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Nowadays, single companies are confronted with great difficulties. The progress of the information technology and the distribution of the Internet as well as the changing demand of customers, especially for no-standardised products force them to react immediately.In order to solve these problems, the companies should work on the following aspects:How can they reach the state of flexibility to meet the changing demand? How can they compete within a market with increasing innovations of products and decreasing product life-cycl? How can they acquire the necessary capital, technology and know-how to compete? How is it possible to optimise their corporate structures and achieve synergetic effects?

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Mag. (FH) Silvia Schweighofer MBA, maiden name: Großschädl, born in Graz (Austria) in 1979. After four years of work experience in the financial sector, the author completed her first degree of an extra-occupational, commercial study with a thesis to the subject Due Diligence. After more than eight years of experience in the financial sector, the author has taken an employment as CFO und HR-Manager in a medium sized automotive supplier in NRW. Extra-occupational to her commercial leading occupation, the author has successfully completed her studies with the MBA degree at the FOM in Düsseldorf. She spends her spare time rock climbing, ski touring or hiking in the mountains.Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Uwe Christian Bußmann MBA, born in Rheinhausen (Germany) in 1973. After he had worked more than ten years as a master craftsman in the car repair business, the author has studied mechanical engineering. During his studies, he did an internship in a steelwork company in Ireland. The final project towards the end of his studies was the design of a new hydraulic system. In addition to his daily work as a maintenance manager, he has studied Business Administration. The author likes to spend his spare time at the fire department as a voluntary fire officer. He likes to travel extensively, and is a member of the Travelers Century Club. Dipl.-Ing (FH) Robert Marc Panz MBA, born 1968 in Duisburg (Germany) The author has studied communications engineering in Düsseldorf. After he had finished his diploma with the thesis Conception of a network operation centre in heterogeneous LAN- / WAN structures, he has started his career in a major IT provider of the public sector. As he wanted to gain more commercial knowledge, he started an extra-occupational study. The author has finished his studies with the thesis Change Management - Analysis of the Factors Information and Communication, and has obtained a master of business administration (MBA) with very good marks. In the position of a change manager, Mr Panz could introduce the outcome of his master thesis to his company for its reorganization. Currently, the author is working as an IT project manager. He spends the major part of his free time on sports.

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