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Category: Organisation, Silicon Valley

From a global perspective, Germany is an absolute workers’ paradise. Not the one that Marx and Engels imagined and the GDR wanted to realize and failed miserably, but one where trade unions have a proper say in company matters. On the one hand, this leads to the thoroughly intended positive results of generous vacation time …

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Category: Silicon Valley, Visit

Many years ago, a fellow Austrian student tried to find a job in Silicon Valley. He sent all his application letters to various recruiters and HR departments, all without success. Even then, in the early 1990s, the region between San Francisco and San Jose had that magical aura. Only back then, the companies were called …

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Category: Foresight Thinking, Silicon Valley, Visit

More than three years ago, the German newspaper Die Welt titled the visits of German board members to Silicon Valley with Alpha Animals On Safari. The managers let themselves be shown the future here, they adorn themselves with names like Facebook, Apple and Google and Silicon Valley has actually become something like the “Ballermann (and …

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Category: Silicon Valley

When the automobile appeared around 1900, it was foreseeable that some people will lose their jobs. Carriage drivers, stable owners, carriage makers, or horse breeders weren’t required in those numbers anymore, or even not at all. Those professions almost disappeared. Instead, new jobs were created. Chauffeurs, mechanics, or construction workers building all those roads that …

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Category: Culture, Silicon Valley

Not least the revelation of the sexually predatory behavior of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein done to many many women in the film industry, the discussion about sexual harassment has reached Europe. The #MeToo-campaign by too many women talking about their own experiences with sexual harassment by men has surprised many of them. “I had no …

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Category: Visit

Innovationis the result of a complex interplay between ideas at the right time, drive, and culture of the surrounding ecosystem. Those elements may seem barely palpable, and some may even think they are impossible to learn or change, because others – namely coworkers or society – have to change first to allow innovation. Culture is …

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Category: Digital, Silicon Valley

Once Germany got obsessed with the digital revolution, one can get easily the impression that an insurmountable force is pounding at European companies. Some industries are already hit more than others. The media industry has been in the middle of an ongoing disruption for years. Other industries are at the crossroads, but may not want …

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