Economic Growth – How to Get Back on Track

Nov. 16, 2014

Getting back on track means doing something about the situation! Sometimes bold decisions are needed.

Should we be concerned about the economic growth? Yes, and we should finally do something about it!

I just met couple of interims managers and we all wondered that the interest rates are really low and central banks have flooded commercial banks with money. However, it is not easily available for SMEs. SMEs in Europe are feeling the lackluster economic growth.

Here would be my program to get back on track:

Cut income taxes
Cut VAT rate
Reduce administration costs on government and municipal level
Reduce government control on SMEs, paperwork reduced to minimum
Facilitate SME access to government funded research projects

I know this would put pressure on government officials to find a value adding job. And at first they would feel most of the pain. After a while, once the economy turns into a growth mode they would get jobs on the private sector.

Change is difficult and you have to endure the pain for a while. This goes for economy as well.

Would I vote for this program. Yes, I would for the sake of economic growth and future generations.

About the Author

R. Paul Vuolle Blog | CEO

R. Paul Vuolle's blog "The SME's Guide to European Manufacturing," has moved. You'll find his latest ideas and commentary on SME European Manufacturing on IndustryWeek's IdeaXchange.

You'll find more articles written by Paul at http://www.industryweek.com/blog/smes-guide-european-manufacturing .

R. Paul Vuolle, CEO of Bellevue SME Advisors GmbH in Switzerland and Germany, works actively with small and medium (SME) size manufacturing companies in Europe in SCM/Outsourcing, logistics, turnaround and restructuring, market expansion, as well as succession planning and financing. He also frequently supports technology start- ups in building up their business.

Paul has over 20 years operational industry experience in engineering, electronics, industrial automation, building automation, investment goods like electrical drives, automatic test & measurement systems, HV Transformer production systems. During his career he has worked in manufacturing industries in supply chain management, outsourcing, logistics, production, R&D and successfully selling to international large key accounts. Paul has also run a sizeable amount of M&A transactions in numerous countries around the world.

He has built up his experience working in various leadership positions and functions in large corporations, such as ABB, and having executive positions in medium-size family companies and as a technology entrepreneur.

Paul is MSc. E.E. from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich as well as BSc.E.E. from Helsinki Institute of Technology.

Paul is a long time member of IEEE and of its Industrial Applications Society.