Mittelstanders form the backbone and reliable barometer of the German economy.
It's tough. :
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According to a survey of German executives by the influential Ifo think tank, Germany's business confidence rose to the moon for the first time in eight months of 2003-regardless of time, an opinion poll conducted by ZEW, another brain trust Confirmed these findings. However, in the past, this confidence level has predicted a 5-6 percent reduction in industrial production.
This is consistent with other nasty figures: negligible growth, stiflingly high real interest rates imposed by the European Central Bank, export discourageing strong Euro and unemployment in Germany to over 10% Germany's predicament, global recession , Is compounded by the rapid, universal decline of evaporation and investment of the whole industry (such as telecommunications).
The main victims are Mittelstand-1.3-3.2 (according to definition) most of the million family small and medium enterprises in Germany family-owned (small and medium enterprises). Of all 1000 German companies, 997 is by liberal definition It is Mittelstand. The actual figures are close to one third. Strict standards reduce it to one of the thirty companies.
These differences in opinion contradict the ambiguity of the style of ownership and management, and the fact that the historical cultural background is more unique than objective economic measures.
Mittelstanders form the backbone and reliable barometer of the German economy. They engaged close to 220,000 workers and apprentices, as well as over 3 million "self-employed" (owner-employee)-70 percent of Germany's total active labor force. All commercial sales in the country More than a half of them are not only produced by them, but also half the added value and a third of all exports.
The investment requirement for Mittelstand companies is $ 2 billion annually. However, access to capital is narrow. Local banks are risk aversions, capital markets are incapacitated, and private investors are scared and lacking. As is the case with most Mittelstand companies, the capital requirements of Basel 2 significantly increase the cost of bank lending to risky borrowers.
According to a survey by Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, the German National Development Bank, a third of all companies has restricted access to the bank's credit 2002. Approved by the German bank in 2002, with a 12 month month 7% less new credit. The sixth listed loan cuts with one debilitating bank.
According to economists, the loan (craft) companies to Handwerk fell by half between 2003 and 2003. The public sector savings bank, so far the main source of Mittelstand's funding, is increasingly being taunted by the Invasive European Commission. Neuer Markt, advertised as Germany's answer to the Nasdaq, crashed at an astonishing 96 percent and merged out of existence.
My family is not old. Less than 40 percent of the Mittelstand business is being delivered these days of generation. Many are forced to introduce nasty external investors and directors, or employment management. Banks are much more curious than they used to. The traditional long-term, groundbreaking, business horizon gives the ground to a quasi-American focus on bottom-line tyranny. Capital spending, product development and job security are all at stake.
The founders are often unable to let them calmly think about their death, or retirement, and prepare a plan for an orderly continuation, many criticize that almost at these junctures of a regime change The failure of the business of the affair, Adrian Cadbury, "Company & Rule to be according to the author of the family".
According to Creditreform quoted by economists, the record for 37,700 companies fell below 2002. The Financial Times puts a number of 45,000. And a good harvest of 2003 witnesses. According to the für Mittelstands for schung institute in Bonn, the numbers are even more miserable. In 2001, 386,000 startups were liquidated and 455,000 were formed to create 69,000 new companies.
The formation of a new startup is a decline. In 1991, the net work reached 223,000, 1995-121,000, 1998-100,000. The picture is particularly tough in the east. About 129,000 net new startup sprouted there in 1991. However, the dilapidated East has succeeded in laying eggs only 6,000 decades after its bloated and rotted construction sector was wiped out. Again, 2002 was slightly better.
Half-baked measures are unlikely to reverse the flow of the title-red ink in the title of the 2003-grandiosely "Mittelstand Offensive" to the month declared by the fragile coalition government. The combination of less red tape, more generous financial support, simplified accounting and the hassle of development banks in the country collapses the failure of local entrepreneurship of internal demand eg devastated to the east
Managerial experience lack of business skills and skills. Their network of customers and suppliers is thin on the ground. Most of them are single product costumes. Success is few and long and usually involves foreign fair holders. Fortunately, the labor market in the East is more flexible than the Western counterpart, including its ossification and bureaucracy. Hourly labor costs-wages plus inanely vertigo and generous social benefits-are also substantially lower, even on an east landing.
The arthritis and worker-friendly regulatory framework and the pro-big business tax system certainly have Mittelstand. Even so, the German labor market, if any, was liberalized under Prime Minister Schroeder's government, and the tax rate dropped altogether. One has to look for another place for the cause of the unrelenting deterioration of the country's SMEs.
It is noteworthy that the decline in Mittelstand is in line with the unprecedented surge of small to medium entrepreneurship in both developed and developing countries. Germany seems to have just pioneered what has become an economic epidemic after decades.
In fact, Germany's overwhelming success-its post-war industrial miracle-has its fall and fall seeds. Satised, rich people make entrepreneurs with bad risk taking. German unification was the last attempt of rejuvenation. It fails because the West chose to stifle the East with unrealistic prices Deutsche Mark, a tangle of rules and regulations, forced liquidation of the artificial construction bubble and its industrial base
If it is not broken, please do not fix it, go German folk wisdom. On the surface, everything works perfectly: the German infrastructure is pure health care effective, the environment's best welfare glowing. Why bother with success? -Wonder The average citizen of a large economy in this area. Recently only a few brave souls acknowledged that miracles are being consumed, Germany was able to face Japan's decade, unimplemented.
The second attempt of German regeneration is spreading beyond the borders. The expansion of the European Union to incorporate central and eastern European countries is mainly a German project. Inexpensive labor, abundant raw materials, starving new members, growing consumer markets-a sector committed to resuscitating German industry.
A large German company paid attention to the back ground after this recovery and moved decisively, but Mittelstand was not.
Distracted by their multifaceted crises, they were unable to colonize the east. Cost pressures, better informed customers, aggressive international competition, dazzling, expensive technological change, knees for investment in R & D, vocational training and marketing
One, as a center for advanced research at Dora Cardiff University notebook in Germany, which diversifies abroad either by establishing its presence in the major export markets or by sourcing from cheap countries. Mittelstanders rarely maintain open book accounting, outside source key suppliers, simultaneous engineering
Many small businesses do not operate as well-managed businesses but as family employment agencies. From the hub of innovation and the early introduction of cutting-edge technology, Mittelstanders have recently become paralyzed conservatism. Most of them support liberalization and deregulation of their own interests. However, some will know what to do with these poison cups, which have become much less competitive than they were in the 1970s.
So, is the Mittelstand department destined?
According to a report published by the Gerhard-Mercator University Institute for Development and Peace Research in Duisburg in 2001. The authors, despite all the shortcomings of Mittelstand's business model, serve as a blueprint for countries in Latin America and other developing regions
Mittelstand has largely survived unscathed war, devastation, division and unity. There is no reason they should not live longer on this second round of globalization-they did it a century ago, admirably in the first round. However, the government recognizes Mittelstand's contribution to the economy and rewards these struggling companies with job creation, innovation, continuity of ownership, taxes conducive to exports, funding, and a regulatory environment.
The reason for hope is that Germany is finally awake. The university offers courses in family oriented management. EuroLink Connect German SMEs private investors, such as offline and online exchanges, strategic partners and fund-managers.
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