Asian competition in the clock & [and] watch sector: what threats tp the Swiss industry ?

The Swiss clock & watch industry has been the indisputable leader worldwide during many decades in terms of excellence and notoriety. Many challengers such as Japanese or American companies, tried to compete at the same level without dazzling success thus far. However, three main competitions had significant impacts on the Swiss industry over the years. The first was the new production process of American companies that forced Swiss companies to shift from an artisanal production to a mass production factory system in the late 19th century. The second came the Japanese watches quartz innovation that obliged Switzerland to differentiate its products with a “Swiss Made” label for protection. The last and current competition is coming from Mainland China which is omnipresent in the low-end segment, having the largest production of watches in terms of volume, and that is willing to upgrade its production to high-end segments. Under this third competitor, the Swiss clock & watch industry is once more challenged. This paper focuses on the understanding of the competition that the Swiss industry is currently facing and identifying the levels of threat on the different steps of the value chain. Comparing the previous Japanese competition with the current Chinese competition will lead us to the identification of the imperfections of the Swiss industry in which competitors found a failure or an opportunity in order to contest some market shares. In the first part of the analysis, different threats are distinctly identified at different stages of the value chain. For example, Chinese firms bring a serious menace in the upstream stages of the value chain in raw material production, intermediary manufacturing, and assembling. Whereas there is a lack of know-how when it comes to market and communicating the brand to the end consumers. Moreover, the help of the local government is non-negligible for the future growth of Chinese watch brands. In the second part, several similarities and differences between the previous and current competitions are determined. It comes as no surprise that the low-end segment is the most vulnerable. The Swiss industry was strongly challenged in this segment by Japan as well as by China. In addition to that, Switzerland has not been protecting enough its products and is still struggling to improve it. Last but not least, technological innovation is and will always be a factor that could call into question the industry, talking about the quartz revolution in the past and the possible smartwatch revolution nowadays, which could not be measured for the moment

Sales internationalization of Swiss luxury watchmakers in China and Hong Kong

The Swiss luxury watch industry has been the market leader since the 1990’s. From the beginning of the 21st century they have enjoyed a tremendous increase in exports worldwide. Recently, starting 2014, the market has been dropping. Decreasing sales in China and Hong Kong and mostly to Chinese consumers are to blame. The slowdown of the Chinese economic growth, increasing taxes imposed on luxury products are some of the few reasons for this slowdown. My first step for this research was to analyze the Chinese market in order to verify if this downward trend is lasting or if there is growth potential in the country. This meant identifying the current challenges Swiss watchmakers are facing and whether there are still potential customers in China. My findings showed that Chinese are still very eager to purchase Swiss brand name watches. They also showed that large groups of Chinese consumers have been left out by brands whose stores do not yet reach them. These groups are the new middle class and upper-middle class citizens that are rapidly growing in Tier 2 and 3 cities all across China. Watchmakers have indeed focused almost all their presence in China’s major cities but have remained absent in smaller ones. To note there are currently over 100 cities in China with over 1 million citizens. My second step was to find the most effective way for watch brands to reach this spread out population of potential customers. In the slowing watch market, investing in physical presence and stores is a risky and financially heavy decision for brands. The alternative is to develop online advertisement and sales. China is an extremely well developed ecommerce country which has embraced online purchasing. Online platforms such as Tmall and WeChat have largely surpassed the western Amazon and Facebook and user accounts often exceed half a billion. They offer companies varied services for online sales and advertising. While partnering with these companies’, Swiss watch brands will be able to access their current sales and distribution systems as well as benefiting from their vast knowledge of consumer behavior in China. I have therefore concluded that although there are threats to selling online, such as counterfeiting, there is a concrete opportunity for Swiss watchmakers to increase their sales once again. Many watch producers still argue today that the internet is no such place for sales of luxury watches. Nevertheless, the evidence is compelling that ecommerce is a very effective and promising way to reach Chinese consumers. They must decide if they want to follow this market evolution and hop on board the “E-wagon”

The East investing the West: Chinese investing overseas, with a specific focus on M&As ; trends, effects and likely issues or opportunities for the Swiss market

