Decision-Making


Scope

Germans think systematically. They view a decision in its broader, interconnected context. The scope of the decision is, therefore, wide. German decision-making means making several decisions at the same time.

Patterns


Analysis

Germans regard an individual step in a decision-making process as completed only when all relevant information has been gathered and analyzed with rigorous tools. Germans are scientific. They are skeptical of intuition.

Patterns


Resources

Germany never was abundant in resources. Germans are economical. In what they make, in how they make it, and in how they use it. Suboptimal decisions require modification, which in turn, draws on resources. Germans do their best to get a decision right the first time.

Patterns


Time

Germans believe that the time allotted to a decision should be determined by the nature of the decision. And not dictated by internal or external pressures. Germans believe that patience leads to good decisions.

Patterns


Risk

Their history as a people, their experiences as an economy, the lessons they have learned, have taught the German people to be highly sensitive to risk, to what can go wrong, to how thin their margins of error can be. Germans are careful.

Patterns