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BUSINESS CULTURE IN GERMANY

Doing Business in Germany

This country-specific section gives a comprehensive description of German business culture which will help you to interact more effectively with your German clients and colleagues. Although each sub-section on the right focuses on one particular area of business culture in Germany, it is recommended that all of the sections are studied in the order they are shown.

Background To Business in Germany

The fact that Germany has survived the post 2008 recession well is a testimony to the underlying strength of the German economy and, more interestingly, the strength of its much-vaunted manufacturing base. Interestingly, unemployment rates in Germany are now lower than they were pre-2008 an exports are considerably higher.

For a number of years people were warning that the German model was unsustainable - both labour an social costs were said to be way too high - and that the country would need to make radical policy changes to withstand the growing competion from low-wage economies such as China and India.  Yest, despite these challenges and despite the cost of the post 'cold-war' integration of the former East Germany, the country's economy seems in rude health. 

Women in Business in Germany         

Although more and more women are making inroads into more senior positions in German companies, it is noted that Germany lags behind many other European countries in its progress in this issue. The preponderance of engineers in senior positions in German companies and the traditional lack of women studying these disciplines possibly accentuate this lack of progress.

Many commentators would say that the introduction of European statutes on workplace diversity, coupled with Germany's changing demographics, will quicken the pace of change in this area.

Germany's economic surge is testament to its manufacturing firms, such as BMW, and a backbone of small and medium-sized businesses. Photograph: AFP

Germany has had plenty of troubles in the credit crunch. Some of its of the banks were pretty stupid and, as the strong man of the eurozone, it has been riven by rows over its taxpayers having to bail out weaker nations such as Greece.

Its impressive bounce-back, with GDP growth of 2.2% in the second quarter, the strongest since unification, is unlikely to continue at this pace and it highlights the fact that much of the rest of the eurozone is still struggling. But it is a testament to a business culture that has respect for manufacturing, and where exporters such as BMW or Bosch do not rely on a cheap currency to sell goods abroad but on the excellence of their products.

The backbone of the German economy is its Mittelstand – a core of small and medium-sized firms, many of which have existed for generations and have proved their durability and resilience. In the mid-noughties, I met a number of them in the industrial region of Nordrhein-Westfalen, and they were rightly sceptical about the UK's apparent economic miracle and about debt-based Anglo-Saxon capitalism in general.

Our government hopes smaller firms will create jobs and help rebalance the economy. In Germany it is starting to happen: according to its chambers of commerce, Mittelstand companies want to create up to 100,000 jobs by the end of the year, and are also pushing green technology.

We still have fantastic manufacturers, but that is in spite of the business culture of the past 30 years rather than because of it. Shouldn't we be asking what we can learn from the Germans?