April 2-3, 2003, University of Cologne

Economic life today is more dynamic and changeable than ever. Confronted with increasingly fast changing economic conditions it has become a prerequisite for every company to take up this challenge. This situation is reflected not only by shorter life cycles of products but also by a growing number of complete industries disappearing or emerging. Customers’ demand and the supply offered by the supply markets also fluctuate strongly, especially in an economic low; consequently, the certainty of management planning decreases and it becomes more and more difficult to prognosticate corporate results.

At the same time the average life-span of enterprises is progressively decreasing which is also indicated by a significantly growing number of corporate failures and start ups in the last decades. For example, those companies mentioned in 1920 by the Standard & Poor’s Index - a list of the 90 largest US-companies - kept their position for an average time of 65 years, whereas in 1998 companies of the extended S&P 500 were expected to remain there for only ten years.

These examples of increasingly rapid and strong changes show characteristics of the same phenomenon: increasing volatility. Commonly known as a term to name the extent of fluctuations on financial and currency markets, today the term volatility refers more and more to general economic aspects. Hence, in the course of the developments during the last ten years volatility has become a challenge for business life in general. When examining various economic indices one finds that their charts, in particular in the last ten years, show increasingly strong swings in increasingly short periods. Volatility does not only influence single companies and markets but also society and politics.

But what is the origin of these changes? When looking at the economic trends of the last decade it becomes obvious that they resulted in fundamental structural changes in economic proceedings. Especially the developments in information- and telecommunication-technology and the consecutive transition to the information society, as well as globalization and New Economy resulted in economical conditions in which flexibility, efficiency and speed have increasingly become prerequisites for economic success. The fundamental re-structuring measures of companies and the processes of turning the trends of the last years into reality have not been concluded yet and will not be concluded for a long time; consequently, this ongoing change will determine companies' actions in the future.

Speakers: Prof. Roland Berger, Sir John R.H. Bond, Dr. Rolf-E. Breuer, Marie Livanos Cattaui, Dr. Hans-Joachim Körber, Dr. Martin Kohlhaussen, Dr. Klaus Mangold, Dr. Heinrich von Pierer, Dr. Ing. h.c. Jürgen Weber