Dr. Roland Busch has been CEO of Siemens AG, a leading global technology company in the fields of industry, infrastructure, mobility and healthcare with sales of almost €80 billion and more than 300,000 employees worldwide, since 2021 and is widely recognized as one of the most renowned top executives in Europe.
Dr. Busch was appointed to the management board of Siemens in 2011 and held positions including Chief Technology Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Sustainability Officer, before becoming Deputy CEO and Head of HR and subsequently assuming overall responsibility for Siemens’ Digital Industries, Smart Infrastructure, and Mobility businesses. Previously, Dr. Busch was Head of Corporate Strategies, Mass Transit, and Infotainment Solutions, and President and CEO of Siemens VDO Automotive Asia Pacific in Shanghai. Mr. Busch began his career as a project manager in the central R&D department at Siemens.
Dr. Busch studied physics at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and at the University of Grenoble in France and subsequently obtained his doctoral degree at FAU.
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The CEO Leadership Series is the flagship event series of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) at the Heilbronn campus. The goal of the event series is to connect top managers with with young students in order to promote a fruitful dialogue. The guests first hold a panel discussion with the host about their careers and organizations, and then respond to questions from the students in a Q&A session. This gives students valuable insights into the fascinating and exciting life and work of successful and renowned managers at an early stage.
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00:00 Teaser
02:09 Intro
05:05 Opening response
05:30 School, studying physics, PhD
08:33 Offer from Siemens
09:56 Strategy of Automotive division
12:46 Infotainment Solution business (marrying at 7:30 am)
14:35 How to advance careers
15:43 Learning about a new business
17:35 Running the entire Automotive business
19:44 Life as an expatriate
21:29 Coming back to Germany
22:45 Make yourself known in your firm
25:19 Head of corporate strategy
26:28 Joining the board (“Vorstand”)
31:23 CEO of Siemens
34:32 What does Siemens do?
36:51 What does a CEO do?
39:17 Combining the real and digital world
41:55 Industrial environment of Germany
45:38 Strengths of Siemens
46:25 Music, food, movies, vacation, books
50:09 Legacy
51:02 ***Start of Q&A***
51:10 Physics background in business
52:36 Germany as business location
55:09 Measuring innovation
56:48 Biggest challenge at Siemens
58:47 Working with hidden champions & SMEs
1:01:19 Conflicting ideas with superiors
1:03:45 Describe yourself when you were a student
1:05:12 Sustainability
1:07:41 Western African power sector
1:09:21 Difficult decisions
1:10:28 Chinese business mentality
1:12:51 Future goals
1:14:29 Personal goals
1:14:49 End
Music: Good Morning by MaxKoMusic
That’s a little bit of a trick of of my daily life that I try to figure out how can I simplify a complex problem bring it to the real stuff separate the important ones from the less important ones and then focus on the importance
And for my PhD I I was for a while at Stanford this was a great time I could uh work together with the I mean the most Renown physicists on super conductivity what I did is I I didn’t prepare a PowerPoint presentation I I put posters in the boardroom
Um showing the market the customers competition and whatnot and this that surprised him so a meeting which was supposed to go for an hour eventually only 10 minutes lasted for two all right so I really got him this was the time I was I was uh so busy then I and I wanted
To marry at that time and I had really literally no chance to really take some time off so we married at what 7:30 in the morning and so when you are a normal board member of seens for example or in other duck company you are you’re developing a network amongst your peers
Um into a certain level in politics so you would maybe not reach Minister level or Chancellor level but when you’re CEO then you are then obviously you’re networking then with other CEOs and you’re stepping up into into that political level every car which passes by was eventually touched by SE
Technology in the design phase in the production phase roughly 50% of all electrons which are reaching people were touched by Sean technology when you somewhere on this globe get a scan Mr scan CT scan the likelihood that you’re ending up um at a seens scanner is
Something between 40 and 50% I was one of those who who was uh going to the classroom whenever the professor was good the other was I Skipped dear students welcome to the co leadership series my name is Chang Wang Lee and it is an enormous pleasure for me to present to you the CEO of zans Zan is one of the world’s leading technology companies it is also without a doubt one of Germany’s most well-known and well
Respected companies around the world in this current fiscal year uh zman has been able to earn revenues of almost 80 billion EUR with more than 311,000 employees worldwide Dr Roland bush has been CEO of zman since 2021 he is undoubtedly one of the most renowned and influential top managers and top
Executives in Europe uh within the three years of his tenure as CEO he’s been able to increase Zan’s revenue from a bit over 60 billion to now almost 80 billion EUR that is by close to 30% uh Dr Bush initially studied physics at the University of nerenberg and the
University in kenoby in France he graduated with a doctoral degree a PhD degree on the topic of dissipative processes in the mixed state of high temperature superconductors and then joined zens as Project Lead project head of corporate R&D research and development he quickly Rose through the ranks uh worked in different places and
In different areas including Automotive Systems infotainment and uh mass transit before becoming head of corporate strategy after three years he joined the management Board of the entire zans Corporation the powerful forand and within that board he was among others the COO C chro CSO as in Chief sustainability officer and also Deputy CEO
Before becoming CEO of the entire zman Corporation almost 3 years ago it is an enormous pleasure for me to uh welcome Dr Bush here to our campus not only because of his immense Renown but also because of my own personal gratitude since I and that’s true I own a Zan’s
Washing machine some while ago and oh dear since I bought that thing people have been complimenting me on my wrinkle-free clothes and shirts and so on so I’m very happy about that thus please help me I’m very War L welcome Dr Roland [Applause] [Applause] psh Dr Bush very welcome to our campus
It’s a great great pleasure for us to have you here uh we would like to get to know a little bit as a person um first and foremost before uh your leadership U experience so can you perhaps tell us a little bit about yourself maybe starting with your childhood Youth and school
Years oh let let’s get one thing straight first we do not do washing machines anymore we do not do mobile phones anymore no network components um but they come to that a little bit later it’s a constant transformation but no no washing machines and if there’s one
Which says seens don’t send me an email to repair it because it’s not I got hundreds of emails so it’s not our business anymore well I mean I I grew up in alangan uh this is very interesting alangan is a town uh this is a small City now 100,000
Inhabitants and it’s actually it’s seamons and University so you are either of a person who says of course I I’m going to work for Seamans or you’re from the other Camp who says it’s too much I don’t want to work there I was of the
Later one I have to say um and finally I’m a lifetime of Sean so somehow they got me um I mean I I grew up there there I studied physics as you said it was it was actually during my uh last school years I I didn’t know whether I should study Physics or
Chemistry eventually mathematics but I thought chemistry and physics so and I I took in my in my finals both uh courses and uh it took me a quarter to find out it’s physics because that’s the truth so that’s the real stuff um I loved it it’s it’s more theoretical physics what I did
