Leitzmann & Grillo Associates

When your company is looking for staff in Germany, be it a Regional Sales Manager, a VP of EMEA, or a local Systems Integrator, try to search for applicants who can successfully bridge the gab between your company’s culture and the environment of your target market. In addition to making sure your applicants are a good fit from technical, industry, and domain perspectives, follow these five screening criteria when evaluating your next German hire: Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the first step I’d recommend for a company to take that is new to the German marketplace and looking to expand there? Go there! If the executive in charge of the expansion effort has not done so recently, go book a flight and visit Germany. Meet some potential customers, talk to prospective partners, and familiarize yourself with the surroundings of the market you are about to invest in.

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Happy New Year!

We wish all our clients and readers a healthy, successful, and happy 2010! Thank you for your past business, support, and feedback. We are looking forward to helping you reach your overseas expansion goals in 2010 and continuing to connect you with opportunities, resources, and contacts – in Germany as well as the US.

Wir wünschen Ihnen ein Gutes Neues Jahr!

On Tuesday, December 15, 2009, L & G will offer another Q & A session to all those interested in exploring Germany and learning how to get started forging alliances and business contacts in Germany. If you would like to meet with us, please contact our US office to reserve your space.

On Wednesday October 28, 2009 I was invited to attend the opening reception of the exhibit “Berlin — City of Change” at Logan International Airport in Boston. The exhibit is part of the beBerlin capital city campaign and will be on display in Terminal E until December 11, 2009. The opening was attended by German as well as American government officials, executives, expatriates, and people interested the fall of the Berlin Wall or American/German relations in general. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are interested in watching German business, cultural, or political news, check out Deutsche Welle’s Video on Demand website. The programs are all professionally produced and usually in English. DW is Germany’s version of NPR. Great way to keep up to date on current events in Germany and to learn about the country & its people. Click here to go to DW’s Video on Demand site.

On Friday, October 16, 2009, I took part in a luncheon discussion organized by WorldBoston in Boston that featured Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller, Senior Transatlantic Fellow for the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. in Berlin. A terrific speaker, with an exceptional resume that includes law and graduate degrees from schools here in the US (Harvard) as well as Germany (click here to read more about her background), it did not take long for Constanze to capture the attention of her audience. Read the rest of this entry »

Most of my US clients looking to explore Germany know a few German words, such as “Ja”, “Guten Tag” or “Danke”. That’s certainly a good start. Another word, which I would encourage American business professionals to incorporate in their “must have” list of basic German words, is the word “Genau”.

Genau (pronounced “Gae-now”) means “exact” or “exactly”. Read the rest of this entry »

If you ever read a book on professional sales, you’ve probably heard of the saying “the harder you work, the luckier you get.” The idea is that by prospecting more, increasing visibility, or making more sales calls (in other words, “prepare prepare prepare”) the odds of being at the right place at the right time and landing a new customer will shift in your favor. The expression “good things come to those who wait”, adds an element of patience to the equation.

When a company’s management decides to make the leap overseas, the team is well advised to be willing to do the same: Read the rest of this entry »

The results are in: The people of Germany have elected a new center-right government, which will be formed between Angela Merkel’s CDU party as well as the smaller FDP party. CDU’s prior coalition partner, the center-left leaning SPD, was election night’s biggest loser. In its worst defeat since after World War II, the party managed to gain a mere 23% of the total votes – not nearly enough to force another coalition with Merkel’s CDU or to consider a viable partnership with any of the other, smaller parties. Read the rest of this entry »