Nowadays, we live in an international world where everything is interconnected. Companies seek new opportunities in expanding their businesses abroad by either investing, acquiring or merging with important companies. In 2015, the total value of M&As has overpassed $5000 billion where half of this amount was invested by the United States and more than 20% by Asian companies. They have started to plant their facilities in developed economies even though cross-national businesses may face challenges in cultural difference. Over the past decades, Chinese leading firms have made headlines with their growth all over the world. The Middle Empire is doing its shopping mainly in the US and Europe where Switzerland is an attractive market. Some of those recent acquisitions represent a huge amount such as the acquisition of Syngenta for more than 40 billion dollars, by ChemChina, which has already Mercuria (a 12% stake) and Nestal, This paper focuses on the understanding of the different issues that can face a company entering in a foreign market. Different aspect of Chinese M&A will be analysed concerning trends, effects and likely issues or opportunities for the Swiss market. Firstly, there is an overview of the Chinese and the Swiss market. It is then followed by the relationship between both countries. As it will be explained, this relationship is one of the most important factors in Chinese business. It can influence and drive the business in a good or bad way depending on the relationship. In fact, it can represent a danger during important deals, which bring us to cultural matters. The latter focus on the cultural differences between China and Switzerland and how it can be measured with the Hofstede dimension. At the end, over more than 570’000 Swiss enterprises there are 90% of companies held by foreign stakeholders whereof 60 are Chinese. It is understandable because the “Swiss Made” and know-how is greatly prized. Chinese come to Switzerland in order to learn and be inspired about what advanced economies do best and catch up with developed countries. However, the transferability of knowledge could represent a danger, but it also gives Switzerland the possibility to have access to new market opportunities in the Asian markets

Internationalization of Swiss SMEs in distant markets: analysis of the SIES findings

In the globalization context, internationalization of OECD SMEs is growing in importance and taking more and more place in Switzerland. New opportunities open to SME entrepreneurs, together with the support of private and/or public agencies as evidenced by its newspaper titles: “Export et internationalization: les PME Suisse s’envolent!” (Rezonance , 2016) or “ Novertur aide les PME à s’internationaliser” (Mathez, 2013). This report explores what are the modes of Swiss SMEs internationalization and how they can find new business opportunities in distant emerging markets? What are the internationalization drivers and what kind of strategies make possible to overcome various types of obstacles and risks? In order to find answers to these interrogations, the first part of this report reviews theories and concepts dealing with SME economics and management, and in particular SME internationalization. The second part of this report provides an analysis of the various empirical findings derived from the Swiss International Entrepreneurship Surveys published in 2007, 2010 and 2013 and conducted by the School of Management-Fribourg together with Swiss Postfinance. This part is complemented by a selection of qualitative interviews with Swiss SME experts. In the first part of this research paper, we will reflect on the theoretical aspect of this broad subject, after that we are going to analyse the three different SIES surveys and its statistics mentioned above. In the last part, we will confront the answers found in the theoretical part and the analysis of the three surveys with the answers of the experts. The main results of this study are based mainly on the SIES reports and implemented by the theoretical analysis. Several findings have been established; some of them are, the entrepreneurship orientation and the international experience of decision makers confirmed as key success factor in the internationalization process. Then, the growing importance of born global companies as well as their international success and specific competitive advantage. Lastly, the rising importance of networks in the success of foreign expansion has been confirmed

The Poly(A) Tail of mRNAs Bodyguard in Eukaryotes, Scavenger in Bacteria

AbstractIn eukaryotes, poly(A) tails usually act as stabilizers of intact mRNAs, whereas in E. coli they serve to accelerate the destruction of fragments. The mechanisms underlying these contrasting effects of the same RNA modification are discussed

Microrobotique pour composants micrométriques : les challenges pour leur manipulation et leur assemblage.