So I I never I never wanted to touch to make experiments I found it fascinating that you can put the world in numbers um and there’s one thing which I learned during my studies which very often I got a question how much does my my physics studies help me in in my my
Life when you study when when you do physics theoretical physics what you do is you try to simplify the world in order to be able to put it into formulas so a pendulum is very hard to calculate but if it’s a um infinite thin line with a a point weight then you can
Calculate it precisely in a in a in a in a formula so and that’s that’s a little bit of a trick of of my daily life that I try to figure out how can I simplify a complex problem bring it to the real stuff separate the important ones from
The less important ones and then focus on the importance that’s a that’s kind of of pattern it helps a lot I tell you I think even in in exams um think about it so when and uh I I I went to gryl uh because I didn’t have uh French in
School Latin and English and I thought it’s nice to have another language so I I I decided to go to groby one year before I started there uh to to listen to physics classes I had no no clue about French uh the recommendation that
I had written by a friend of mine it it worked somehow it worked somehow um and uh and for my PhD I I was for a while at Stanford this was a great time I could uh work together with the I mean the most Renown physicists on super
Conductivity was a great time great place to be and then I actually I got an I got an offer from Oxford Technologies to work on semiconductor magnets these are magnets which go into Seaman Mr Technologies or mrts uh and then came an offer along from seens which was on actually it was
A department which was bridging research and the businesses so what we did is studies and for this were technological econom e economical studies on for example offshore win turbines at that time the biggest turbine was one megawatt and we tried to figure out how big does a turbine have
To get in order to make it commercial viable it was about transport of energy wi AC DC or semic superconductors over long distance what is the break even how long um does a distance have to be and how high the power tensity in order to make a break even from DC to
Semiconductors and so on and then they did for one and a half years and then my boss said you have to go to the business this is I don’t know why but he said business is good and then I ended up in automotive and from there um I I took
The way which to correct the descript all right and you as I mentioned quickly Rose through the ranks I think uh you you basically Advan your career every 1 to 3 years on average so can you perhaps correct can you perhaps uh tell us a little bit of the if you will
Highlights of um kind of your your process up until you became CEO what were the Milestones I mean I mean number one is I I I I started in yeah okay let me go through a couple of highlights but I think are important number one is when
I started off in in Automotive in the strategy Department of the automotive division at that time I was hired by one of the board members of this Automotive Division and just when I started uh he was kicked out okay so I was left with u a direct reporting line to the CEO of
This of this Division and it turned out that this CEO was a person who has no clue and no interest to work with corporate so I mean he really hated it he wanted to go to customers and work with his people so I was sitting there
Heading of strategy um and my boss was a person who didn’t care because he he he knew everything what what he wanted to do he was deeply into technology and customers so then this took on for I mean I was basically not recognized now sitting there and I I talk to my friend
Girlfriend at that time okay I have to quit I have to go somewhere else and she said don’t give up so easy do something where he cannot get around he has to acknowledge you I said how cool is that I’m there for one year in this Automotive thing he makes that he does
Automotive for the last 10 years what am I what can I tell him which interests him in order to to say let’s move on but it took the challenge so I was uh working very very hard trying to understand how the business works the customer the market and so on on and I
Had an idea that uh my strong belief was that after developing this business for the last 10 years organically they had to make a change in organization from components into system so to speak and eventually doing a a larger acquisition so this was my idea next
Point was how can I present it because I knew when he’s not interested in something and you have maybe you got a a meeting for an hour sometimes you kicked out after 10 minutes right so um what I did is I I didn’t prepare a PowerPoint presentation I I put posters in the
Boardroom um showing the market the customers competition and whatnot and this that surprised him so a meeting which was supposed to go for an hour eventually only 10 minutes lasted for two all right so I really got him now in moving from one poster to the other
Showing it was a different setup so was very interested and actually we did the reorganization we acquired video in that time so I I was recognized from that day onward I got more and more uh work he met me head of quality head of Consulting um put a more and more load
On on on me and finally I was then giving another chance was um after did the acquisition running the infotainment solution business which was a turnaround um basically completely screwed up business 1 billion Revenue 200 million losses a couple of uh navigation systems not Consolidated so it was a consolidation in technology
Consolidation and Manufacturing sites and critical projects this were was 3 years Al retro perspective the hardest years of my life I I work day and night um weekends I had to motivate for example for BMW project 500 people to work really for 3 years consecutively on on this project
Project and um I learned a lot I don’t want to miss it this was the time I was I was so busy then I and I wanted to marry at that time and I had really literally no chance to really take some time off so we married at what 7:30 in the morning
And yes this was very interesting we we went to the shandis you know the place and and they they asked me um and I said I want to marry yeah when next week um yeah Thursday yeah yeah Thursday would work fine when do you open yeah at 6
7:30 7:30 is a good one and then okay do you want to have a speech or something if if we don’t have to make it short it’s even better so we we we we went there at 7:30 and 8:00 we left and I was back in the office so this was my all
Right here here my comes my point don’t this is not a recommendation not at all but if it has to be it has to be but but there what there’s one lesson learned out of that and I do believe that carriers are
Made in a way that you have a b a b boss of a boss who believes in you who knows you to some extent believes in you and gives you eventually in the early stage of a career a double stretch so I was never meant to be in this position
Running a 1 billion business a turnaround um without with my my knowledge which I acquired at that point in time I never had an R&D depart run an RB Department I was never running manufacturing I was never running sales um but my boss said I I trust you
Can do it um and he was right I I I didn’t fail the the likelihood was high so it was a risk placement but this double stretch um brought me um really boosted me to the to the next level there was another one thereafter and um
And so this is how careers are made all right how were you able to understand the business side of things I mean coming from a physics background at first I me was it self-study was it having good mentors and colleagues or was it um being curious I mean you have
To start learning and this is what I I love I’m very curious so I was diving in in all Dimensions customers technology as deep as you can get I was I was discussing with my um software Architects down to the bits and bites how how the system works
So it was really try really a a tried really to to very very deeply understand what’s it’s all about the point is that you have to you cannot do that in every aspect you have to come back you know this T model when you manage did did you
