Who is in charge? The downside of the »Chinese Speed« metaphor

It has always been surprising to find the pathological concept of »obsession« re-emerging in a business concept such as »customer obsession«. One aspect of this concept can also be found in the »Chinese Speed« metaphor: the customer takes the lead and internal leadership disappears. A second metaphor currently in vogue has a similar effect: We must think »outside-in« rather than »inside-out«. Whilst this is certainly an important area of learning, particularly for the proud German engineers, when taken to extremes it also leads to the disappearance of internal leadership and a predominantly reactive organisation.

In companies that are currently seen in Germany as models of »Chinese Speed« – and which are simultaneously used here as instruments of self-flagellation – customer projects have taken the lead. Here, internal leadership now acts merely as an amplifier of the pressure exerted by the multiple client projects. The company’s own scope for creativity – the open, creative space for development – is disappearing, leaving room only for reaction. And so I encounter people who are deeply exhausted and have lost the inner freedom to think and act for themselves. How long can such a purely reactive system survive without inner guidance, without leadership, when the pressure from multiple client projects is constantly mounting and, at the same time, the number of variants is rising unchecked?

Behind the much-lamented slowness of German companies sometimes lies the freedom to develop and shape something that dictates the market and thus enables them to break free from the spiral of pressure fuelled by external players.

It is a thought that crosses my mind as I sit before a group of exhausted and desperate Chinese executives who can scarcely step away from external control for a moment. This praise of ‘slowness’, however, does not mean that the speed of decision-making in many German companies is actually too slow.