A location can look strong in a regional comparison and still come under pressure.
In “Climbing higher”, McKinsey and Swiss AmCham note that around 80 per cent of the CEOs interviewed compare Switzerland with global locations. Those interviewed mainly represent the perspective of internationally active companies.
I consider this finding relevant for Swiss SMEs as well. The right benchmark follows from the customer’s decision. What quality can they obtain elsewhere? How quickly is it delivered? How reliably are problems solved?
Anyone who answers these questions only by looking at familiar competitors may be making the judgement too easy.
The same applies to investment. A new asset should be measured by whether it improves our position in the competition we actually face. Progress compared with our own machine fleet is not yet a sufficient justification.
The strength of a business location grows out of many such decisions. And out of the courage to choose a comparison from which we can still learn something.