German economy continues to lag behind digitization

German business leaders are sceptical about their own success in digitization. A clear majority (58%) of managing directors and board members state that their company is still a latecomer when it comes to digitalization.

Three percent even think they have missed the boat. Only around one in three companies considers itself to be a digitalization pioneer. This is the result of a representative survey of 502 companies conducted by the digital association Bitkom.

Currently, only around one in three companies state that they have a central digital strategy for the entire company. Almost as many have developed corresponding strategies at least in individual divisions - but around one in four companies still do not have a digital strategy at all.

There is a clear difference here according to company size: While no company with more than 2,000 employees stated that they do not have a digital strategy, eight percent of companies with 100 to 499 and 500 to 1999 employees respectively do not.

Among smaller companies with between 20 and 99 employees, more than one in four has no strategy.