Teach you guys not yet not yet so there’s a point if you manage something you have to look across obviously because I mean you run a global business so this is the the horizontal but when when NE Neary you should be able to dive deep which is the
T and uh and this I do believe this is very important you have to dive deep if it’s of Ence for your business in terms of either you have a project with a screwed up or you need to understand the technology in order to make right
Decisions you really have to have a deep understanding the only point is you have to come back if you sit there and go again and again and again then 24 hours would not be enough enough to run a business so um but if necessary um you
You have to so this was my way of doing that and I and I and sometimes when I had no clue what the people were talking about I kept on going in semons today we call it growth mindset okay which um which tells you B basically whenever you
Really want to achieve something you learn from your mistakes and you keep on going and investing in it you can reach everything so that’s that’s something what uh what I believe is per for me all right very good advice after your time uh restructuring that business um what
Came after then um for me actually one year too early because the business was okay we acquired new projects large projects and I would have never left myself out of this business at this point in time normally you would stabilize it for another year and then
Move on but somebody gave me a call and said do you want to run the whole Automotive business not only your navigation system out of Asia from China and I said yes right actually they asked me whether I would to run it from Singapore okay and then I thought how
Crazy is that how why would you run an automotive business out of Singapore where China was about to be the largest Automotive Market it was written on the wall so I said um and this was this was not understood by by the people in the headquarter there because Singapore do
Know Singapore this is really the the high quality life there I mean it’s really very comfortable everything nice but it’s not an automotive City now I mean Shanghai was the place so I said I I want to go to Shanghai and I I this was my next turnaround so to speak the
Business wasn’t well managed I was running Asia and China in a in a double role after I kicked out my head of China because it didn’t do good and then I and then we and then we basically this was a time when all the business the automotive the supply business for
Automotive in China was run in a copy paste mode so you take a engine management system of BMW just take the very same one nail it down in China and sell it and and this is not was not good enough so we localized we localized 14 different product lines in China with
Local teams very successfully but this was hard work because headquarter was overstanding in the way they said why would you but just take my BMW system and sell it in China okay didn’t work okay um a lot of our uh young students here they uh I think they would also go
Down the route of being an expat someday they’re very curious internationally kind of active so how can you maybe tell us a little bit about your expatriate life I mean was it difficult adjusting was it fun no I loved it I mean at that point in time uh Point number one was um
I was going there with my wife uh she was also working there and I said we jump with both legs so we try to forget whatever we know because it’s completely different world and just just try to embed yourself and and go go with the flow there were others
Delegates who were complaining that they didn’t find Nutella or any kind of brand which they used to this was their biggest problem it was not mine I mean I I loved the the Chinese food um the mentality and but it was different so you really have this is one thing what
You have to do is um and the other one was whereas my colleagues were chosen compounds to live where Germans live there a German compound a French compound I have chosen an Asian one so we were I think the only International one all the others were from Hong Kong
China Korea and the like um this was I think the the best decision so we still have friends there and um and it was also and you have to also adapt um embed yourself in the culture because working there is also different so it was it was
A great experience all right and and you learned uh 1,500 different Chinese science right so you and still I was Ill so you cannot you cannot read a newspaper with I think 2,000 characters you need I I I ended up at 1,500 which I found great but still it’s not I mean
Somehow you all right have an idea what’s written but not too much all right and then you came back uh to yeah this was very interesting um then the business was sold at that time the automotive business was sold to Continental so whatever you see today most of that that except the the
Breaking and the and the rubber business is seens seens f at that time we sold it for a good price and and then cut a long story short I either wanted should go to Continental move on with my business or go back to seamons it didn’t work out so
Um Simons was asking me since I was making turnarounds um they figured out that some of their street cars are falling apart so they built a platform very successfully sold it four five six times all around the world and then we recognized the platform was not doing good so these cars were literally
Falling apart and they asked me to fix this business so I did that um or yeah actually I did it uh took me one good one year and then they tried to reorganize in a way that uh this business which I was running was downgraded to a lower level and I said
No that’s not what I want I have to look for something else okay and you found something else yeah this was very interesting then and this is my second recommendation I think it’s good if you are known um from from the your superiors or next level you should have
A kind of a network so my point was I looked around and I I was was I was then they looked for a new head for computer tomographs this is one of the greatest presenters of seens it’s really cool technology market share I mean you you I
Mean the whole business is very nice and I got within one week an interview with the CEO the head of the business line which was which was running also um computer demograph and the CH 3 days they said you you will get that job said
Fine and then I was I was going to fim this is the place my first day so to speak and then I got a a call from the board member the CEO of this whole healthc care business and said where are you and I said not in F where I’m
Supposed to be well why don’t you finish your day go home and wait a while I said okay that’s very interesting and then okay I did it and stay quiet and wait and I waited for a week I didn’t go go didn’t get any notice I didn’t know what’s going
On and um and then I I got an invitation by the CEO of seens for whatever reason so he I met him we had a nice chat I went home and he said stay at home for a while waited for another week was invited back again and uh then he said
Why don’t you run the strategy for me seon strategy so now the story was the following the board member from from the healthcare uh division was was going to the managing Board of seens uh to get an approval for my placement this was supposed to be a decision in the managing Board of
Seens and he said I have a new head of for my computer demography business Roland Bush then the other board member so from Sean executive board said no no no he has to fix the strain business then another one came and said oh no no I I have a great idea for him
For seon energy and then the CEO said if three guys are pulling on that guy I think I have to get to know him because I have a place placement to make which was about strategy so and um this is how I ended up there all right what did you do I
Mean very interesting what did you do as head of corporate strategy um the first thing was reading reading reading I mean Simmons is is Big it’s and have uh many many business units uh different markets I mean this is really different technology so it was really a lot of studying and
