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Swiss topple U.S. as most competitive economy: WEF - Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Swiss-topple-US-as-most-rb-3920054269.html?x=0&.v=2 - broken link)
GENEVA (Reuters) - Switzerland knocked the United States off the position as the world's most competitive economy as the crash of the U.S. banking system left it more exposed to some long-standing weaknesses, a report said on Tuesday.
I thnik teh swiss gave themsleves too much credit really. Look where they ranked china like 30th and yet all complain that no one can compete with china. its a vote only.
Worked for one of the largest Swiss Engineering companies (in the US and in Switzerland) and this quote bugs me...
"The WEF applauded Switzerland for its capacity to innovate, sophisticated business culture, effective public services, excellent infrastructure and well-functioning goods markets."
As far as innovation.... our company's innovative new products were conceptualized and designed in the U.S. and then sent to Switzerland for manufacturing. Japan famously stole the digital watch industry due to Swiss lack of innovation (I don't think things have changed much since then).
I guess they provide "excellent public service" through bloated social programs and everpresent military practice bombing of the mountains. Hey, and thanks for allowing women the right to vote in the late 1980's.... That was so "innovative" of you.
Does "sophisticated business culture" mean starting work at 9:00, taking an expresso break at 10:00, taking a two hour gourmet lunch daily, and leaving by 4:30 all while (IMO) passively supporting a xenophobic/sexist work culture?
They do have a good cheese, chocolate and Kirsch market though.... I'll give them that.
I'm a big fan of European socialism. Also I often pepper my talk with buzz words like "innovation", "rule of law", "democracy", etc. Yet even I feel this whole list is meaningless, this is supposed to be a list about economy competitiveness, yet they chose an economy that can only eke out meager growth rate over the past forever. If you want to rank standard of living, comfort of life or some abstract conceptualized fitness to western political ideal, be my guest, but don't pretend to rank economic competitvenss. The US economy produced giants like Google over the past decade, what did Swiss economy produce? The Chinese economy grew 70 times larger over the past 3 decades, how bigger Swiss economy is comparing to 1979? I don't like ranking because almost all composers of rankings have some kind of hidden agenda they want to promote. Life in Switzerland is overall much more comfortable and secure than that of the US, I firmly believe that. But that has nothing to do with "economic competitiveness". A list that ranks Iceland, a country just a few month ago, experienced total economic collapse, ahead of China, the country everybody talks about its potential to take over the world, is indeed meaningless. United Arab Emirate ahead of Russia? Seriously, sure, Russia only relies a little bit less than UAE on oil, but Russia has more renowed ability to produce scientific wonder, Russian weapons sell throughout the world, Russia sends human into space. Russia, overall, is much richer than any country in the world when it comes to natural resources and Russia has a much bigger and much more educated population. Yet I suspect, in the mind of people who did this ranking, Dubai's glisterning skyscrapers trumped them all. You're kidding me, right? Baltic countries ahead of Venezuela? WTF? Sure, you can dislike leader of Venezuela as much as you like, but Venezuela didn't collapse economically, Baltic countries did and suffered no less economically than profligate Iceland. Yet somehow their economies are more "competitive" than that of Venezuela? Hello!!! Political bias!!!! If "competitiveness" means utterly collapsed economy is better than those who stand on their own, then I have nothing to say, no wonder such a big collapse happened, only in this warped world can Iceland rank ahead of China on "competitiveness".
I liked your post.... and I'm not even a fan of "European Socialism." I am surprised when I see "Swiss Socialism" and "Innovation" in the same sentence.. Hey, if you're a natural-born Swiss citizen, life can be good... really good. But I agree that this is about "Economic Competitiveness." From my years on the front line of "innovative" product development in both U.S. and Switzerland, I can tell you that the majority of innovative, creative new products were not conceived in the land of chocolate and cheese. The Swiss are excellent at executing cumbersome manufacturing, distribution, and corporate processes. This is not excellent "innovation" unless you are referring to tweaking an existing system.
