SECTION 1 MARKETING, SALES AND EXPORT

SECTION 2 ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT

SECTION 3 FINANCIAL CONTROLLING
SECTION 4 PRODUCTION
SECTION 5 FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS
SECTION 6 STATISTICS
SECTION 7 MACROECONOMIC FACTORS
SECTION 8 BUSINESS BAROMETER

The sections, 1-4, are scored, which is to say, providing a response to each question in gives the
participating company a percentage performance score for the respective section. The score you receive for
each of the sections contributes to the overall performance score.

The sections, 5-8, are not scored, which is to say, the participating company does not receive any marks.
The purpose of the following sections is to a) have a general understanding of the company b) a general
picture of the economic environment in which the company is functioning, to enable a meaningful
interpretation of the Gauge reports of the sections 1-4

SECTION 1 MARKETING, SALES AND EXPORT

1. Marketing
- Have you defined your most important marketing goals in written form?
- Has your company appointed someone responsible for marketing?
- Do you keep market changes in a written form and do you discuss these regularly with your staff and
customers?
- Do you regularly conduct customer satisfaction surveys or do you regularly receive statements from your
customers
- Does your company have written business plans for individual products / product groups?
- How are the company's products generally distributed?
- Do you sell any product under a specific brand?
- Do you believe that your company has a significant advantage in comparison with your competitors?

2. Sales
- Who is responsible for sales in your company?
- Are customer focus groups established to determine a market approach?
- Do you have a customer database?
- Does your company regularly take part in trade fairs?
- Do you have a company brochure?
- Do you regularly inform the press about your company?
- Has a presentation of your company e.g. overhead slides been prepared?
- Is your company present in the Internet?

3. Export
- Are exports important for the success of your company?
- Will exports become more important to your company in the future?
- Has your company already begun to export?
- Is your company member of an export association or export chamber?
- Has your company participated in international trade missions?
- Does your company receive frequent visits from foreign businessmen as potential customers?

SECTION 2 ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT

1. Strategy
- Which strategic option corresponds best to your company?

2. Benchmarking
- Have you ever implemented benchmarking in your company?

3. Employees
- Does your company take special efforts to build a relationship between your employees and the company?
- Is it necessary to employ foreign specialists to keep the company?
- Do you have employees with international working experience?
- What percentage of total personnel costs is dedicated to training?
- What is the average of unauthorized leave (illness) in your company?

4. Joint Venture
- Are there existing joint venture agreements with other companies?

5. Management
- Have you set up task forces to discuss issues concerning management?
- Is there a performance appraisal system employed?
- Do you have incentive schemes for female employees in your company?
- Have you written job descriptions, which define the responsibilities of each position?
- How many days of production do you loose each year due to labor strife, work slowdowns, or strikes?

6. Information management
- Have you fixed in a written form, which information gets to whom, when and in which complexity in your
company?
- Has the responsibility of the management of information been assigned to someone specific?
- Do you use computer in your company?

7. Corporate Identity
- Does your company have a corporate design?
- Does your company have its own logo?

8. Minimization of risks and damages

- Are there any executives whose sudden loss due to illness or death would cause a tremendous damage to
your company?
- Is your company insured against loss of earnings due to fire or similar occurrences?
- Do you have a specific policy regarding the minimization of damages and risks?
- Does your machinery undergo routine maintenance?
- Do you regularly practice fire prevention routines?
- Are your employees trained to avoid accidents while handling machinery?

9. Waste-Management
- Does your company have a written policy concerning waste management?
- Do you keep details on the type, amount, origin, and destination of disposable waste?
- Do you evaluate raw materials and suppliers based on ecological considerations?
- Are your employees being trained on ecological matters in your company?

SECTION 3 FINANCIAL CONTROLLING

- What is the legal form of your company?

- Is there someone in your company holding responsibility for financial controlling?
- How often do you prepare the balance sheet (financial statements)?
- Are annual financial statements of the last five years available?
- Do you analyze the balance sheet or profit and loss statements?
- How are receivable accounts handled?
- Are accounts receivable structured according to date of maturity?
- At what intervals are accounts receivable processed?
- How often are liquidity plans drawn up?
- How often are investment plans drawn up?
Cost Accounting
- Is cost accounting implemented in your company?

Finance
- With how many banks do you have a working relationship?
- Who is responsible for accounting in your company?

SECTION 4 PRODUCTION

1. Products
- What products does your company typically produce?
- How broad is the range of product groups your company produces?
- To what extent are your products manufactured in accordance with customer specifications?

2. Purchasing
- Who is responsible for purchasing in your company?
- Are your suppliers categorized by importance?
- Are your suppliers regularly evaluated?
- Please evaluate your ability to source
- Are "make-or-buy" analyses regularly carried out?

