TOMATO CATCH-UP: Newsletter Issue 151 – July/August 2012
Same as every year, we’re combining the July and August newsletter since many of you are on vacation. Great news at Tomato: Mathieu passed the KV exams: Big milestone for him. Congratulations Mathieu from all of us! Meanwhile he said good-bye to the Tomato Team as he just joined the Swiss Army for the RS until November. In terms of news, several readers responded to topics from our last newsletter so that’s the main part of news and views this time.
Enjoy!
Regula Spottl and the Tomato Team
In Today's Issue:
TOMATO UPDATES
- On-going 20th Anniversary Celebration
- Kommentar zur Studie "Kreditberatung in der Praxis"
- Response to BYOD Policy in June Newsletter
FINANCE, BANKING AND IT
- Trotz Euro-Krise: SEPA-Zahlungsverkehr wird sukzessive eingeführt
- Comprehensive Info on the Single Euro Payments Area
- Integrate Two Liquidity Planning Models into One Plan
- Steuerliche Optimierung von Immateriellen Gütern
- Despite many Drawbacks, Cash Is still Successful
- Big Data: Strategy to Exploit Potential and Opportunities
MISCELLANEOUS
On-going Anniversary Celebration
Our next event celebrating Tomato’s 20th anniversary will be a tour behind the scenes of Zurich Airport on Tuesday, August 28 at 6pm. This event is inspired by our daily business topic PROCESSES. We’d like to invite you to this 2-hour walk along the passengers’ suitcases.
For participation call us at 044 814 2001 or email us.
Friends and Tomato members who took part in the first event on June 24, 2012 – a visit to the ProSpeciaRara Gewächshaus - thoroughly enjoyed the guided tour, a delicious dinner, stories and songs. They especially enjoyed the small group setting which allowed everybody to get to know one another and have personal conversations. Actually, such small group settings are our hallmark. They are what makes us so approachable. (Pictures…)
Kommentar zur Studie "Kreditberatung in der Praxis"
Einer unserer Leser schrieb uns, nachdem er die Tomato/Comit Studie “"Kreditberatung in der Praxis: Was Schweizer Unternehmen von den Banken wirklich möchten" nochmals ausführlich studierte.
Die Studie zeigte diesem Leser erneut, wie wichtig es ist, dass man sich bewusst sein muss” über die Außenwahrnehmung der Kunden gegenüber der Bank” und wie man ihre Erwartungshaltung genau kennen muss. “Quintessenz: Überraschen Sie den Kunden mit Beratung, die er nicht erwartet, ihm aber einen Mehrwert bietet!”
Zur Auffrischung: Tomato beteiligte sich im Sommer 2010 an einer Online-Studie zur Optimierung von Unternehmenskrediten, damit Hausbanken ihre Kunden besser verstehen. Knapp 100 CFOs von Unternehmen mit 5 bis 500 Angestellten nahmen daran teil.
In Übereinstimmung mit Swisscom IT Services Finance (ehemals Comit) haben wir uns nun entschlossen, die gesamte Studie online zur Verfügung zu stellen (Studie...)
A propos, der Leser (arbeitet in China) fand auch, dass unser Slogan auf unseren Tomato-Kaffeetassen "Keep Your Liquidity High" in China in besonderer Weise zutrifft.
Response to BYOD Policy in June Newsletter
One of our readers responded to our last newsletter’s reference to the CIO.com article The BYOD Troubleshoot: Security and Cost-Savings.
The reader works for a company in the U.K. that markets a solution which offers control and management of many devices on and off the network. We are not advocating this software because we don’t know it but their white paper “Protection & Promotion: How your company can have it all with the right social media policy and technology” is impressive.
The paper describes the current state of social media, employees’ use of BOYD, and how companies need to deal with these issues. In addition, it outlines five steps to make social networking work and a Web 2.0 technology test which helps you understand where you stand on compliance.
In the U.K. and Europe please contact Bladetec Limited +44 7100 7320
Trotz Euro-Krise: SEPA-Zahlungsverkehr wird sukzessive eingeführt
Der Artikel „Would SEPA Survive a Euro Zone Breakup?” im letzten Newsletter resonierte mit mehreren Lesern. Deshalb hat Andreas Carl SEPA Fakten und Neuerungen zusammengestellt und somit eine Basis für die vielen Ansichten in Artikeln geschaffen.
Die EU hat in den letzten Monaten weitere Weichen für die Entwicklung des einheitlichen Euro-Zahlungsverkehrsraums SEPA gestellt. Auf unser Webpage finden Sie:
- Neuerungen
- Betroffene Zahlverfahren
- Details zur SEPA-Überweisung: Diese ist unkompliziert und hat folgende Eckwerte
- Wofür sich SEPA eignet and was dann...