Major innovative change and developing new cutting-edge product is hard for many Swiss to stomach. From what I remember, even the Swiss French and German languages have far fewer verbs than English and way more adjectives. This reflects how Swiss prefer to talk about existing things (adjectives) rather than to take action to create something new (verbs).
As a consultant, I've worked for many companies. In the U.S. I've met with brilliant, risk-taking, hardworking, innovators with the fire in the belly stoked by the capitalistic system. I did not see this ethic in our partner companies in the Swiss socialist system (or even in Canada for that matter)... But hey that's another topic, isn't it?
I liked your post.... and I'm not even a fan of "European Socialism." I am surprised when I see "Swiss Socialism" and "Innovation" in the same sentence.. Hey, if you're a natural-born Swiss citizen, life can be good... really good. But I agree that this is about "Economic Competitiveness." From my years on the front line of "innovative" product development in both U.S. and Switzerland, I can tell you that the majority of innovative, creative new products were not conceived in the land of chocolate and cheese. The Swiss are excellent at executing cumbersome manufacturing, distribution, and corporate processes. This is not excellent "innovation" unless you are referring to tweaking an existing system.
Major innovative change and developing new cutting-edge product is hard for many Swiss to stomach. From what I remember, even the Swiss French and German languages have far fewer verbs than English and way more adjectives. This reflects how Swiss prefer to talk about existing things (adjectives) rather than to take action to create something new (verbs).
As a consultant, I've worked for many companies. In the U.S. I've met with brilliant, risk-taking, hardworking, innovators with the fire in the belly stoked by the capitalistic system. I did not see this ethic in our partner companies in the Swiss socialist system (or even in Canada for that matter)... But hey that's another topic, isn't it?
Well, I worked in Switzerland for a number of years so I will give my point of view.
The Swiss are hard workers who are very steady, honest, conscientious and who apply themselves. They have a good apprenticeship system which turns out well trained workers. They also work longer hours and have less vacation than most European workers.
Their business community is very succesful. A country of 8 million which has produced corporations as succesful as Nestle, Novartis, Roche, Swiss Re and Zurich Insurance has to be doing something right. I was tempted to add UBS and Credit Suisse to that list but thought better of it. These corporations would not be where they are without being risk-taking entrepreneurs.
It is true that the Japanese hurt the watch industry. The Swiss response was Swatch which, in turn, hurt the Japanese watch industry. Swatch is a very good example of brilliant, risk taking and entrepreneurial Swiss innovation. The Swiss continue to dominate the watch industry and especially the medium and high ends.
Their experience in the precision watch industry also allowed the Swiss to build a precision engineering industry that has been very successful over the years.
Their business community is very succesful. A country of 8 million which has produced corporations as succesful as Nestle, Novartis, Roche, Swiss Re and Zurich Insurance has to be doing something right. I was tempted to add UBS and Credit Suisse to that list but thought better of it. These corporations would not be where they are without being risk-taking entrepreneurs.
It is true that the Japanese hurt the watch industry. The Swiss response was Swatch which, in turn, hurt the Japanese watch industry. Swatch is a very good example of brilliant, risk taking and entrepreneurial Swiss innovation. The Swiss continue to dominate the watch industry and especially the medium and high ends.
I agree their business community is successful.... I just do not equate the Swiss with innovation on the lines of U.S. and Asia... Swiss companies seem to be in response mode (e.g. Swatch was a response to Japan acquiring major watch market share). Or, major innovation occurs overseas (e.g. pharmaceutical R&D in China/Asia, software R&D in U.S., etc.). They do dominate in insurance (and Nestle) but I don't tend to think of these as "innovative" industries. I guess it's hard for me (having worked with Swiss people) to think of them, in general, as "innovative." I fully agree they tend to be steady, honest, and conscientious though..
Of course, there will always be a few stand-out Swiss innovative companies.... I just don't see it on as grand a scale as U.S./Asia. And when I see a study that ranks Swiss above U.S./Asia on "innovation and business culture," I question it...
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