Location: Central Europe, bordering Austria 784 km, Belgium 167 km, Czech Republic 646 km, Denmark 68 km, France 451 km, Luxembourg 138 km, Netherlands 577 km, Poland 456 km, Switzerland 334 km

Capital: Berlin

Population: 82,424,609 (July 2004 est.)

Language: German

Lifestyle & Aspirations
Germany is one of the most culturally rich countries in Europe, with even small towns having their own theatre, orchestra and museum and a lively programme of festivals throughout the year. Germany is the best-read country in Europe. People here are also passionate about the outdoors and the environment. Leisure time is very important to Germans, who enjoy nine federal holidays a year and an annual holiday of up to six weeks. Most popular leisure activities include:
? Walking and hiking: In and around the cities there is a wealth of excursions available that can be reached by good paths and tracks and which are worth exploring. Reconnoitring the surrounding area on bicycles or inline skates has also become very popular.
? Winter sports: Practically everybody skis in the Alps in winter and even around the northern cities - in fact, anywhere with forest or a small hill - there are excellent cross country ski trails.
? Music: Germany is a nation of amateur musicians and choirs, with orchestras and music societies in every town.
? Festivals: The country has a lively festival calendar, with Carnival in February the most prestigious event. The Oktoberfest in Munich - the world's greatest beer festival -is legendary.
? Beer: Germany is famous for its fine beers and there are Kniepen (pubs) everywhere serving their own brews. Sitting outside in a beer garden on a long summer's evening is a popular activity.
? Travel: One quarter of all Germans spend their annual holiday in their own country. Germans vacationing abroad tend to favour Spain, Italy and Austria. Roughly half of all Germans book an organised holiday through a tour operator.
? Membership of local clubs: Germany has numerous associations and a wide range of local clubs ('Vereine', eg 'Sportverein', 'Musikverein'). These number at least 345,000 and have a total membership of 70 million.
? Watching sport, from soccer to cycling and tennis.
? Further education: There is a rich programme of evening classes at low cost and many people develop new skills after work.

The Essentials (10 Key Tips)
1. Important qualities expected of a manager in Germany include the ability to assert oneself, a willingness to work hard, the ability to lead, an analytical ability and technical expertise.
2. The style of communication in Germany is very formal; even people who have worked together for years use the polite 'Sie' form of address.
3. Value is placed on clarity, honesty and respect; you say what you mean and you mean what you say.
4. There is a desire to do things the correct way.
5. Punctuality is important - being even a few minutes late is considered very rude.
6. Presentations should be concise. Be prepared to answer technical questions.
7. When selling, highlight the features and performance of a product rather than its look and image.
8. Germans are good listeners and will ask detailed questions.
9. Low-risk, sound, high-tech projects are the most likely to attract German investors.
10. Decision-making can be slow with opinions sought from various outside 'experts'.

Working with the Germans
Germans are focused on two objectives: product quality and product service. They have an inbuilt desire to be the best and are highly orientated to customer satisfaction. The process of production is important, as is the end result. Order, planning, a lack of risk and technical detail are all highly valued.
Expect detailed negotiations with many experts called in; a great deal of due diligence on any deal; protracted decision-making; lengthy contracts; and detailed follow-up. Be prepared to work hard at building relationships, which may not come naturally to your German counterparts.
German workteams have often been described as a group of individual experts working towards a common goal. The benefits of teamwork and synergy are well respected by Germans but they also need to feel individual areas of competence are not being excluded.

Making a Good Impression
You will make a good impression by coming across as an expert in your subject, who has thoroughly researched the German market and is able to answer detailed technical questions. You will be smartly dressed, a straight-talker, efficient and decisive. Academic qualifications impress Germans. Being able to get along is, of course, useful but it is not paramount. Any mask which is let down in the pub after work will be back in place the following morning; Germans are gregarious but it takes time to get close to people.
Germans are not great minglers at social events and feel no particular obligation to introduce a visitor from another country to the other guests.
If you are left standing on your own, do not feel that you have made a bad impression; you are simply expected to look after yourself.

