Being under pressure both from demographic changes in most industrialised countries and increasingly scarce financial resources in social security, in the last decade the German hospital sector tried to find some relief in outsourcing of services not belonging to its core competences like IT...

German consulting engineering firms currently face great difficulties in competing in globalised markets. They are comparatively small. This article asks what the reasons for this situation are and whether there are options for political assistance to help the trade -- perhaps Germany can learn...