Imagine a country whose inhabitants work fewer hours than almost any others, whose workforce is not particularly productive and whose children spend less time at school than most of its neighbours.
Hardly a recipe for economic success, you might think.
But the country described above is none other than Germany, Europe's industrial powerhouse and the world's second largest exporter; a country whose economy has single-handedly stopped the eurozone falling back into recession and the only nation rich enough to save the euro.
When you consider that only the Dutch work fewer hours among the 34 members of the OECD, that German children spend 25% less time in the classroom than their Italian counterparts, and that there are six more productive economies in Europe alone, these facts appear all the more remarkable.
So why is the German economy so powerful, and what lessons can the rest of us learn from it?
Labour reforms
But there are other, deep-rooted reasons behind Germany's current economic pre-eminence in Europe, not least in fact the relatively low number of hours spent at work and in the classroom.
But cultural differences are just as significant - quite simply, Germans are uncomfortable with the concept of borrowing money and prefer to live within their own means.
"In German, borrowing is 'schulden', [the same word for] guilt. There is an attitude that if you have to borrow, there is something wrong with you," says Mr Kohl.
berminat baca lebih lanjut: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18868704
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While Germany's economy shrank in the last measured quarter, mostly due to the collapse of the overall European economy, it still runs a trade surplus with much lower unemployment than the U.S. German Chancellor Angela Merkel once was asked by then-British prime minister Tony Blair what the secret was of her country's impressive success. She famously replied, "Mr. Blair, we still make things." In Germany, manufacturing still dominates finance, not the other way around, as Germany has continued to emphasize manufacturing and exports over the financial industry.
'KING OF NICHE MARKETS'
"America concentrates on the mass market and quantity, but Germany is king of niche markets," says Professor Bernd Venohr of Berlin's School of Economics. That entrepreneurial strategy has allowed these German companies to be manufacturing and export dynamos, providing developing nations like China and India with the high tech precision tools they need to become the mass production factories of the world.
lebih lanjut: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...y-mean/273318/
note: ada "paper qualification" takda kerja? bukan salah anda... salah kerajaan & pengubar dasar...
rasa anda pandai? jadilah pengubar dasar... kroni? you don't have what it takes... tak percaya? need inspiration?
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