Oliver Zipse
At the auto show IAA in September BMW Oliver Zipse could present as successor to Harald Krüger.
(Photo: thomas meyer)
MunichLittle days after the declared withdrawal of BMW-Boss Harald Kruger The search for a successor is in full swing. Production Director Oliver Zipse is considered a favorite, but in the race is still development chief Klaus Fröhlich.
A company spokesman said on the weekend that the decision was open and will be officially met at the Supervisory Board meeting on 18 July. Kruger’s contract will run until May 2020but his successor should quickly enter office. Already at the industry fair IAA in September, a new BMWBoss stand on stage, it said in group circles.
The 55-year-old Zipse could still take a full term before he reaches the age limit of 60 valid for BMW. The age limit will already be happily reached in the coming year. Whether Fröhlich wants to remain in the management team under a possible CEO Zipse, is open.
Supervisory Board Chairman Norbert Reithofer wants to keep Fröhlich in any case. According to information from the Handelsblatt, the Supervisory Board is prepared to extend Fröhlich’s contract and top it up. The development board is responsible for Munich’s long-awaited electric offensive and signs for the cooperations with the rival Mercedes, the chipmaker Intel and the battery producer CATL.
Currently, Zipse is mainly responsible for the reconstruction of the parent plant in Munich. The factory in the home of the car company will soon be able to do everything: “Combustion, hybrid and electric cars will come from a band in the future,” said the BMW Production Board in the presentation of his plans.
Munich will become the blueprint of the works in Germany, the USA and China. If the new battery generation was ready for use in 2021, then thanks to its flexible production, BMW would have a big edge over the competition. After all, no one knows how many electric cars are actually sold. It would be wise to prepare for each scenario with the production.
What applies to production, that’s even more true for the production board. Because the board department “T” is not at BMW any executive organ, it is next to the technical development of the supreme discipline. BMW plants are regarded as a yardstick for efficiency in the industry, superior in logistics and flexibility.
Who manages the works, is in Munich traditionally very close to the executive chair. That’s how it has been in recent years: with Norbert Reithofer and Harald Krüger, the last two BMW bosses were previously production managers.
An invoice that could be synonymous for Zipse. Not only since the weekend is the 55-year-old traded as a hot candidate for the successor to Harald Kruger. Since Kruger has renounced a second term on Friday, the discussion about his successor has flared up.
Mag Zipse may also be a favorite – he is not the only candidate. Development boss Klaus Fröhlich is still in the running. The 59-year-old is said to be particularly assertive and has internally made it clear more than once that he believes himself to be the CEO. Whether he extends his contract expiring next year under a new CEO, he left open until the last.
His relationship with Krüger has been strained in recent months, but Zipse’s is not without tension. And so on the weekend, even CFO Nicolas Peter were given outsider opportunities – as a compromise between the two rivals. The race was still open, stressed a BMW spokesman on the weekend and referred again to the Supervisory Board meeting on 18 July.
But on the weekends, intensive talks continued in the Presidium of the Supervisory Board. In addition to Supervisory Board Chairman Norbert Reithofer also include Works Council Manfred Schoch and major shareholder Stefan Quandt to the panel. We are looking for a sustainable but fast solution. Kruger’s contract runs until May 2020, but you do not want to wait that long for BMW.
“At the IAA, a new CEO will be on stage,” says an insider. The Frankfurt auto show starts on 10th September – and that’s where BMW wants to prove action. The Munich are in the middle of the “biggest model offensive in the company history”, the change of boss takes place in full throttle mode.
Krüger fails because of leadership culture
In fact, the discussion about a second term of Kruger paralyzed the Munich carmaker for months. Krüger, who started in 2015 with wide support, had a bad start from the start. At the auto show IAA in the fall of 2015, he suffered a weakness and overturned on the open stage.
But Reithofer’s foster son did not fail because of his health, but because of the bad numbers and the management culture of the company. Two profit warnings recently hailed the balance sheet Tesla BMW introduced electric mobility, and senior management grumbled louder and louder. But the subtle Kruger stuck to his line of thinking things out, discussing with executives, and then making decisions.
The fact that often the decision of the compromise attached to the decisions, earned him the reputation of the Zauderers. Parts of the powerful area and plant managers, but also board colleagues like Fröhlich rebelled, the discussion reached the supervisory board. Reithofer, who still maintains an office on the 21st floor of the company headquarters, moved further and further away from his pupil.
His successor threatened to gamble his legacy: First, Mercedes rounded BMW in sales figures, then put Tesla the Munich in electromobility merely. Already at the general meeting in mid-May, Kruger fought a lonely post. “They know us, we set tough targets!”, The 53-year-old called off the stage, while the free shareholders loudly demanded a change of course in terms of electric mobility and return. With rigid mines pursued the major shareholders Susanne Klatten and Stefan Quandt the cullet court.
