Silicon Germany

OK, I admit I'm not entirely unbiased when it comes to Christoph Keese - I have to come out as a fan of his books and talks. In his book Silicon Germany, published in 2016, Christoph Keese reports on his (in part frustrating) experiences with digital transformation in Germany. At this point, I recommend reading his book Silicon Valley, published in 2014, to better understand the author's approach and motives - but it's not a must.

With Silicon Germany, you get a practical book with lots of examples from companies tackling the challenges of digital transformation - whether from the perspective of new business models, skills or change management.

With his book, Mr. Keese wants to draw attention to the fact that we in Germany are in a dead end: we would rather work on better panel gaps than on actually developing new kinds of offerings, technologies and business models. The reasons given are our outdated learning and training models, conservative work and leadership models and a narrow mindset - paired with uninspiring federal politics. So basically everything that makes up our daily work. For that reason, the book is a general critique of what we currently do and how we act.

The book is suitable for anyone who deals with the consequences and effects of digital transformation - whether in a professional setting or out of purely private interest. It can be an eye-opener for better understanding what is going wrong today. At no point do you feel personally attacked, thanks to the factual and neutral writing style.

At one point or another, I felt personally stirred up, along the lines of: "This can't all be true!" It drives you almost crazy when you read, for example, where political problem areas still remain unaddressed today (many years after publication).

And even though Christoph Keese doesn't hold back on criticism in his book, he always does so in a neutral and factual way - that's exactly what I liked: he describes a problem as it is, but at the same time offers ideas and comparisons for how it could be solved. The many practical examples kept captivating me as a reader, because they create a tangible connection to entrepreneurial action.