German Investments in Printed Electronics Bearing Fruit - Marketwatch

BERLIN, April 2, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Germany is investing EUR 410 million in printed electronics research between 2012 and 2015. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research recently extended its Photonics Research Germany program. Efforts to commercialize new technologies are also taking off. Just last month, Heliatek opened a new factory for the production of organic thin-film solar panels.

"Printed electronics is generating research results and drawing investors to Germany. Generous R&D programs and private sector investments make Germany a top location for innovative companies," states Max Milbredt, printed electronics expert at Germany Trade & Invest.

Germany Trade & Invest experts will be at this year's Printed Electronics Europe/Photovoltaics Europe, taking place on April 3-4 in Berlin, to share the latest opportunities in Europe's largest market.

The Photonics Research Germany program supports new developments in printed and organic electronics. The program focuses on organic photovoltaics and OLED lighting. In both fields, Germany is already a global technology leader.

"We offer more than R&D. Germany is the largest market in Europe, making it a natural location for companies looking to commercialize and distribute innovative products across the entire continent," continues Milbredt.

Germany Trade & Invest is the foreign trade and inward investment promotion agency of the Federal Republic of Germany. The organization advises foreign companies looking to expand their business activities in the German market. It provides information on foreign trade to German companies that seek to enter foreign markets.

Germany Trade & Invest Andreas Bilfinger Email: andreas.bilfinger@gtai.com T: +49(0)30200099-173 F: +49(0)30200099-511

http://www.gtai.com http://twitter.com/gtai_com http://youtube.com/gtai http://www.linkedin.com/company/germany-trade-&-invest

SOURCE Germany Trade and Invest

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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Small Business: Low Hanging Fruit for Better Margins

Do small businesses have a lot of low-hanging fruit? You bet they do. Owners and managers ask me about the economy, then I ask about their business, and I’m often stunned by the opportunities being missed. So I asked some sharp consultants about the most common low hanging fruit. This article is about their advice regarding profit margins. Later this week I’ll post their comments about sales.

“Obsessing about revenues instead of margins” was Victor Diercksen’s response. Victor is a senior guy at eSoftware Professionals, a company which helps businesses use sophisticated software. That brought back a couple of memories of my own work. One client is a job shop in which customers describe their needs, an estimator bids the project, the work is performed and money is collected. This missing step: comparing actual costs with the estimated costs used to bid the project. Imagine a basketball player practicing free throws, but never seeing or hearing whether the ball went through the hoop. The company’s estimators never received feedback on their performance. As a result, the company won the contracts that it underbid. A further result: lower profit margins.

With that story in mind, I strolled through the trade show when I was speaking to another industry comprised of job shops. I stopped by the table of a vendor selling cost accounting software. I asked the guy how many of the companies in the industry were using any kind of software to help them track costs by project. He told me that about 50 percent were tracking their costs, and the rest were running blind.

Margins are also emphasized by Lonnie Sciambi, who calls himself “The Entrepreneur’s Yoda” : “For a start-up, revenue is critical. For an ongoing small business revenue is still critical, but determining how to wring more margin out of that revenue becomes equally so.” He advises determining the three to five numbers that really drive a business, then track them on a weekly or monthly basis.

Before we turn to the sales opportunities, let’s turn to one more element of operations: procedures. Tash Hughes, a writer from Melbourne, Australia, told me that one low hanging fruit was , “not having procedures and methods that can be followed easily by others – if one person has the skills and is unable to do the job, the business is in trouble; if a new person starts, a lot of training time is required; the resale value of the business is limited as no one can duplicate current practices; writing and reviewing processes can highlight areas for improvements.”

That brings to mind another consulting story. A real estate company wanted me to evaluate the long-term growth potential for three different metropolitan areas. The executive I was working with believed that he could do the evaluation himself, but he didn’t want to spend hours and hours getting the data. So he asked me not only to evaluate the three metropolitan areas, but to also document thoroughly the data sources so that on future projects, his assistant could gather the data. I did that and discovered an interesting result: I was using that data documentation myself. I usually grab data on the fly, sometimes stumbling around a bit.  (“Where do I get the regional location coefficients?” Is it BLS or BEA?) Now I turn to the binder with my data documentation and move more quickly. Yep, written procedures can be an efficiency tool, which means better profit margins.

Read more by Bill Conerly about improving profit margins:

The Importance of Feedback

Is Your Incentive System Working for You?

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