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Originally Posted by cmonstanley
dont think british workers are lazy the reason why british companies dont get contracts because previous goverments all the way abck to thatcher didnt give consistent support for manufacturing like succesive german goverments have,they have subsidies or invested in manufacturing companies like the motor trade while britain has declined .germany kept all its research centres open not like britain who slashed them in the early nineties.The stock market and private equity is not as important in Germany as it has been in the US and the UK and a large element of the corporate funding required in Germany is delivered through the banking system which means more money is invested in the company than go to the shareholder German employees enjoy a high rate of pay and a high level of job security which seems to be part of the national culture. In times of stress German companies will try to use work-sharing (kuzarbeit) rather than making significant job cuts which in turn helps maintain loyalty and all important skills within the workforce. Union influence is still significant within the private sector in Germany and in larger companies half of all seats on supervisory boards are reserved for employee representatives - and through this the workforce enjoys considerable veto power. However, the workforce appears to exercise their power responsibly and have been a key part of the success of the sector.so there goes your myth of the lazy british worker as most companies now use agency staff which does,nt exactly motivate the workers.It is no wonder that the current UK government (and to be fair the last government) has concluded that having a strong manufacturing sector is a good idea. The manufacturing framework concept gave the Government a great opportunity to clearly establish its support for the sector and give guidance on how it would provide the framework to help support the long term success of UK manufacturing. Therefore the delay and cancellation of the manufacturing framework was a disappointment.Developing the UK manufacturing sector in future years will not be easy and many commentators consider that the damage of the last 50 years has been too deep to reverse, particularly in the face of ever increasing competition. Unfortunately this may be true. But we must be able to build on the excellent companies and skills that we have in UK manufacturing to maintain a vibrant sector that has a key role in the UK economy and what might end up being a niche place in the world manufacturing economy. In my view this will mean that government understands that it does have an important role to play in establishing a framework for the success of manufacturing in the UK, sending manufacturing orders abroad doesnt help.
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at least have the decency to post the link where you lifted the above from
Vorsprung durch manufacturing - what can the UK learn from Germany? - Tom Lawton - BDO
