Austrian productivity and profitability center
| Austrian Productivity and Profitability Center (ÖPWZ) |
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| purpose | continuing Professional Education |
| Chair: | Andreas Prenner (President) Johannes Kleemann (Vice President) |
| Establishment date: | 1950 (as the Austrian Productivity Center ÖPZ) |
| Seat : | Vienna 1 , Rockhgasse 6 |
| Website: | www.opwz.com |
The Austrian Productivity and Profitability Center ( ÖPWZ ) is a job-related adult training institute - organized as a non-profit association - based in Vienna .
history
In 1950, one of the first social and economic partnership institutions was founded by a government resolution, the Austrian Productivity Center , or ÖPZ for short.
The founding members of the non-profit association were:
- Federal Chamber of Commerce
- Austrian Chamber of Labor
- Association of Austrian Industrialists
- Austrian Federation of Trade Unions
- Presidential Conference of the Austrian Chambers of Agriculture
The establishment of the ÖPZ with funds from the Marshall Plan was the result of discussions between representatives of the US Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) mission in Austria and the Austrian federal government in 1949/1950. The aim was to put material, spiritual and moral forces at the service of increasing productivity in the Austrian economy . In the ÖPZ, for example, the focus is on public relations and promoting “productivity”. It includes information gathering, publication activities, study trips, internal campaigns, as well as seminars and congresses. A key part of this work is the training of REFA engineers.
Economic and technical information service
With the Economic-Technical Information Service (WTI), the ÖPZ provides companies with information in order to disseminate modern know-how and to increase the productivity of Austrian companies. American magazines and reports are translated, technical educational films are shown throughout Austria and industrial products that are still completely unknown here are demonstrated. Over time, the information service of the ÖPZ will become an important hub in the network of information services that work together at international and national level.
Film service
In 1951 the ÖPZ started its film service with 130 films. They show working and manufacturing methods from various branches of industry, trade and commerce, mechanization, automation, transport and accident prevention. Documentary and cultural films are also presented. "In the struggle for the hegemony of opinions, these films should bring the goals of the Marshall Plan closer to the population in these countries, convey the idea of the US capitalist economic and social system as broadly as possible and contribute to increasing productivity," said the media and cultural theorist Ramón Reichert , who analyzed the ÖPZ films. In the same year there was already a nationwide sales network with projector locations in all social partnership educational institutions.
Since 1945
For the first time in Austria, the productivity congress of the ÖPZ dealt with questions of modern corporate management from the perspective of international research and practice. "The company in the larger market" was the motto of the conference, on which speakers from all over Europe spoke. Chancellor Josef Klaus opened the congress . The ÖPZ started to offer seminars, courses and academies, training and further education developed into a focus of the ÖPZ activities.
In 1973 the ÖPZ was merged with the Austrian Board of Trustees for Economic Efficiency (ÖKW) to form the Austrian Center for Economic Efficiency and Productivity . The circle of association members expanded to include the Chamber of Public Accountants. In 1979, the Institute name corresponding to the abbreviation was ÖPWZ in Austrian Productivity and Efficiency Center changed.
From 1999 to 2009, together with the Federal Ministry of Economics, Family and Youth, innovative strategic marketing concepts from companies and organizations were awarded the State Marketing Prize.
The ÖPWZ has been a non-profit association since it was founded. The institute is financed through its market success.