Business Etiquette
Humour is often said to be out of place in German business. Business is taken seriously and meetings tend to be formal, but this does not mean that people are humourless. A humorous remark that is relevant to the situation is more likely to break down barriers than to create them. Germans are often perceived as distant and hard to get to know. As they place a high value on their private sphere and draw a clear line between business and pleasure, it simply takes longer to get behind the barrier of the real person.

Business cards
Prepare to exchange plenty of business cards, especially at first meetings or with people you don't know yet. Do not expect business cards to be treated with too much respect; they just serve to capture the name, function and academic qualification of your counterpart as well as the details for correspondence.
Business cards in general will include the professional title and rank of the cardholder. It is recommended to use the professional title (Doktor, for example) until your counterpart asks you to stick to their family name only. Since education is highly respected in Germany, it is appropriate to include any title above bachelor degree level on your card. If your company has been around for many years, the date of its founding should be on your business card, too.

Body language
In business the brief and firm handshake is common. Direct eye contact is often interpreted as a sign of being trustworthy in what you say and mean. Maintaining eye contact shows attention and strengthens your message to your German counterpart. Avoid touching and keep gestures restrained.
While Germans are open and generous with close friends, they tend to be formal and reserved in public. You will not see many smiles or displays of affection on German streets or in the course of business. Germans smile to indicate affection, rather than at customers or at co-workers.

The avoidance of public spectacle is reflected in the way Germans will get quite close to each other before offering a greeting. Only the younger generation waves and or shouts at each other from a distance.
Recognition of personal space is a matter of etiquette and status. In offices, doors are often kept closed to express a preference for working undisturbed. It is expected to knock before entering. Executives generally prefer visitors to enter via the secretary's office. The importance of a person in the hierarchy can often be recognised by the size, position and quality of furniture of the office.
To signal 'good luck', Germans make two fists with thumbs tucked inside other fingers and then make a motion as if they are pounding lightly on a surface. To signal the number 'one' or say that something is great, hold the thumb upright.

Communication style
The German communication style is very direct, short and in general very quickly to the point, to the point where it can seem abrupt, although this is not intended. Germans can be more frank than Americans or British people are used to. They can be perceived as insensitive and pushy. Feelings and the emotional aspects of business are downplayed. Reliability and the integrity of the business are high priorities. The features and performance of a product are more important than its looks and packaging.
Organisation and the appearance of organisation are also high priorities. Concise statements appear simple-minded, although overstatement is also disliked, so you need to strike a balance. New information is not readily accepted, but Germans are very persevering and persistent when assessing new situations and information. They do, however, abhor hype and exaggeration. Be sure you can back up your claims with lots of data. Case studies and examples are highly regarded.
Small talk is not traditional. Germans tend to like people who are very clear about their expectations and getting down to business is the norm. In explanations, however, they often find it necessary to lay a proper foundation and provide a historical context.

Gift giving
It is not necessary to give expensive gifts. Provided they are of good quality, items such as pens, pocket calculators or imported liquor will be more than adequate. If you present wine or beer, it will be more appreciated if they are types not so readily available in Germany. Gifts made in your home country would be good, perhaps with your company logo. When it comes to clothing, a sport shirt with your company logo might be appreciated, but in general clothing is not considered appropriate as a gift. The same goes for perfumes or soaps, on the grounds that they are too personal.

Business Meeting Culture
The purpose of a meeting will be to present and discuss proposals, to clarify the methodological approach and to agree on what is true, correct or helpful, and to agree on actions to be taken by individuals.
In meetings, small talk is kept to a minimum. Meetings will run to schedule, so make sure everything on the agenda can fit into the allocated time. Prepare thoroughly, get ready for lively debate during a meeting and follow up with precision.

Planning a meeting
Preparation is taken very seriously. Agenda items are researched in detail. Important issues may be pre-discussed on a bilateral basis. The agenda, as well as meeting time and location, a list of participants and the goals and purpose of a meeting, is sent out by the host prior to the meeting.
Experts might be consulted before the meeting; they might also be invited to attend. Participants will generally be punctual and arrive some minutes before the meeting starts. The meeting will run to schedule regardless, and will finish at the appointed time, whether or not its goal has been achieved.

