[sbruny]

That's too simple. What you are describing, may be a symptom, but not the cause of issues withing germany's IT-industry. As the article states, 'hierarchical' structures are still a common thing in german companies. On the other hand, lots of those companies are much older than Google for example. They've been successful with their model for decades. Also germany is a big enough market for itself; the need to compete internationally is not strong (yet).

And: conservatism isn't bad per se. For many people it means a kind of safety and familarity. Maybe for most folks, it's more important to have a good dayjob that supports their families, than to follow the "arrogant academic" into unkown waters...