Globalise-Nation
Posted by mikepersaud on September 12, 2008
It seems there’s a flurry of German acquisition acitivity in my reader today. Well, not really a flurry, but certainly signs that Germany are buying anything that smells German. Commerzbank and Dresdner is a done deal predicted back in December. Deutsche Bank and Postbank and now Lufthansa and SAS. I’m sure there will be more. My question is… are the Germans trying to reverse Globalisation?
Dec said
Eh, aren’t SAS a Scandinavian company? Given Germany is the world’s biggest (or second biggest) exporter, with a solid, quality-orientated manufacturing base I would have thought they were all about globalisation and freer access to world markets. I’m not sure that economic nationalism and globalisation have to be mutually exclusive.
mikepersaud said
Yes SAS are Scandinavian, I stand corrected there and I guess that answer to my question is No in that case.
Guess what we are seeing is, as you put it, is economic nationalism or patriotism. At first it looked to me like Germany protecting their national champions but in actual fact is a cross boarder trend within the EU. So is it ‘national’?, can I still call it national or is it patriotism of nation-states?
Daniel Maiworm said
Hi Mike!
Well, being German I think we have seen lots of cultural issues between Franco-German (EADS, Aventis/Hoechst) and Anglo-German (BMW/Rover, Daimler/Chrysler, DeutschePost/DHL) mergers.
I think German companies have started to be very conscious about understanding the businesses they are buying, especially when it comes to business model and corporate culture. It seems that Scandinavian and BeNeLux companies are easier to deal with, while Eastern Europe has been a path to grow organically with a workforce that accepts change and new structures once the German’s have the power.
So I would rule out nationalism (… it’s not France at the end of the day), but a very conservative decision to stick with what you know and who you know.
(BMI/Lufthansa being another exception from the rule…)
Cheers
Daniel