Um and uh I helped uh this CEO in the managing board to one first step was reorganizing the regional setup they were asking for m&a dealbook so how can you make your m& strategy better I was working on one which is still alive and uh but I also I
Also um proposed that um at that time there was a industry sector which was just too big and too diverse and some business were not really in the right Focus I proposed to put uh infrastructure and City sector together Mobility grid Building Technology um mobility and uh and this was done and
Then the CEO who hired me as strategy head said um actually you will be a board member of seens said great but there are two Alternatives either the CTO or running this new sector mhm and he said not that it’s your choice but what would you want and I
Said I would like to run the business said okay good idea but there’s only a problem because there’s nobody in the company who can run the technology except you so um I mean I I would have done that as well but then I figured out by chance
That he picked a person in the organization for this because he said it’s great if Bush runs technology and DEP picked another one for this sector and my strong conviction was this was a complete wrong decision so um um then I asked for and I got to know
Who who who this person was and then I asked for an urgent meeting with the CEO and told him what I believe what kind of capabilities a person should have to run the sector and I left it with my ideas okay and then it took
Another day or two and then he said um I think you should run the sector right and this all right very good my next step all right and um so so can you maybe tell us a little bit of your I guess some highlights or some interesting parts of your time as a
Board member running this business perhaps and also other things yeah that was that was supposed to be the bad bank so the the investors were coming and asking um or were arguing that this is now they P seens pulled a business together in order to sell it piece by piece Mobility Building Technology
Didn’t make margins low voltage was too small and didn’t make margins either and and and we kept on really um going behind each and every business trying to fix it we sold some we acquired some businesses and uh and that was a very very interesting exercise at the
Beginning at the beginning everybody who was part of that sector they said oh I mean now we are part of this bad Bank this is nobody wanted to be there and you have a brain trainer you have people leaving so we have to try to really cre create an identity
Um so get get the people and make them work and stay behind and and make a turnaround and this was I can none of these business was really performing very well and uh the first year we had a top management meeting the people said
Oh why am I here so I mean just didn’t understand what the new sector should be and what’s about the second year was the toughest one because we really had a lot of losses we couldn’t deliver our eyes trains we had to ride off 300 million
Our we had to invest in our low voltage business because it was just the portfolio was running out so this was the low low but from from that time onward we just made our budget quarter for quarter we started picking up momentum and this was the time when
People come were coming back because they said okay this is great this is a company which or a business or business lines which seems to perform gry but but c c catching up and this was a great moment now when you see that people are coming back you can really get talents
To your business because they want to be part of it and which is which is number one creating a kind of a culture identity but also a future where they people can align for yeah and then and that what today what is Smart infrastructure at seens is that that
What today is mobility which is I do believe the best um train and signaling company in the world is is is this business we still have our low volage business which does a great job so it’s part of seamons today still all right when did you become a deputy CEO and uh
Do you still remember was it a phone call was did someone from the supervisor board oh well this was not such a big deal I have to say because there was a there was a time when when uh I mean I addended then the technology
Function um and so on I would took over strategy and there was a time when obviously the supervisory report thought that it would be a good idea that I’m sooner or later I would run the company and um in order to and to to bridge the time and to see
To prepare so they they gave me this title this was not a big deal okay uh was it a big deal becoming CEO I suppose it was a very big deal well yes it was it was the point was when I when I became CEO as I was
Already almost 10 years in the managing Board of seens so I I knew what’s going on there I knew how to deal with the supervisory board so it was not really such a big step except maybe two Dimensions one dimension was the interaction with the Capital Market so
Every quarter you have to go on road show you have to talk to the analysts and whatnot and they ask you actually all the same question again and again that’s very interesting and and the second one was the exposure to politics ICS so I I believe that on on each level if you
Climb the your the carrier the the carer in your in your in your life then in each level you’re building up kind of network so when you are a normal board member of seens for example or in other duck company you are you’re developing a network amongst your peers um into a
Certain level in politics so you would maybe not reach Minister level or Chancellor level but when you CEO then you are then obviously you’re networking then with other CEOs and you’re stepping up into into that political level that was a a kind of interesting exercise to
To say and um do you still remember your first day or first week at CEO was it basically getting to know you know politicians key stakeholders not in the first week this takes normally normally a year when you’re running through different Cycles different meetings
Davos or I mean getting on a on a plane with a Chancellor for a trip or two so this is where you start so in the first year it’s where you’re building up this kind of network or you get into the CEO circles um the interesting thing was
Really our day one we called it day one because at the same time and I was was appointed as it was not really my appointment as CEO I consider the the fiscal year because my appointment was the AGM in February but I run the business since October
Before so um and this was for me my day one because from the day onward I had all the business under control it was just not the title so but this day this was my day one and this was also the very same day when seamons was spun we
Spun our seens Energy Bus so it was a kind of a new chapter in the company and this was very interesting to explain to the people what is now seamons um because if you’re spinning out almost 20 billion business and it’s which is which is part of the legacy of
Seamons then some people were saying who what’s left and I said well hold on a minute what do you mean what’s left this is a 60 billion company this is not the left over this is the company but this were the kind of questions and to to
Really put a kind of a a narrative for seens behind um that was for me a very interesting moment all right uh let me um ask two questions first of all what does a CEO CEO of zans do and secondly what does zans do let me start with the with the second
One all right so the second what is what is Sims doing we are it’s hard to explain because that’s what we do is not in our name it was very it was very easy this was a very interesting moment when we when we when we talked about spinning Sean energy um
It was not clear what’s the name of this company then we had a management meeting a couple of weeks later and we revealed the name seon energy and this was really the before that the people were saying okay now I’m sold I’m not part of the company anymore very interesting the one
Part say I mean the left over the other saying oh I’m sold so nobody was happy but when we released the name Sean energy there was really a kind of momentum where the people said okay this is what we are we Sean energy very simple and the name is the program
