Willkommen – welcome to the Germany category of this blog. This is where I share anything that relates to Germany, business issues, the German people or culture. Often posts that appear in this category will appear in other categories as well. So if Berghain launched a new brand collaboration with Volkswagen. And that I thought was particularly interesting or noteworthy, that might appear in branding as well as Germany.
So far, I haven’t had too much German related content here at the moment. That’s just the way things work out sometimes.
Where I have talked about Germany much of my discussions have focused around innovation or design due to German history and reliance on its manufacturing sector. It hasn’t deindustrialised to the same extent as the UK did during the 1980s.
However it hasn’t been all good. A classic example is how German car manufacturers. They had been behind the curve on both electric and hydrogen powered vehicles compared to China, the US and Korea. While German strength is in traditional engineering areas such as software have been much more hit and miss.
I don’t tend to comment on local politics because I don’t understand it that well, but I am interested when it intersects with business. An example of this would be legal issues affecting the media sector for instance.
If there are German related subjects that you think would fit with this blog, feel free to let me know by leaving a comment in the ‘Get in touch’ section of this blog here.
Mercedes Benz G63 AMG 6×6 « Gear Patrol – I can’t work out if the Mercedes Benz G63 AMG 6×6 is amazing or stupid. It is based on the G Wagen which is a proper off-road vehicle. The 6×6 platform used was developed for the military like Germany’s KSK special forces unit. The Mercedes Benz G63 AMG adds a ridiculously overturned engine. AMG then has to go over every inch of the Mercedes Benz G63 and change chassis and components to adequately handle the power.
BMW announced it’s i3 Coupe concept this week. It was buzzword compliant with plug-in technology; but the most interesting thing for me about it was the way in which the car shows the current range that could be travelled as part of its in-car instrumentation.
It was a duh moment of genius simplicity in terms of user experience design for vehicles.
I mean’t to publish this a while ago but a lack of time got the better of me. Lucre‘s social media team were supporting Bosch UK in their positioning of Bosch is all around us. It got me thinking about what Bosch meant to me. Primarily the brand was about three things:
Power tools – I used Bosch power tools to prepare my O’level project in Craft, Design and Technology. My Dad worked in a plant hire company and so I could get hold of a power sander and a power router which made the whole process much easier. Bosch and Makita are still the gold standard of power tools, if anything Makita has managed to edge power tools
Electrical car parts – in particular the iconic brown distributor cap that sat under the bonnet of my first car and doled out electricity to the Bosch spark plugs. Their windscreen wiper blades are made to a similarly high standard
Kitchen appliances – my 40 something fridge which finally got thrown out when I moved out of my house in London. It still worked and had served as a store for cold drinks in my garage when I listened to records during the summer. My parents had bought it after they moved into their first house and it got relegated to their garage when they bought a fridge freezer in the mid-1980s. They are now three fridge freezers on whilst I was still using the Bosch fridge. It is probably sitting on a landfill in the south of England punching a hole in the ozone layer with its vintage CFCs
While Bosch may have been all around me, it stayed around me because the products were generally very well made. Something that many of it’s competitors can’t truthfully claim. More brand related content can be found here.
China slowdown: feeling the pain in the Pearl River Delta | beyondbrics – it is really interesting that China’s slowdown isn’t only being felt in the traditional rust belt in the North East, but also in the Pearl river delta. Hong Kong sits at the end of the Pearl river delta as does Shenzhen. The Pearl river delta is about 7,500 square km. It goes from Guangzhou in the north to the Macau Special Administrative Region in the south. The Pearl river delta is a maze of streams and canals between small rice paddies that, because of the 12-month growing season, commonly support three rice crops annually. It is one of the most crowded areas of China, where modern industry and agriculture have been rapidly developed since the 1980s.
China disappointed with medals haul – FT.com – a sign of western imperalist hegemony trying to usurp China’s journey to the world ? The swift doping accusations against teenage gold medalist Ye Shiwen is fuel to this world view in China (paywall)
How rave music conquered America | The Guardian – ironic given that rave came out of house music a small sub-culture from Chicago and one of the biggest players in the early rave seen was New York DJs Tommy Musto and Frankie Bones
Economics
Tricky customers – FT.com – Pier Luigi Sigismondi, Unilever’s chief supply chain officer. “While middle cases in the emerging world are aspiring to so-called western standards of living … western Europe is starting to see an economy that’s taking us to the developing market dynamics, which is quite concerning.”
