Movement of companies. A case study: Deutsche Bank

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A, Cardiff University, course: International Business Management, language: English, abstract: Nowadays the movement of a company abroad has become a very complex question. A business organization has to understand that the international environment has changed in the past twenty years. Today the global economy operates all around the world. There opened new, interesting markets e.g. China or Russia. The figure of international companies has risen faster as originally expected. Kotler et al (2001) argue many other industries as well as the global financial system have become more difficult to understand. According to Valdez (2000), in 1999 Deutsche Bank was ranked number one of the world’s largest banks by assets with $865bn. Today its ranked number 6, but only number 23 according to profitability. It can be said that Deutsche is an investment Bank which deals with the needs of high net worth individuals e.g. deposits, loans and investment advice. Furthermore it is one of Europe’s most powerful and successful banks. However, in 2003 Deutsche Bank has threatened to move from Germany to the United Kingdom (UK). In 2003 The Sunday Times reported that plans exist to move from Germany either to Switzerland, USA or UK because of Germany’s anti-business culture and the complicated impractical laws. (online) Some of the international experienced managers would support the concept. An added reason given by a manager from Frankfurt (Main) headquarter is the poor performance of German companies which sounds like an excuse to move abroad. Rapid decisions are very difficult just as to be flexible. It seems that Deutsche’s manager wanted to benefit through a relocation to New York or a huge merger with a Swiss bank e.g. Credit Suisse. The BBC (online, 2003) observed one day later that Deutsche Bank has indicated the movement. (online) Although the bank has become globally it is a historically grown company with its origin in Germany.