The German economy risks continuing to lag behind the digitalization wave in 2020. This is the finding of a recent survey of 502 companies by German digital association Bitkom . A majority of 58% of the managing directors and board members surveyed believe that they are lagging behind the trend, while just 36% see themselves as digital pioneers. Opinions differ depending on the size of the company, which is in line with the findings of past surveys .

While in particular the managers of large companies with 2,000+ employees surveyed believe their company is on the right track (71%), it is predominately small companies with fewer than 100 employees that are apparently failing to get their digital transition off the ground, with just 34% seeing themselves as pioneers. The survey cites a lack of strategic planning as the main reason for this: Just over one-third of the companies surveyed have a central digitalization strategy (38%), or at least an approach that extends to individual departments (37%). According to the survey, 23% of the companies surveyed completely lack a strategic approach.