In Need of Craftsmen

Am currently in Germany to celebrate my mother`s 60th birthday with her and it`s been a week since I�ve been pottering the house catching up with reading good fiction and listening to music. It�s nice to catch up with my mother and stepfather as well as with my sister and youngest brother, Christopher. Unlike previous trips, where I�ve come in to celebrate Christmas and get a dose of winter chill, I�m here to celebrate a few family milestones - stepgrandmother turned 90 and mum turns 60, while Tara hits the three zero mark. Just to show you how time has flown, Christopher turns 18 and is now pondering what to do for his national service (9 months in the German army).

Life in Germany is always fairly laid back for me and I`ve noticed that after the stresses of living in Singapore, most Germans here live in a fairly relaxed environment. For the average Asian and to a certain extent Americans, it`s hard to understand how Europeans get away with working so few hours and having so many holidays. The relatively laid back situation in Europe makes it easy for Americans to say "No wonder why we're top dog," or for Asians to claim, "We`re the place to be for the future." Look at world politics today. Everything seems to be about a conversation between Washington and Beijing, with nobody being terribly bothered by what takes place in Paris or Berlin. On the economic front, the companies that continue to make the news tend to be American multinationals or State-Owned Chinese firms gobling up everyone elses "strategic" assets.

While this is true, I think it's a mistake to write-off the European way. America and China dominate global headlines like two gorillas banging the table but Europe provides a different model of getting things done -which I believe still has a lot going for it. Let`s start with economics for example. Europe (as defined by the Euro Area) is actually the world`s biggest economy and although the Euro will take a while to be a serious contender for world`s reserve currency, more and more of us in the developing world look to earning Euros as a sign of prosperity while we groan when we earn in US dollars. The number of European multinationals drawfs that of their American counterparts and yet think of all the European brands that stand for world-class quality (German cars, Italian fashion, French cheeses etc)

There has to be something about Europe that is going right and I think I was reminded about it when I had an apple tart at Rolf`s Bakerie this morning. Europe remains a land of crafsmen, where small shop keepers take pride in their work and give you the best that they can deliver. I look at my eating habits here. I eat a lot of bread everytime I come to Germany and I drink loads of beer. By comarison I don`t eat much bread or drink much beer in Singapore. For one, beer is exceedingly expensive in Singapore but the quality of the product isn`t there. Why? Answer is simple, unless I`m at a specialist baker (exceedingly expensive) the bread I get in Singapore usually comes from a mass produced factory while the bread that I eat in Germany comes from a baker who makes the bread by hand and with pride. Likewise with with meat, it`s from a butcher who takes pride in his (most butchers remain guys) craft.

There`s something quite special about dealing with craftmen who provide you with solutions that work best for you as an individual. Europe is undoubtedly expensive, especially for anyone earning in a currency a lot weaker than the Euro, but somehow when you deal with quality work, price does not seem like a major concern. Have you heard Mercedes drivers complain about the price? Across the Atlantic, you had Henry Ford who believed in built-in obsolesence, in teh case of Dailmler, it was about making sure the car lasted forever.

If my local baker is anything to go by, Europe has kept it`s prosperity by keeping it`s craftsmen alive and encouraging them to take pride in their craft. The EU is by no means perfect. There are too many self-interest squabbling at any given time and the fear of "Fortress Europe" remains a threat to the idea of open commerce. While the European Union is far from perfect, it`s done amazing things by helping craftsmen on the continent work together in alliances. Suddenly craftsmen have economies of scale and can compete with multi-national conglomerates.

The alliance of craftmen model is worth looking at and trying to emulate. Big is good but it`s not necessarily better. Ironically, huge American companies like GE strive to maintain "small company" culture. When the individual has pride in his or her work, they`re likely to be better at it.