Why Central America convinces me more today than 20 years ago

When I moved to Costa Rica around 20 years ago, many people asked me: isn't that dangerous? Back then it was a fair question. You had to be careful, and many things were less safe than they are today.

On 1 October I attended the 9th Central America Conference of German Business in Coburg and realised how much my perspective has turned. In Germany I read about job cuts and plant closures every week. In Central America I see countries that are growing, investing and have young, ambitious talent. Sometimes I feel almost safer there than here. That is not a statistic, just my very personal impression.

What moved me most was a sentence from Ingo Kramer: what we need a little more of in Germany is a spirit of adventure. That is exactly what I learned in Costa Rica. A spirit of adventure is not recklessness. It means going there, listening and engaging with people.

The people I worked with at Bayer in Central America were excellently trained, loyal and incredibly motivated. To this day, that is my strongest argument for the region.

I have summarised the facts, company examples and five practical tips from the conference in a full report.