Siemens' boss says company too white, too German, too male

Jun 25, 2008, 8:47 GMT

Berlin - Siemens is not achieving its full potential on the international stage, because its management is too white, too German and too male, the chief executive of the engineering concern, Peter Loescher, says in an interview published Wednesday.

'There are only white males in the top leadership,' Loescher, an Austrian, told Financial Times Deutschland.

'Our top 600 managers are predominantly white German males. We are too one-dimensional,' he said.

Loescher said greater diversity was essential for Germany's future. 'If you do not reflect your global client base, you cannot achieve your full potential.'

The chief executive said he was not interested in quotas, but that the board of management had to be more broadly based.

'I would really like to see a really good Chinese running the China business and a really good Indian responsible for India.'

Under Siemens' management mentoring programme, Loescher is himself supervising four young Germans, two Chinese, and one each from South Africa, Pakistan, the United States and Pakistan.

Siemens has two US citizens on its eight-member board. Of 15 divisional heads, 11 are German, even though 80 per cent of turnover is achieved abroad.