Abstract
“Why are German companies so successful at exporting?” This question asked in 1987 by Harvard professor Ted Levitt instigated my Hidden Champions research which has been going on for more than 30 years now. Hidden Champions are mid-sized, little-known global market leaders. They are not only the backbone of Germany’s export strength, but also a neglected rich source of management wisdom. Companies all over the world can learn a lot from them.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Levitt, T. (1983, May/June). The globalization of markets. Harvard Business Review, pp. 92–102. The term “globalization” first appeared in 1917, but did not become common until 1983.
www.google.com, accessed on 5 April, 2021.
Hanser, P. (1987). ASW discussion with Theodore Levitt and Hermann Simon. Absatzwirtschaft, 8, 20–22.
Klapper, D. (1989). Internationale Erfolgsstrategien mittlerer Unternehmen. Dissertation, University of Bielefeld.
Simon, H. (1990). Hidden Champions—Speerspitze der deutschen Wirtschaft. Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft, 60(9), 875–890.
Simon, H. (1992). Lessons from Germany’s midsize giants. Harvard Business Review, 70, 115–123.
Simon, H. (1996). Hidden champions–Lessons from 500 of the world’s best unknown companies, Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Simon, H. (2009). Hidden Champions of the 21st century, New York: Springer; German edition: Simon, H. (2007). Hidden Champions des 21. Jahrhunderts–Die Erfolgsstrategien unbekannter Weltmarkführer, Frankfurt: Campus.
Simon, H. (2012). Hidden Champions—Aufbruch nach Globalia. Frankfurt: Campus.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Simon, H. (2022). A Brief History of the Hidden Champions. In: Hidden Champions in the Chinese Century. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92597-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92597-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-92596-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-92597-0
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)