Insights & Perspectives

As one of the world's leading credit insurers, how does Coface assess the impact of the Corona pandemic? Should we be prepared for a major wave of bankruptcies? Was now the right time for the supply chain bailout to expire? What is in store for companies now? We asked Jochen Böhm, Risk Underwriting Director and Member of the Management Board for the Northern Europe region at Coface. He is responsible for risk and commercial underwriting at the international credit insurer and specialist in receivables management. He knows exactly what companies need to pay attention to in order to operate successfully in the long term, to what extent risks can be taken and how the risk situation is developing for companies worldwide. In an interview with our Managing Partner Uwe Köstens, Jochen Böhm tells us which tools and measures entrepreneurs should rely on now to prepare themselves even better for the future.

The pandemic has acted as a catalyst for the implementation of digital processes in companies. Apart from enormous IT purchases and the new learning of digital applications, New Work is becoming more and more pervasive: a structural change in the working world as we knew it before. Remote work and home office: What was otherwise an exception is increasingly becoming mainstream. Now that the supposed normality is returning due to the progress of the vaccination, we are hearing more and more often about cases in which employees would prefer to continue working in the home office, even post-pandemic. What are the opportunities and what are the limitations of remote management? Can a hybrid between New Work and presence culture succeed? And if so, which distance leadership skills are a must? An interview with Dr. Axel Hermeier, our Head of HR.

Burkhard Wittgen is a credit insurance specialist and member of the Executive Board at Aon Credit Solutions. In this interview, he talks about the dissolution of the protective shield on June 30, 2021, and the consequences for companies. What should companies do now? Which consulting services are currently more in demand than ever? What does the "average in the Suez Canal" case stand for and why should trade credit insurers urgently create a digital connection to their clients? Learn more!

The German Corporate Stabilization and Restructuring Act, or StaRUG for short, has been in force since the beginning of the year. It enables companies that are not yet insolvent or heavily indebted, but threatened with insolvency, to carry out pre-insolvency restructuring as part of an independently managed process. For many companies, this could well be an increased chance of sustainable and value-retaining restructuring.

When a recession of almost historic proportions hit many industries following the financial crisis over 12 years ago, most companies were utterly unprepared. The same happened again to many companies last year. While the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis was marked by pure economic survival instinct, companies are now faced with the challenge of finding the right strategic position to emerge from the crisis. What is important in that context? “The acceleration of digitization on the one and the realignment of the supply chain . Above all, however, what is important is ensuring a competitive cost level,” says Dr. Stefan Frings, partner at enomyc. How is that possible? What ways are there to reduce overhead costs? Find out more about key questions and switch levers that can be tackled to increase the efficiency of a company in the short term.

This year will make it clear just how well banks are able to cope with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to some estimates, their most severe stress test since the global banking and financial crisis of 2007 still looms ahead of them. Against this background, we interviewed Holger Rabelt, Managing Director of Commerzbank AG. What does his new position as Divisional Manager for Corporate Reorganization and Restructuring entail? What has been a particularly decisive experience in his career so far? What developments does he expect for the economy and the banking sector and what measures does he recommend for companies and banks in the current situation? Read on to find out more.

The rules for successfully marketing products and services in B2B business have changed significantly in recent years. Digitization has not only changed the purchasing behavior of buyers, it has also opened up completely new and very promising marketing and sales processes.

No foundries would bring everything to a stop: no cars on the roads, no spinning wind turbines or airplanes in the sky. Heating, plumbing, beer tapping would be out of the question and no windows or doors could open without handles. Recycling and upcycling ‒ they too are unthinkable without casting. The foundry industry, however, is also suffering significantly from the effects of the global pandemic. What are the biggest hurdles of the present for the industry and how can companies overcome them? Reiner Winkelbauer and Wolfram W. Hackbarth, finance and production experts at enomyc, are providing important insights based on their professional experience along with a pioneering questionnaire for managers, shareholders, and investors.

Congratulations to Aileen Sommer, Head of Business Development Telematics at LUIS Technology, Dr. Matthias Feistel, Managing Director of LUIS Technology and Franz Wenzel, Managing Consultant at enomyc, for receiving the "Best of Consulting" award from a competition put on by WirtschaftsWoche! Their joint project saves lives: LUIS Technology and enomyc have digitally enhanced the camera software-based turn assistant LUIS TURN DETECT® in such a way that accidents resulting from the ominous blind-spot turns can be avoided not only at the moment of danger itself: The intelligent system can now even function as an early warning system. We interviewed Dr. Feistel and Mr. Wenzel about the joint project: Why did LUIS opt for external expert advice? What has the digital further development of the system brought and what does the city of the future look like? Find out more below!