Wasted work time increased to more than a third. Every week lost 1.7 working days. Frankfurt am Main, 17.11.08 the proportion of wasted work time is worldwide exceeds one-third mark. The main causes are bad leadership and lack of communication, analyzes the global productivity study of management consulting Proudfoot consulting. Germany loses the connection in a global comparison: the unproductive time increased to over 40 percent, German companies are almost half of their potential unused. Still invested in Germany at least the qualification of managers, although the economic waters in the face of the credit crunch may be restless.

2007 decreased the worldwide productivity compared to the previous year by 67,9% to 65.7%. In Germany the share of productive time is only 59.8 percent. In other words: two work days a week are spent unproductively in German companies. Only South Africa’s companies cut worse. In the face of the financial crisis and a “possible recession sees Peter Ascher, head of Proudfoot consulting in Germany, Austria and the Switzerland, the company faced a big challenge: the potential is there, but it need to be lifted as soon as possible, so that the moving market are flexible and able to act.” Germans give the executives in Germany are potential according to their own estimate only reach 57 percent of the potential productivity gains.

The Manager will use more than 80 percent of the potential in the growth regions of China, Brazil, India and Russia (BRIC). Poor management: the problems are homegrown reasons for wasted work time are for the most part in the company itself. There are deficiencies in the management and the staff qualification, as well as lack of communication within the company. Also the skills shortage already penetrate on productivity. As countermeasures, the companies have recognized the importance of leadership and staff development. Round 80 per cent want to invest here. However, only 58 percent IT investments see as a solution. Just the German executives get world’s most rarest benefit from training. Only 5.4 days per year German Manager training educate, that is about half as much as the global average. Training, employee and leadership development are important starting points. “Companies need to do more to establish productivity quickly, but also sustainable: you need to establish a culture of productivity” Peter Ascher advises. This concept is increasingly accepted in the company: 56% of companies all over the world want to implement a change programme. The 8th Global productivity study from Proudfoot consulting is based on a survey of more than 1,000 executives worldwide and more than 3,000 business analyses of the Proudfoot consultants. About Proudfoot: Proudfoot consulting is an international consulting firm that specializes in the sustainable increase of productivity and sales effectiveness in companies. The Proudfoot consultants have implemented successfully many projects in recent years, which have resulted in a significant and clearly measurable improvement in the operating results. The company is part of the publicly traded Management Consulting Group PLC, which operates under the name of Proudfoot consulting in Europe, the United States, South Africa, Australia/Pacific and China/Asia. Press contact: wbpr Public Relations Jan Manz Tel.: 0049/89/99 59 06-13 fax: 0049/89/99 59 06-99 E-mail: