© takaFoundations: No opportunities without industrial substance
Credible claims to leadership rest on economic strength. It preserves our capacity to act by securing sovereignty and resilience in a changed world.
A strong economy is a requirement for political freedom of action. It unlocks investment opportunities, enables technological development, and improves our ability to respond to crises. Without industrial substance, strategic autonomy remains an illusion.
Resilience is not isolationism; it is the deliberate shaping of dependencies. Secure supply chains, reliable partnerships, and dependable sources of raw materials are central elements of economic sovereignty.
This also means keeping critical technologies and industrial core competencies in Europe or purposefully building them up here. Not least, comprehensive economic strength also underpins our defense capabilities. Industry provides the technological and material foundations for European security, from materials and electronics to software and beyond. The link between civilian and military innovation is increasingly becoming a strategic factor.
The BDI advocates for implementing these goals together:
- We, the BDI, use our transformation pathways to make clear that without a competitive location, investments and industrial substance are at risk.
- We, the BDI, emphasize that defense capabilities can only be strengthened through a competitive industrial base.
- We, the BDI, take responsibility for national defense by contributing to a resilient supply infrastructure: See “Four questions, four answers with BDI President Peter Leibinger on the topic of national defense.”
- We, the BDI, call for strategic policy-making on the procurement of raw materials and the security of supply chains; securing raw materials is a question of location and defense posture.
- We, the BDI, encourage practical measures to raise material sovereignty through subsidies, collaborations, and circular economies.
Gestaltungskraft
Germany finds itself in the midst of deep technological, economic, and geopolitical changes. Old rules are giving way to a new geo-economic order.
Far from being some abstract future scenario, this realignment is already impacting industrial decision-making today. We are reevaluating global supply chains, exposing technological dependencies, and factoring geopolitical risk into our economic calculations.
Verbinden
Industrial strength does not come from the excellence of individual firms alone; it arises from an ability to bring together technological, economic, and scientific actors through intelligent networks. Studies show that industrial value creation reaches its peak impact in a cluster.
Handlungsfähigkeit
The future of Europe depends on our ability to advance the causes of innovation, defense, and democracy — together and resolutely through close industrial cooperation — by furthering integration in Europe and strengthening the European Single Market.
Dauerwandel
Transformation has become an all-of-society effort that can secure and grow our prosperity. Industry has a duty to tackle this task and drive it forward.
Change is no longer a one-off project; it is the new normal. Climate change, demographic trends, digitalization, and national-security requirements are fundamentally changing our markets and the means of production. This makes innovation a central source of future economic vitality.
Leadership
The question is not whether German industry is in the lead, but how it leads the way in this new order — for Germany and Europe.
Responsible leadership is a function of skill and impact. German industry demonstrates both in its technological excellence, deep industrial value chains, and international connections.
Systemkompetenz
Value creation today is a dynamic, interconnected fabric of closely integrated businesses, technologies, markets, and societal expectations. The reality of industrial production has fundamentally shifted. Products no longer emerge in isolated value chains but in complex networks of suppliers, platforms, services, and digital infrastructures.
Verbundkraft
Innovation and transformation emerge at the intersection of industry, commerce, and technology.
Many of the most impactful innovations of our time occurred at such intersections: of energy and industry, of digitalization and health, of mobility and infrastructure.
Verlässlichkeit
Germany and Europe boast a stable legal environment that enables reliable collaboration, a decisive locational advantage in the context of global competition. Legal certainty, dependability, and institutional stability are central prerequisites for long-term industrial collaboration. Germany and Europe provide an environment that builds trust between companies, investors, and governments.
Zusammenhalt
The international environment is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. A shifting balance of global power, hybrid threats, and the deliberate creation of economic dependencies are fundamentally altering the contours of what it means to be a global economic destination.