For seamons it was different so how do you explain what seens does and um I have a couple of Smart Guys in in my communication department they came back and said um actually it’s very simple we create technology to transform the every day for everyone okay what does that mean well
The point is you have to look behind the curtain in order to see what seens does every car which passes by was was eventually touched by Sean technology in the design phase in the production phase roughly 50% of all electrons which are reaching people were touched by seen
Technology when you somewhere on this globe get a scan Mr R scan CT scan the likelihood that you’re ending up um at a Sean scanner is something between 40 and 50% when you walk in New York you cannot walk one block without passing by a building which is automated by Sean
Technology so um therefore um it’s it is technology at work which changes everybody’s life and it changes it basically it touches the backbone of economies its industry it’s its buildings its grids it’s it’s Energy System it’s Mobility it’s Healthcare that is what see what what we are doing
Okay very interesting what is our Co do well I mean a lot of things I guess it’s a it’s a it’s a it’s really a blend this is the maybe the most interesting and I like my job I love it because um there’s not one day which looks alike another
One um when I when I look for example into my calendar for 2024 um here comes the first problem um it’s it’s it’s very much filled already supervisory board meetings managing board meetings strategy meetings whatever you have these are the standard things which you
Have to do um then then we have uh I’m I’m trying to I’m I’m also leading uh not only the COO function I lead Mobility still and I have responsibility for China United States so I’m trying to get three times at least to each of these countries maybe
Four and um and then and then you have basically what I’m I’m trying to do is I try not to let the organization manage my calendar um so I try to do it top down so Alex is my chief of stuff we sit together and say say how much time do we
Spend do we really want to spend on customers on technology ecosystem Partners on our on my people management team um politics so I try to manage it because they normally the headquarter gives you 365 reasons to stay in Munich u i don’t when to do that so and and and
Then and then you you basically what I do is I try and this is this is another learning you are when you are the CEO of the company you you you are the face of the company and and communicating and telling the people where to go what’s
The direction what are you want to do and we are in the midst of a tremendous transformation and to take the people with me um finding the right words to explain what we do um which is sometimes hard transformation means that you don’t do that what you did in the past to do
Something new but uh very many people they say but we are so successful why should I change innovator’s dilemma Christiansen so therefore this is something which is really big big part of my job and I figure out that more and more that communication and taking the
Unit 10 20,000 people with me is maybe one of the most important tasks okay where do you want to go where do you want to lead zans um our strategy is um very simply explained we combine the real in the digital worlds that’s okay can can you elaborate
And we do that in order to really to really improve the world um um when we when we when I’m saying we combine the r world is the idea is that when you take software and leverage the value of Hardware with it then you can really um bring completely new value using less
Resources shorten cycle times driving productivity um some ideas when we we rolled out our software technology Suite to byd do you know byd the Chinese company they were able to reduce their Cy their development time for new products for new cars from 50 plus 55 month to
36 um so this is the power of software of simulation when you build a digital twin of your car and your production lines first before you make it in real um you can shorten the cycle time substantially can save energy when we built a new plant in China we build it
Twice build it first fully digital the products the building the line even the people we simulated everything and not before that we started sending the excavation machines and died out and and this were we were able to to shorten the building time from by by one year basically we have 20% higher space
Productivity 20% higher Energy Efficiency much more flexible in manufacturing and now since the digital twin is alive the plant manufacturer can simulate a new investing in a new robot putting AGS on the ground um breaking up lines simulate it and when he loves it and when he’s happy with it than doing
That that means you you stop the line maybe for a couple of days and not for a couple of weeks when we we can we can predict which door of a train in a Metro is failing with a lead time of 5 to 7 days and why so basically with that
Information you can reach 100% availability of your Assets in the field um so that’s basically couple of examples what’s the power of of combining the real and the digital world quite fascinating uh what we teach our students are among others two things first of all businesses do not occur in
A vacuum they are embedded in their external environment and secondly it sometimes is nevertheless helpful to understand kind of the strength of a company the core competencies so two questions first of all and without indulging Party politics but what would uh healthy industrial environment in Germany look like especially for zans
But in general and secondly what are the strengths the the core competencies of your company so this is very much linked and the answer the short short answer is innovation so um I do believe they uh coming from an environment German environment it would be an environment which is stimulating Innovation Germany
Has 80 plus million people and we are now number three in the large this third largest economy in the world we don’t have gas we don’t have oil we don’t have any kind of resources it is just the people the people and The Innovation strengths the big companies the medium-sized companies the hidden
Champions this makes 80 million people country so rich it’s all about innovation in the if you think a little bit deeper it’s not innovation of individual companies yes it is now I mean you have a couple of great companies also in that region the drums with the Laser Technology and you
Name it or the I mean call it the oems the the car manufacturers but it’s even more the ecosystems behind it’s the car makers and the CFS and Bosch and Continentals sitting behind and then the DS and you like it or trums which are providing technology these ecosystems are so
Powerful you have the same for medical technology for automotive for chemicals Pharmaceuticals um and again ma machine tools and machine Builders are an an environment on its own this makes Germany so strong the environment should really support Innovation which means we need first and foremost a good education um
It starts in school education education very important along with education comes a very smart and intelligent immigration policy we need the best talents in the world and we need them at work we need a proper infrastructure um Logistics communication energy without that you will not will not have a prospering
Industry um and uh and you need a kind of a Smart Way of the government subsidizing and supporting Innovation what I’m saying here is they should not support and subsidize the old Technologies where we used to be strong but those where we want to be strong it’s about the future
So that would be the environment and and again one last thing and and this is I repeat it again and again I think it’s very hard to understand we have to transform our ecosystem which we know which I described to you from the old way how these systems run into the new
Way what is the old way the old way is tier three delivers to tier 2 creates some value delivers to Tier 1 creat some value delivers to an O and they produce products for for the end customers the new ecosystems are platform based ecosystem around technology you have a technology and you
