Glimpse Into German Culture

Its the little things about other cultures that often fascinate me the most.  For instance, in Germany, no one ever shows up late to a meeting.  It would be considered the height of rudeness, but here in the US, meetings sometimes start pretty late because key persons are tied up on phone calls.  Americans don’t care, and we still end up getting the job done anyways.

In Germany, elderly shareholders attend shareholders’ meetings expecting to be fed.  And not just bagels and cream cheese.  They want the good sausages, burgers and croissants.  And if you run out of food, watch out!

 
Commerzebank Tower

From Reuters here:

Passionate speeches about burgers and breadrolls captured the agenda at the annual shareholder meeting of Germany’s second-biggest bank on Wednesday, briefly eclipsing highbrow questions of strategy.
 
German company meetings are typically attended by elderly investors often attracted by the promise of free sausages and coffee. The company’s top management are also legally obliged to attend and cannot leave until all shareholders have had their say.

“It is simply not acceptable that you see shareholders today wandering around with these miserable looking breadrolls,” investor Manfred Klein told the po-faced board of Commerzbank in a rambling and explosive speech.

“I had to wait an hour earlier to get a burger.”

Another investor protested to the packed hall that there had been no croissants left when he had wanted one.

You would think that Americans would have great big stockholders’ picnics and barbecues.  Some might, but it is definitely rare.  Most meetings consist of a phone bridge or a webcast today.  And the more I think about it, I might be more easily persuaded to invest in a company if I knew I would get free food out of it.