EVENTS

The Consultinghouse Market Entry & Expansion Summit on September 23rd 2014, in collaboration with the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce in Mumbai was themed "Capture new markets: Expand your business to Germany!"

On September 23rd 2014 the German Market Entry & Expansion Summit 2014 was held at the IGCC in Mumbai, India.

The seven day road show was designed to give CEOs, decision makers, and entrepreneurs insights on different market entry strategies for the German market, as well as point out cultural differences in business operations and how to find the right business partners in a new market. Throughout the seven days, the participants had the opportunity to meet the consultants of Consultinghouse personally in one- to-one meetings and discuss their individual market entry strategies and how Indian businesses can grow sustainably in Europe. "The road show was a great opportunity for decision makers and entrepreneurs and inspired the attended companies on how to differentiate themselves from competitors when entering the German and European market", said Bernhard Steinrücke, Director and General Manager of the IGCC. Especially, the unknown facts of the German tax and legal regulations have met great interest among all participants.

For the first time of this event, the main focus was laid on cultural differences and the different business behavior of German business partners and counterparts of the attendants. This sparked a lively discussion and information exchange, which is usually rare for events like these, said Monaz Desai (IGCC event coordinator). "Intercultural communication and understanding is of enormous importance for a successful market entry", added Andreas Wilke, Client Relation Manager at Consultinghouse. "Wherever people of different cultures with different communication types, behavior and leadership styles, and moral values or thinking patterns are working together, intercultural competence is required. Especially in times of globalization, cultural competences do often decide on success or failure of a market access", so Andreas Wilke goes on.

Hence as part of the seminar, the participants acquired information on the challenges foreign companies are facing when entering the German market. Therefore, different experiences of companies who have entered the German market and are already doing successful business in Germany, were presented in interesting case studies. In addition to the case studies, Prashant Choudhari, CEO of TACO GmbH in Germany, a subsidiary of TATA Motors Company shared his experience on challenges and opportunities in the process of entering the German market. ?We are highly honored that Prashant Choudhari spared some time from his busy schedule to attend the seminar and share insights from his experience of expanding to the German market? says Martin Wilke, Senior Partner of Consultinghouse who also gave his experience of his past 30 years dealing with international clients in Germany.

After the presentation the company representatives, guests, and panel discussion participants, including Mr. Michael Ott, Deputy General Consul of Germany came together for networking and getting-together to share ideas on the topic of market entry Germany.

We thank you for your participation

Monaz Desai, Andreas Wilke, Disha Shah, Ritika Malik, Sabina Pandey, Martin Wilke