Demographic self-hate in the boardroom
Siemens‘ top management is too German for its own good, as well as too white and male, according to its chief executive.
Peter Löscher (right), the Austrian-born chief of the German industrial conglomerate, said the priority for his second year in charge would be to improve the “global diversity” of managers and warned that Germany’s competitiveness could be threatened if it failed to do so.
“The management board are all white males. Our top 600 managers are predominantly white German males. We are too one-dimensional,” he said in an interview to mark his first year in charge.
His comments underline a crucial issue for many German companies, who have benefited enormously from globalisation but still have nearly uniformly home-grown management and supervisory boards.
“It is generally a weakness of German groups. Swiss and Swedish companies have generally been better at building a more global management and culture,” said James Stettler at Dresdner Kleinwort, pointing to companies such as ABB. Herman Simon, a German management consultant, said: “It is one of the key tests for German groups – can they bind their international managers into the companies? Why don’t you see more Chinese or Indians at the top?”