Germany – Page 27 – understand-culture

Thinkers and Tinkerers

The German state of Baden-Württemberg boasts an unusually large number of local companies that have made it big on the global market. That’s in large part due to the creative and entrepreneurial spirit of its residents.

Made in Germany takes a look at how so many local companies have taken little-known products and turned them into export hits.

Listen carefully to what the head of Stahl says about training their people, retaining them at any cost, and giving them the freedom to constantly innovate. And most importantly, striving to go beyond customer needs.

Not see the forest for the trees

Den Wald vor lauter Bäumen nicht sehen – to not see the forest for the trees – is an often-used figure of speech in Germany (and in the U.S.) describing how one can fail to see the bigger picture due to focusing on the details.

This figure of speech always has a negative connotation and implies that a person does not have everything under control, is not capable of stepping back in order to assess the broader situation.

This is considered in Germany to be a serious weakness, for in their work they strive to orient themselves on universal (generally valid, admitted, accepted) conditions (prerequisites, requirements, premises, suppositions).

In doing so Germans try to maintain a certain amount of distance from the details of their work, in order to always recognize (be cognizant of) basic structures and patterns.

Germans think systematically

Germans think systematically. They formulate their understanding of a decision to be made in a very broad and interconnected context. Therefore Germans do not always consider it helpful to take complexity and, as Americans say, “break it down” into its component parts. They aim to do the opposite, to see particulars in their interrelationships. They look for patterns, strive to understand complexity as a whole, as a system.

Servitium

Serve: The English term service implies graciousness, helpfulness and to a degree selflessness. To serve is to be humble. Serve stems from the Latin word servitium, which meant the condition of a slave. Service, at its roots, involves one person serving another or several. It is inherently personal.

The term service in the context of American business involves the notion of servitium: to respond to the needs of your customer, to serve that customer personally and individually. But service also anticipates compensation: payment, customer loyalty, growth of the business.

Service is both personal and commercial. They go hand-in-hand. Impersonal service seldom leads to commercial success. Personal service without fair compensation is servitude. And, indeed, some business relationships are so one-sided that the one serving feels more like a slave than a free person.

Personal: Of, relating to, or affecting a particular person; done in person without the intervention of another; carried on between individuals directly; relating to the person or body; relating to an individual or an individual’s character, conduct, motives, or private affairs often in an offensive manner; being rational and self-conscious; of, relating to, or constituting personal property; intended for private use or use by one person. From Latin persona.

Helpful: Of service or assistance, useful.

Selfless: Having no concern for self, unselfish.

Humble: Not proud or haughty, not arrogant or assertive; reflecting, expressing, or offered in a spirit of deference or submission; ranking low in a hierarchy or scale. From Latin humilis low, humble, from humus earth.

Miteinander auf Augenhöhe

Erfolgreich Miteinander auf Augenhöhe

Camlog zeichnet die Zusammenarbeit in einem starken Team aus, das die Zukunft aktiv gestaltet. Unsere Kunden und die Patienten stehen bei all unseren Bestrebungen im Mittelpunkt. Glaubwürdigkeit und gegenseitiges Vertrauen sind uns besonders wichtig. Nur so entstehen langfristige Beziehungen, die wir bei Camlog jeden Tag mit viel Kreativität und Engagement pflegen. Wir leben den Partnerschaftsgedanken mit unseren Kunden. Die Begeisterung für ein erfolgreiches Miteinander auf Augenhöhe macht uns stark.

. . . here’s the translation:

Successful cooperation on equal terms

Camlog is characterised by cooperation within a strong team that actively shapes the future. Our customers and patients are at the heart of all our endeavours. Credibility and mutual trust are particularly important to us. This is the only way to build long-term relationships, which we at Camlog nurture every day with a great deal of creativity and commitment. We live the idea of partnership with our customers. Our enthusiasm for successful cooperation on equal terms makes us strong.

On equal terms. And not a master-slave relationship.

Between honesty and politeness

There’s a fine line between honesty and politeness and Germans are known abroad for not beating around the bush. Kate Müser and Waslat Hasrat-Nazimi at Deutsche Welle in Bonn explore the rather direct questions they’ve had to answer in Germany.

Note 1: Towards the end Kate states that it is impolite to discuss politics in the German context. This is not correct. In fact, it is just the opposite. Many comments below the video on YouTube are by Germans stating this clearly.

Note 2: Another German commented, and rightfully so, that the opposite of direct is not polite, but instead indirect. The commenter goes on to state that Kate’s ironic winking about how German directness can be impolite is an unfair judgement of the German people.

Consult the customer

Communication with the customer about expectations is a primary role of American business. For example, a senior consultant at a major American strategy consulting firm described collaboration as an attribute that is “built into the very culture of our consulting firm.” New consultants are selected for their ability to understand and respond to the needs of their clients.

The website of a leading strategy consulting firm tells future clients that “custom solutions yield the greatest competitive advantage and value for our clients. We ground each solution in how our client’s organization actually works and in the client’s unique position in the marketplace.”

In order to understand the client’s unique situation and demands, the consultants work side-by-side with the client’s employees and listen to their concerns.

A report from the Center for the Study of Social Policy about customer service describes the complex interplay of factors involved in customer satisfaction. One finding of the report is: “Successful customer service companies listen to, understand, and respond—often in unique and creative ways—to the evolving needs and constantly shifting expectations of their customers.“

“We choose freedom!”

It’s been said many times that Konrad Adenauer – West Germany’s great chancellor from 1949 until 1963 – was a master of communicating the complex simply.

His extraordinary ability to communicate with the “average Joe” was particularly effective in the early post-War years in West Germany. During one of the great national debates in the Bundestag about West German foreign policy Adenauer contrasts starkly his policy to that of the opposition Social Democrats by shouting: Wir wählen die Freiheit! Between slavery and freedom, we choose freedom!

If you understand German, and if you are even only somewhat familiar with the history of modern Germany, and the history of West Germany after the Second World War, then you should listen carefully to this extraordinary interview with Konrad Adenauer from the year 1965 with the highly-respected political journalist, Günter Gaus:

Fauler Kompromiss

Fauler Kompromiss. False or rotten compromise. Germans believe that there can be no lasting resolution unless the parties compromise. This is the case in coalition governments, in negotiations between employers and labor, in person relationships.

Often, however, the media and the public speculate whether certain resolutions to a conflict were true compromises or faul, fake or rotten. They wonder if one party got the better of the other and that an imbalance is being covered up.

Intelligent software

SAP is located in Walldorf, Germany, not far from Heidelberg. It is the world’s fourth largest software maker and the largest in Europe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbupKfsvDM4

Founded in 1972, SAP initially created mainframe software for payroll and accounting. Over time it developed a single system capable of processing different types of data from different areas of complex companies.

Today SAP offers a suite of business intelligence solutions which can extract highly relevant data from very large amounts of data, thus enabling sophisticated analysis, which in turn allows for intelligent decision making.

Intelligent software for intelligent decision makers.