Björn Vrooman Sep 3, 2014:

@Sebastian If you want to keep "size" (even though I liked Teresa's suggestion), I believe the open glossary entry could read "small and midsize businesses" - no hyphen (IT field), no "companies". I have no idea why Michael thinks "sized" is in more widespread use - or are companies like IBM, Microsoft, Cisco not on the radar? See:

http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/smbs-small-and-midsize-bu...
http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/partner_with_cisco/cpp/res...
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/business-solutions/smb/index.html
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/erp-nav-overview.asp...
https://www.facebook.com/MidmarketIBM?_fb_noscript=1

M-W doesn't like the hyphen either.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/midsize

However, midsize(d) is mainly US. UK should be medium-sized, IMO:
https://www.gov.uk/medium-sized-business

Best wishes

Björn Vrooman Sep 2, 2014:

Alternative suggestion Sebastian, the only alternative I could suggest (if you want to keep it a bit vague) would be "SMEs with a global customer base". That shifts the focus away from whether the company is actually present there and concentrates on the other aspect of "global" instead.

Björn Vrooman Sep 2, 2014:

gut aufgestellt - difficulties The only reference (there are not many in total) I could find to support any other view was:
"garantieren unseren Kunden – global aufgestellte Mittelständler und weltweit operierende Konzerne – eine systematische und gleichzeitig individuelle Projektvorgehensweise mit gesicherter Qualität für die Planungs- und Beratungsergebnisse"
http://ingenics.de/de/unternehmen/profil/index.html

On the References page, it says:
"Beratungs- und Praxiserfahrung in fast allen Branchen ist unsere Stärke und wichtiger Erfolgsfaktor für Ihre Projekte. In über 35 Jahren hat Ingenics zahlreiche Unternehmen, vom mittelständischen Produktionsbetrieb bis zu weltweit agierenden Großkonzernen, bei der Effizienzsteigerung und Zukunftsgestaltung unterstützt."

Now, that's a problem. The company's references do include "ordinary" SMEs (whether they are hidden champions I don't know) but they also include businesses such as the following one:

"Wir stehen Ihnen weltweit mit 6 Tochtergesellschaften und 43 Vertriebs- und Servicepartnern in 56 Ländern zur Verfügung"
http://www.zwick.de/de/unternehmen/support-weltweit.html

It's a mere GmbH that's part of a group (with global reach).

Björn Vrooman Sep 2, 2014:

gut aufgestellt The question remains what is meant by "global aufgestellt".

Consider that it doesn't say "gut aufgestellt" but "global aufgestellt". The only acceptable Duden defintions in this case are:
- Aufstellung nehmen [lassen]; postieren
- errichten, aufbauen

or

- zu einem bestimmten Zweck zusammenstellen, formieren
- sich (als Gruppe) so formieren, organisieren, dass man für zukünftige Aufgaben gerüstet ist
http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/aufstellen

Both of the above-mentioned terms would actually boil down to companies who have at least offices or partnerships worldwide, irrespective of how big they are. It's not about whether you're a hidden champion, it's about your global presence in the literal sense.

Björn Vrooman Sep 2, 2014:

Mittelstand Here's my explanation now:

First, we need to see whether the German term actually matches the English one.

A) SMEs cannot just be equated with KMUs (see post below).

B) Mittelstand has a very broad meaning. Compare:
""Derzeit bemerken wir verstärkt, dass global aufgestellte Mittelständler wie Symrise das Thema Talent Management strategisch angehen, die Prozesse optimieren und sie zusehends mit Softwarelösungen abbilden."
http://www.pressebox.de/pressemitteilung/lumesse/Symrise-ent...

And further down, it says:
"Mit einem Umsatz von € 1,57 Mrd. im Geschäftsjahr 2010 gehört das Unternehmen zu den Top 4 im globalen Markt der Düfte und Aromen. Das Unternehmen mit Sitz in Holzminden ist in mehr als 35 Ländern in Europa, Asien, den USA sowie in Südamerika vertreten."

Revenue-wise, that company is not going to be included in any SME definition.

It kind of reminds me of the definition of Mittelstand when it comes to business software. Some of these programs are only for the "gehobenen Mittelstand" (could well be 1000+ employees) because they're too expensive for smaller businesses - they get their own SME versions.

Björn Vrooman Sep 2, 2014:

@Teresa I did read the Wiki entry (and I know what he's talking about) but I am kind of puzzled what that has to do with the discussion in here. I'd appreciate any reply.

In addition, I did do some research: Google results for "globally active/positioned SMEs" look just as bleak. And I am not sure that we're thinking along the same lines here when it comes to "global aufgestellt".

I did agree with your SME suggestion but not because of the EU definition of SMEs (which probably doesn't fit here) but because of the American one: "The definition used for SMEs by SBA’s Office of Advocacy (SBA Advocacy) is the most straightforward, as it includes all enterprises with fewer than 500 employees. Census employs this definition to delineate its data by firm size across all sectors of the U.S. economy (using NAICS categories), which include both manufacturing and service enterprises."
http://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub4125.pdf

It's just one of many.

I'm going to try and delineate what "global aufgestellt" actually means because I think that there has been some misunderstanding here.

Teresa Reinhardt Sep 2, 2014:

@ Sebastian: when you have time, you might want to read the Wikipedia entry on 'Hidden Champions' (Hermann Simon's book is also excellent) - re: SMEs can't have global reach...

Sebastian Witte (asker) Sep 1, 2014:

10:18 pm entry 10:18 pm entry is very helpful. Much appreciated. There is no doubt in my mind about MM's take being an excellent attempt, I was just trying to play around with it to see whether I could enhance it any further.

Björn Vrooman Sep 1, 2014:

Why unlikely? Mittelstand is a hardly well-defined group. Being "present" doesn't mean, you'll have to have subsidiaries there. Typically, as in IT, you're partnering with other companies across the globe. In addition, you may just have sales agents, etc.

Besides, I don't understand how you equate "global reach" with "has offices everywhere"? The web extends your global reach just as much. Just an example:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/...

Or the title of the OECD document: "Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: Local Strength, Global Reach"
http://www.oecd.org/regional/leed/1918307.pdf

I see no difficulties in adapting Michael's solution to your requirements.

Sebastian Witte (asker) Sep 1, 2014:

Unlikely scenario Medium-sized or even just small businesses having offices across the globe is an unlikely scenario. That takes a corporate group or at least a Corporation.

Björn Vrooman Sep 1, 2014:

@Sebastian Are you by any chance over-thinking things here?

Marketing is as much about stylistic choices as it is about content.

The sentence "global aufgestellte Mittelständler und weltweit operierende Konzerne" simply required the same number of words in "global aufgestellt" as in "weltweit operierend" before "Mittelständler" and "Konzerne", respectively.

Also: If you're global aufgestellt, it means you are actually already present</B> all over the world. I've never seen these words used to describe what you were trying to explain to Michael.