Germany’s digital skills

In the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2023 Germany ranks 23rd out of 64 countries with its overall performance (down from rank 17 in 2019). Although this is definitely not a promising result for one of the world’s largest economies, it gets even worse when digital/technological skills of the countries are ranked: Germany’s rank is 58 (out of 64)!

More than ever, we need to work on advancing our digital skills. Besides the rather obvious technological skills, the skills for a digital business and a digital economy need to be developed further. As we keep reiterating here, digitization may start with technology, the important part of any digital business, however, is its business model.

Founders of digital ventures

I have been asked which competencies founders of digital ventures need. My response: Clearly, they need economic knowledge on digital businesses. As a founder I need to know:

  • how the digital economy works,
  • how to deal with network effects,
  • how to build platforms, and
  • how to select the right business model.