World leader

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World market leaders are companies that have a leading position in their market (segment) in contrast to national or European market leaders . For companies, the market position achieved as a world market leader means a unique selling point and implies an outstanding performance and market position in comparison with the competition. This is why there are always legal disputes between companies over the question of whether a company can claim to be the world market leader.

criteria

The following criteria can be used to determine the global market leadership of a company.

Presence of a worldwide market

There must be a global market for the company's product so that the company can sell the products worldwide (typical for many B2B companies ). Exceptions are new technologies that have not yet spread worldwide, but for which an international market is foreseeable (e.g. biogas plants ), or markets in the process of internationalization such as the hard discounting segment in retail (e.g. Aldi , Lidl ). Another exception applies to suppliers who supply a critical component to a customer who uses that component in end products , which in turn have a leading market position worldwide. These “indirect” world market leaders are found primarily as automotive suppliers (e.g. ElringKlinger ) or as parts manufacturers in mechanical engineering . The positioning “world market leader” should not be used by companies that manufacture products that are predominantly only sold in one country, e.g. Swabian ravioli . There is no world market for this product, as Maultaschen are mainly in demand in Germany. The designation "world market leader for Swabian Maultaschen" is therefore misleading, as it defines a world market that does not actually exist. This also applies to products that are unrivaled by definition, such as “real Thuringian slate” (slate suppliers of significant volume come from Spain and France, for example).

Assertion of a top position

World market leadership always implies the existence of current, previous or possible competitors, against whom one has prevailed or has to prevail in the performance competition (see judgment of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce). An exception are pioneer market leaders, for whom there are temporarily no competitors. Such quasi-monopoly positions persist only in market niches . In individual cases, however, a claim to market leadership can be legitimate if products or services cannot easily be substituted by other similar products or services.

Quantitative determination of world market leadership

This can be done either through market share based on sales compared to competitors in the same segment or through market share based on number of items. It should be noted that not all company sales may be generated with products for which a global leadership position can be established or the company with the highest sales may not necessarily sell the most units. And the world's largest provider is not automatically the world market leader if it is only marginally positioned internationally (see judgment of the Hanover Regional Court). Typical average values ​​for world market leaders are 50–60% foreign share of sales, 60 and more countries supplied and the existence of own sales branches and / or production facilities on more than three continents.

Qualitative determination of world market leadership

A company can be the quality or technology leader in a product in a market segment or in a market niche without recording the highest sales in the overall market. This market leadership is more difficult to prove, which is why it depends on a case-by-case approach. Important qualitative criteria here are customer relationships with renowned international customers who for their part occupy a leading global market position, participation in international flagship projects (e.g. Burj Khalifa ) or a far above-average R&D quota compared to the competition, as well as the dominant number of patents or special awards from international leading suppliers and customers.

German world market leader

In terms of sales, these are the largest German companies that are world market leaders in one or more segments:

  1. Volkswagen AG with a car (including Porsche)
  2. Daimler AG with commercial vehicles and buses (over 8t) as well as premium vehicles
  3. Allianz Deutschland AG u. a. with property and casualty insurance and credit insurance
  4. Schwarz Gruppe with Hard Discounting
  5. BMW GROUP with premium cars
  6. Aldi Discounter (North + South) with hard discounting
  7. Siemens AG u. a. with industrial automation and medical technology (imaging, diagnostics)
  8. Robert Bosch GmbH u. a. world's largest automotive supplier (ABS, injection technology, brake systems); Power tools; Household appliances (BSH); Drive and control technologies (Bosch Rexroth)
  9. BASF Group u. a. with chemicals, plastics and car paints
  10. Deutsche Post AG u. a. with contract logistics

Of the 1,000 largest German world market leaders, most of them (94 percent) can be assigned to industry, only four percent are service providers and two percent are trading companies. Most of the 1,000 largest world market leaders can be found in Baden-Württemberg (264), ahead of North Rhine-Westphalia (249) and Bavaria (226).

reception

In Germany, many publications and publications deal with the world market leaders. Often the term is used redundantly to the term hidden champions . In 2014 the "Lexicon of German World Market Leaders" by Florian Langenscheidt and Bernd Venohr was published by the Deutsche Standards publishing house and has been published online since 2019 on the business portal DDW Die Deutsche Wirtschaft.

Web links

Wiktionary: World market leader  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Bernd Venohr: Expert opinion on the question of how and according to which criteria global market leadership can be determined , prepared for the LG Frankenthal, October 25, 2010, archive link ( Memento from December 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b Berlin Regional Court, decision of June 4, 2004, AZ: 5 W 76/04, http://www.aufrecht.de/3372.html
  3. ↑ a b Hanover Regional Court, judgment of June 30, 2009, AZ. 18 O 193/08, http://openjur.de/u/324172.html
  4. ↑ https://die-deutsche-wirtschaft.de/lexikon-der-deutschen-weltmarktfuehrer/
  5. ↑ https://die-deutsche-wirtschaft.de/lexikon-der-deutschen-weltmarktfuehrer/
  6. ↑ https://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/mittelstand/rangliste-das-sind-die-deutschen-weltmarktfuehrer/23638750.html
  7. ↑ https://www.focus.de/finanzen/news/konjendung/tid-21953/deutschland-heimat-vieler-weltmarktfuehrer_aid_617729.html