Norbert Reithofer
The shadow of the chairman of the supervisory board is long.
(Photo: imago / Sven Simon)
MunichIt was a tailormade. “Mr. Reithofer has realigned the company and hands over a well-ordered house. That deserves the highest recognition, “praised the outgoing supervisory board chairman Joachim Milberg the work of the then outgoing BMWBosses Norbert Reithofer.
Fund manager Ingo Speich stated that he broke all records. And major shareholder Stefan Quandt, usually rather reserved, certified the CEO, the company “to have raised to a new level”.
Four years have passed since today’s 63-year-old the BMW CEO and moved to the top of the Supervisory Board. The usual two-year “cooling off” phase in other companies saved the major shareholders from the top man. Too large are his merits, which he had acquired in his nine-year tenure: Mercedes overtaken, China conquered, electric cars developed.
No question: Reithofer throws a long shadow – and that was from the first day on Harald Krügers problem, The new CEO is the son of Reithofer. Both combine the construction of the US plant Spartanburg in the nineties, today, the plant in South Carolina is the largest BMW site of the world. It is here, of all things, that Reithofer invites the Supervisory Board to discuss the future on 18 July Krugers to advise. It should be a decision on the contract extension.
How it will turn out is not clear. But at BMW The numbers are no longer correct, and the competition has caught up with electromobility.
Doubts about Kruger’s course have grown. If Kruger’s contract is extended, he could lead the company until 2025.
Then BMW must have made the leap into the mass market for electric cars and in the digitization on par with Tesla or Google as well as with companies from China. Krüger corrected Reithofer’s aggressive electro-electric course at the beginning of his term of office and pushed up the yield thanks to the billions of dollars spent on development.
The true boss
Quite a few in the company continue to see the secretary CEO following Kruger’s appointment in Reithofer. Executives continue to seek proximity to the Old Front. Anyone who integrates the name Reithofer gets his project through faster, it says in the management team.
When BMW celebrated its centenary in 2017, Reithofer held the ceremonial address in the Olympiahalle, not Krüger. And when Mercedes sold more cars than the BMW brand, Reithofer gave a brand-name speech to Krüger and his executives. “We have to be the number one BMW,” demanded the chairman of the supervisory board.
Krüger promised to deliver by 2020 and announced “the biggest model offensive in the company’s history”. Although this brings market share, but so far not the hoped-for market leadership.
Reithofer, like his predecessor Joachim Milberg, has the confidence of the Quandt family, which traditionally stands out from the operative business. That makes the role of Upper Bavaria so inviolable these days.
With production executive Oliver Zipse and development chief Klaus Fröhlich Reithofer has two further candidates, who recommend themselves for the chief post. Both stand for a change of course, the former for a rather moderate, the second for a rather hard pace.
Reithofer knows the procedure from his own experience. When in the summer of 2006 the former CEO Helmut Panke fought for a contract extension, CFO Stefan Krause and Reithofer positioned themselves as alternative candidates. Panke lost, Krause defeated and moved to German bank, Since then Reithofer is the strong man and in these days the kingmaker of Munich.
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