Have a multi-sided supply demand kind of ecosystem and the more Partners you add the stronger this platform is all the big companies in the world are running one way or the other a platform business of that type this is a trans formative way of running ecosystems um if we don’t
Learn it we will have a problem so that’s the challenge of the industry itself and now you’ve got already the answer on your from the second question um Simons um our strength is definitively technology and Innovation we did it over the last 76 years we transformed the company all over again
All over again we do it again now with the highest speed because digitalization changes everything including Ai and the like and we are building basically a platform call Se accelerator which is a technology stti an ecosystem in a Marketplace in order to really go for this kind of ecosystem play so therefore
And it’s about Innovation we’re spending 8% of our Revenue in R&D um which is much much more than any other of our competitors in absolute and relative terms and we keep on going all right very good um I know you’re um short on time so to speak so I would like to
Maybe follow up with a few quick quick uh personal questions before handing it over to the students so um can you maybe uh reveal what type of music you like to listen to I’m stuck in the 80s huh um Toto Bley jams Harvest um exactly all right what type of
Cuisine do you like any food I mean I mean I’m I like Asian food um to be very honest and I’m tuned for very protein Rich low carb food okay very healthy um um what type of movies do you watch if you do have time uh I don’t really watch
Movies too much to be very honest okay and um any type of vacations you particularly like are you more the active person the relaxed Beach warm um I’m I’m not the beach person I’m I’m normally I’m I’m the person who does a blend of sports and reading and yeah and enjoying okay sometimes
Also studies study trips but it’s more about sports and relaxing and reading okay and that leads me to the book question so what type of books do you like to read what type of authors do you have any recommendations for us so this was very interesting um I when when when
I’m I I can read during only during vacations I’m reading really stuff which which uh which is not businesslike because uh this organization gives me so much to read that I I can spend 24 hours in Reading I tell you so um and and then I I mean I was reading everything um
Some criminal stuff and new business books and the like and I found it at a certain point a little bit boring and then somebody told me did you ever run through this list of the 100 books everybody has to read before d and you will when when you Google around
You find many many of these 100 books lists um what I what I recommend is the the list from the dite the German newspaper um some of them are by the way some of them are including um the Bible for example some not depending on what
Kind of of things they do but if you if you go through that list and just pick one and and you read one I mean the staron or black and white stal or Utopia you will figure out why these books are standing on that list for the
Last 500 or even couple of hundred years this is really great reading so it’s so I love that but here comes my recommendation um I studied physics and the and in during one of my my breakfast meetings with my wife um we talked this was prec Corona we talked
About a viral and a bacterial infection and I said so what’s the big difference oh these are mono self okay but what’s the difference then and we then we were talking and talking and I figured out that what the atom is for physics a cell
Is for biology but I didn’t have a clue about self then I started reading I tell you this is mindblowing studying sell and here comes the book recommendation uh David goodells the Machinery of life or in German V fun it’s it’s not thick but it’s it’s mind-blowing you learn a lot about sales
All right I see a lot of people are writing it down so happy reading to you yeah um Dr Bush please allow me one last question before we hand it over to the students when you uh look back at what you’ve accomplished in a few decades
What type of Legacy do you want to leave behind I would have to to leave behind of uh a fast growing company which is a fast growing profit company which is making contri tion to societies um which is which an all dimension in particular in Education and Training of people
Which is about um using less resources and creating value for our customers making stay relevant and in that context um if I can accomplish that what I said before that we execute the strategy of combining the real digital worlds with a seens accelerator platform which is a platform which is which is basically
Scaling Technologies and ecosystems faster then I did a good job all right well we wish you the very best for it and thank you for the conversation hello Felix Apple here from tomb I have a question for you as you have like um a physics background what
Would you say has been like the the positive side and the negative sides compared to normal business CEO careers in in their studies based on physic okay um I have to think about the negative one the the posit the positive one is I mean but this is the context of seens
And I I’m the for the last I think 20 years I’m the first CEO which has a technological background before that was economics or law or whatever and and people give me a strong feedback that this is really making makes a big difference why because I’m interested I’m genuinely
Interested in technology I I think I can have a semi intelligent Dialogue on any kind of technology in our company which people appreciate so it’s really getting this or igniting the passion for technology uh in a way which was not done before that makes a huge difference
And I can get feedback from from customers from our people from ecosystem Partners makes a big difference is there any drawback actually not in running a technology company um it could have been also engineer but physics is quite good um hi my name is Vincent fiser from Tom and uh my
Question is semens is still located in Germany and what do you think about the location Germany do you think it’s still good how would it be in the future and yeah just in general thank you yeah I I get this question quite often and um very people are saying see uh Germany’s
Deindustrializing High Energy prices and whatnot we are running out of we running on substance on our on our infrastructure and look at the trains this is all infrastructure related actually our trains they run in in in other places where we make the service and where the infrastructure
Is good they run 24/7 it tell you no but but really serious um I do believe that we are at a at a Tipping Point we have to get a couple of things right and uh when I was when I very often there’s a a meeting with the chancellor and he’s and
Al but also minister of economy or finance and when the chancellor gets a couple of CEOs together he’s asking for advice what you should do I feel a little bit pity for him and because very often each company each CEO comes with a laundry list
Um this is what I need in terms of subsidies or whatnot my strategy was different I was I was saying um I have just one wish just support the Innovative strengths of Germany will stop then he was asking yeah good idea how and I came to exactly these points it’s about people Education
And Training it’s about a proper infrastructure it’s about a proper immigration and it’s about giving subsidies to Industries which you want to have in the future which you can defend in the future eventually not energy intensive Industries you have to think you have to let go when you cannot
Defend and invest where you can so I do believe in the Innovative strengths of the people which we have it’s amazing it’s amazing how many good people we have also on by the way on AI or generative AI um if you get these elements straight I don’t worry about
About Germany but uh it’s a it’s a pivoting moment so to speak so we have to get things right and it hurts because when I’m saying here a transformation means you have winners and losers and that you have to go through yeah hello my name is arafa CH