Comprehensive Info on the Single Euro Payments Area
Several readers responded with interest to the article “Would SEPA Survive a Euro Zone Breakup?” in the June 2012 issue of our newsletter.
The webpage with all SEPA-relevant information in one document that we find most useful: A new Era has begun: The Single Euro Payments Area
This is a great source for an overview. It includes:
- Strategic Importance for Companies: What are the Benefits?
- Practical Preparations: What Needs to be Done?
- The Changes in Detail: SEPA Credit Transfers (SCT)
- The Changes in Detail: SEPA Direct Debits (SDD)
- A checklist that provides an initial overview of preparations required for direct debits
- Outlook: Regulation on Cross-border Payments
- End Dates for SEPA Migration
- Potential SEPA Ramp-up Scenarios
Do you need more information on how SEPA impacts/can impact your business? Call us at 044-814-2001.
Also check our short summary about the SEPA schedule!
Integrate Two Liquidity Planning Models into One Plan
Many companies use direct as well as indirect liquidity planning direct and indirect liquidity planning to most accurately forecast future liquidity. They do this because conflicting results sometimes allow CFOs to identify what causes plan deviations and to make corrections to stay on track.
In the cfo-insight.com article “Two Liquidity Models, One Plan for CFOs” Andreas Liedtke and Roman Zeiß explain that “a key difference is that direct liquidity planning shows "what will be" while indirect liquidity planning reveals "what should be". If they find discrepancies between both projections, CFOs need to be able to explain them to the board.
The authors explain both methods and how they can be brought together.
We from Tomato would say the direct method is how it is (actual) and the indirect method is as it should be (target).
Steuerliche Optimierung von immateriellen Gütern
KMUs sind sich wenig über ihre immateriellen Güter wie Patente oder Market im Bild. Sie nehmen deswegen steuerliche Optimierungsmöglichkeiten kaum wahr.
Der KPMG Artikel “Immaterielle Güter aus steuerlicher Perspektive” beleuchtet das Thema und zeigt auf, was für “konkrete Massnahmen zur Steueroptimierung, respektive Reduzierung von Risiken” ergriffen werden können.
Wir haben erfahren, dass Zypern diese Werte im Besonderen günstig steuert. Fragen Sie martin.schneider@tomato.ch.
Despite many Drawbacks, Cash Is still Successful
Cash is expensive and primitive, yet it is strong and still growing in Europe. However, new, efficient and convenient payment technologies such as contactless and biometric are being developed which makes a serious shift away from cash possible.
The GTNews article “Why is the Use of Cash Persisting?” offers an extensive analysis of the status quo and suggests success criteria that need to be satisfied for stakeholders to accept new e-payment methods.
Big Data: Strategy to Exploit Potential and Opportunities
Big data is big, fast and includes various types of sources including social interaction, video, and audio. They go well beyond traditional IT infrastructures.
In the CIO.com article “The Big Data Challenge: How to Develop a Winning Strategy” Howard Elias, EMC Information Infrastructure and Cloud Services, CIO, explains how you can exploit its potential and find new business opportunities through Big Data analytics.”
Remembering Stephen Covey, Author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
By Martin Schneider
Stephen Covey, one of a few management gurus whose message companies around the world embraced, passed away on July 16 at age 79. His book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic has a top spot on our management book library.
I understood the technique and the importance behind the book right away and took his message to heart. I had his book on audio tape and love the soft tone in his voice. He often sounded like a reverend to me.
Covey was surprised how much his message resonated with millions of people around the globe. He said that he was simply telling people what he thought they already knew: The value of good behavior. All that people had to do was form habits out of their best instincts, he said, calling his seven nuggets of knowledge natural laws, like gravity. They are:
- Be proactive
- Begin with the end in mind
- Put first things first
- Think “win-win.”
- Seek first to understand, then to be understood
- Synergize
- Sharpen the saw; that is, undergo frequent self-renewal.
A tribute to Stephen Covey, from one leadership sage to another by Tom Peters, published in the Washington Post
From the Desk of Regula Spottl, Greensboro, North Carolina
Last month, I introduced you to Doc Watson’s music. Doc was the best known musician playing bluegrass in our area. That’s mainly mountain music though. Jazz is more prominent in our area.
Last Saturday I went to the annual John Coltrane festival. The most well-known jazz musician from this area is John Coltrane. Born in 1926, he became prominent when joined the Miles Davis’ quintet and later as a solo performer.
Experts proclaim that “John Coltrane songs pushed the boundaries of jazz and improvisation to its very limits, fusing both modal and free jazz techniques. Saxophonist John Coltrane carved out an incredible legacy as a composer, arranger and player.”
Greensboro features a statue downtown and High Point, where he lived the first 17 years of his life has dedicated a large section of the Historical Museum to Coltrane.
Among his most favorite songs:
My Favorite Things
Giant Steps
Acknowledgment
Your Tomato
Regula Spottl