Sharp Corp running out of options ‹ Japan Today – it is the harbinger of things to come with the formerly mighty Japanese consumer electronics brands? I hope not, but suspect it is likely to be the case
Nokia Cuts U.S. Price of Flagship Phone in Half – WSJ.com – gives an indication of how Windows 8 Phone is hurting Nokia. Clear the inventory press reset and hope that Windows 8 phone does the business for them. Windows 8 phone requires a Qualcomm reference board and components. This had a higher bill of materials than Nokia’s phones and meant that Nokia couldn’t take advantage of their highly automated production lines, compounding 3rd party expenses for Nokia in building the Windows 8 phone
Windows Phone 8 Fallout: Impact on Nokia & Developers | tech-thoughts.net – Windows 8 phone has seen a massive drop off in the developer community who had previously supported Symbian and Maego. Nokia’s advantage in developer tools has been lost. Carriers won’t be happy with the bundling of Skype with Windows 8 phone.
China manufacturing contracts again: HSBC – last month this data looked questionable because of the smaller panel size than similar PMI index measures. Is this a pattern?
The Korean Film Archive who have put many of the most prominent works in Korean cinema on YouTube free for you to watch. Google has gone to the trouble of putting English sub-titles on all of the films. If you thought Korean culture was Old Boy and saccharin-sweet looking girl groups think again.
Luxury spending slowdown drags on HK – hmmm declining HSBC PMI index, declining luxury spending in Hong Kong – seems like China may have hit a speed bump
MSNBC.com Renamed to NBCNews.com as Microsoft and NBC Divorce – NYTimes.com – reading this brought back memories of my last year in college. Our house had cable and I remember watching Soledad O’Brien and a CGI character Dev Null on The Site which was one of the first products from the MSNBC joint venture. The web seemed new and exciting then in a way that acid house and rave had seen just a few years previously
What Happened to Silicon Values? – The Atlantic – really interesting article, because these values then affect concepts like quality and design decisions. However companies like Oracle also feel customer exploitative to me
Hewlett-Packard could lose billions as General Motors takes over own IT – San Jose Mercury News – interesting that HP is losing out as GM takes the work inhouse. A few things stand out: software in product development and service provision is important for consumer brands like GM – it becomes a core requirement. Secondly, large corporates are prepared to roll deals back when they don’t get service like the alleged corner cutting at IBM
Black boxes’ to monitor all internet and phone data – Channel 4 News– so if this encryption can be broken and clever enough people know a box exists, what is to stop it being used for violating credit card details, industrial espionage and behavioural advertising. What is the betting that the BPI will be lobbying for all that data?
Ferdinand A. Porsche, 76, Dies – Designed Celebrated 911 – NYTimes.com – Butzi Porsche dead. Butzi Porsche came from a family of engineers. His grandfather led the original team behind the Volkswagen Beetle. His father had been part of that engineering team and went on to found what we now know as Porsche. However, Butzi Porsche wasn’t engineer but a designer with technical chops. After an infamous meeting of the Porsche family, no members were allowed to work at Porsche. Butzi Porsche didn’t get to do more after he designed the 911. Instead Butzi Porsche started Porsche Design. Butzi Porsche did product design for other companies. Porsche Design also came out with its own products with Butzi Porsche designing watches, glasses and more. Butzi Porsche resigned from Porsche Design in 2005 due to ill health.
Why Are So Many Americans Single? : The New Yorker – single living was not a social aberration but an inevitable outgrowth of mainstream liberal values. Supported by modern communications platforms and urban living infrastructure: coffee shops, laundrettes
Kraft break-up yields marketing shift: Warc.com – the break-up is ironic when you look at the trouble they went to, in order to buy Cadburys and then break their business down broadly into Cadburys + Jacobs Suchard vs Kraft US.
HK’s rich hesitate to have babies | SCMP.com – interesting takeaways: didn’t want the emotional commitment, time poverty, financial stability / too small a living space and concerned about the local environment not being suitable for children. It was interesting that the education system was given such a hard time, given that it’s better than the UK system (paywall)
agnès b. | VICE – great interview with French fashion designer agnés b
Marketing
Fueling the hunger for The Hunger Games – The New York Times – really interesting comment: …during the 1980s you bought the poster and once a year went to a convention and met your people for something like Star Trek (and Star Wars). It misses out the fact that you are likely to have had real-world friends that you would have talked about it with as well – marketers now seem blindsided to the real-world