Kruger himself was covered with statements about his future, the company weighed down the discussion about his contract extension again and again. On 24 June then the turnaround: The Presidium of the Supervisory Board determined its approach for the upcoming Supervisory Board meeting on 18 July in Spartanburg.
A possible contract extension of Krüger was formally added to the list, but at the same time also the options Zipse and Fröhlich were put on the agenda. This broke the staff.
Kruger was now given the opportunity to explain for himself whether he still wanted to pursue a second term at all. In fact, all that was left to him was the possibility of a “face-saving departure”, as a party participant describes things. Kruger had understood the message, but allowed himself a little more time with the answer.
Kruger turned on again, seemed free and solved. At the top meeting of the auto industry in the Chancellor’s Office, he surprised the competitors with a new e-car offensive, at the in-house exhibition “Next Gen” he surprised as a keen innovator, the subsequent meeting of the “Supreme Leadership Circle” (OFK) as a determined restructuring, who for the coming months “hard messages” announces.
But inside he took leave. For ten days he had consulted intensively with his wife, he explained. Krüger had become sentimental when the Next Gen stages were dismantled in the BMW world – knowing that this was his last performance, say employees.
Last Friday, he pulled the ripcord and asked for an appointment with Reithofer, who hastened to Munich from the local Penzberg. “After more than ten years on the Executive Board, including more than four years as CEO of the BMW Group, I now want to reorient myself professionally and contribute my diverse international experience in new tasks and projects,” said Krüger.
The last few years would have called for “every employee and every employee enormous effort.” Reithofer praised Kruger’s commitment. “At the same time, I have great respect for his current decision and full understanding of his future plans,” said the old man.
In the “four-cylinder”, the striking headquarters near the Olympic site, the mood fluctuated on Friday. Relief that the tormenting discussion about the contract renewal has an end – but also melancholy: With Krüger leaves from the view of many employees an approachable and open mind the company, which managed to give the hierarchically organized group, at least temporarily, a new culture of discussion.
Most executives, however, want a strong leader from the Reithof. It is the yearning for an “alpha animal”. Because despite all the protestations of change, BMW is still a competing men’s society, which constantly affirms and renews itself according to its rules. With 60 years in top management, BMW managers have to rise fast. Too long reasoning about the right path is not part of career planning in this culture.
The yearning for the “alpha animal”
Zipse, with his eloquent, keenly analytical character, is credited with leadership. Like Krüger, he ran through all of the company’s headquarters, led the strategic and technical planning, before taking over Krüger’s production department in 2015.
Zipses advantage is his age: At 55, he can still take a full term. His flaw is the missing finishing touch: Actually, BMW CEOs are said to have headed two departments before they are allowed on the executive chair. In particular, he lacks a network in the powerful development department, which was led by Diess until 2015 and since then is headed by Fröhlich.
Merry on his part made in the past few weeks from his claims to replace Krüger internally barely a secret. He was happy to attach the label of the “sub-CEO”. The development director is a close companion of Diess, who left the group disappointed in Krugers direction Wolfsburg. More than once, the rumor caused a stir, Cheerful Diess could VW consequences. Instead, Markus Duessmann, the purchasing director, was previously traded as Fröhlich’s successor.
This makes Fröhlich even more important for BMW. Unlike his rival Zipse the Westphalian estimates the open dispute. Rectorial boundaries hinder Cheerful as well as the sensitivities of his colleagues when it comes to enforcing his interests.
He criticizes his development budget, which has grown to over six billion euros, in the executive board. His sales colleagues may sell more cars, then everything is fine. His relationship to Zipse is not the easiest: In internal events, more than once had crunched between the two, say participants. Whether he remains under a CEO Zipse is open. Formally, Fröhlich’s contract expires next year.
But Reithofer does not want to lose his supreme technician and would give up the age limit of 60 years for him. The architect is happy about the electric offensive that wants to put BMW 2020 and 2021 on the road late, but all the more decisively. At Fröhlich, these cooperations come together, without which BMW hardly makes it to the future: battery cells with CATL and Northvolt, autonomous driving with Mercedes and Intel,
As the smallest German car manufacturer such alliances are vital for the Munich, while BMW must not lose its weight in the new alliances. Fröhlich’s powerful presence in the negotiations with the new partners is already legend in the industry. Not only with Mercedes he talks on equal terms, but also with the bosses of Google, Apple and the Chinese Internet companies.
We are looking for a solution that keeps Cheerful and Zipse on board, it was therefore on the weekend. Should Zipse be preferred, Fröhlich can count on additional skills and a significantly higher salary, the group says.
More: The corporate restructuring, which Harald Krüger had ordered the car manufacturer BMW, is still piecemeal in many parts. After the now planned change of leadership stand For Kruger’s successor therefore hard decisions.