The foundation group promotes a former consultant to the top. This is advantageous because he already knows the company.
(Photo: dpa)
It may be a coincidence that after industry leader Bosch, the second-largest German automotive supplier, ZF, has appointed a boss with years of experience at management consultant McKinsey to the top. Like Stefan Hartung at Bosch, the new ZF CEO Holger Klein has been with the company for a number of years. But Klein was shaped as a consultant.
He is thus analytically good and trained to sell his cause and himself well. Both Klein and Hartung are characterized by a contemporary management style. The origin from the Ruhr area may be an additional advantage given the open mentality. What is foreign to both managers: belittling others in order to gain respect. They keep those around them busy with quick comprehension, open-mindedness, but also toughness.
For ZF, as for Bosch, it is a right decision to have hired managers who know important areas of the group. It was very likely that Klein would make it big, having also implemented the integration as the architect of the landmark billion-dollar acquisition of TRW. It would have taken a long time for a high-calibre person coming from outside in the middle of the group’s transformation to electromobility to get as deep into the subject as Klein.
The special features of a corporation majority-owned by a foundation managed by the mayor of Friedrichshafen are better weighed up with experience in the company. It is also a sign to your own management and staff if you save money for the headhunters.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
CEOs with a consulting past are used to analyzing things a little cooler. And when in doubt, they find it easier to separate parts of the company than managers who have spent their entire professional life in the company. Portfolio adjustments will become very relevant in the transformation to electromobility. Cooperation in the financing of projects will also gain in importance. After all, the variety of challenges in software, digitization and autonomous driving exceeds the financial possibilities of even the largest automotive suppliers.
ZF has fewer software developers of its own or even less chip capacity than Bosch, but it does have a pronounced ability to cooperate. Klein’s choice is therefore logical. His integration skills are in demand first. Because he has to involve his internal competitors for the executive chair after the leadership decision. ZF needs its own strength.
More: New boss for Germany’s second largest automotive supplier – Holger Klein takes over.