My question is about Innovation metrics uh what do you think are other practical measures or metrics of innovation apart from the classical return of research and development investment and IP generated well big question I do believe you have to you have to think about um what are the core
Technologies what are they and and this is how we are running our Innovation departments our we have also still an R&D Department we make advanced advanced um research um and we identified I think 11 or 12 what we call company core Technologies amongst them is guess generative AI or AI it’s it’s
Software soft architecture it’s additive manufacturing it’s Power Electronics um it’s as6 it’s uh uix so user interface how you how you interact with machines it’s um uh I mean couple of them and on on these on these 10 or 11 technology Fields um we are orientating our budget we are
Investing the Cyber secur is one another another one and they are running really across all businesses some for all of them some for only a part of it and to strengthen our knowledge and to allocate capital in that direction and then driving Innovation on on these fields um
In a kind of a platform manner that we are really putting this technology behind that’s I think the the magic what you should do okay hi my name is Antonia LZ from my question is what was your biggest challenge that you had faced in while in this position at seens and how
Did you manage or overcome that challenge I do believe my biggest challenge is is number one obviously to get the right people on board I mean this whole thing is really about people if you have a clear strategy and you communicate it properly and get the
Right people let it go this is basically it because I do believe they the once when the people understood what they want we call it empowerment and growth mindset these are the two elements the biggest challenge for me is finding these people and getting really uh not only the people’s minds but also
The people’s guts behind our future strategy so that they are really all in it’s it’s transformative because again people think we are so good why do we have to change bringing them into change mode in a positive one in a mode that they they want to learn they make mistakes and
Learn from them um this is the biggest the biggest challenge I have which is hard because I cannot reach 320,000 people easily um and not only in their minds but also in their guts it’s hard to to reach my 25,000 leaders in the company it’s really difficult I can
Reach 50 my core leadership team maybe 100 but 25,000 is very difficult and how did I overcome I didn’t I’m in the middle of it so we are we are still working on it and and here a very strong very good communication part department
Helps um I have a I have a small team which works dedicated for me um and this is key key for me so uh my name is zenun I’m from Tom I first I want to thank you for this interview uh my question Li that you have mentioned before that the
Middle-sized companies in Germany are somehow hidden Champs how does seens see itself helping factories and these middle-sized companies um maybe in the adoption of the Technologies and in their digital transformation thank you so for me these companies are crucial they are very honest the backbone of German’s economy um and and there also
Some hidden Champions um some are maybe even visible Champions and but they carry a big big chunk not only of the workforce in Germany but also of the technology I consider them more and more as being partner of our ecosystem because wherever wherever you go machine Builders um they are they’re everywhere
And they um are part of our technology and wice vers we’re bringing automation to these companies um also digitalization the the most most critical point what I see is there are two actually one is the regulations coming from Europe um that kills small and mediumsized Enterprises
I tell you they in order to fulfill regulations reporting regulations seens is going to invest in 2024 something like 20 million um maybe 25 uh small companies have no chance I mean okay we have big end size but still it’s it just kills them and the the second one is acquisition
Of it OT it Technologies or iot Technologies sometimes these companies their it Department fits in the first row here and they have no chance to really roll out a generative II Technologies new new iot technologies um they need this is the reason why I’m so strong on building a platform which is
Makes it easy to use and easy to deploy for any company also small companies um in a open platform so they can use their legacy system and hook it um under ours and that’s for me the big big transformation and every every single small and medium siiz company has to do
That transformation otherwise they they they will not um keep up with the speed of change and development which they have to can give you countless examples hi my name is uh Robinson um I had one question uh during your growth in your career I’m sure there are differences that existed
Between what you thought was right and what your superiors thought was right so how did you manage those conflicts and those uh differences what was right in in short or no uh whichever position you held I’m sure there were differences between maybe what you thought was the
Right path to take and maybe what your superiors thought Superior okay yes well um I think it’s a the the very important point about this it’s not about not only about superiors it’s about getting a diverse team around you and try to get as many different aspects on on on on things you
Want to drive and you want to change to be damn sure that you go in the right direction you never get it always right and this is the second point you have to be able to to adjust and to Pivot also say oh this was a wrong way let’s do it
Another one not too early but also not too late but the key is is um try to get really an open-minded and a speakup culture around you in order to really get all this all this information from different perspectives when you have a discrepancy with your boss if it’s about
Content there’s a very simple thing and and this was my my my conviction throughout my career um if my boss says this is the right direction I have different opinion we talked through it he listened and he says I still believe this is the right direction then I
Follow and I’m all in if not I have to leave because otherwise it’s ill loyalty the worst thing what you want to have is passive resistant this is this is this kills and I I had Reas a management meeting about in this transformation when I said we can discuss everything
Speak up and I will listen and very often I also follow other perspectives if I’m convinced but if you come to conclusion and you execute then I expect everybody in the room to stand fully behind and to go for it and if somebody says I don’t that’s it’s fine but
Passive resistance pretending that they follow but they don’t this is kills a company and also the culture so therefore and I was still loyal um to that point in time but you have to make a choice H my name is Elina Hendrickson from T and I’m curious about how would
You describe yourself as a student as you were in our age so what are three words that you would use to describe yourself uh when you were in your 20s yeah when I started with the school when I was in school I was I was not I was I
Was one of those um Scholars who just managed to go through this thing um I mean because I I was maybe six or seven times a day on the on doing sports I did decathlon and Hunt ball and volleyball and you name it so I just said okay
School has to be done and I managed somehow it completely changed when I started studying physics this I was really passionate about it and I was one of those who who was uh going to the classrooms whenever the professor was good the other was I
Skipped um I I was I was really trying to to understand deeply what what what the physics is about I got a A stipendium for books so I had bunch of books and and started um very very on also in kenoby when I was there this was
Just just learning and studying and so I was I was really passionate about about my my study so this is maybe my description Hello my name is Levan 2 and my question for you is what is Seaman’s long-term vision for sustainability and can you share some um specific initiatives the company is undertaking
