John Magee

an American fifty-one years of age, has lived and worked in Germany for twenty-two years. After graduating from Georgetown University in Washington D.C., John spent a year working in the U.S. Embassy in Bonn. He returned to the U.S. for five entrepreneurial years in the telecommunications sector. In September 1988 John Magee returned to Germany to pursue a Master’s degree in History and Government in Berlin. After graduating with honors, he worked three years as a consultant-trainer with a Bonn-based management institute preparing German managers for work in the U.S. business context. John then joined the professional staff of the majority-party Christian Democrats in the Bundestag, advising its leadership on relations with Washington. In 1999, after five years in German politics, John Magee returned to the private sector, joining Siemens AG in Munich as a consultant on transatlantic business integration. In October 2002, he established the Magee Company.

Work

John Magee focuses exclusively on improving German-American cooperation in the business context via a two-step method. First, in management trainings, German and American colleagues learn how differences in thinking lead to differences in approaches in areas fundamental to their success, including: communication, decision-making, leadership, conflict-resolution, product, processes, customer. Second, in policy workshops, these same colleagues then formulate binding internal rules of engagement; rules that reduce the potential for internal friction while combining the strengths of the two national-cultural approaches.

Value

Although understanding is not measurable, we experience breakthroughs in understanding. A “lightbulb goes off in our heads.” At the moment of insight we say “Aha!” The reasons for our differing approaches are understood. Cross-Atlantic cooperation improves, which in turn, delivers better outcomes. And outcomes are measurable. In addition, colleagues within their respective national cultures enter into a dialogue about their own “hard-wiring”, thus sharpening their abilitiy to work in international projects. And for those who prefer to measure value based solely on cost-reduction, improved cooperation reduces the need for expensive and time-consuming transatlantic travel.