During a Meeting
Meeting members will give a firm handshake and make formal introductions to people they do not already know. People are introduced by their titles, family name and their technical and hierarchical responsibility.
First meetings can be relatively formal and reserved. People need to get to know each other and especially their positions and knowledge first. The exchange of business cards will be helpful in order to keep names and check titles and responsibilities. Calling each other by first names will take time.
After a quick review of the agenda, the business of the meeting will begin. Meetings are usually dominated by the senior person and are formal and structured. Meetings only between peers tend to be more open to discussion and debate.
Communication will tend to be direct, unemotional and comprehensive. Direct communication is perceived as respectful rather than rude.
Thinking tends to be very analytical and conceptual which can appear to a foreigner as very detailed and complex. There is a high distrust of simple utterances.
Proposals and ideas will have been thought through in some detail in advance and might sound like statements of fact rather than proposals.
Participants may not be open to other points of view unless they are also well supported by evidence.
Listeners look for logic and consistence in thinking and talking. They will discover very quickly whether a speaker is qualified to speak about a topic or not.
Technical expertise is valued and respected and often deferred to. Participants who are not well-informed will usually keep quiet. As business is seen as a serious endeavour, participants in general will pay close attention and often ask detailed questions.
Conflicts that could have been prevented - but are not - are considered wasteful and inefficient and are very much discouraged. Ideally, differences will be resolved in advance or dealt with later.

Following a meeting
Minutes will be taken and distributed. Action plans should be clear, specific and in writing. Schedules and plans will be followed rigorously.
If circumstances change, the action plans or contracts should be renegotiated, and not just changed in an informal way.

Motivating Others
Until very recently, motivational skills were not considered significant when managing teams in Germany. Money and the satisfaction of carrying out a task successfully were considered sufficient motivation. Success is expected and praise is rare. The ability to assert oneself is considered a quality and therefore expected from all employees. But multinationals in Germany have brought their own culture, with American-style incentive programmes in operation. Target-driven incentive schemes are in operation, linked to compensation.
Performance-related pay was introduced in the late 1990s to the public sector, administered according to a complex formula which evaluates the employee and has to be carried out regularly.

Effective Presentations
A formal but friendly approach is best. Choose a delivery style that conveys authority and expertise. Your goal is to inform, not to entertain. Showmanship is not necessary and will in any case damage your reputation; Germans do not like flashiness.
Prepare a logical structure which allows room for the presentation of background context and a summary. Lots of evidence to back-up proposals and ideas is expected. The use of case studies and examples is valued as well as the use of visuals. Presenters persuade by demonstrating their credibility through their professional abilities and proving their mastery of the complete situation. It's important to introduce yourself at the beginning and be clear why you are there - your professional expertise, your experience etc.
The presentation should work toward the conclusion or main point, rather than having it stated upfront.

Audience Expectations
The German listener expects clarity, competence/expert knowledge, hierarchy, logical structure, proof and substantive content. Presentations are expected to be concise and to the point, and to run to time. Say at the beginning of the presentation how long it is going to take, and stick to this. Handouts should contain supporting facts and figures and contextual information - there is no need to include all this in the actual presentation.
Audiences will ask detailed and technical questions and they may not wait until the presentation is finished, so prepare to be interrupted.

Managing Relationships
German management style can be described as consensual, product- and quality-oriented, export-conscious, loyal and committed. Change occurs slowly and tradition is sometimes hard to break with, so be prepared for a long process if you are trying to implement culture change in a company.
Germans are very private people and it takes time to build personal relationships, particularly with the formal setup in most offices. You will find them polite and sometimes a little distant, but open and blunt when they want to make a point. It is important to recognise this as a typical way of communicating, not a personal attack. It's also important to learn how to give feedback in such a way as not to offend. Getting along with Germans in a business context can be challenging at first but is ultimately rewarding, as business relationships tend to be solid and long-lasting.