Top performance is also possible in Germany

MMK Award of Excellence honors special achievements

Jörg Lamprecht is one of the most successful German start-up founders. His company Dedrone - a drone defense specialist that claims to be the market leader in the field of airspace security - is now headquartered in San Francisco. According to Lamprecht, the next revolution is currently taking place at the heart of the technology sector. A revolution that, in his opinion, Germany is currently missing out on. Lamprecht is particularly impressed by the self-driving cabs that are now a matter of course there. He recently said in an interview after spending three months in Silicon Valley: "Germany could also build self-driving cars. As a passionate European of conviction, I ask myself: why don't we do it then?" Other European countries such as Estonia are now outstripping Germany in terms of digitalization. 

The example shows: Germany was long regarded as an inventor nation. Nowadays, most innovations are made elsewhere. In Silicon Valley, you can already order a cab via an app that takes you from A to B without a driver, as Lamprecht did. In Germany, the technology is still being researched. For example, employees at the Chair of Automotive Engineering at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed software for autonomous driving that distributes the risk on the road fairly. Next year, a research vehicle called EDGAR will be driving around the Bavariaring at the Oktoberfest as an autonomous cab shuttle for test purposes. So the expertise has long been available, but the bureaucratic hurdles in Germany and the EU are often far too high to be innovative and put good ideas into practice quickly.

According to a report in Handelsblatt, the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) criticizes the fact that more and more regulation is being added at EU level, for example. "In 2021, there were 1.5 new laws for every abolished one, last year the ratio was already 1 to 3.5 - and in June of this year, there were even five new laws for every abolished one," according to a report from October.

The issue of excessive bureaucracy was also discussed at the Employers' Day in Berlin in October. There, Employers' President Rainer Dulger sharply criticized the coalition government and called on it to do more for Germany as a business location: "A targeted reduction in bureaucracy is a free economic stimulus package."

According to a Forsa survey, 82% of entrepreneurs believe that Germany is at risk as a business location. The reasons cited include high energy prices and a lack of skilled workers. According to the survey, 70% of companies are calling for improvements to the education system, 85% for a reduction in bureaucracy and 69% for the modernization and digitalization of administration. The traffic light government's climate policy is also not well received by employers. "The location conditions are no longer right," said Dulger at the German Employers' Day.

In addition, according to the International Monetary Fund, Germany is the only G7 industrialized country whose economy is shrinking this year. But that's not all: according to OECD figures, foreign investment in Germany in particular has recently collapsed almost completely. A recent study by the German Economic Institute (IW) shows that companies have never withdrawn as much money from Germany as they did last year. German companies are also increasingly deciding to invest abroad rather than in Germany.

So what needs to change? What do companies need in order to be fit for the future and what does Germany as a business location need in order to remain competitive?

The Munich Management Colloquium (MMK), Germany's largest business conference for over 30 years, aims to provide an answer to this question. In March, managers and entrepreneurs will come together with politicians and professors to exchange ideas and discuss this year's conference theme Strong together and to present possible solutions. The MMK is convinced that the German economic region and Europe can only remain successful through networking and collaboration. This is why the two-day conference in Munich will focus on best-practice solutions. The speakers will present solutions from their companies that show how challenges can be mastered and overcome in the most sensible way. The motto is: Learn from the best.

In order to highlight the existing potential, special achievements should be given a stage to set an example for others. This is why next year the MMK will be honoring companies that stand out for their excellent management performance. For the first time, the MMK Award of Excellence will be presented in the categories Innovative management approaches, Artificial intelligence, Outstanding initiatives to promote sustainability and Start-ups and their groundbreaking founding ideas awarded.

"Top performance is also possible in Germany - but it is not currently the norm," says MMK founder and Managing Director Prof. Horst Wildemann. The MMK Award of Excellence aims to highlight precisely these top performances and recognize their role model function, "as a signal to customers and potential employees", as Prof. Wildemann emphasizes.

Because, as the MMK will show, the potential has long been there to make Germany an attractive business location again. Perhaps the next revolution will come from Germany after all.