The Courage to Expose Oneself to the Unknown

What makes Austria sufficiently interesting as a manufacturing location so that companies continue to invest, while other locations in the world offer more advantageous conditions which are relevant to manufacturing? It will always be possible to find regions offering cheaper labor, lax rules of operation in terms of environmental criteria or fewer regulatory stipulations. Yet, highly successful enterprises continue to count firmly on sites here. It must surely be down to the driving spirit of change as so aptly defined in the Economist „...to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress...“. As clear and as simple as this may seem, the difficulty lies in translating this into everyday corporate life. It takes courage to look beyond the boundaries of one’s own experience, while we are always immersed in a framework defined by people of different characters. Only by seeking and accepting what is possible beyond the limited range of our own imagination, can we bring about structural change. Wealth lies not in the optimization of the existing system but in real innovation. A company from Vorarlberg with three European production sites and whose products are sold worldwide has ventured beyond a mere thought experiment.