CAJ7#U.S. stealing German brains?

The goal of the German Silicon Valley Accelerator is to find the best German ideas in the field of technology, make them internationally known so they can start their own business in the Silicon Valley in San Francisco, U.S.

I know, I wrote about this goal in my last two posts and you already know that. But think about this goal. Germans like Dirk Kanngieser who is the co-founder and CEO of GSVA, put a lot of effort into finding German brains who were educated by Germans, whose education was supported by the German Government and whose idea could bring a huge boom to the German economy and therefore create hundreds of thousands workplaces. They spend a lot of money on the selection of these brains and once they found the best idea they send it to the United States. They do not use it in German or in any other European country. No, they send them to the United States and weaken the international competitive power of Germany.

So where is the sense in sending the best German engineers to the United States instead of using their knowledge in Germany?

The German public-service television broadcaster ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen – Second German Television) discussed this problem on one of its official blogs. They also see the problem that a “brain-drain” could occur in this situation. Also Kanngieser himself claimed that he knows the danger that German engineers simply stay in California once they are successful. He knows that in individual cases they have to accept this fact. In most cases, however, Kanngieser knows that Germany can only benefit from the program GSVA. In the field of technology, most people tend to come back to Germany. There are logical reasons for this. First of all, Germans are known as the one of the leaders in the field of technology and although you might find some Germans overseas, it is the easiest way to find Germans in Germany. Moreover German engineers are cheaper than engineers in the Silicon Valley (good engineers might be used to very high salaries of big and successful companies – see CAJ#4). Moreover Kanngieser points out that social factors like friends and family make German engineers come back to Germany. For most people these social factors are more important for a successful start-up than the rational advantages the Silicon Valley offers.

To put it in a nutshell, Kanngieser of course wants to avoid a brain drain from Germany to California. He wants the young German entrepreneurs to go to the Silicon Valley, gain new experience, benefit from the technological surrounding and then come back to Germany and let Germany benefit from the Silicon Valley.

And if, in some individual cases, German brains stay in the United States then Kanngieser at least hopes that there will be some manufacturing bases in Germany.