National audienceLa miniaturisation de nombreux produits manufacturés est une réalité et ce processus s'accentue. Ceci conduit la communauté scientifique à proposer des systèmes de production permettant de fabriquer des systèmes hybrides, c'est-à-dire dont les composants proviennent de plusieurs processus de fabrication ou de microfabrication, et ayant des structures 3D complexes afin d'intégrer plusieurs fonctions dans des volumes les plus réduits possibles. Le micro-assemblage réalisé avec des systèmes microrobotiques est une réponse pertinente à ce besoin de produits micromécatroniques. A travers une présentation des principales activités dans ce domaine dans le monde, on peut constater que la mise en oeuvre réelle de systèmes pour manipuler et assembler de façon automatisée (ou en partie) des composants sous-millimétriques reste un véritable challenge si l'on veut cumuler des propriétés de haute précision, de fiabilité, de productivité et de flexibilité. D'autre part, l'intérêt de groupes industriels Européens et l'émergence de start-ups montrent que l'assemblage de composants de taille sousmillimétrique est un enjeu sociétal. En terme de prospective, le passage de la barrière dimensionnelle des 10

Une approche par apprentissage basée sur des modèles linguistiques

International audienceNous proposons une double amélioration des systèmes de filtrage de courriels existants. D'une part, en utilisant une méthode d'apprentissage automatique permettant à un système de filtrage d'élaborer des profils utilisateur. D'autre part, nous utilisons un ensemble de connaissances linguistiques sous forme de modèles réduits issues de modèles linguistiques de textes. Dans ce contexte, nous cherchons à évaluer si l'utilisation de connaissances et de traitements linguistiques peut améliorer les performances d'un système de filtrage. En effet, nous utilisons, au-delà des caractéristiques lexicales, un ensemble d'indicateurs sur le message portant sur la structure et le contenu. Ces connaissances sont indépendantes du domaine d'application et la fiabilité repose sur l'opération d'apprentissage. Pour tenter de statuer sur la faisabilité de notre approche et d'évaluer son efficacité, nous l'avons expérimenté sur un corpus de 1 200 messages. Nous présentons les résultats d'un ensemble d'expériences d'évaluation

Du Saint-Simonisme comme science et des Saint-Simoniens comme scientifiques : généralités, panorama et repères

Bousculant plusieurs couches de représentations qui tend(ai)ent à le réduire à ses contributions à la formation des idéologies modernes et à ses actions financières et industrielles, des recherches relativement récentes ont mis en exergue la dimension scientifique et technique du saint-simonisme. C’est d’abord Antoine Picon qui, en 2002, y consacre les deux chapitres centraux de son essai sur les saint-simoniens. Celui-ci est sous-titré «Raison, imaginaire et utopie» pour attirer l’attention ..

Rapport sur la crise du mois de mars 1995 du volcan Aoba (République du Vanuatu)

Le volcan Aoba (République du Vanuatu) a manifesté des signes précurseurs d'une activité éruptive au début du mois de mars 1995 : explosion phréatique, réchauffement du lac intracaldérique Voui accompagné de l'émission continue d'un panache de gaz à la surface du lac, enregistrement d'un trémor de forte amplitude. Cette crise volcanique fait suite à une crise tectonique survenue au mois de décembre 1994 et associée à un foyer sismique superficiel localisé à proximité d'Aoba. Il n'existe cependant aucune donnée géophysique concernant l'activité du volcan pendant les mois précédant la crise. Une mission de terrain effectuée entre le 18 mars et le 4 avril 1995 avec 5 stations sismologiques, dont 2 stations analogiques révèle une faible sismicité caractérisée essentiellement par des micro séismes de type volcano-tectonique, au nombre d'environ un événement par heure. Cette sismicité est très superficielle, localisée sur les flancs du volcan et peut résulter de réajustements de contraintes dans la structure volcanique. La sismicité de type volcanique ou trémor est extrêmement faible (quelques événements au cours des 2 semaines de mesures). L'amplitude de ces signaux, ainsi que celle du bruit de fond a fortement diminué, d'un facteur 10 à 30, par rapport aux trémors et au bruit de fond enregistrés au début de la crise. Cette diminution très nette de l'activité sismique s'est accompagnée d'une diminution du dégazage à la surface du lac Voui. Il faut toutefois envisager la possibilité de nouvelles crises dans les mois à venir pouvant mener à une phase éruptive. (Résumé d'auteur