American sales roles are frequently paid mostly or entirely on commission, with no ceiling. The earnings are a direct function of output, and the arrangement is regarded as motivating rather than insecure.
business
The project management standard
The German standard for project management defines the terminology, the process model and the required documents. Project management in Germany is itself standardised — there is a DIN number for how to run a project.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie published it in 1936. It has sold tens of millions of copies and has never been out of print. Its argument is that business outcomes follow from how people feel about you, and its instructions are about attention, names, listening and genuine interest. An American business classic is a book about liking.
The workshop manual
Das Werkstattbuch. German manufacturers publish workshop manuals with exploded diagrams, torque values and part numbers, often for decades after production ends. The design anticipates its own repair, and documents how.
Social partnership
Sozialpartnerschaft. Employers and unions in Germany are called social partners, by both sides and by the state. The word describes a relationship that is genuinely adversarial as a joint undertaking, and the naming shapes what an acceptable outcome looks like.
Phased retirement
Altersteilzeit, negotiated into many German collective agreements: the employee moves to half hours over several years, with the employer topping up the pay and the pension contributions. The exit is treated as a process to be arranged rather than a date.
Pay for performance
American compensation is built in layers: base salary, annual bonus tied to individual and company results, equity, commission. A substantial share of pay for many roles is contingent and recalculated every year.
The what and the how
German engineering practice separates two documents, both defined in DIN 69901-5 and VDI 2519. The Lastenheft is written by the customer and states what is required and why — deliberately solution-neutral. The Pflichtenheft is written by the supplier in response and states how it will be built.
The what and the how are different documents, by different authors, in a fixed order, and together they form the contractual basis of the project.
The specification
The German Leistungsbeschreibung is written before quotations are sought, and a supplier who receives a vague one will say so. A client who does not yet know what he wants is not regarded as an early-stage opportunity. He is regarded as not yet ready to have the conversation.
Reengineering the Corporation
Hammer and Champy, 1993. One of the bestselling American business books ever published, and its instruction was to stop improving existing processes and abolish them. The subtitle was a manifesto for business revolution. Millions of American managers bought a book telling them their processes were the problem.