Insights & Perspectives

The turn of the year creates a rare moment to take a deep breath. An opportunity to gain perspective, align your inner compass, and recharge your batteries—surrounded by the people who often get neglected in everyday life.

2025 was a challenging year—and a year of professionalization. Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) refined their business models, adjusted their financing strategies, and tackled technological change more actively than in previous years. We talk to enomyc founders Martin Hammer and Uwe Köstens about key developments and what will be crucial for SMEs in 2026.

Impending double dip, pressing transformation, slowing banks: “Outdated financing concepts are of little help now,” says Ralf Ehret, partner and head of debt advisory at enomyc. They are often suboptimal, unstable, and not designed for the current risks or future needs of German SMEs. It is no surprise that alternative sources of financing are now booming. But what do companies need to anticipate now in order to act early, honestly, and smartly? A look at worst-case scenarios and dream scenarios from a debt advisor.

With the opening of its US office in Anderson, South Carolina, enomyc is taking an important strategic step in international consulting. In an interview, founder Martin Hammer and Managing Director Franz A. Wenzel explain why local American consulting expertise is a key success factor for the US market, what differences between European and American corporate and work culture are decisive, and how enomyc will provide even more targeted support to medium-sized companies in their global core markets in the future.

The pharmaceutical industry is at a turning point. While global demand for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) is rising, more and more medium-sized manufacturers in Europe are coming under pressure. Skyrocketing location costs and crippling regulations, as well as dependence on Asian suppliers, are making life difficult for them. The market is growing, but not for everyone. In their article, Dr. Stefan Frings and Marius Stenzel explore why some companies are constantly losing ground despite rising demand and what they can do now to adapt their production, supply chains, and organization to the new challenges.

Do you buy premium brands and save money at discount stores? Recent studies show that Germans have become even more price-sensitive. At the same time, however, the market volume for luxury goods is also growing. Manufacturers and retailers are under pressure: how can they strike the right balance between price sensitivity and customer loyalty? Marketing expert Peter Klein believes that companies should focus on the value of their products. However, most companies lack a clear, professional pricing strategy developed by a specialized pricing team. How can this be improved?

Pricing is one of the most powerful but often underestimated levers for increasing profits and company value. Even small changes can have a big impact: a price increase of just 1% can boost operating profit by up to 11% with the same sales volume. In contrast, a price reduction of 5 percent requires a rather unrealistic sales increase of around 19 percent if profits are not to plummet. Artificial intelligence (AI) is now putting pricing back on the agenda for small and medium-sized businesses. In this interview, enomyc experts Jan Ulrik Holsten and Franz A. Wenzel explain how AI is changing pricing and what options this opens up for companies.

Large OEMs have to do it, as do medium-sized companies whose plants in one region are underutilized while customers in another market cannot be supplied quickly enough. Whether large or small, virtually all companies have to continuously adapt their production capacities to changing requirements. In a world where what seemed like an ironclad rule yesterday may no longer apply tomorrow, this is no easy task. In their article, enomyc experts Max Stehr and Christian Zeller explain what companies should pay attention to and why involving an experienced partner at an early stage can avoid a lot of unrest, friction losses, and often also costs.

Only a fraction of German companies use blockchain in their daily practice. Does blockchain technology create more problems than solutions? Or does the decentralized system actually hold untold opportunities? How do companies benefit from stablecoins and DeFi? And how can blockchain solutions be implemented in German SMEs? Technology expert Franz A. Wenzel, Director at enomyc, answers burning business questions.