The World Economic Forum released its 2018 Global Competitiveness Report recently, which can be read as a listing of the most innovative countries in the world (to some extent), or at the very least the best countries to launch an entrepreneurial offering. The United States came in first; that’s not a surprise, even though their academic achievement lags behind many other first-world countries.
But sneaking in at No. 2 is … you know it. Germany.
The score
Germany finished with a 81.6 total score, slightly ahead of The Netherlands’ 80.3 and behind the USA’s 86.5.
The overall landscape
It is true that Germany’s economy just shrunk for the first time since 2015, although it can be argued Germany’s economy is actually just getting hammered by the problems of the rest of the world. German numbers are somewhat closely-tied to car production, and emissions rules have contributed to some of the shrinking. The more “tech-driven” options aren’t seeing that type of decline.
Plus, in no way does any German downturn signal a recession, whereas in the United States … it might.
Doing business in Germany makes sense
It actually makes a ton of sense:
- German market share usually carries with it Austria and Switzerland
- The DACH market is home to 100M+ German-speaking consumers
- Amazing logistics
- There’s been a consistent unemployment drop in Germany for much of the past few years (very different than other European economies, where unemployment is ticking up)
- Consistent, stable levels of growth
If you’re considering a German entry…
… here’s what you need to understand about the specifics of the market in terms of language and business development.
Let us know what questions you have about entering the second-most entrepreneurial market in the world! We’re here to help.