What may be startling by German standards is commonplace for big companies in smaller countries.
The plan is to raise margins to 4% by next year: good by German standards, but only half the European norm.
The locals in Frankfurt say the affair has done no harm at all to their city's standing as a financial centre, and it shows that German investors demand high standards.
It adheres to all the best standards of the German format: preference for strategy over randomization (there are no dice), an artificial time limit, no player elimination, and continuous engagement (what players do on their turns affects you, so you pay attention).
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Daimler was the first of several big German firms to move to American accounting standards and list its shares in New York.
Even with the recent rise, German yields remain almost unimaginably low by historic standards.
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In Europe, German leaders are showing increasing reluctance to sacrifice the living standards of their own citizens to perpetuate an imbalanced economic system.
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Unlike his predecessors, he is effective on television, pounding home the need to measure Germany against other countries rather than the comfortable standards of the past (introducing das Benchmarking into the German language may be an enduring achievement).
Of course, some German companies have managed their international expansion well by even the most demanding standards.
Although Bayer's drug business accounts for a third of the German giant's annual sales, it is still small by the standards of pharmaceutical firms and its near-term drug pipeline is weak.
The German constitution has a bias towards consensus, since it explicitly encourages comparable living standards for all.
DaimlerChrysler, a German-American car maker, frequently causes confusion because it reports under both accounting standards.
It bought Zimmermann, an East German producer, in 1992 and now makes a range of pianos to less demanding standards in the Czech Republic, America, Indonesia and China (in a joint venture with Samick of South Korea).
Last month, a group of German business leaders, including Veba's Mr Hartmann, began to draft a set of corporate standards for listed companies.
The gap in living standards has shrunk: GDP per person in the east has risen from 40% of west German levels in 1991 to nearly 70% in 2008.
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