3. Organization of Production
- Do you employ any special productivity improvement techniques in your company?
- Do you have your own tooling production because of special needs?
- On average, what is your capacity utilization per shift?
- What is the rate of disposability of your production?
- How many shifts operate per week?

4. Production Planning and Logistics/font>

- Do you use specific methods for production planning and control?
- Is your company structured to deliver to customers under a just-in-time arrangement?
- Are you able to exchange electronic data with your customers?
- What percentage of deliveries are on time?

5. Quality
- Do you have any quality certificates?
- At which stage of production are quality checks carried out?
- How are quality checks carried out?
- What percentage of deliveries are on time?
- On average, what is your customer return rate?
- On average, what percentage of jobs are reworked?

6. Research & Development (R&D)

- Do you have access to R&D resources?

SECTION 5 FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS

1. Analysis of assets and liabilities structure

- Intensity of capital assets
- Intensity of assets
- Ratio of capital assets
- Ratio of current assets
- Stock turnover
- Investment ratio
- Ratio of growth
- Equity ratio
- Debt ratio
- Debt-equity ratio
- Volatility of creditor
- Volatility of debtors
2. Liquidity ratios
- Current ratio (times)
- Working Capital

3. Earnings ratios
- Staff expenditure ratio
- Ratio of cost of materials
- Export ratio
- Revenues per employee
- Return on equity
- Ratio of profit to sales

SECTION 6 STATISTICS

- What is the percentage of total sales that come from automotive component parts?
- What percentage of total sales comes from sales to automotive OEM's?
- What is the percentage of total sales that come from automotive replacement parts?
- What is the percentage of sales that are from export?
- Number of employees by function
- Customers
- Suppliers
- Source of supplies or inputs, total percentage value
- Distribution of total revenues
- Capital Productivity
- Machine Productivity
- Labour Productivity
- Raw Material Productivity
- Space Productivity

SECTION 7 MACROECONOMIC FACTORS

Please rate the following factors in their importance and assess them.

1. The Government
- Stability of the government
- Reliability of the government's economic policies
- Ability to actively involve the firm in decisions regarding economic policies
- Efficiency in the implementation of policies

2. Industrial Policy
- Freedom to set up licenses for industries

3. Foreign Exchange Controls

- Free convertibility of the currency on the current account
- Free convertibility of the currency on the capital account

4. Trade Policy - Imports and Exports

- Unrestricted imports of goods
- Unrestricted exports
- Reduced taxes on exports

5. Stringency of Labor Regulations

- Reglementation on minimum wages
- Compulsory social costs
- Compulsory redundancy payments
- Freedom to hire and fire
- Minimum standards for working conditions and facilities

6. Investments
- Government approval of foreign equity participation of over 50%
- Speedy approval procedures for foreign equity participation applications
- Free reparation of profits and capital investment
- Access to international capital markets
- Ease of approval of technical collaborations
- Efficiency of approval procedures

7. Infrastructure
- Access to, and condition of railway
- Access to, and condition of roads and highways
- Access to, and condition of airports
- Access to, and condition of sea ports
- Reliability of postal service
- Availability and reliability of courier services
- Reliability of the telephone system
- Availability and reliability of electronic mail
- Access to the Internet
- Reliability of power supply
- Reliability of gas- and water supply
- Reliability of waste disposal

8. Banking and Finance

- Access to short-term financing of working capital
- Access to long-term financing
- Level of interest rates

9. Legal Protection and Enforcement

- Legal protection of copyrights
- Legal protection of trade marks
- Legal protection of patents
- Legal protection of industrial designs
- Personal legal protection
- Law enforcement
- Efficiency of judicial system
- Cost of legal aid
- Settlement of disputes through arbitration

10. Input and Output Markets

- Availability of skilled labor
- Availability of raw materials
- Availability of a good supplier-industry
- Legal protection of industrial designs
- Stability of currency

SECTION 8 BUSINESS BAROMETER

1. This Month's Assessment and Development

- We rate the general business climate at present as
- We rate our business activities at present as
- Domestic production activity compared to last month was
- Our stock of unsold finished products at present is
- The level of demand (domestic and international) compared to last month has
- The level of orders (domestic and international)for our products compared to last month is
- Taking changes in contract conditions into account, our domestic sales prices compared to last month
were
- We judge our level of international orders at present as

2. Future Plans and Expectations

- Our domestic production within the next 3 months - not accounting for seasonal changes - will probably
- Our domestic sales prices within the next 3 months - taking changes in contract conditions into account -
will probably
- The level of our export activities within the next 3 months - taking into account export contracts and present
negotiations - will probably
- The business conditions for our products within the next 6 months - not taking seasonal changes into
account - will probably

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