MUCH as they may criticize American food, manners or politics, Europeans have long held a grudging respect for U.S. management methods. So European companies tend to send their brightest executives to U.S. business schools; they are eager to hire Europeans who have worked for American firms. What they covet is a share of the American success that is so much in evidence. In Western Europe, U.S. corporations have built a direct investment stake with a market value of an estimated $75 billion—and ambitious Europeans are determined to beat back "the American challenge."
Today, from Iberia to Scandinavia, a group of aggressive, dynamic businessmen are doing just that. Multinational in their attitudes, multilingual and young—at least by Continental standards—they are quietly changing the style and stepping up the pace of European business. In executive offices where well-bred formality and old school ties were once the rule, there is now less hierarchical authoritarianism and more promotion based on merit alone. Family connections may still be important, but class lines are melting. Indeed, many a European is beginning to act more like the European conception of a hard-driving American executive than most American businessmen themselves. Yet in their personal tastes and habits, most European managers remain recognizably products of their individual national cultures.
Sensitive to their social responsibilities, many European business leaders are also working overtime on problems of housing, pollution, transport and boredom on the production line. They are eager to try fresh ideas and methods. Some of them even argue that Europe offers unique opportunities for the application of U.S. sales and management techniques—like franchising and discounting, decentralization of decision making and heavy use of marketing research —simply because those tactics have not yet been exploited much in Europe.
Almost to a man, the managers who are coming to the forefront in Europe have a common objective: they are reaching out for new markets, particularly in the European Economic Community. Though most European economies are troubled by higher inflation than the U.S., they are recovering from a recent slowdown in growth, and the potential for expansion is great. After last year's currency revaluations some Continental businessmen are considerably more interested in direct investment in the U.S. because their money can now buy more. In addition, Europe is catching up to the U.S. in use of sophisticated technology. A decade ago, for example, the U.S. had 7,500 general purpose computers and Western Europe had only 1,359, most of them American-made. The score today: the U.S., 54,000; Europe, 32,000, a full third of them made by European firms using their own technology. The "brain drain" appears to have been plugged, and there have even been signs of a reversal. Unemployment among U.S. engineering specialists in the past few years has prompted many to scout for jobs abroad.