave me an opportunity to admire my host's bulging bookshelf once again. He still belonged to the generation that loved and lived for the book club, a statement my neighbour had proudly declared a few months ago. He celebrated every new tome, reading it first and then adding it to his collection on the shelves. My neighbour was not alone in...
21
Feb
2018
Outsourcing - what, why and how?
Outsourcing is most successful in companies which have clearly weighed up the pros and cons of outsourcing. Essentially, this means you are unlikely to achieve your preferred outcome by taking shortcuts.
According to an E&Y study, outsourcing results in average savings of 10-20% a year. If you are going to embark on an outsourcing process and you...
29
Jan
2018
I don’t know about you, but I'm one of the many people who enjoy shopping. It has become a little ritual for me to drive to the supermarket with my children on Saturdays to get our purchases for the coming week. As I stroll along the aisles, my kids put the chocolate in the shopping cart for me, which I'll pay for later, of course. What puts a damper on our shopping experience on a regular...
14
Dec
2017
2017 marks the tenth year of Slush and the fourth time that I’ve attended the event, which I guess makes me a veteran, right?
When I attended the very first conference it was a much smaller affair – we were only about 300 people back then. But over the years, Slush has grown to host annual conferences and events in Singapore, Shanghai, and Tokyo, that attract more than 40,000...
12
Dec
2017
Open banking is already here and will continue to grow in the coming years. The EU will require banks to open up their customer data to third parties in 2018. This means banking will shift even more from being sold by one-stop-shops to being available on open platforms.
The result is that customers will benefit from a more "modular" approach to banking. Already in the UK alone, there are more...
