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MasterFubar t1_j34788y wrote

Germany has almost ten times the population of Switzerland, yet they have the same percentage.

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K0tzeit t1_j369qcm wrote

The secret of german economy is to be top of your craft in a special area. The middle sized companies have a big impact on the economy. Its different spirit compared to the big size companies in the US

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ThichXemHen t1_j36bflx wrote

The history of these Mittelstand are always like this too: some guy invented a very complicated product, so he found a firma to make that product, sometimes later his children took over and turned it to a global business. Their head office is always located in a village in a middle of nowhere but they have offices in a dozen countries.

As an Asian I'm always perplexed by these stories since in my country the cities are where all the people concentrated and all the business takes places, so it's a mystery how a company in such a remote area can have bigger outreach than most of the companies in my country. And still manage to create world-class products.

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luaks1337 t1_j36h9iy wrote

As a German born in Germany it's still very surprising sometimes. When looking for IT internships within my area I found so many companies whose names I've never heard that are global leaders with their products. Also every little small village (~5k population) has its own so called Industriegebiet (industry area) that houses lots of such businesses and their suppliers.

I wish this culture had transitioned into the digital age but except for SAP very few German IT companies got big this way.

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SirHawrk t1_j3hbvjq wrote

What small IT companies are global leaders in something?

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