Dr. Hubertus Porschen: Germany’s Digital Suicide
“My mission is to make entrepreneurship popular in Germany,” says the multiple founder and CEO of App-Arena GmbH based in Cologne, a company that specializes in lead generation and tools for customer acquisition and retention. In Porschens’ view, Germany must evolve from a civil servant state to an innovative technology country. He says clearly: “Keeping it up” is not enough.”
The subject of digitization and how succinctly it is dealt with in Germany is a heart topic for him. His books’ challenging subtitle is this: “Why we degenerate from a high-tech location to a developing country and what we can do about it”.
In the light of Germany’s booming economy, according to Porschen, this may sound a little to dramatic, however, this is excatly the effect he wants to achieve. He wants to be an eye opener who encourages to think further and to finally change the direction. In his opinion, digitization goes far beyond Industrie 4.0 and efficiency gains. “If Germany continues to play in the lower midfield concerning digitization, we not only endanger our prosperity, but also social peace,” believes Porschen.
The facts that he brings up should and do make you think: he argues that according to the OECD, Germany ranks among the laggards in the international supply of households with fiber-optic cables, ranking 28th out of 32.
Likewise, the funding for the future information and communication technology sector in 2017 would be 0.3 percent of the federal budget. Since 2009, their share of the federal budget had increased just by 0.03 percent.
“The Chinese are investing massively in future technologies and have long since overtaken Germany with artificial intelligence,” explains Porschen. Another important topic for him is grouped around Business startups in Germany which would still be bureaucratic and expensive. Also, the current education system would not provide young people with the necessary economic and entrepreneurial skills.
Porschen criticizes politics and society alike. Both, and also some businesses, previously didn’t get how digitalization works. But he is convinced: “In order for us to continue playing at the top, we need to reorganize our antiquated federal education system, simplify business creation and management, and relieve too narrow a framework. Last but not least, we need a vision for Germany, a guiding principle for a good future. “In his book, he gives specific suggestions to do so.
Furthermore, he sees development potential not only in the digital economy, but in society as a whole. For example, many discussions about data protection showed that many people had no clue about how the digital economy works.
The book is „an important wake-up call for digital sleepwalking in politics and society“, says former German politician Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg about. And it is true that its content may not appeal to everyone, but it will surely wake shake people up.
Dr. Hubertus Porschen was born in 1982 and already founded his first company during his studies of economics. In the years 2015-2018 he was the honorary board chairman of the association “The Young Entrepreneurs” in Germany. During this time, he wrote his latest book “The Digital Suicide”. As a coveted top keynote speaker for digitization and innovation, he also speaks about his experiences in engaging lectures.
hubertus-porschen@premium-speakers.com