Speaker: Hermann Simon

Why are China and Germany called “Hidden Champions”? What are the learnings from pandemic in terms of global export and global gross domestic products? How globalization has digitized the world market? What is the ambition of champions to acquire sustainability?
Simon highlights that China is becoming a global market leader in absolute terms. Germany and China having the same export rate makes the race to become a sole “hidden champion” interesting. In the era of hyper globalization, He emphasizes that China is in need of bigger businesses and firms. China will become a toughest competitor for Germany in playing a key role as a hidden competitor for business, exports and foreign direct investments globally. Pandemic has taught the world that certain operations can still stay active and small intermissions will not devalue self-dependence. Simon further states that globalization has accelerated the process of business innovation and digitalization for long lasting sustainability. He advocates that investing in the development of employees and research, higher growth can be achieved.