Business Insight
WRS’s Pete Forster examines innovation in Swiss business through interviews with entrepreneurs and company representatives. Three times a month on Wednesdays during The Wrap at 6.40 pm.
Business Insight: Rethinking health care across the globeWednesday, 16 May, 2012Host Pete Forster looks at the ailing global health care systems and talks to an expert, Professor Yunkap Kwankam, director of Global eHealth Consultants, who believes that by applying existing technology differently, health services in developing countries can be radically improved:
Business Insight: Nurturing entrepreneurial nerveWednesday, 2 May, 2012One of the key ingredients for developing a successful new business is nerve. Host Pete Forster visits an inconspicuous converted 19th century shop front in Geneva’s creative neighbourhood, Quartier des Bains, to visit a unique project called La Muse that aims to foster such entrepreneurial derring-do:
Business Insight: Charities tap into social media trendWednesday, 25 April, 2012Raising funds can be a very costly process for charities, but social media may be bringing some relief. WRS’s Pete Forster talks to Johannes van Eeden, co-founder of the Swiss-based Internet platform GivenGain, which aims to tap into the power of social networking to make fundraising both easier and cheaper:
Business Insight: Plane, train or automobile? Ask routeRANKWednesday, 18 April, 2012Travel planning websites are nothing new, but Lausanne-based routeRANK is hoping it’s found an untapped niche market. It lets you compare the cost and time of flying versus travelling by train or by car—and it even calculates the potential carbon footprint for each option. WRS’s Pete Forster spoke with CEO and founder Jochen Mundiger:
Business Insight: What's behind TEDxWednesday, 4 April, 2012The idea of attending a public lecture for your general betterment might seem a little old-fashioned, but in fact, it’s a thriving phenomenon called TEDx. WRS’s Pete Forster learns a little about the history and popularity of TEDx conferences and goes backstage at TEDx Lausanne to hear from the speakers about their ideas:
Business Insight: Old technologies for building future automatonsWednesday, 28 March, 2012In just a few months, François Junod hopes to bring Leonardo da Vinci to life, the wind-up automaton version, that is. Junod is entering the final stage of assembling da Vinci, which will blink its eyes and write and draw mirror images. WRS’s Tony Ganzer visits Junod’s workshop in St Croix in the canton of Vaud to discover how old methods and technologies are being resurrected:
Business Insight: Cleaning up with clean technologyWednesday, 21 March, 2012Switzerland is sometimes accused of being late to the clean technology game, but new ideas are beginning to accumulate. Recently Bern hosted what aims to be the largest platform for this industy in Switzerland, and appropriately called it Cleantec City. WRS’s Pete Forster went along to see how green visions are becoming reality:
Business Insight: Finding your company's inner rhythmWednesday, 22 February, 2012Can helping employees find their inner rhythm improve their performance on the job? Pete Forster looks at the concept with Doug Manuel, CEO of Sewa Beats, which provides corporate drumming workshops, then turns to Bill Fischer, professor of technology management at the IMD business school, for his take on the wide range of novel and innovative approaches to corporate training on the market:
Business Insight: Innovative corporate coachingWednesday, 15 February, 2012Can a corporate coach make staff happier and a business more effective? In the first of a two-part series, Pete Forster looks at creative techniques from horse whispering to neuroscience that companies are testing out in their efforts to be more successful:
Business Insight: Carbon offsetting and the social entrepreneurWednesday, 25 January, 2012Apart from the captains of industry, the 40 heads of state and masses of global media attending, there will be 30 social entrepreneurs attending the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in Davos this week. WRS’s Pete Forster discovers what a social entrepreneur is and speaks to the Swiss co-winner of 2011 Schwab Foundation prize, Renat Heuerberger, CEO of South Pole Carbon Asset management. Forster also explores the carbon offsetting market at a talk with one of Switzerland’s leading advisors on social business, Dr. Maximilian Martin, the managing director of Impact Economy: