Is Germany really such a dismal place to do business? Some of the guidebook advice for business trips to the country can make it sound forbidding – with frequent references to protocol and adjectives such as “strict”, “stuffy” and “rigorous” – such that many people would steer well clear no matter what the commercial incentives.

An impression is often given that German companies are not so much potential partners as labyrinths, where foreign executives must break through a succession of doors and overcome a complex hierarchy to reach an inner sanctum where an ageing chairman lurks.