The Secrets of German Family Businesses: From Unsung Heroes to World Market Leaders - - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3791391909 ISBN 13: 9783791391908

Verlag: Prestel Verlag, 2025

Inhaltsangabe

A unique insight into the secrets of success of German family businesses and the role they play on the global stage

At a time of global uncertainty, geopolitical tension and economic upheaval, this book highlights one of Germany’s greatest strengths: its family businesses. As the country’s largest employers, taxpayers and drivers of economic growth, they form the backbone of the German economy.

Yet their importance extends far beyond national borders. All over the world, German family businesses are synonymous with lasting quality, technical excellence and entrepreneurial reliability – especially in an era when stability has become crucial to success.

Leading scholars and practitioners analyse the success strategies of family businesses at both owner and company level, highlighting the intelligent interplay between tradition and innovation, outlook and origins, lasting values and change.

The book also features 50 portraits of German family firms that shed light on the fascinating secrets behind the success of these tradition-steeped brand manufacturers, ‘hidden champions’ and global market leaders. These stories offer a unique insight into the DNA of the companies concerned, showing how entrepreneurial vision and family values go hand in hand, underpinning their pivotal role in economic resilience, stability and future viability worldwide.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Professionally, Uwe Rittmann has one great passion: family businesses and entrepreneurial families. As Head of the Family Business and SMEs at PwC Germany, he has a broad and in-depth overview of the German family-business landscape. After many years with a medium-sized auditing and consultancy firm, he joined PwC as a partner in 2011. For more than 30 years he has successfully advised both international, publicly listed family firms and privately owned mid-sized companies, and he has served for many years on the advisory boards of several family businesses.

Tobias Rappers is the founder and Managing Director of Maschinenraum GmbH, a platform that brings together almost 80 German family businesses to provide support in all key areas of transformation. A strategy consultant and digital expert, he has wide-ranging expertise in designing and implementing transformation processes. He particularly values the DNA of the German SME sector, shaped by courage, trust and long-term thinking. Rappers studied at the WFI School of Management, HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Stellenbosch University in South Africa and the Indian Institute of Management. Before founding Maschinenraum, he worked as a consultant at Roland Berger.

Über zwei Jahrzehnte verantwortete Olaf Salié als Chefredakteur die Marke „Deutsche Standards“, zuletzt unter dem Dach der ZEIT Verlagsgruppe. Seit 2025 ist er Herausgeber der Reihe „ABOUT Germany“ im Prestel Verlag, wo auch seine Bücher „CHANSON“ und „Traumfabriken“ erschienen sind. Olaf Salié gilt als kreativer Ideengeber und gut vernetzter Projektentwickler für analoge und digitale Medien. Für seinen langjährigen Herausgeber Dr. Florian Langenscheidt hat er u. a. das „Lexikon der deutschen Familienunternehmen“ konzipiert. Neben Wirtschaftsthemen liegt ein besonderer Schwerpunkt seiner Arbeit auf dem Thema „Manufakturen“. Der Publizist lebt gemeinsam mit Mann und Hund in Berlin.

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Discover what German family businesses sets apart from other firms all over the world and how tradition and innovation coexist in these most enduring companies. This comprehensive volume reveals the fascinating secrets behind German family businesses and profiles fifty family-owned enterprises – the rising stars, the legacy keepers, the world market leaders, the brands, and the 'hidden champions'.

In an era of volatility and disruption, German family businesses stand out as models of endurance, serving

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Prestel Verlag
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2025
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 3791391909
• ISBN 13: 9783791391908
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 304
• Herausgeber: Rittmann Uwe, Rappers Tobias, Salié Olaf
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe GmbH; produktsicherheit@penguinrandomhouse.de; ; Neumarkter Straße 28; München; 81673; Deutschland