To reduce its Ral impact so I mean our our long-term vision is number one um to make our own contribution on sustainability for our company scope one two and three um and but in particular as a business so if you want scope 3 Downstream because this is the biggest
Impct we can generate we are not an energy intensive company Sean Global footprint is 500,000 tons perom scope one and two scope three Upstream is 15 million tons so half a million 15 million our scope three down Downstream is hundreds of millions uh so what we
Can do in our in in in terms of saving um any kind of resources Downstream at customers so if I would be free to allocate Capital guess what I would do I would put more money in Innovation and driving our technology to the market yet we still have to make our own commitment
So we we reduced our carbon footprint by half between 19 and 2021 we spent another 600 million to get our 500,000 tons down to i”s say almost zero maybe 10% left or 5% left which is completely insane because 600 million million euros if I would spend in not
Cutting wood in in Brazil would have much much higher contribution but still I have to I have to walk the talk um but we believe that we can do quite a bit in in Downstream and there’s and and this is any kind of Energy Efficiency um um driving um electrification in the market
Whatever you Electrify you can Power by Renewables um storage hydrogen whatever you name it there’s one single element which we are ramping up but it’s I don’t have a clue how it runs which is recycling because recycling is basically running an industry which was
Built in a way that you say you dig out stuff you manufacture something pre pre-product products you make a product you use it and you landfill it and run this optimized system which is running One Way reverse and nobody has a clue how that goes and I do believe this
Is a a tremendous opportunity to recycle for Energy Efficiency reasons but also for resources which you have a hard time to get like lithium hi I am AK to um I know Simmons is a major stakeholder in the West African power sector most especially Nigeria um out of curiosity I just
Wanted to know what are these certain challenges you’re facing in this project and um do you have a feasible completion date for this project itself so part of that is seem as energy um if it’s power generation if it comes to the grid high voltage grid to medium voltage grid um
It’s it’s seens which we’re doing there um challeng is I think it’s more the the environment the stability um of a country the the the problem of still being compliant in a country which is maybe not fully compliant in in all aspects and again the stability in the
Country but also the the other the social aspects for example we have been asked to roll out a metering system in Nigeria try to roll out meters um in societies where the people just get power for free and now you install a meter and they have to pay for it I mean
If you want to install it you you’re better coming with those little army behind you otherwise you have a really a real problem so this these are the challenges I would say this is the reason why we refuse to install it because it’s it’s just insane so um
That’s maybe the biggest challenge but if this if the system stays stable meaning you have you know that you have you’re investing a lot you’re bringing a lot of capital into it and and Manpower and if you get your return because it’s a stable system then I think uh it’s uh
It’s it’s the country will prosper hello my name isv and I would like to ask you a question regarding decisions so being a CEO it means that you have making a lot of decision do you have any decision you made um you you don’t like it but
You still will not regret doing it exiting Russia no very serious um this is 150 years business um very strong business of ours I wrote of 4 billion order backl bottom line impact on my balance sheet 1.8 billion 5 and a half thousand people working there um they were not engaged
In the war they never wanted to have it and to take that decision um it’s a hard decision but it was without any alternative and and uh would do it all over again um hello uh I’m leang I’m from China and I’m staring at Tom so you mentioned that you like training and
Mentality what is it that you like about Chinese mentality and also what are the main differences between um their uh management um methodologies and strategies of Chinese uh prominent companies and the German ones thank you oh so I mean I mean what what I like this is
Um in in China I have the I I when when I was managing the business there I had the impression that these people are uh they were work hard and if you can be more successful they work even harder so the the the whole thing the concept of
Having a 4-day work week is is completely off so um and if if you and the one thing the second one is I do believe that Chinese have this kind of entrepreneur DNA um if you look at around Asia and you look the not China but Singapore Hong Kong other places
Malaysia um most of the top entrepreneurs have uh ches Roots so it’s a it’s a kind of a the DNA to to the business I like the pragmatism so that means um in Germany if you make an innovation you think very long about it make it perfect in China you just get it
Get going and if it’s not working then pivot and pivot again and then you get it right I mean there Arguments for both disruptive Innovations you might not get that way but if you want to have based it on a certain Foundation innovate fast and bring it to the market Market a
Product Market it’s perfect I like that um but I like also the um confidence uh the people have so I still I still tell my organization you can relieve a lot of power if you get more decision responsibility to China we still control our product management out of the
Headquarter we don’t allocate too much R&D so let let our Chinese organization go as I did when I was in China we really released so much power and passion for for the business was amazing and the other one what I like is this a little bit this confus kind of thing so
The family the importance of the family or your surroundings your friends around you which you can recognize that it’s still a kind of a way how this Society holds together and works so um yeah that’s great hello Anton L from H what are your future plans your future goals
Like personal or business goals business goals is um um making our guidance for 2024 which is shortterm um if you go to to midterm I I want to to grow this company has meanwhile a very high conversion rate that means our gross margin is quite High whenever we grow Top Line you will
See it bottom line we delivered we delivered 15% growth in our Co businesses and 10 billion uh 10 billion free cash flow so so in in 23 um my target is to drive for higher growth um which is I I shouldn’t say that in a in a capital Market day but um definitively
It’s it’s double digit uh we have the potential to do that even if our markets are not growing that fast um and uh organically I mean but also add on would be anorganic growth and and drive the company in the Direction with a strategy I was I was talking about my personal goals
Are can you mention quite linked to the business goals um I have to say that the company determines quite a bit of my life there’s a reason why I have to share that as well my concept is not is not work life balance I call it work life integration which makes a big
Difference yet if you go for that sort it out with your most important person in your life before because it has certain consequences but if you get it right it’s good so um and my my personal my personal goals are uh first and foremost again um stay healthy this is
What I always try I I I’m exercising six times a week I get up at 6 6:00 you see me in the trim 6:30 maybe um 6 days a week uh try to stay healthy and keep on going it’s a marathon thank you very much for the very open and entertaining Q&A session
For your wonderful visit
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W‘s in da chhhaaaatttttt
Hat er gut gemacht unser Roland!
What I take from the talk is the concept of passive resistance, and why this is bad.